N.B. there might (or might not) be spoilers in this article!
If The Time Meddler was my favourite First Doctor story coming into this marathon, The Celestial Toymaker was certainly my least. I find it such a tough listen that even having the final episode in the archive doesn’t do much to lift it for me.
“I’m not sure I like these clowns.”
Dodo, The Celestial Toyroom
Maybe it’s due to it simply being a series of games. Maybe it’s due to it being the most Doctor-lite serial we’ve seen – Mission to the Unknown aside. After all, the Doctor is invisible and/or mute for the bulk of the story. Maybe it’s the slightly nightmare-ish Alice in Wonderland quality it has. (I’ve never liked Alice in Wonderland either.) Maybe it’s all these things.
Nevertheless, whilst I do find The Celestial Toymaker to be excruciatingly dull, given the sinister promise it shows in the first episode perhaps I should give it the benefit of the doubt that it might be better if we had all of the visuals by which to judge it?
But if The Celestial Toymaker‘s missing episodes ever do turn up, it’ll be interesting to see how the BBC deals with its potential Clarkson-like PR banana-skins.
Much has been written elsewhere (by more learned commentators than me) about the perceived racism of the story, although on the soundtrack release the offending nursery rhyme dialogue in The Hall of Dolls is obfuscated by narration.
Even leaving that aside, the Toymaker’s Mandarin look appears to be a play on the “celestial” epithet once applied to Chinese immigrants. (I must confess that had it not been for this serial I wouldn’t have been aware “celestial” was ever used as a slur. So I have at least learned something from watching it.) The villainous Fu Manchu might also have been an inspiration.
“Well said? He doesn’t even know what he is saying. “
The Toymaker, The Final Test
Of course, Doctor Who is a 50-year-old show and whilst I’d like to think we’re all grown up enough to deal with and more importantly learn from the surfacing of unsavoury attitudes of the past, given all the recent controversies with Top Gear does the BBC really want both of its top two TV exports associated with allegations of racism?
Perhaps I overstate it.
The Celestial Toymaker is not the first (nor will it be the last) Doctor Who serial to betray racist attitudes. But it is sad that on my trivial pursuit it is the thing I find most remarkable about it.
