The Celestial Toymaker - The Final Test

The final part of this story is the only thing of this story that exists on DVD and its nice to see how creative this story could have been. The first thing that I noticed is that Cyril bears an uncanny resemblance to Captain Mainwaring from Dads Army. The game that Dodo, Steven and Cyril have to play is quite good now that we get to see it as its clear the Steven and Dodo will have a challenge to defeat Cyril. However what I like it that Cyril gets caught out by his own trap when he puts some slippery stuff on the square.

Like previous episodes we get a little bit of the Toymaker and the mute Doctor. I still don't fully understand the point of the Doctors game and think that its even stranger when the Toymaker is shouting for the moves to race ahead. Its not long before William Hartnell's voice makes a welcome return. It's not until the penultimate move before we get to see William Hartnell. We finally get a bit more of the Toymaker, after three episodes we get the right amount of Michael Gough and we get to see what a great performer he is.

Now it might seem like once the Doctor wins his game and Dodo and Steven win their game then that would be it but what I like about this episode is that there is a final plot twist. If the Doctor makes his final move then the TARDIS will be destroyed and so there is a wonderful bit of stalemate. Thanks to Steven the Doctor works out how to foil the Toymaker and its a clever way. Certainly makes up for the parlour games that we have had to endure over the last couple of episodes. The whole thing is played out well enough and it doesn't require any music and instead relies on the direction and also the performances.

The final scene is a nice explanation as to how they were able to defeat the Toymaker and it again took Steven to do the explaining because William Hartnell didn't exactly do a great job himself. Whereas Steven had a positive effect on the story, Dodo had the opposite because its due to her offering the Doctor a sweet that led to his discomfort. Sadly the discomfort will be on the viewer because The Gunfighters is next but if anything has been shown, its that my opinion could be changed but after two stories would it be three in a row? Only time will tell.

It's difficult to compare this episode in relation to the previous episodes because this is the only one that exists on DVD. However I think that its a good episode where things are tied up nicely and we got more of the Doctor and the Toymaker which made up for the lack of both in previous episodes. As a four part adventure, the story should be credited for being quite creative. I have appreciated this more than I have done in the past and think that it should be watched/listened to again because there are some good moments.

The Celestial Toymaker - The Dancing Floor

The episode starts off yet again with the Toymaker talking to a silent and invisible Doctor and this means that this is another episode where Peter Purves and Jackie Lane are left in charge of moving the story forward. There is another game that Steven and Dodo have to find a key to a door. Luckily they manage to get through the game with no problem and its not until the end before Cyril is teasingly introduced to us.

This was the first time in the story where I began to lose and bit of interest in the story. The early part of this story was more comedic than it had been and despite the setting being as it is, I thought it just didn't serve any good to the story. It just seems like padding of the worst kind. Like the previous episode I would have liked more of the Toymaker and again we get very little. We also get nothing of William Hartnell. It's the first time since the third episode of The Dalek Invasion of Earth where we haven't had a single shot of Hartnell. 

There seems to be a moment where Dodo and Steven are dancing in a manner that won't win them an fans on Strictly Come Dancing. It would have been nice to see this but sadly we can't. The problem with the whole episode is that it does feel like they were just hovering in terms of plot progression. Unfortunatley as best as they try Peter Purves does struggle in this though he is the best thing in it.

To be honest I'm struggling for things to say so I'm just going to cut it short this time and look towards the final episode which thankfully exists on video and it will hopefully have more movement than this one and also will have William Hartnell will finally make an appearance.

The Celestial Toymaker - The Hall of Dolls

The second part of this story starts off with Dodo and Steven before quickly returning to the Doctor and the Toymaker and instantly the Toymaker becomes just as menacing as he was in the previous episode.  Its good that at least we can see that the Doctor can see how Dodo and Steven are getting on. Now the Doctor is mute as well as invisible and this immediately reduces William Hartnell's involvement in the episode. As Peter Purves is such a strong on screen presence it means that I don't mind as much, sadly Jackie Lane is becoming annoying in this story and whilst she's given more to do that in The Ark, the way that she acts is somewhat annoying.

The games that Dodo and Steven have to play would look great on TV but sadly on audio we are just left with just hearing this and it lacks an kind of fun for me. The costumes would also have been fun look at. Like the Toymaker, the supporting characters have the same level of creepiness and even though they don't get aggressive they work for the Toymaker so they can be just as dangerous. Theonly thing that I wish the would have changed and that is to involve the Toymaker more. Michael Gough gets two small scenes and he's great in both but his involvement in the story should have been greater.

As he is effectively the lead in this episode, Peter Purves gives a great performance and whilst Indont think he has the suave and sophistication that William Russell had as Ian, I think that Peter Purves has done well with the character and Steven is quite methodical and logical throughout the episode. The supporting characters are quite entertaining with Cyril being the highlight. The only time Dodo gets something good to do is when she sits on the wrong chair and starts to freeze and this would have looked good n TV but its a moment hat doesn't seem to last very long and it would have been a great cliffhanger. 

Like in the previous episode there is a moment where Dodo thinks that they have come across the TARDIS but it turns out to be the wrong one and we get another riddle from the Toymaker which leads them to the next game. This is then how the episode ends which I thought was a surprise. Not the way they chose to end it but just the fact that the whole episode had been moving along quite nicely it is making me re-evaluate the story. It's not a classic but it still a lot better than I remember. 

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.