Doctor Who Recap: Strings Attached

Here’s the thing about Doctor Who: every showrunner understandably wants a new, interesting arc for a new, interesting Doctor. But with a series that’s been running for this long, building upon the existing canon becomes more complicated. Ideas get wilder. Case in point: instead of regenerating into his next self, “The Giggle” has the Doctor bi-generating, an unprecedented act that certainly raises some timey-wimey questions. So it doesn’t feel like a coincidence that this episode’s villain is the Toymaker, who we’re told transcends the universe’s laws and logic. He hails from a realm where science is a game, but that salt trick apparently blurred the lines of reality enough for him to come here. Just to go on this adventure, we’re being asked to say, “Well, that’s alright then!” and suspend at least some of our sense of disbelief.

Last week’s episode ended with present-day Earth engulfed in violence and chaos. As it turns out, the first image transmitted on TV, a doll named Stooky Bill, burned a giggle into humanity’s brains. After a satellite became the final link that put the entire world online and in front of screens, Stooky Bill’s musical laugh activated to convince all humans that they’re never wrong or accountable to anyone else. Well, almost all humans — as Kate Lethbridge-Stewart demonstrates at UNIT’s headquarters, a piece of wearable tech called a Zeedex can calm the brain waves that create that unpleasant mindset. Traveling on the TARDIS also seems to have put companions like Donna and Melanie (!!!) out of sync, so they’re immune. But Earth’s leaders have all been affected. Fourteen steps in to give UNIT permission to shoot the satellite down with the Galvanic Beam.

Thanks to Shirley’s quick sleuthing, the Doctor and Donna know to take the TARDIS to 1925 to the Soho store where Stooky Bill was purchased. The shop owner who has been pulling the strings? None other than the Toymaker, who made on-screen debut with the First Doctor in 1966. This time, instead of Chinese garments, he’s put on some atrocious European accents. Despite apparently having no knowledge of Doctor Who before being cast, Neil Patrick Harris nails the theatrical absurdity of this classic-era villain. As the Toymaker, he brings the Doctor and Donna into his so-called domain of play, splitting them up and respectively taunting them with a human-turned-puppet and rhyming dolls. (It’s a shame the Toymaker is obsessed with such twisted games. Why couldn’t it have been, like, Animal Crossing or Wii Bowling?)

The Doctor and Donna are ultimately reunited when the Toymaker decides to come for my job and do a Doctor Who recap. Through a puppet show, he retells the fates of some of the Doctor’s past companions, with Fourteen trying to justify aspects of each death. A mention of the Flux pushes the Doctor to challenge the Toymaker to a game of cut — highest card wins. The Doctor draws an eight, which gives him an equal chance at winning and losing, but the Toymaker gets a king. However, since the First Doctor previously defeated the Toymaker, Fourteen can invoke an “inviolable rule” in games: best of three.

The final match takes place back in 2023. UNIT is introduced to the Toymaker through an unhinged dance sequence to “Spice Up Your Life.” He turns bullets into rose petals, kills people by turning them into bouncing balls, and sends Mel and Kate spinning like tops. The Toymaker turns down an invitation to join the Doctor as a companion. He doesn’t want to leave the “ultimate playground” that is humanity. He also decides that since he faced different Doctors for the past two games, he should get a new Doctor again and abruptly skewers Fourteen with the Galvanic Beam. The first time this Doctor’s face was about to regenerate, he said he didn’t want to go. This time, he says the opposite: allons-y. Let’s go.

We’re about to see David Tennant disappear again. Except … no, we’re not. Ncuti Gatwa’s Fifteen splits off of Fourteen’s still-intact body. (That salt trick is doing a lot of heavy lifting, as it is apparently also the reason that the Time Lord myth of bi-generation is now possible.) Everyone is shook. Meanwhile, Donna acknowledges that this new Doctor is Black by asking, “Do you come in a range of colors?” Ma’am! Anyway, Mel tells Fifteen he’s beautiful. Gatwa’s version of the Doctor exudes so much charisma that it takes me a couple of minutes to even notice that he is running around in his underwear.

The Toymaker — who, mind you, is an elemental force powerful enough to shrink the guardians of time and space into voodoo dolls and seal the Master into a golden tooth — is ultimately defeated in a two vs. one game of catch with the Doctors. Um … okay! As a winner, Fourteen declares his prize is that the immortal Toymaker will be banished “from existence forever.” He’s still feeling a little down about the people who died before he could box up the Toymaker, though. In a cute heart-to-heart (hearts-to-heart?), Fifteen comforts his younger self and even gives him a tender forehead kiss. The pair head back into the TARDIS with Donna.

To quote Azealia Banks: so, what now? Fourteen seems to think the show might be about to turn into Doctors Who. But while there are technically two Doctors, only one of them has the capacity to keep being the Doctor. Earlier in the episode, Fourteen was questioning himself: “I’m all sonic and TARDIS and Time Lord. Take that away, take away the toys … What am I? What am I now?” The Doctor has always been the one who runs around the universe, trying to save as many people as possible from suffering while doing so. But Fourteen has too much unprocessed trauma to take care of the universe. He needs to stop and take care of himself first. It’s a good thing he’s an alien whose body is suddenly able to split in two, with one part reaping the benefits of any healing his past self goes on to do. “I’m fine because you fix yourself,” Fifteen explains. “We’re Time Lords. We’re doing rehab out of order.”

As an added bonus, Fourteen doesn’t even have to give up the TARDIS. Since Fifteen also won the ball game, he gets a prize, too. He bonks the TARDIS to create a wheelchair-accessible, jukebox-equipped duplicate and changes the lights to the same orange color the UNIT’s building turned during the Toymaker’s big musical number. Hey, the domain of play was active during his bi-generation. All signs point to this Doctor being a bit more playful.

Meanwhile, Fourteen gets to focus on feeling better and living a normal life — ”the one adventure you’ve never had,” as Donna says. Sure, he might sneak over to Mars to be a cool uncle every now and then, but he’s clearly focused on his happiness on Earth. There’s a little full-circle moment here. The episode started by separating a family, with John Logie Baird’s assistant taking Stooky Bill away from his wife and three “babbies.” It ends by bringing a family together, with Fourteen and orphan Mel joining Donna and her relatives for dinner.

The past has been catching up to the Doctor for a long time. It would’ve felt jarring to transition straight from a post-Flux Thirteen into this Fifteen. Fourteen and the concept of bi-generation are an attempt to honor the pain that the Doctor has been through while still allowing Russell T Davies to reset for a fresh start. It’s almost as if the showrunner was speaking through Fifteen when he sends Fourteen off with a salute and the parting words, “Kid, I love you. Get out.”

Cut for Time (Lord)

• This episode leaves us with some intriguing loose threads. We don’t know whose painted nails picked up the gold tooth The Master was sealed in. (And that camera angle was strange!) The Toymaker warned the Doctor that his “legions” are coming, and also alluded to running from “the one who waits.” Meanwhile, the Meep referenced an unnamed boss…

• The social commentary is not subtle. The Doctor monologues about humanity’s worst impulses and the dangers of everyone thinking they’re right, Trinity Wells spouts conspiracy theories and declares that she’s anti-vax and anti-Zeedex, and the Toymaker talks about shouting and typing and canceling being part of “the game of the 21st century.” It’s almost too direct, but perhaps that’s just how obvious you need to be if you’re trying to reach the demographic being criticized.

• Justice for Martha! Rose Tyler got to stay with a version of the Doctor in an alternate universe, and Donna got a version of the Doctor and a cushy job offer at UNIT. Yes, one could argue that Martha’s whole arc is about learning that she doesn’t need the Doctor, but come on. This episode is packed with callbacks, from Logopolis to Sabalom Glitz’s cause of death. Martha saved the world; couldn’t she get a little shoutout or invite to one of Donna’s family dinners?

• In episode commentary, RTD floated the idea that the Doctor’s entire timeline bi-generated. I can’t say I really understand what the full consequences of that would be, though I do see the potential tie-ins to the Curator and Tales of the TARDIS.

• It feels like we’re being pitched a UNIT spin-off with Kate, Shirley, Donna, and Mel. I don’t know that I need it to happen, but if it does, I’d love to see more of the Vlinx (voiced by Nicholas Briggs, who voiced the Daleks and Cybermen).