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The Giggle concludes the Doctor Who 60th Anniversary trilogy of episodes, after the godawful The Star Beast, and the baddie-less Wild Blue Yonder, which couldn’t have shouted “filler” any louder than it did.
This time round, the world is ending – again; and something is making everyone laugh, inanely, except for all of the American Left who are still crying into their pronouns, because they can’t function as human beings if you don’t address them by the right one(s).
Let’s start with something that was actually GOOD about this episode: Neil Patrick Harris (Uncoupled), who was quite amusing as The Toymaker, talking in a cryptic fashion, changing between various accents. It’s unfortunately, therefore, that if he’s only going to be in one episode, it’s rather a waste. He’d have made a good Master, given that it’s basically the same character – although there is a callback to that character, too, as you’ll see later.
We also saw how he was turning customers into marionette puppets, which doesn’t make good business sense, since you won’t get any returning custom.
The creepy little dolls were quite a draw, too, but on to the rubbish – including that fact that they were just here one minute, and gone the next.
However, can someone please explain when Donna referred to ‘parking’ the Doctor on the seafront at Weston-Super-Mare, why is ‘park’ considered a rude word?
Yet again, for a ‘special’ episode, the plot was threadbare, since the Toymaker only deals in very simple games, such as hide and seek, and cutting a deck of cards, so no expense was spent on the writing. But then, this is Russell T Davies, after all.
Time was also wasted calling back to previous assistants such as Amy Pond and Clara. Oh, and the awful Bill. She never needs to be heard of ever again. Shit characer. Shit actress.
There was also a mention of the Flux, but like how the Doctor made Donna forget all about him, those terrible scripts made me forget about the Flux. I can’t remember second of it, other than John Bishop’s house disappearing, and the neighbour’s toilet being in completely the wrong place in the house, since it would NOT be in a main front room, or even a side room without a window nor pipework. In that sort of street, they’d be at the back, so the pipes can follow out into the drains.
Due to RTD’s lazy writing, Because Ruth Madeley‘s character is Shirley Bingham, the old Airplane line was trotted out, “Shirley, you can’t be serious”; and with Jemma Redgrave emerging from the UNIT mothership as Kate Lethbridge-Stewart after “her father tried to keep UNIT secret”, Tennant’s Doctor declares she’s “out and proud… and defending the Earth”.
Additionally, because reasons, Bonnie Langford popped up as Melanie Bush, now working with UNIT, but since I never saw any episodes for Colin Baker nor Sylvester McCoy, I’m not invested in her companion. I just remember her from being fairly irritating in the ’80s.
Now, about that UNIT helicopter landing platform with the gun turret, since there are no handrails at the sides, how come employees are happy to stand at the very edges? Is health and safety not a thing any more?
However, after a lot of fussing about, there wasn’t a huge amount to the plot, even if NPH had fun with it.
The ‘bi-regeneration’ into Ncuti Gatwa was a nonsense. I was rather hoping that we’d actually get a new Doctor who was someone else altogether, and who’d never been shown before, similar to Tennat’s surprise. Like… Neil Patrick Harris?
Of course, as this is tea-time viewing, Russell T Davies can’t talk about sex or race, and throw in terms like biracial and bisexual. Well, maybe next year.
Then, new Doctor kissed existing Doctor – but just on the side of the head. I had a feeling they were going to aim for a full-on snog, given that Russell T Davies was writing. However, he DID call Tennant “love” and “honey“.
Give me strength…
Doctor Who continues on Christmas Day with The Church on Ruby Road. You can watch The Giggle on the BBC iPlayer.
You can pre-order The Season 14 Specials Steelbook on Blu-ray, ahead of its release on December 18th.
There’s are also available in regular Blu-ray and DVD, on the same date.
Director: Chanya Button
Producer: Vicki Delow
Writer: Russell T Davies
Music: Murray Gold
Cast:
The Doctor: David Tennant
Donna Noble: Catherine Tate
The Toymaker: Neil Patrick Harris
The Doctor: Ncuti Gatwa
Charles Banerjee: Charlie De Melo
John Logie Baird: John Mackay
Col. Ibrahim: Alexander Devrient
Shirley Bingham: Ruth Madeley
Kate Lethbridge-Stewart: Jemma Redgrave
Melanie Bush: Bonnie Langford
Pilot: Glen Fox
Edward Lawn Bridges: Tim Hudson
The Vlinx: Aidan Cook
Voice of The Vlinx: Nicholas Briggs
Trinity Wells: Lachele Carl
Voice of Stooky Sue: Leigh Lothian
The Toymaker Dance Double: Luke Featherston
Shaun Temple: Karl Collins
Sylvia Noble: Jacqueline King
Rose Noble: Yasmin Finney
Middle-aged man: Ross Gurney-Randall
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.