Serial Title:
The Celestial Toymaker
Series:
3
Episodes:
4
The Celestial Toy Room
The Hall of Dolls
The Dancing Floor
The Final Test
Doctor:
William Hartnell
Companions:
Steven Taylor (Peter Purves), Dodo Chaplet (Jackie Lane)
Synopsis:
The Doctor vanishes from
the control room immediately after leaving the Ark- however, this is
not the work of Solar Flares, but of the sinister super-being, the
Celestial Toymaker. A powerful super-being in the tradition of Star
Trek’s Trelane or Q (though predating them both), the Toymaker is
not a man-child- but rather an intellectual equal with the Doctor,
and an old foe- one that enjoys games, toys, and dolls as part of his
bidding (NFS (Notes From Sarah): So your usual...psychopathic....type...guy). He has phenomenal mental and physical powers with which he
created this false world (clearly granted to him by Solar Flares).
Tri-Logic |
The Doctor is whisked
away to play a game of tri-logic (very similar to the real world
Tower of Hanoi puzzle), a strategic game to be completed in exactly
1,023 moves (with no errors in any of them), while Steven and Dodo
are forced to play through a series of life-size games with animate,
person-sized dolls (that cheat)- each time rewarded with a TARDIS
façade that may or may not be the real thing. They must keep
playing until they reach the real one. Failure will mean death, or
worse- an eternity imprisoned as the Toymaker’s plaything- becoming
one of the dolls (NFS: That's terrible!!! That probably means that all the cheating dolls are poor people who couldn't make it out of there!). Likewise, if the Doctor finishes his game before
Steven and Dodo succeed, they all lose- and the Toymaker uses
automated voice commands to jump the Tri-logic game forward by any
number of moves to prevent the Doctor from playing slowly.
As the Doctor and the
Toymaker match wits (the Toymaker becoming annoyed enough to reduce
the Doctor to invisibility and intangibility in all but the hand
needed to play the game, and then later removing his voice,) Steven
and Dodo face their challenges.
Dodo and Steven with a Fake Tardis |
The first is a
blindfolded obstacle course version of Blind Man’s Bluff, in which
one is directed by the voice of their partner- opposing the TARDIS
Team are a pair of clowns, who cheat terribly- altering the obstacle
course as Steven is navigating it, trying to cause him to lose his
balance and fall off. Eventually, after a narrow stalemate, Steven
wins the second round by applying the same tactics to the clowns (NFS: No wonder this show has a dim view of Clowns...they cheat.).
Their reward… is a fake TARDIS. (NFS: Hey...i'd take a fake TARDIS.)
Next up is a strange
puzzle containing 7 chairs- 6 of which are lethally booby-trapped.
Their opponents are personified versions of classic playing cards-
the King, Queen, Jack (Knave), and Jester. They are given three
life-size-but-inert dolls to test the chairs- eliminating a few, but
not enough. Dodo chooses the wrong chair, triggering a freezing trap-
but Steven manages to pull her free in time to save her life- a bit
of a cop-out, if you ask this reviewer (NFS:....so Andrew...do you think that was a cop-out?). Regardless, dolls are
vibrated to death (NFS: I am betting that's as unpleasant as it sounds), electrocuted, sliced in half, and vaporized-
between the dolls and Dodo’s actions, only two chairs remain. The
King and Queen- electing to face their fate together, whatever it may
be, pick a chair- and choose wrong. (NFA (Note from Andrew): And in this humanizing moment of courage and love and unity in the face of death... pretty much imply that, yes, they are all indeed captives of some sort and real people.) Steven and Dodo receive another
lemon TARDIS- as the opposing team reverts to playing cards- and
continue onwards.
A Toy Train? Or a SINISTER Toy Train?! |
Their third challenge is
a kitchen with a locked door, populated by a matronly cook, Mrs.
Wiggs, and a stuffy old retired Sergeant, Sgt. Rugg (who looks like the
king from the previous game). Their job is to search the entire
kitchen for the key. As Steven grows more agitated at the characters
(NPCs, for those of you in the RPG world), Dodo continues to treat
them like human beings, receiving Rugg’s help. The characters are
diverted, squabbling amongst themselves- with the addition of a lazy
kitchen boy who looks like the Jack/Knave- but Steven and Dodo
persevere as one of the characters inadvertently reveals the
importance of the pie in which the key is hidden by fearing for its
safety.
Steven and Dodo slip
through the door and onto a dance floor populated by three Ballerina
dolls, and are cornered by the three Kitchen characters- possibly
other prisoners of the Toymaker playing for a chance at freedom, or
true dolls playing for a chance at being made permanently alive- who
goad them forward.
Safety lies on the other
side of the dance floor, but when Steven enters, music takes control
of him, forcing him to dance. Dodo is forced onto the dance floor, as
are Rugg and Wiggs, who want to reach the other side first and win-
with only three ballerinas to serve as partners, four dancers are
shuffled, swapping from partner to partner in the rotation- when
Steven and Dodo manage to pair up, neither led by a ballerina, they
are able to control their own dance and dance themselves off the
dance floor and to the safety of another false TARDIS.
Cyril |
Next, the two are
confronted by a simple board game, with dice to roll and spaces to
move... made less simple in that the spaces- platforms that must be
hop-scotched to- are the only safe ground over a deadly electrified
floor. (NFS: Ah the old electrified floor game, an old standby...although usually it's Lava when I play it.) Their opponent? A chubby, bratty man-child in a schoolboy’s
outfit named Cyril, who cheats horrendously (NFS: And who is as annoying as he sounds!!!). As the Doctor closes in
on the end of his Tri-logic game, the board game begins.
Cyril uses all manner of
tricks and rules of the game (invented on the spot) to try and trick,
bully, or trap Dodo and Steven- fright masks, slingshots,
back-to-start rules for almost every action… Dodo’s compassion is
used against her- even as her roll which should carry her to the end
is interrupted so that she can look after the injured Cyril, who
sends her back to start for her trouble, his injury manufactured with
red ink. However, he gets his comeuppance at the end- rolling a
winning number and charging forth gleefully onto the space Dodo was
headed for… and slipping on his own forgotten sprinkled powder, a
trap that Dodo never reached, and falling to a grisly death on the
electrified floor.
The Celestial Toymaker |
The Doctor has reached
move 1022 of 1023, but Steven and Dodo have achieved their victory,
and won the real TARDIS. The group flees into the TARDIS, but cannot
take off, held there by the power of the Toymaker… in defeat, his
created world will cease to exist in an explosive cataclysm- but
until the Doctor makes his 1,023rd
move and wins the Tri-logic game, the Toymaker is not yet defeated.
The sore loser demands that the Doctor come out, make the final move,
and perish in the destruction of the Toymaker’s world.
The Doctor prepares the
TARDIS for takeoff, and then, emulating the Toymaker’s voice,
orders the Tri-logic game to advance to the final move from inside
the TARDIS, dematerializing to safety as the game makes the automated
move, ending the game, and destroying the Toymaker’s world.
Review:
The Celestial Toymaker
becomes the new prize-winner for 'greatest travesty that it is lost,'
as the first three out of 4 episodes are missing- and this is a
largely visual story. The reconstruction clearly does not do it
justice in the slightest.
That said, I found it to
be interesting, intellectually stimulating, and possessed of a very
clever ending solution. While it had it's maddening moments, it was
what I heard described as "A good kind of frustrating"- the
kind that you feel with the characters, instead of at the writers.
The story is most
unusual, with the main villain of the Toymaker being somewhat
reminiscent of Star Trek's Q, or perhaps Who spin-off "Sarah Jane
Adventures"'s Trickster. A standard fun-house-gone-amuck romp,
the story nonetheless presents an interesting set of puzzles, and
maintains a healthy tension, a tinge of desperation, and a dollop of aggravation as the characters face an absurd, silly, yet undoubtedly
lethal set of deadly puzzles for no reason other than the whim of a
cruel maniac. (NFS: Which kind of reminds ME of a Batman the Animated Series type story line....speaking of Batman it's interesting to note that the Celestial Toymaker is played by Michael Gough who played Alfred in four of the Batman Movies.)
Each episode ends with a
rhyming riddle, and clue to the next episode. Sets are minimal-
simply set dressing a black void, very theatrical- the whole thing
has a new and different mood- both fun and sinister at the same time,
just as the Toymaker himself is.
And speaking of the
Toymaker, his implied past history with the Doctor is a nice and intriguing layer to the episode's plot.
The ancillary villains,
on the other hand, are a little goofy- with their articulated
feelings, very strange (for the show) sitcom behavior, and the
ongoing argument between Dodo and Steven as to whether to empathize
with them or ignore them is an odd little philosophical aside... all
of these feel like elements of a larger story (and somewhat New Who
reminiscent as well)... but for the fact that none of them actually
lead anywhere, remaining unresolved at story's end without having
really affected the plot.
The Doctor was rather
absent here- specifically so in the middle chapters so that William
Hartnell could vacation- but his general upper-hand superiority was
rather fun to watch. He uses a voice-trick for the second time to
defeat his enemies (the first being in The Chase.) Along with his
mysterious door-opening, hypnosis repelling/controlling blue signet
ring (The Web Planet, The War Machines, Daleks Master Plan, etc.),
these are two of Hartnell’s signature talents, mysteries left
unexplained and talents not awarded to any other Doctor- leaving
Hartnell, at the end of his run, a man of mystery and an incarnation
of the Doctor with mysterious and unique powers- fitting, I say, for
the man who began it all.
Steven gets most of the
action bits here, and Dodo the character bits- her empathy for the
Toymaker's dolls being both a point of argument and a trick used
against her- still, she probably fairs the strongest of the three
here, as the other two merely react. As with most action-stories, the
focus is more on the situation than the characters. The older I get,
the less I find I prefer the former.
Overall, this story had
the 'quirky funhouse' feeling that most sci-fi shows try to do at
least once- but its villain, implied to be on an equal level with
the Doctor- makes it stand out... and I daresay that the various
traps and puzzles might be rather exciting... were we able to see
them in color (NFS:....um...not to mention if we were able to see a lot of them actually ya know...MOVE). It’s still one of my favorites of the season- but is
sadly the most forgettable of the favorites due to its piecemeal
status.
Great moments:
Final victory and the
destruction of the Toymaker’s World- heavy stock footage, but cool
nonetheless! Also, ending each story with the printed riddle was a
nice touch.
Rating:
3.5 out of 5 Time
Destructors for the Celestial Toymaker- I suspect a motion version
might attract even higher, as I did like this one- but this was a
largely visual story, and as it stands, too many of those visuals are
lost, causing the whole affair to be somewhat lackluster- or more so
than it would be otherwise. Likewise, 1.5, out of 5 Time Destructors
for the recreation effort. They did the best they could with what
they had- but they didn't have much. And frankly, even Galaxy 4 (and
yes, I think it's obligatory that I must reference that in every
Series 3 review) with it's mist-over-aliens shots, seemed more
inspired than this. It just felt like they didn't really care.
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