I hate ventriloquist dummies. They completely and utterly creep me out, and when the Matt Smith episode, ”The God Complex”, showed up with a large room of them, that was my behind the sofa moment.

I never hated wooden puppets until I saw the latest Doctor Who 2023 special, “The Giggle”. Now I’m going to have to add them to the creep me out list as well.

Oh and by the way, major spoilers coming. If you haven’t seen the episode, turn away now.

Soho, 1925. A date and a place most people are unaware of, but without which, we would not be able to view Doctor Who worldwide. It is here we are introduced to our villain, a First Doctor enemy called, “The Celestial Toymaker”, played by the incomparable Neil Patrick Harris. Masquerading as a German toy maker (with a really bad accent), he sells a wooden puppet now famously known as “Stooky Bill” to an associate of the man who invented the first television, John Logie Baird. We are witness to this puppet becoming the first moving picture on a prototype television screen.

Fast forwarding to present day, continuing his second lease on regeneration, the once 10th, now 14th Doctor, David Tennant and Catherine Tate as Donna Noble, return from the end of the known universe to Donna’s home, only to discover everyone around them is possessed of self-righteous fits of indignation, anger and violence, turning the streets into a riot-torn chaos while above, a commercial airplane makes a deadly landing at an airport without clearance because the pilot wants to land wherever the heck he wants. The Doctor and Donna are summoned to UNIT to troubleshoot the crisis which has plunged not only London, but the entire world into complete and utter chaos.

And it’s a good thing the Doctor is there because every world leader (except him) has also been affected by the spread of this self-righteous anger, making them incapable of giving the order for UNIT to take out a Korean satellite suspected of spreading a subliminal anger-inducing trigger the Toymaker has inserted into all screens across the world whether they be by television, monitor or mobile phone. So with the worldwide lock down of every government’s missiles, the former President of Earth, our Doctor, gives to go ahead to shoot down the satellite.

Neil Patrick Harris is a joy to watch as he latches on to the Godlike being with reckless abandon, frowning like a petulant child when the Doctor forces him to adhere to his own rules of play while turning them to the Timelord’s advantage. One minute the Toymaker is dancing to “Spice Up Your Life” while turning UNIT’s bullets into rose petals and the next he has his finger on the trigger of the satellite-destroying galvanic beam weapon, threatening to unleash it on UNIT personnel if he is not allowed to have his audience to his deadly game play.

What I wasn’t prepared for was the Doctor’s regeneration into the new 15th Doctor, Ncuti Gatwa…or “bi-generation”, which the newest Timelord admits, “isn’t a thing” but apparently is now. Just when you think you’ve seen every possible way a Time Lord can regenerate, you’re still not prepared for the literal splitting in half of the Tennant Doctor (like a wishbone) as his companions pull on each arm to bring Number 15 into existence.

And the unspoken question most likely on everyone’s mind is if the 15th Doctor came into existence in only his underwear, does that mean the Tennant Doctor is suddenly going commando?

After the Timelord Duo deal with the Toymaker, there is the strange and awkwardly lingering presence of the 10/14 Doctor to be addressed. We get the answer to why the Doctor came back with that particular face, both Doctors get a Tardis and Tennant inherits a new human family. With this he realizes what he has been fighting for since his first incarnation – the chance to have a family, living in peace and more importantly, he gets to rest at last.

Special Bonus – two peeks at the 2023 Christmas special.

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