The Celestial Toymaker
| 024 – The Celestial Toymaker | |||||
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| Doctor Who serial | |||||
The Celestial Toymaker
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| Cast | |||||
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Others
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| Production | |||||
| Directed by | Bill Sellars | ||||
| Written by |
Brian Hayles Donald Tosh |
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| Script editor | Gerry Davis | ||||
| Produced by | Innes Lloyd | ||||
| Executive producer(s) | None | ||||
| Incidental music composer | Dudley Simpson | ||||
| Production code | Y | ||||
| Series | Season 3 | ||||
| Length | 4 episodes, 25 minutes each | ||||
| Episode(s) missing | 3 episodes (1-3) | ||||
| Date started | 2 April 1966 | ||||
| Date ended | 23 April 1966 | ||||
| Chronology | |||||
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| Author | Gerry Davis and Alison Bingeman |
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| Cover artist | Graham Potts |
| Series |
Doctor Who book: Target novelisations |
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Release number
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111 |
| Publisher | Target Books |
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Publication date
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June 1986 (Hardback) 20 November 1986 (Paperback) |
| ISBN | |
The Celestial Toymaker is the mostly missing sixth story of the third season in the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who. In it the Doctor and his companions are pitted against a powerful adversary called the Celestial Toymaker. He separates the Doctor from his companions, and all are forced to win a series of games before they can be reunited and return to the TARDIS.
It was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 2 to 23 April 1966. Only the last episode of this story, "The Final Test", is held in the BBC archives; the other three remain missing. "The Final Test" has been released on VHS and DVD, and the story has been novelised.
An alien intelligence has invaded the TARDIS and rendered the First Doctor invisible, leaving Dodo Chaplet and Steven Taylor incredulous. They step outside into a strange realm where the Doctor reappears. They have come to the realm of the Celestial Toymaker, an eternal being of infinite power who sets games and traps for the unwary so that they become his playthings. The Doctor and the Toymaker have faced each other before, and the Toymaker abducts his old adversary to another place. The Doctor appears in the Toymaker’s study, where he is given the Trilogic game, a ten-piece Tower of Hanoi puzzle whose pieces must all be moved and remounted in a 1023-move sequence.
Steven and Dodo face different challenges. The first are two clowns, Joey and Clara, full of childish tricks and a dangerous game of Blind Man's Bluff. The clowns are made to replay the game when it is clear they are cheating, and the second time round Joey loses his footing on an obstacle course and the challengers are transformed into twisted dolls on the floor. Steven and Dodo then venture down a corridor into another chamber with three chairs and a challenge from living playing cards, the King and Queen of Hearts, along with a Knave and a Joker. An adjoining room has a further four chairs, and Steven deduces that six of the seven chairs are deadly to sit on. Seven mannequins are provided to be used for testing on the chairs. The King and Queen play alongside them, and some of the mannequins are destroyed as seats are proven unsafe and eliminated. The King and Queen are trapped when they sit in a chair which folds in on them.
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Wikipedia