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Saturday, October 12, 2013

Doctor Who Rewind - The Celestial Toymaker




This has such potential to be a fantastic story, a mad external being, a master magician with illusions of grandeur traps the Doctor and friends, and forces them to play a series of fiendish games...

The reality I'm afraid was just a tad disappointing.

The plot then is pretty simple, in order to regain possession of the TARDIS the Doctor has to play the Trilogic game, a ten piece Tower of Hanoi puzzle whose pieces must all be moved and remounted in a precisely correct 1023 move sequence to ensure success at the game.

To prevent the Doctor from interacting with Steven and Dodo, who have been given their own set of puzzles and games to work through, he has been made all but invisible, except for his hand which moves the pieces relentlessly around the board.

So then, for much of this story the Doctor is absent, and whether this is down to another holiday or his failing ill health i don't know.

Meanwhile, poor Steven and Dodo have to make do with a really desperate script that lacks imagination, is boring, and difficult to get excited about.

The Toymakers toys challenge the two companions to deadly games involving electrified chairs and playing cards, clowns playing blind mans bluff, and a naughty school boy - all whom are trying to prevent Steven and Dodo from finding the real TARDIS among a host of facsimiles.

Eventually the Doctor finished his game and beats the Toymaker at his own game.

This is not the first time he and the Toymaker have met either according to what he alludes to at the start of the story - but I do hope it's the last time however, as I've had better times eating my own vomit.

It really is that bad. Even the actors seem disinterested with a plot that doesn't seem to go any where. The scenes and dialogue seem to waffle on for what seems like an endless amount of time.

Even getting to view the moving images of the fourth and only surviving episode of this story didn't make it any better.

To be honest, I'm glad the BBC didn't announce that this was part of the recent haul of found episodes.

Next time on Doctor Who Rewind, the Doctor ventures to the Wild West and we get to grips with some very suspect American accents.

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