The Celestial Toyroom 

The Doctor, Steven and Dodo arrive in the realms of the Celestial Toymaker, who forces them to play his deadly games.

Director:

Bill Sellars

Writer:

Brian Hayles (by)

Stars:

William Hartnell, Peter Purves, Jackie Lane

Cast

Episode cast overview:
William Hartnell	...	Dr. Who
Peter Purves	...	Steven Taylor
Jackie Lane	...	Dodo Chaplet
Michael Gough	...	Toymaker
Campbell Singer	...	Joey the Clown
Carmen Silvera	...	Clara the Clown

Storyline

The Doctor, Steven and Dodo arrive in the realms of the Celestial Toymaker, who forces them to play his deadly games.

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Plot Keywords:

first doctor | stubborn old man | eccentric senior citizen | lost film | 

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Genres:

Adventure | Drama | Family | Sci-Fi

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Did You Know?

Trivia

Peter Stephens was originally going to play one of the characters from Gerald Savory's stage play "George and Margaret," but Savory withdrew permission for his characters to be used at the last moment, and Gerry Davis had to rewrite the script. In fact, it was Gerry who came up with the final edit, but BBC policy at the time forbade him to claim a co-writer's credit for the script.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Steven Taylor: We're landing now Doctor.
Dr. Who: Good. That means the gravitational bearing must have rectified itself.
Dorothea 'Dodo' Chaplet: [enters from one of the other rooms] Hey, look at this!
[...]

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Connections

Referenced in The Watch-A-Thon of Rassilon: The Celestial Toymaker (Chris Cautiously Approaches the Dance Floor) (2016)

User Reviews

The Celestial Toymaker: Part 1 - Good start but very disappointing and bizarre otherwise.

Review of all 4 parts:

The Celestial Toymaker is a 4 part story beginning with The Celestial Toyroom.

This story is the first instance of the series going off into pure fantasy with a whimsical, strange setting in which the TARDIS crew are tormented by a mysterious power with mind games and very odd goings on. Sound familiar? Well if you have seen The Mind Robber from the second Doctor's era or the episode Amy's Choice from the modern 11th Doctor's (Matt Smith) era then you will see that this is very much the story they are based upon.

This being a different kind of story to anything that went before is a big plus in the first part as it is unusual and therefore surprising and interesting. The character of the toymaker is also an interesting and well acted character with the smooth Michael Gough in his usual good form. However the strangeness and bizarre 'toyroom figures' they meet start to grate more and more in parts 2 and 3 with poor scenes and unimpressive acting from some silly guest characters. Part 3 is particularly weak and embarrassing, probably the worst Hartnell era episode. The mind games are not thrilling and the final part with things coming to a conclusion still fails to pick up the level above that of the unimpressive second part let alone to match the first part or to rescue the story. Writer Brian Hayles has not provided great material apart from the initial ideas. Gerry Davis and Innes Lloyd who were the new script editor/producer combination also seem to have neglected the first couple of stories they inherited from their predecessors letting this fall very flat.

Overall this is disappointing stuff after the good first part and could maybe have been a success given proper care or would have been better as a 2-parter with a lot of the nonsense cut out.

My Ratings: Episode 1 - 8/10, Episode 2 - 5.5/10, Episode 3 - 3.5/10, Episode 4 - 5.5/10

Overall: 5.63/10

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

2 April 1966 (UK)

Company Credits

Technical Specs

Runtime:

25 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1