The Fourth Dimension

The Celestial Toymaker

MEETING HIS MATCH

The Celestial Toymaker is one of the first opponents that we have seen the Doctor encounter that is his equal. Unlike most previous enemies, the Doctor does not treat the Toymaker as a fool and is hard pressed to meet his challenge.

MAGICAL MANDARIN

Prolific actor, Michael Gough was cast as the mysterious Toymaker. At the time, Gough was married to Anneke Wills who would shortly join the Doctor as companion, Polly. Gough would also return to Doctor Who as the Time Lord, Chancellor Hedin, in Arc of Infinity. In his later career, Gough became well known for playing Bruce Wayne’s butler, Alfred, in four Batman movies and came out of retirement to appear in Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow.

THE TOYMAKER’S RETURN

The Doctor, in his Sixth incarnation, was due to play more games with the Toymaker in 1986 in a new adventure called The Nightmare Fair to be set in Blackpool. However, the then BBC Controller, Michael Grade, put Doctor Who on hiatus and the story was never made.

OLD ENEMIES

It is clear that the Doctor has visited the Toymaker’s realm before and that he knows a great deal about the Toymaker, although specific details are never revealed. Since the Doctor escaped the Toymaker on his previous visit, the Toymaker has been waiting for his return and the Doctor seems to believe that it was inevitable.

FLASHBACK

When Steven looks into the Toymaker’s memory window, he sees two ‘memories’ of his recent adventures. The first is of him on the planet Kembel from The Daleks’ Master Plan and the second of him in Paris in The Massacre of St Bartholomew’s Eve. Both were illustrated by silent clips from each of these stories. This is the first instance of such flashbacks used in the programme.

NOW YOU SEE ME...

To amuse himself, the Toymaker makes the Doctor invisible and insubstantial for much of the story, even going as far as removing the Doctor’s voice for a time. This device allowed William Hartnell time off from making the serial as he was unwell.

THE CURSED GAME

The Toymaker forces the Doctor to play the trilogic game which requires the moving of individual segments to construct a pyramid and is better known as the Tower of Hanoi. Peter Purves was given the game after the completion of the serial. He later came to believe the game was cursed as, after a year of unemployment, he threw the game away in frustration. Almost immediately he was offered a part in Z-Cars and soon after he became a presenter on Blue Peter.

DVD AND AUDIO RELEASE

Only the final fourth episode of The Celestial Toymaker survives in the BBC’s video vaults and it was released on DVD as part of the Lost in Time box set in 2004. The full soundtrack, along with linking narration by Peter Purves, was released on CD and for MP3 download by BBC Audio.

OUCH!

The story concludes with the Doctor biting one of Cyril’s sweets and suddenly suffering from awful toothache. This was the lead-in to the following story, The Gunfighters where the Doctor goes in search of a dentist.