*Spoilers, spoilers, spoilers.*
We’re a little bit out from “The Giggle” by now, and we’ve gotten our first full story with Fifteen beyond the regeneration. So I’m not quite as caught up in the whirlwind of it as I was after it first aired, but I’ve watched the episode again since then and I still have plenty of thoughts on it.
First, let’s talk about the Toymaker. This story does a good job of showing why he’s a big deal while also balancing his odd mix of creep factor and outright silliness. I love when the Doctor confronts him, shouting, “I don’t understand why you’re so small! You can turn bullets into flowers! Think of the good you could do.” He’s very rattled by the Toymaker, because his realm is governed by rules the Doctor can’t grasp, and Donna is shook when he tries to get her to leave his side and go back to the TARDIS—it makes her realize just how serious this is.
And Neil Patrick Harris covers all these different sides in his performance as the Toymaker. Like I said in my review, he seems to be channeling his Count Olaf a bit, complete with over-the-top hammy accents, but he’s really good at switching off the absurdity to suddenly go cold and menacing. I liked his whole speech about all he’s done, especially the line, “I gambled with God and turned Him into a jack-in-the-box.”
The Doctor and Donna remain magnificent throughout, as they have across all the specials. I can’t say enough about what a wonderful choice it was to revisit Donna’s ending and bring her and the Doctor back together. In this episode, as the Doctor frets that the odds are against him with the Toymaker this time around, I love the advice Donna shares with him: “My dad used to say, dice don’t know what the dice did last time. Games don’t have a memory. Every game starts from scratch.” And her, and Mel, refusing to leave the Doctor’s side as he’s about to regenerate, is simply lovely. Mel puts it beautifully, saying, “You’re gonna be someone else. It doesn’t matter who, ‘cause every single one of you is fantastic.”
Which, of course, leads us to the bigeneration. The nervous-geek part of my brain gets a little edgy about it, because it’s such a radical introduction of new canon, but from a character perspective, I kind of love it. Fifteen pushing himself out of Fourteen makes for an interesting visual, and I love the detail that, after the bigeneration, each of them is wearing half of Fourteen’s outfit. How can you not love Fifteen out here as a newborn Doctor saving the world in his underwear?
Ncuti Gatwa establishes himself instantly. I’ve seen complaints that the bigeneration undermines Fifteen’s entrance, that he’s overshadowed by Fourteen sticking around, but I don’t feel that way at all. Fifteen is confident, playful, and caring. I love that he instantly feels so much older and more settled than Fourteen, guiding him through their separation and just holding his predecessor when Fourteen is overwhelmed by not having been able to save everyone. And of course, he’s the one to realize that Fourteen needs to rest and recover from all their cumulative trauma, staying with Donna while Fifteen goes off into the universe. His speech of everything they’ve experienced, all the heavy things they’ve kept on running through, is excellent. This line especially stands out to me: “We fought the gods of Ragnarok, and we didn’t stop for a second to say, ‘What the hell?’”
Multi-Doctor specials are usually characterized by a lot of sniping and bickering, because different Doctors always seem to get on each other’s nerves—evidently, it’s only when they’re together that they realize they’re a lot to handle! But this encounter is different than any multi-Doctor interaction we’ve gotten before. Seeing Fourteen receive the love and support he can only fully get from himself, because they’re the only ones who truly know what it’s like to be them, is gorgeous. This might be one of my favorite new Doctor introductions of all time, so well done!
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