‘Doctor Who’ Recap: Russell T Davies Breaks Canon But Not Our Hearts In ‘The Giggle’

By Hannah Sole | TV | December 11, 2023 |

By Hannah Sole | TV | December 11, 2023 |

Previously, on Doctor Who: Fourteen and Donna had a tense battle of wits against their sinister and oddly-proportioned twins at the edge of the universe, escaped and returned to London to find the ever-stalwart Wilf waiting for them with an update: everyone had gone utterly bonkers. Here’s my recap for ‘Wild Blue Yonder’ in case you missed it!

This week: Fourteen faces off against a gleefully chaotic foe, with a few blasts from the past (and the future) to help him out whilst we wait for our hearts to be well and truly broken again. Can he and Donna save the day again and live to tell the tale? There are absolutely whopping spoilers coming up, so consider this your final warning!

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Fresh from their last narrow escape, Fourteen and Donna are plunged into the middle of a terrible pandemic: some sort of alien mind mojo that turns people into Karens, or rather that cranks their brains up a few notches and reveals everybody’s inner Karen, because the human race can be horrendous at times and we can’t go around blaming all of that on Neil Patrick Harris.

Our Toymaker is a trickster god of sorts, who loves games, puppets, The Spice Girls and silly accents, and Neil Patrick Harris is having the absolute time of his life, committing to the flamboyantly theatrical villain role with giddy abandon. The Karendemic starts with a puppet seared into the first television image and then permeating every screen that follows, its eerie arpeggio giggle becoming a kind of trigger for unleashing the chaos almost a hundred years later.

UNIT are on it, and whisk Fourteen and Donna to their HQ, where they team up with Kate and Shirley as well as former companion Melanie, and UNIT’s resident DJ / helpful alien robot dude, The Vlinx. UNIT have special techy armbands to protect them from The Spike, ie the Karen trigger. Attempts to share these worldwide failed due to anti-vax Karenitis. They can deactivate what they believe is the trigger by blowing up a satellite with a galvanic beam, aka a massive laser gun that they set up at HQ and leave there after detonation because people are numpties and just leave giant deadly weapons lying around. I sure hope that doesn’t come back to haunt them…

Fourteen and Donna pop back to the first appearance of Giggly Jigsaw Puppet in 1925, and happen upon the Toymaker’s shop. After a few ball jokes, they are trapped in his nightmarish house of horrors, complete with a sad murder victim puppet who freaks out Fourteen, and some creepy as hell mini puppets who attack Donna until they realise she can be more scary than them.

Fourteen blames himself for unleashing the Toymaker on the universe by playing a game with the salt last week, and the Toymaker has certainly been busy since he got out; just flossing all of those teeth would keep him occupied for an age, but he’s also got the Master imprisoned for all eternity in his gold tooth. As you do. The Toymaker forces Fourteen to watch (and Donna to witness) his biggest losses, comically mocking the tiny morsels of comfort that the Doctor has found, and this draws together the theme of the specials: how do you cope with all this loss? Fourteen is weighed down by his grief, and he is tired. As Donna keeps trying to tell him, he needs to take a break. He needs a sit down and a cuppa, and a proper rest. He needs to mourn, but he can’t do that while the world burns. He challenges the Toymaker to another game, with humanity at stake. When he loses, he invokes the rule of ‘best of three’, and the rematch is set for the present day.

Back at UNIT, the Toymaker makes a dramatic entrance because he’s just the right level of extra, then holds them all hostage with the massive laser gun (sigh), before shooting Fourteen with it (GASP) so that he can play the third game with a third Doctor. This time, Fourteen is ready to go, and accepts his fate, with Donna and Mel by his side.

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And then BOOM: the rumoured massive change to canon kicks in, and RTD2 introduces bigeneration. That’s right, we have concurrent Fourteen and Fifteen, though they are sharing one outfit between them. Thank goodness Fourteen likes layers huh? Though if Fifteen nicked the undies, that means the Great Ball Game For Humanity occurs with Fourteen going commando…

The Toymaker loses as all good villains must, and is summarily banished. The world is saved, and there are hugs all round. Fourteen can finally have a sit down. Sometimes, the only person you’ll listen to is yourself, right? Ncuti Gawta radiates star power in his debut as Fifteen, which is no mean feat given the competition. He’s going to be a delight, and everything is going to be OK: Fourteen gets a pseudo-retirement with his best friend and his new family, with his Tardis just in case he gets bored, or in case future seasons need a little spicing up, and Fifteen rides off into the sunset with his own bonus Tardis, ready for the Christmas special. Yes, this means that RTD has fully built in an ‘in case of emergency, summon David’ button, which might make some more cynical viewers wince, but perhaps no-one in the Who camp could bear to bring the pain again. I have some more thoughts to share on that, but it is a story for another day.

Wibbly-Wobbly Timey-Wimey Stuff

This was basically Who-niverse bingo, and like last week, there are too many to count all of them. So here are a select few!

The Tardis has another helicopter ride, like in the 50th anniversary. Speaking of the 50th, the Curator is now likely to be another retirement regeneration, enjoying a peaceful life hanging out in galleries and chatting with people over a jelly baby or two.

The old Archangel network is a nod to the Mr Saxon era of John Simm’s Master. There’s another callback to this when the gold tooth is collected by a woman with red nail polish, just like the ring when the Master apparently died. Mrs Saxon or River Song, do you think? Or maybe Missy? Was anyone at HQ rocking some red nails?

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The Vlinx is voiced by Nicholas Briggs, aka Dalek Man and, uh, Cyberman Man.

There was no mention of Rose, Martha and the fam in the puppet show, presumably because they survived their time in the Tardis, unlike Amy, Clara and Bill. Poor Rory didn’t get a mention, though. River Song, Sarah Jane and Rose got a shout-out when Fifteen convinces Fourteen to retire.

Toymaker threads to store away for later: “I made a jigsaw out of your history; did you like it?” Oh Toymaker, what have you been up to? “There’s only one player I didn’t dare face: the one who waits. I saw it hiding, and I ran. That’s someone else’s game.” Ooh, is this a new Big Bad? Or is he just really terrified of Amy and Rory, both of whom did a lot of waiting around in their era?

Even after everything, Fourteen offers the Toymaker friendship and adventures, just like he did with the Master. Once again, the offer is declined.

When the regeneration energy started to swirl, it sounded like there were some Nine motifs in the soundtrack.

After years of terrible jobs, the best temp in Chiswick finally gets hired by someone who sees her awesomeness. Welcome to UNIT, Donna! She’ll have a salute, thank you very much.

Number of times my sister said “oh f*ck off, Bonnie Langford” in one hour: four. This sets a new record.

Next time: Fifteen will be battling some goblins, and we’ll meet his new friend Ruby!