Doctor Who Reactions: "The Giggle" (SPOILERS)

[The Baron]

1. "Stooky Bill" was a real thing, not aomething made up for the show.
2. "You must be used to sunnier climes." "I was born in Cheltenham." The Toymaker being an ethnic stereotype and a racist is a callback to the fact that the original Toymaker back in the 1966 story "The Celestial Toymaker" was played by  a white man (Michael Gough) who was dressed as a Chinese Mandarin, which would never go over today. According to the DVD extras, "Celestial" was an old British derogatory term for a Chinese person, which I had never heard.
3. "Everyone started thinking they're right all the toime..."  Ah, the Sledgehammer of Social Commentary.
4. "How do we fight the human race?" Sucker punch 'em!
5. "Melanie, hello!" I'm happy to see her, but I would not have picked Mel as a companion that they would bring  back from the old show.
6. "I wasn't the first redhead?" "No, that was me."  Turlough would like a word.
7. The Zeedex: "An invention of the Vlinx." OK.  
8. Watching Kate go  nuts was disturbing.
9. There's Trinity Wells again, haven't seen her in a while.
10. Good seeing Donna and Mel use their brains, figuring out what was going  on.
11. "If he burned himself into television itself..." This makes no  sense whatsoever, but I suppose having a cosmic being as your heel excuses it.
12. "I got a lift off a zingo and came back to Earth." Wasn't "Dragonfire" set far in the future?
13. "My family are all gone. Remember?" Owing to the screwy ending  of "The Trial of a Time Lord", we never saw the story where Mel officially "met" the Doctor on TV, but from what I recall, she was supposed to have met him during an adventure where the Master tried to corrupt the world's banking systems, so maybe he killed them all.
14. Donna gets herself hired to work for UNIT.
15. "Don't wait for me. Fire when ready." You've got a time machine, why wouldn't you wait and make sure that everything comes out alright?
16. "Donna, I'm  a billion years old. " Referencing "Heaven Sent".
17. "Ah, Tonna Noble. I wondered which one of you had ze balls."
18. "Donna, go back to the TARDIS." Not something you hear often.
19. Doogie's an interesting choice to play the Toymaker. It's stunt casting, but he's competent to play an "unreal" character like this.
20. "I played a game and let him in." RTD goes for the "magical thinking" too much for my taste.
21. "Dice don't know what the dice did last time."  Toymaker's dice might.
22. The Marionette Man was sufficiently creepy.
23. As were Stooky Sue and the Stooky Babbies.
24. "Hello, Stooky. My name's Donna. Now I think that you're a goner."  Donna frightens the monsters!
25. "OH, WELL, THAT'S ALRIGHT, THEN!"  Interesting commentary on the fates of the Moffat Era companions. Good thing all of Chibnall's "Fam" made it home safely.
26. "Is all of this true?" "I challenge you to a game." He don't like answering the hard questions, do he?
27. "I made a jigsaw out of your history. Did you like it?" RTD writing himself a "Get Out of Continuity Free" card.
28. "I sealed him for all eternity inside my gold tooth." I don't know as I'd store the Master inside my mouth.
29. "There's only one player I didn't dare face. The One Who Waits. That's someone else's game." Ncuti's, I imagine.
30. "I made every opinion supreme. That's the game of the Twenty-First Century." There's that sledgehammer, again.
31. The Toymaker can't cheat, but there's other ways to influence games than outright cheating.
32. "Best of three." "Then let's make  it 2023." OK.
33. "We're using Triad." Which I happen to know is a bit of foreshadowing.
34. The Spice Girls as a harbinger of doom. Interesting. Doogie's dance routine  is both goofy and creepy. The screaming ball is extra-creepy.
35. "Where are the staff?" "I think  they're still falling." Damn, that was cold.
36. "I have had many faces containing something far more." They both have.
37. "We can be...Celestial." Arishem?
38. "Handmaidens." I've read that this can mean "women who serve the patriarchy". Not sure if that's what's meant here.
39. "Because every single one of you is fantastic." A callback to Eccleston?
40. "Allons-y." And then a big anticlimax.
41. "It feels different this time." A callback to "The Caves of Androzani".
42. "What?" "What?" What?" Oh, dear God.
43. "Now, someone tell me what the Hell is going on!" How can he not know?
44. "Bi-generation." I'm not wild about this idea, but that's a separate rant that I may actually get around to posting sometime.
45. "My legions are coming." OK.
46. "Take it to the deepest vault and bind it in salt." Isn't that just playing things his way?
47. I don't know that I'd want to hug myself. It'd be weird.
48. The bit with the tooth is a callback to "Last of the nTime Lords".
49. There's a lot of callbacks that I'm too lazy to list, and then "Sarah Jane has gone. Can you  believe that?" "I loved her"  We all loved her.
50. "What if the Toymaker's domain is still lingerimng?" Yeah, OK, this is BS.
51. "This is completely nuts." Agreed.
52. "You weren't going to leave without saying goodbye, were you?" You know he was.
53. "Where's he going?" "Everywhere."
54. "This species only communicates with their eyebrows." A callback to "Spearhead from Space".
55. "The evil stepmother...and Mad Auntie Mel." Yeah,  he's gonna put up with this sh*t for a month or so, and then he's gonna take off.
56. "DESTINATION CHRISTMAS". OK.
57. "The Toymaker created by Brian Hayles". Good to see the old-timers being recognized.

Overall: An OK episode. I'm interested to see where they go with Gatwa.

 

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Ah, the Sledgehammer of Social Commentary.

Not untrue, though.

I would not have picked Mel as a companion that they would bring  back from the old show.

Well, we've already seen Tegan and Ace.

Watching Kate go  nuts was disturbing.

Jemma Redgrave played that very well.

Wasn't "Dragonfire" set far in the future?

After Mel stopped travelling with the Doctor on television, she later rejoined the Seventh Doctor and Ace for a second stint as companion on audio. I don't think any of their stories are referenced specifically in "The Giggle" (nor would I expect them to be), but the timeline Mel relates accounts for when they might have happened. I have listened to relatively few Seventh Doctor Big Finish stories.

Owing to the screwy ending  of "The Trial of a Time Lord", we never saw the story where Mel officially "met" the Doctor on TV

Big Finish came close to doing it on audio, but it ended up being a different situation entirely. Nevertheless, "The Wrong Doctors" is not only one of my favorite Sixth Doctor and Mel audios, it is also one my my favorite Big Finish productions overall. 

Doogie's an interesting choice to play the Toymaker.

I'm pleased RTD recast the part for TV. My response is turning into an "Ode to Big Finish," but they do that all the time: certain Doctors, the Monk, there's an audio-only version of the Master, etc.

The Marionette Man was sufficiently creepy... As were Stooky Sue and the Stooky Babies

Ranks right up there with the troll dolls animated by the Nesene Consciousness in "Terror of the Autons".

Interesting commentary on the fates of the Moffat Era companions. 

Hmm. I never thouight of it that way.

There's that sledgehammer, again.

Still not untrue.

I'm not wild about this idea...

The 60th on TV had "bi-generation"; on audio it was "degeneration."

...but that's a separate rant that I may actually get around to posting sometime.

...as I may get around to which Doctors "count" and which do not.

Yeah, OK, this is BS.

"BS" or "RTD"? ;)

I'm interested to see where they go with Gatwa.

So, when's the 14th season coming out on DVD?

[The Baron]

Don't know for sure when Gatwa's first season is due out  on DVD yet.

[The Baron]

Not untrue, though.

Not saying they were untrue, just perhaps a little unsubtle.