The Celestial Toymaker
Previous: The Ark
The Celestial Toymaker
"Hey, if the Doctor's intangible, why does he need to open the doors? He could've just walked through them!"
"Habit, I suppose."
TOYMAKEEEEERRRRRRRR. AT LAAAAAAAAST.
Magically Enlarging Clowns! And Magically Reappearing Doctor!
Oh look! The robot's tummy is airing The Daleks' Master Plan! Wow, you can get BBC1 all over the place...
And there's The Massacre! And One automatically knows exactly where they are all of a sudden.
"It's me the day my mother died!" Actually Dodo, that would appear to be you crying in the cell in The Ark.
Suddenly, A GAGILLION TARDISES.
Aww, playtime with clowns! Actually...no, playtime with clowns is always creepy as balls. Always.
So the Doctor has in fact been here before. I wonder if that's covered in Divided Loyalties or if they explain it here.
I've only just realized how many times people are going to say things about "winning" or "losing the game" in this serial. #TheGame
"When the two rows of numbers match, the game is over." Sounds like that would be tricky, considering you've got an odd number there.
Clara's voice is so absurdly high-pitched I'm amazed I can understand anything she says.
And we get the briefest of footage of the Toymaker smirking. I wonder if that's going to keep coming up.
Ah...woah, hello Steven's Slightly Exposed Midriff.
("Clara pulls a hard boiled egg from her hair and hands it to Dodo.") ...what?
This is definitely turning out to be a story that would've benefited considerably from...you know...NOT getting 75% burninated.
There's the TARDIS! Or, a TARDIS, anyway. Must resist attempting to solve this riddle on my own or I'll be here all night.
"Four legs, no feet, of arms no lack, it carries no burden on its back. 6 deadly sisters, 7 for choice, call the servants without voice."
Oh cool! The ending theme is in a different key! For some reason, I love it when that comes completely out of the blue.
So now the Doctor's mute as well as mostly intangible. I wonder if Hartnell was on vacation again.
King and Queen of Hearts! I wonder where this is going...
Looks like we'll get to learn the answer to the riddle in here.
Okay, maybe it has something to do with chairs after all.
The King is quite a Henpecked Husband, isn't he?
"Well, I suppose we'd better see how that young couple are getting on in their room." #contextisagoodthing
Dodo just pulled a pretty bold move. Judging by subsequent serials, I can only assume that Steven picked the right chair.
But the Toymaker says otherwise. This...can't be good...
Freezing Chair? Oh crap, and it's THAT kind of freezing. I'm glad I just closed my window.
Steven to the rescue! Whew...
The Joker has quit the game. Guess he wasn't as foolish as he looked.
Well, they've found the right chair and what they assume is the last TARDIS but...we've still got the last line of that riddle...
...which has just had more riddle added to it by the Toymaker. Wonder what it is this time.
"Hunt the key to fit the door that leads out to the dancing floor. Then escape the rhythmic beat or you'll forever tap your feet."
So it sounds like the riddles aren't so much riddles as they are clues to solving each room. Fascinating...
And there's the alternative ending tune again...
Ohhhhh, so "call the servants without voice" didn't mean "don't use voice to call them," it meant "call the servants that have no voice!"
I think this is the first recon I've watched where I've been able to picture in my mind's eye what the original footage probably looked like
I don't know why, but that table kinda reminds me of a giant Lego.
"Wasn't he the Jack of Hearts?"
"Well possible, but does it matter? I mean, ALL the Toymaker's creations look alike to me!"
Hmmmm...
Wow, Dodo seems to be successfully sweet-talking the soldier into helping them find the key.
That sounds like a lot of china breaking...
"Steven, that's one place we haven't looked! IN THE PIE!" Pie? PIE!!!
Aww, there was a dance scene and we didn't get to watch it?
Creepy as it is, I wouldn't mind getting to watch Steven forced-dancing either.
They made it across! Very inventive use of the Power of Dance.
"You still believe in these creations of the Toymaker, don't you? You can't see that they're just phantoms, things created in his mind?"
"If that's so, why do they lose to us and always through doing something silly and human?"
Dodo Chaplet, I really must admire your insight.
"You forget that I can see you, even if no one else can." Said the Toymaker while looking directly at the camera o_o
Alrighty then, time for the next riddle!
"Lady Luck will show the way. Win the game or here you'll stay." Huh. Short and simple.
So this must be the deadly chubby schoolboy the Toymaker was talking about earlier. Quite a creeper already, isn't he?
And suddenly FOOTAGE! This must be the beginning of the next episode.
Actually, this alternate ending theme seems to just be the theme at a slightly higher tempo and that's what's changing the key. Neat.
I wish I could figure out how to get that effect in Garage Band...
"The Finale Test." ...wait a sec, why have I spent all this time thinking that this episode was called "Checkmate"?
Ooo, fun! Electric Hopscotch of Death!
Wow. After three straight episodes of recon, seeing the Toymaker actually moving feels really strange.
"There. I have given you back your voice." Looks like Hartnell's back from break.
Actually, is it just me or does his voice sound a little...different?
Dodo, I appreciate your heartfelt concern for others even if they're total dickheads but...emphasis on the "total dickheads" thing.
Oh wow. Cyril just got seriously zapped. Thanks for showing us the body, by the way, we really needed to see that.
Well they've finally made it back to, what I'm assuming by this point is, the real TARDIS. Now One just needs to finish his game...
One! You have a body again! Welcome back! But what's this? Got something up your sleeve, do you?
So we've still got 10 minutes left and One never played the finishing move. Alright, where are you guys going with this...
Steven Taylor just legit tried to punch out the Celestial Toymaker. This would have been AWESOME had it actually worked.
And now the Toymaker's falling back on the old "join me and have POWER" ploy. Oh how much you are doomed to fail, sir.
Whatever the Toymaker's done to the TARDIS, I'm assuming that's why it looks like a half-constructed stage set now.
I'm not quite sure what's going on here completely counts as Mutually Assured Destruction, but it's pretty damn close.
Talk their way out of this? Ah yes, the trilogic game is voice-activated too, isn't it?
I'm surprised I didn't mention this at the beginning of the story but...since when can Steven fly the TARDIS?
"GO TO MOVE ONE THOUSAND AND TWENTY-THREE!" VICTORY! And then there was a...very strange-looking s'plosion.
"There will be other meetings..." So other than Five in Divided Loyalties and Six in The Nightmare Fair when else does the Toymaker show up?
I seem to recall seeing him on the cover of Charley's Companion Chronicle: Solitaire. And with facial hair.
And the ending theme's returned to normal. But...really, Doctor, were you THAT tempted to eat the candy? Really?
Next: The Gunfighters