The Doctor Who Real Time Marathon: The Celestial Toyroom - The Final Test
Doctor Who - The Celestial Toyroom (02/04/06)
Another one of those weird episodes, this one with clowns (AAARGH!). It seems the Doctor et al. have been trapped by a character called the Celestial Toymaker whom the Doctor has met before. He kidnaps people and forces them to play his dangerous (and rather dull) games.
The Doctor was briefly visible again to begin with, but the Celestial Toymaker made him invisible once more after the Doctor pissed him off. The Doctor's being forced to play a Trilogic game while Steven and Dodo try to win the TARDIS back (which the Toymaker has nicked) by playing a blindfold assault course game. They were up against some very creepy clowns (shudder) and beat them, but the TARDIS at the end was a fake and they have to play another game. It's an interesting idea, but I hope it's not going to continue like this with game after game as that could get quite boring. Ah, well. We'll see.
Doctor Who - The Hall Of Dolls (09/04/06)
As I said last week, interesting idea. Pity it's so dull. Steven and Dodo were playing against the King and Queen of Hearts this week, testing deadly chairs in order to find the one that was safe and thereby win. They found the one that was safe and thereby won. Surprise, surprise. Meanwhile, the Doctor is now not only invisible but dumb too. It seems Bill was due another holiday. He's hardly in it these days - perhaps they should change the name of the show to 'Steven Taylor'!
Steven Taylor - The Dancing Floor (16/04/06)
Okay, so the series isn't called 'Steven Taylor'... yet, but again no Doctor.
Not quite so dull this week, since there was some interesting interaction with the dolls of Mrs Wiggs and Sgt Rugg, and it was quite sad when they ended up dancing forever as mannequins. After a game of 'Hunt the Key', which was tedious and seemed to go on forever, Steven and Dodo made it through to the Dancing Floor and across to the TARDIS - another fake. Having failed to trap them with his dolls and their laborious games, the Toymaker chose a 'Schoolboy' doll that looked like a 40 year old fat bloke in a schoolboy uniform. It was quite funny when Steven remarked that Cyril the Schoolboy looked grown up enough to him!
This story isn't so much dull as unnecessarily long-winded. It doesn't have the same watching-paint-dry factor as some of that Marinus story did, but it's easily the poorest serial this year. Hopefully it finishes next week as Cyril hinted that Steven and Dodo would be playing a final game against him. Fingers crossed, eh?
Doctor Who - The Final Test (23/04/06)
'The Final Test'! Woo Hoo! Yes, the Doctor's back and yes, we have a new story next week. Not such a bad episode this week, but I still maintain it's worse than anything else this year. Cyril came to a sticky end and the Doctor defeated the Toymaker by imitating him. The final game was TARDIS Hopscotch (yawn) and Dodo stupidly fell for Cyril's cheating. And as for the Trilogic game, did they honestly expect us to believe it takes as much as 1023 moves to complete it? Quite a few, but really!
A bit shaky as far as the plot goes, the most exciting bit came at the end when the Doctor tried one of Cyril's sweets (which he'd given to Dodo) and it seemed to harm him somehow. And I'm slightly concerned by the title of next week's episode: A Holiday For The Doctor. Surely Bill isn't due more time off? Maybe they're fazing the Doctor out and replacing him with Steven? I dread the thought!
Another one of those weird episodes, this one with clowns (AAARGH!). It seems the Doctor et al. have been trapped by a character called the Celestial Toymaker whom the Doctor has met before. He kidnaps people and forces them to play his dangerous (and rather dull) games.
The Doctor was briefly visible again to begin with, but the Celestial Toymaker made him invisible once more after the Doctor pissed him off. The Doctor's being forced to play a Trilogic game while Steven and Dodo try to win the TARDIS back (which the Toymaker has nicked) by playing a blindfold assault course game. They were up against some very creepy clowns (shudder) and beat them, but the TARDIS at the end was a fake and they have to play another game. It's an interesting idea, but I hope it's not going to continue like this with game after game as that could get quite boring. Ah, well. We'll see.
Doctor Who - The Hall Of Dolls (09/04/06)
As I said last week, interesting idea. Pity it's so dull. Steven and Dodo were playing against the King and Queen of Hearts this week, testing deadly chairs in order to find the one that was safe and thereby win. They found the one that was safe and thereby won. Surprise, surprise. Meanwhile, the Doctor is now not only invisible but dumb too. It seems Bill was due another holiday. He's hardly in it these days - perhaps they should change the name of the show to 'Steven Taylor'!
Steven Taylor - The Dancing Floor (16/04/06)
Okay, so the series isn't called 'Steven Taylor'... yet, but again no Doctor.
Not quite so dull this week, since there was some interesting interaction with the dolls of Mrs Wiggs and Sgt Rugg, and it was quite sad when they ended up dancing forever as mannequins. After a game of 'Hunt the Key', which was tedious and seemed to go on forever, Steven and Dodo made it through to the Dancing Floor and across to the TARDIS - another fake. Having failed to trap them with his dolls and their laborious games, the Toymaker chose a 'Schoolboy' doll that looked like a 40 year old fat bloke in a schoolboy uniform. It was quite funny when Steven remarked that Cyril the Schoolboy looked grown up enough to him!
This story isn't so much dull as unnecessarily long-winded. It doesn't have the same watching-paint-dry factor as some of that Marinus story did, but it's easily the poorest serial this year. Hopefully it finishes next week as Cyril hinted that Steven and Dodo would be playing a final game against him. Fingers crossed, eh?
Doctor Who - The Final Test (23/04/06)
'The Final Test'! Woo Hoo! Yes, the Doctor's back and yes, we have a new story next week. Not such a bad episode this week, but I still maintain it's worse than anything else this year. Cyril came to a sticky end and the Doctor defeated the Toymaker by imitating him. The final game was TARDIS Hopscotch (yawn) and Dodo stupidly fell for Cyril's cheating. And as for the Trilogic game, did they honestly expect us to believe it takes as much as 1023 moves to complete it? Quite a few, but really!
A bit shaky as far as the plot goes, the most exciting bit came at the end when the Doctor tried one of Cyril's sweets (which he'd given to Dodo) and it seemed to harm him somehow. And I'm slightly concerned by the title of next week's episode: A Holiday For The Doctor. Surely Bill isn't due more time off? Maybe they're fazing the Doctor out and replacing him with Steven? I dread the thought!
Lacking three-quarters of the visuals does this, of all stories, no favours at all, since as you rightly point out, the script and soundtrack alone do very little to either grab or hold your imagination beyond the premise itself. Michael Gough is wasted as a villain, since Billy's holidays mean most of his interactions are in fact monologues, and even when they're not the sense of threat is... minimal. Dodo in particular is poorly written, although Steven's at his most exasperatingly exasperated throughout. I agree it's the worst of the season, and by a pretty long chalk at that - even Galaxy Four and the least innovative episodes of Master Plan are streaks ahead.
ReplyDeleteAnother victim of behind-the-scenes problems, this isn't a particularly auspicious debut for Brian Hayles, but apparently bares little resemblance to his original script. I think the first episode is probably the best, but the remaining three episodes are very samey (despite the creepiness of The Dancing Floor) and it's a pretty cool idea which may well have looked fairly good, but until the first three episodes are recovered it will forever have a reputation which just isn't matched by what's available. I remember it being lauded throughout the 90s as one of the Classics, amongst the very best of Hartnell's era, but when I got the soundtrack that just didn't show at all. Added to that, the final episode is pretty uninspiring. On a positive note, Steven does get some brilliant lines and it's probably worth experiencing the serial just for Purves performance!
ReplyDeletePeter Purves actually got a pretty sweet deal as Steven. I mean it's sad and all that William Hartnell was becoming more frail, but from Steven's first full story onwards Purves got a much bigger slice of the acting pie due to Hartnell's illness than he might otherwise have done. He takes the lead in much of The Time Meddler, even more of The Massacre, here of course and also in his final story, plus significant subplots of his own in a couple of other stories.
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