DOCTOR WHO: THE GIGGLE (TV) (2023, UK, 61m, PG) **½
Sci-Fi, Adventure
dist. BBC; pr co. BBC; d. Chanya Button; w. Russell T. Davies; exec pr. Russell T. Davies, Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter, Joel Collins, Phil Collinson; pr. Vicki Delow; ph. Mika Orasmaa (Colour | 2.00:1); m. Murray Gold; ed. Mark Trend; pd. Philip Sims.
cast: David Tennant (The Doctor), Ncuti Gatwa (The Doctor), Catherine Tate (Donna Noble), Neil Patrick Harris (The Toymaker), Jemma Redgrave (Kate Lethbridge-Stewart), Bonnie Langford (Melanie Bush), Ruth Madeley (Shirley Bingham), Karl Collins (Shaun Temple), Jacqueline King (Sylvia Noble), Yasmin Finney (Rose Noble), Charlie De Melo (Charles Banerjee), John MacKay (John Logie Baird), Ross Gurney-Randall (Middle Aged Man), Alexander Devrient (Colonel Ibrahim), Glen Fox (Pilot), Tim Hudson (Edward Lawn Bridges), Aidan Cook (The Vlinx), Nicholas Briggs (Voice of the Vlinx), Lachele Carl (Trinity Wells), Leigh Lothian (Voice of Stooky Sue), Luke Featherson (The Toymaker Dance Double).
The third and final special in David Tennant’s return run sees the giggle of a mysterious puppet driving the human race insane. When the Doctor discovers the return of the terrifying Toymaker, he faces a fight he seemingly can never win. Davies’s decision to make a provocative and controversial change to the series’ mythology will likely divide opinion and feels like an unnecessarily risky step to take when the series’ credibility is already at stake following Chris Chibnall’s era as showrunner. The story gets off to a decent start and there are some inventive scenes with Harris’ Toymaker toying with Tennant’s Doctor and Tate’s Donna – particularly the eerie scenes in the toyshop labyrinth of corridors. Indeed, Tennant and Tate continue to spar with each other with great chemistry and will be greatly missed. The fantastical nature of the plot is initially engaging, but as there appear to be no narrative rules the increasingly bizarre inventions quickly drain the story of the tension it created in those early scenes. The dizzying speed at which it unfolds seems designed to cover the many plot holes and encourages an increasing use of lazy writing to invent plot contrivances. The re-introduction of Mel is also an unnecessary piece of self-reference. In the final act, Davies throws in his most challenging plot twist to date. The Marvel multiverse concept is a self-indulgent, cynical, complicated and dumb re-modelling of the various franchises within that left me cold. Davies now appears to be aiming for a similar approach with Doctor Who, where the bi-regeneration seemingly means we can now have multiple Doctors trying to save the Universe, or, as in this case, a Doctor can retire and put his feet up in the knowledge that a newer version of himself is out there. But the misstep in Davies’ thinking is that we already have this by the fact that the Doctor travels in time and has indeed met his future and past selves on several occasions. I worry that there may be no one in the series’s production team willing to say, “Hang on a minute, Russell. Is this really a good idea?” Has Davies lost the plot so soon? Time will tell. We have a Christmas Special to fully introduce Gatwa in a matter of two weeks. Whether we will have further adventures with Tennant and Tate remains to be seen. This partial closure for Tennant’s Doctor feels at odds with the series’ legacy and takes even the threat of the Doctor’s loss of his persona out of the equation as he confronts his death. Maybe Davies has further twists down the line, but as it stands we are left scratching our heads as to what this all means.
