“The Giggle”

HOLY SHIT but the people who wet themselves over the Timeless Child are really going to lose the plot over the end of the third Doctor Who special, aren’t they? That’s if their heads haven’t already exploded by the fact that this guy…

…isn’t wearing any pants on the show. But, of course, it’s the people screaming about Ruth Madeley crossing her legs a couple of weeks ago who’ll REALLY shit the bed this week when she STANDS UP. It’s almost like Russell knew exactly how people would respond to that bit of business and so decided to really rub it in their faces this time round…

So, yeah. The Toymaker’s back and instead of being a Chinese stereotype he’s packing a “wacky” German accent cos apparently he needs to be racist towards someone, it’s a nice bit of continuity I suppose… Neil Patrick Harris is very good, I imagine his line about turning God into a jack in the box will raise certain eyebrows, and there’s some weirdly disturbing stuff when our dynamic duo get stuck in his realm (really, some of the creepiest shit I’ve ever seen in the show). And isn’t it kind of delightful to see Mel again? Even if it does rather complicate the timeline (given that when she leaves with Sabalom Glitz in “Dragonfire” it’s about two million years in the future, how does she return to Earth in the 21st century?), but it wouldn’t be Doctor Who without details like that being hand-waved away…

They are, of course, not going to be able to do that with the whole “bigeneration” thing…

I did see a spoiler a few days ago that this was how Tennant would turn into Gatwa, i.e. by frankly pushing him out of himself, which is basically what happens (I’ve seen a number of fan “theories” about the 60th specials and I think this is the only one that was right)… I know Russell promised us canon-breaking developments and I suppose this fits that bill, but at the same it’s actually a throwback to Tennant’s beginnings and how his dismembered hand from “The Christmas Invasion” later becomes a full clone of himself… it’s just that this time he pops out his actual next incarnation. Who, it should be noted, is the most immediately fully functional newly regenerated Doctor in the show’s history, which I suppose is another canon-breaking detail; he’s ready to go as soon as he’s been pulled out, even if he’s… casually dressed. I must say I’m actually glad I read that spoiler, though, cos I’m not sure the show itself actually explains what happened too clearly. Also, I’m sure people will complain about how you can’t have multiple Doctors roaming around time and space as if they haven’t crossed paths multiple times…

Anyway—on the whole, a satisfying episode, satisfying end to the specials (and technically to the series itself; I understand now why they’re calling the next series “series 1” now), and I’m less bothered about RTD coming back to the show than I was before I saw any of them. I think this show might go far once Ncuti puts some pants on…