Doctor Who (TV Series) The Celestial Toyroom (1966) User Reviews

It's a pretty good start.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 7/10 · 4 March 2021]

The Doctor, Steven and Dodo land in the world of The Celestial Toymaker, a powerful being, and a dangerous one.

It feels like the beginning of the end for William Hartnell, he's still wonderful, but his health had taken a downward turn, partly why he's invisible for most of this.

It's very different, it ventures into the world of surrealism and fantasy, and would set the precedent for episodes like The Mind Robber and Night Terrors.

It's very difficult to review this story as a whole, as it does vary enormously in quality, this first episode though, is quite good.

Michael Gough is great here as The Toymaker, it's such a shame that Colin Baker's Doctor never went to Blackpool for The Nightmare Fair. You wouldn't know it was Carmen Silvera.

It's not a very talky episode, so the audio really does rely on a strong narration, otherwise it would have big gaps, I'm prepared to give it the benefit of the doubt.

I think it's a good start, 7/10.

The Celestial Toymaker: Part 1 - Good start but very disappointing and bizarre otherwise.

[A_Kind_Of_CineMagic · 8/10 · 19 August 2014]

Review of all 4 parts:

The Celestial Toymaker is a 4 part story beginning with The Celestial Toyroom.

This story is the first instance of the series going off into pure fantasy with a whimsical, strange setting in which the TARDIS crew are tormented by a mysterious power with mind games and very odd goings on. Sound familiar? Well if you have seen The Mind Robber from the second Doctor's era or the episode Amy's Choice from the modern 11th Doctor's (Matt Smith) era then you will see that this is very much the story they are based upon.

This being a different kind of story to anything that went before is a big plus in the first part as it is unusual and therefore surprising and interesting. The character of the toymaker is also an interesting and well acted character with the smooth Michael Gough in his usual good form. However the strangeness and bizarre 'toyroom figures' they meet start to grate more and more in parts 2 and 3 with poor scenes and unimpressive acting from some silly guest characters. Part 3 is particularly weak and embarrassing, probably the worst Hartnell era episode. The mind games are not thrilling and the final part with things coming to a conclusion still fails to pick up the level above that of the unimpressive second part let alone to match the first part or to rescue the story. Writer Brian Hayles has not provided great material apart from the initial ideas. Gerry Davis and Innes Lloyd who were the new script editor/producer combination also seem to have neglected the first couple of stories they inherited from their predecessors letting this fall very flat.

Overall this is disappointing stuff after the good first part and could maybe have been a success given proper care or would have been better as a 2-parter with a lot of the nonsense cut out.

My Ratings: Episode 1 - 8/10, Episode 2 - 5.5/10, Episode 3 - 3.5/10, Episode 4 - 5.5/10

Overall: 5.63/10

Don't hurt me, please.

[wetmars · 1/10 · 25 September 2020]

The travellers arrive in a strange domain presided over by the Celestial Toymaker - an enigmatic, immortal entity who forces them to play a series of games, failure at which will render them his playthings for all eternity.

Review of 4 parts -

I feel so bad rating this a one. The Celestial Toymaker is such a iconic memorable villain of Doctor Who, and yes, I agree with that. I just... didn't like the nonsense that was totally everywhere in this story, it's very hard to explain it in words which prevents me from writing this review. *sigh*

1/10...