The Celestial Toymaker
The Celestial Toymaker is the seventh serial of the third season of the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who. Written by Brian Hayles and directed by Bill Sellars, it was broadcast on BBC1 in four weekly parts from 2 to 23 April 1966. In the serial, the First Doctor and his travelling companions Steven Taylor and Dodo Chaplet are pitted against a powerful adversary called the Toymaker, who separates them and forces them to play a series of games.
Hayles had submitted several story ideas to Doctor Whos production team before The Celestial Toymaker was accepted. Script editor Donald Tosh redeveloped the scripts at Hayles's approval to fit within the programme's budget and means; after he resigned from the BBC, the scripts were rewritten by his successor, Gerry Davis, which Tosh disapproved. The Celestial Toymaker was Innes Lloyd's first credited work as Doctor Whos producer. Hartnell was largely absent from the second and third episodes for a holiday; the production team considered replacing him with a different actor in his absence, but his contract was renewed. Filming took place at Riverside Studios from March to April 1966.
The Celestial Toymaker received an average of 8.3 million viewers across the four episodes, an increase from the preceding serials. Contemporary reviews were mixed, though retrospective reception was generally positive, with praise for the designs, surrealism, and Gough's performance. The serial's film prints and videotapes were wiped in the 1970s, though the fourth episode was recovered in 1984; the first three episodes remain missing. The Celestial Toymaker received print and audiobook adaptations, and was released on VHS and DVD with reconstructions of the missing episodes using off-air recordings; an animated version was also released on DVD and Blu-ray.
Plot
The First Doctor and his travelling companions, Steven Taylor and Dodo Chaplet, arrive in the realm of the Toymaker, an eternal being of infinite power who sets games and traps for the unwary to become his playthings. The Toymaker abducts the Doctor, who he has faced before, to his study, where he is given the Trilogic Game, a ten-piece puzzle whose pieces must all be moved and remounted in a 1,023-move sequence.Steven and Dodo face different challenges. The first is a game of blind man's buff against two clowns, who are made to replay after cheating; they lose and are transformed into dolls. Steven and Dodo enter a two-room chamber with seven chairs and a challenge from living playing cards, the King and Queen of Hearts. Steven deduces that six of the chairs are deadly to sit on; seven mannequins are provided to test on them. The King and Queen participate, and some mannequins are destroyed as seats are proven unsafe. Dodo is nearly killed by a chair that almost freezes her before Steven helps her stand. The King and Queen are trapped when they sit in a chair which folds in on them.
Steven and Dodo meet the comical Sergeant Rugg and Mrs. Wiggs, who challenge them to hunt the thimble—the key to the exit door—which Dodo finds inside Wiggs's large pie. In another room with a dancing floor, Steven and Dodo encounter the three remaining mannequins, who transform into ballerinas and start to dance. Steven and Dodo get trapped as partners with two of the ballerinas and free themselves by swapping their partners for each other. They then find themselves in a vast game of hopscotch against Cyril, who slips on a triangle he has booby-trapped and is electrocuted, before reaching the TARDIS.
In the Toymaker's study, the Doctor is at the final stage of the Trilogic Game. He reunites with Steven and Dodo, sending them into the TARDIS while the Toymaker challenges the Doctor to complete the Game. The Doctor realises that, upon making the last move and winning, the Toymaker's domain will disappear along with the TARDIS. Using the Toymaker's voice from inside the TARDIS, he orders the last piece to move, departing while the Toymaker's world is destroyed. The Doctor commemorates their victory with sweets given to Dodo by Cyril, and immediately yells in pain.
Production
Conception and writing
Freelance writer Brian Hayles submitted several story to Doctor Whos script editors in 1965, including The Dark Planet to Dennis Spooner and four to his successor, Donald Tosh. Producer John Wiles was enthusiastic about Hayles's participation in the series, having worked together on English by Television and Legend of Death. Hayles, a fan of science fiction and eager to work with Wiles again, submitted Doctor Who and the Toymaker, which received positive responses from Tosh and Wiles. Tosh suggested that the titular Toymaker be referred to as the Celestial Toymaker; at one point, he considered making the character an evil, superior member of the Doctor's race. Hayles was commissioned to write the first episode on 29 July; the script was due on 17 September, with options for a further three scripts by 1 October. Around this time, the serial was titled The Trilogic Game.Hayles delivered the first episode's script on 13 September, and the remaining three were commissioned four days later, due on 26 November; they were delivered on 16 November, 30 November, and 9 December, respectively. Tosh and Wiles sought several changes to the scripts to fit within the programme's means and budget, and to remove some darker elements; however, Hayles was busy with other work, including on the television series United!, and agreed that Tosh could redevelop the scripts. It was proposed that Tosh would be credited for the scripts and Hayles for the original idea. Hayles was commissioned for two more serials—The White Witch and The Hands of Aten—in November 1965, but his submissions were declined in January 1966 as they did not match the vision of the incoming production team.
Tosh's rewrites in late 1965 altered several games and described the Toymaker as "a happy looking occidental Mandarin character". He sent his rewritten scripts of the third and fourth episodes to Hayles in mid-January 1966 and thanked him for allowing him to "massacre" his original work, which he called "bloody good scripts". Wiles and Tosh resigned from the BBC in January, replaced by Innes Lloyd and Gerry Davis, respectively. Lloyd, assigned as producer by Savory and series creator Sydney Newman, trailed Wiles during work on the previous serial, The Ark; The Celestial Toymaker was his first credited work on the programme. Bill Sellars was assigned the serial's director. He was happy with the scripts, though they required some expansion; Tosh was paid for his rewrite on 25 January, and Wiles approved them on 16 February.
Tosh considered including characters named Charles and Marjorie, named after his own uncle and aunt. He renamed them George and Margaret, characters originally referenced but unseen in a 1937 play by Gerald Savory ; Tosh wanted the characters to finally be seen in The Celestial Toymaker. Shortly before production began, Savory changed his mind and approved for Davis to rewrite the scripts in four days to replace George and Margaret with other characters. Davis had also taken issue with the scripts' "pseudo-smart Noël Coward" dialogue, which he found too "precious" for the audience. Tosh and Wiles disapproved of the rewrites, with the former disliking the "banal" dialogue and the latter feeling the Doctor's storyline had become secondary; he complained to Savory that they did not do justice to the original work. Hayles, however, told Davis he was happy with the final scripts; he received the sole writing credit after Tosh asked to be removed.
File:Queen Mary's Dolls' House, September 2025.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|The design of the dollhouse in the Toymaker's office was partly based on Queen Mary's Dolls' House.|alt=A large, illuminated dollhouse
Dudley Simpson recorded around 16 minutes of incidental music for the serial in four-hour sessions on 21 and 22 February, using several instruments to evoke different tones. The sound accompanying the moves in the Trilogic Game were made with wood blocks and cymbals. John Wood was the designer; he based the giant robots on a Japanese tin toy owned by his son. The Toymaker's office set included a dollhouse partly based on Queen Mary's Dolls' House; an early idea was to have figures like children moving inside the house, and Wood later regretted making it so large as it no longer resembled a dollhouse. The script described the Toymaker's office as "the modern equivalent of an eighteenth-century gentleman's study-cum-library.... ultra-modern but extremely comfortable". All seven sets fit within the studio. The opening episode was Doctor Whos first to display a flashback to a previous serial, as Steven watches a clip of himself from The Daleks' Master Plan.
Casting and characters
was largely absent from the second and third episodes as the Doctor is rendered invisible; Hartnell was on holiday during filming. As his contract was due to expire during the serial, the production team considered replacing him with a different actor when he reappeared, partly due to Hartnell's fragile health and conflict with the team; however, before this could be enacted, Hartnell's contract was renewed on 15 February 1966. Peter Purves and Jackie Lane enjoyed the episode as their characters, Steven and Dodo, were featured extensively and independently. Lane was happy with her outfit, which she had shopped for in Knightsbridge, though Purves felt his pullover made him look fat. Hartnell had a better relationship with Davis and Lloyd than their predecessors, though Purves sought more humour and felt Lloyd, like Wiles, took his work too seriously. Purves acquired the prop of the Trilogic Game after production as it was one of his favourite serials, though he felt it gave him bad luck.Lloyd wanted his era on Doctor Who to feature believable characters played by talented actors. Michael Gough was cast as the Toymaker; he had liked some earlier episodes of the programme and enjoyed working on the serial, though he struggled to understand the scripts and found Hartnell occasionally difficult to work with. The Toymaker's coat, described in the script as "a splendid-looking bejewelled floor-length coat", was reused from Marco Polo. Campbell Singer and Carmen Silvera were originally cast as George and Margaret; Sellars had previously directed Silvera on Compact, and he later cast Singer in The Newcomers. The actors remained contracted after the characters were replaced, ultimately playing three roles each: Singer as Joey, King of Hearts, and Sergeant Rugg, and Silvera as Clara, Queen of Hearts, and Mrs. Wiggs. Joey's communication via horn instead of voice was inspired by Harpo Marx, while Clara's rising speech pattern was inspired by the all clear air raid siren. Make-up assistant Sylvia James painted Silvera's face as the Queen of Hearts using carmine pigment, which required scouring powder to remove after filming.
Choreography for the third episode's dancing game was provided by Tutte Lemkow, who had previously appeared in Marco Polo as well as The Crusade and The Myth Makers ; his participation was limited as he was sick with the flu. Several lines of Purves and Lane's dialogue were pre-recorded to allow them to focus on their movements. Beryl Braham, Ann Harrison, and Delia Linden portrayed the ballerina dolls. Braham and Linden recalled that they had no time to warm up before recording; the former was bruised and in tears from the pain and cold. It was Linden's first work in television; she did not recall Lemkow's involvement, only remembering being given simple dancing instructions and told to be "menacing" and "expressionless".
File:Charles Hamilton 1912.jpg|thumb|right|The estate of Frank Richards complained about Cyril's imitation of Richards's character Billy Bunter, for which the BBC apologised.|alt=Charles Hamilton
Peter Stephens portrayed the Knave of Hearts, Kitchen Boy, and Cyril. The script described the latter as "a 'Billy Bunter' of a boy", though Davis had suggested the character be more like the Artful Dodger from Charles Dickens's Oliver Twist. Cyril says his nickname is "Billy", though this was not in the script. Literary agent Hope Leresche, on behalf of the estate of Billy Bunter creator Frank Richards, complained about the depiction on 18 April; the BBC clarified that the character was pretending to be like Billy, and a continuity announcement was made before the fourth episode to apologise "for any apparent similarity". Newspaper reports claimed that viewers had complained to the BBC about Cyril, believing that Billy Bunter would not have been so cruel to Steven and Dodo.