The Celestial Toymaker - The Celestial Toyroom

It's back to the CDs after enjoying the DVDs and its back to the Peter Purves narrated story. This is the firs story to be produced by Innes Lloyd after John Wiles departed from the show after just 24 episodes having taken over from Verity Lambert at the start of The Myth Makers. This story is memorable for the fact that it was intended  for William Hartnell to become invisible and return as someone else but this got nixed. 

The premise of the stor is quite simple. The Doctor has to win his game and Dodo and Steven have to win their games. However it is never that simple and that's what is going to determine whether the stor will work. If the regulars don't win then they become part of the Toymakers toy room. The Doctors game is more interesting because he has to play the trilogic game and do it in exactly the right number of moves. There is no way that I could play that game so it would be interesting to know if William Hartnell could follow it. The games that Steven and Dodo have to play seem more childish and it seems that the story is focusing more on Peter Purves and Jackie Lane than Wlliam Hartnell. Every so often the story goes back to the Doctor and the Toymaker to give the companions and breather.

The Toymaker is played by Michael Gough who would return in Arc of Infinity. From the moment that he appears he is instantly unsettling. It's a great performance from him. He never raises his voice and never becomes aggressive yet he is an effective villain and its easy to see why he has become so interesting to fans over the years. The central performances are quite good with Jackie Lane being given more to do which makes a change from the previous four episodes. Though whilst the stuff between Jackie and Peter is good I just wanted to see more of the Doctor and the Toymaker and its one of the things that is wrong with this story. More Doctor and less Dodo.

Like most episode that don't exist on video anymore, this story suffers from a lack of visual. Judging by the telesnaps this would have looked good on video (though episode four does exist on DVD) though the story is interesting enough to keep my interest and its a fairly good episode. Not sure how I'm going to find the next episodes but I think that as my opinion of The Ark has changed then this story might have a different effect on me.