The Celestial Toymaker
Joe Siegler
The Celestial Toymaker
This Story: Series 3, Story 7. Production Code Y.
Overall: Story 24, Episodes 111-114
Airdates: 2 April 1966 to 23 April 1966
Written by Brian Hayles & Donald Tosh (uncredited). Directed by Bill Sellars
The four individual episode titles are:
- The Celestial Toyroom
- The Hall of Dolls
- The Dancing Floor
- The Final Test
Links: [ Wikipedia | Tardis Data Core | Reconstruction ]
Found this fun video of Peter Purves at a convention in 2016 talking about the Trilogic game prop from this story leading to his getting a gig at Blue Peter.
#DoctorWhoMarathon Ep 111 - "The Celestial Toyroom" (1/4 - Serial "Y", Story 24) - 2 Apr 1966. #DoctorWho 1/2
— jᎾᎬ sᎥᎬᎶᏞᎬᏒ (@JoeSiegler) December 6, 2021
1st/4 of "The Celestial Toymaker", a story with an intriguing concept, but is mostly lost. Only Ep4 survives. Our crew land in the Toymaker's realm, and the Doctor is pic.twitter.com/vDBgdtGXJN
#DoctorWhoMarathon Ep 111 - "The Celestial Toyroom" (1/4 - Serial "Y", Story 24) - 2 Apr 1966. #DoctorWho 2/2
— jᎾᎬ sᎥᎬᎶᏞᎬᏒ (@JoeSiegler) December 6, 2021
rendered invisible, which spoke to behind the scenes problems with Hartnell and the producer. Our crew are forced to play the Toymaker's games to regain the Tardis. pic.twitter.com/vfwNlABGAr
#DoctorWhoMarathon Ep 112 - "The Hall of Dolls" (2/4 - Serial "Y", Story 24) - 9 Apr 1966. #DoctorWho
— jᎾᎬ sᎥᎬᎶᏞᎬᏒ (@JoeSiegler) December 8, 2021
Only the Doctor's hand is in this episode, no Hartnell. Steven & Dodo continue to play the Toymaker's games. Notable: this episode contained the n word on original broadcast. pic.twitter.com/ioo1tTk8m3
#DoctorWhoMarathon Ep 113 - "The Dancing Floor" (3/4 - Serial "Y", Story 24) - 16 Apr 1966. #DoctorWho
— jᎾᎬ sᎥᎬᎶᏞᎬᏒ (@JoeSiegler) December 9, 2021
Ep3 feels a lot like Ep2 - more games for Steven & Dodo to play, and most of it kind of boring. Still no Hartnell in this episode, which probably contributes to that feeling. pic.twitter.com/LAVo2vTgad
#DoctorWhoMarathon Ep 114 - "The Final Test" (4/4 - Serial "Y", Story 24) - 23 Apr 1966. #DoctorWho 1/2
— jᎾᎬ sᎥᎬᎶᏞᎬᏒ (@JoeSiegler) December 10, 2021
The only ep of 4 that exists, and w/Hartnell back, I enjoyed it a lot more. The final game for Steven & Dodo is "Tardis Hopscotch", of which they play against Cyril. He loses pic.twitter.com/pXoPkfv9bC
#DoctorWhoMarathon Ep 114 - "The Final Test" (4/4 - Serial "Y", Story 24) - 23 Apr 1966. #DoctorWho 2/2
— jᎾᎬ sᎥᎬᎶᏞᎬᏒ (@JoeSiegler) December 10, 2021
and Steven/Dodo make it to the Tardis. The Doctor, now visible, comes within one move of winning, but doing so traps his companions. He tricks the Toymaker into an escape. pic.twitter.com/SPVPdfePS2
UPDATE 28 MAY 2022:
There was an excellent Twitter discussion by user Kieran Highman about various behind the scenes things for this story. It’s long (25 part tweet thread) – I’ve linked to it below. The biggest surprise to me is that the Toymaker’s outfit was used previously in Doctor Who – it was one of the outfits used in Marco Polo.
I’ve been thinking about this, and I always say it’s my favourite #DoctorWho story, so I'd best chat on it...
— Kieran Highman (@The66Ramblers) May 28, 2022
Let’s talk about The Celestial Toymaker
(THREAD ? 1/25) https://t.co/haF9HqERhH
