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Doctor Who, The Giggle

Doctor Who, The Giggle

Last updated on: December 10, 2023 at 7:06 am by James F. McGrath

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Doctor Who, The Giggle 2023-12-10T07:06:45-05:00 James F. McGrath

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The Giggle is a lot of things, as far as Doctor Who episodes go. I suppose the reason Russell T. Davies cautioned about children watching is precisely that this is an episode that sounds lighthearted and comical because of its title, yet is anything but. The episode takes children’s toys and makes them creepy and menacing, but that’s been true in the past. I’m not sure there’s anything in it that justified more caution than in general. Before watching, I definitely recommend reviewing the episode The Celestial Toymaker. I wanted to say that before going on to give a spoiler warning.

Neil Patrick Harris does a good job, I think, of bringing the character of the Toymaker back. I revisited that classic episode in preparation for watching this one and it seems that there’s probably still more to explore in terms of the Doctor’s connection with the Toymaker. There’s a need for an exploration of how the Doctor first met the Toymaker.

This episode talks about gods and even God more than other episodes, and that’s saying a lot. Doctor Who began as a show to introduce children to history, and this episode continues that legacy, but with a typical Doctor Who twist. The story features Scottish inventor John Logie Baird who first demonstrates television technology using a puppet.

When he utters the line “May God go with us” it seems a somber choice of phrase for the occasion, but it proves to be utterly appropriate both in hinting at the prominence of religious themes in the episode and in portending what will follow. To make a long story short, where the previous episode left off, with chaos breaking out in our time, was due to everyone suddenly being sure they were right and refusing to be told otherwise. It might just be human nature at work, and Kate Stewart asks how they can possibly “fight the human race”, but the worldwide phenomenon indicates something more is going on. It was delightful to see Melanie return.

The episode posits that the Toymaker’s puppet, provided for appearance on the first instance of television, offered a signal in the form of a laugh, a giggle, that is now causing this effect. Later we have this referred to as “The game of the 21st century. Everyone wins and everyone loses.” The show thus offers commentary on the current state of our world, since the dystopia caused by malevolent being is simply where we are headed anyway, taken to an extreme that one hopes might prompt viewers to reflect on the spirit of our age in which more and more people seem determined to pretend they can be certain about anything and everything, and couple it with a dangerous uncompromising arrogance.

The Doctor says that he “Played a game at the end of the universe and let him in,” also refers to him having the “power of a god.” The Toymaker refers to his past games, including with the Master who lost and was then turned into the Toymaker’s gold tooth. He played against the guardians of time and space. The most interesting boast is when he says “I gambled with God and made him a Jack in the Box.” The unqualified reference to “God” is obviously supposed to denote the God of our universe, which means that really we’re talking about a god, a contingent entity among others. There’s much to unpack here, including the reference to that God as just one powerful being among many. Being turned into a Jack in the Box could perhaps envisage the deity being trapped until someone turns the lever and allows him to briefly pop out and make an appearance before returning to repeat this pattern. If the lever is prayer and perhaps other invocations, what we have here is a poignant depiction of what many religious believers have done with God: turned him (usually it is indeed “him”) into a Jack in the Box, a genie released from a lamp when they wish but safely tucked away otherwise. The fact that such an entity cannot be the ultimate reality is made clear through this, and so the episode can foster serious theological discussion.

While possibly not a reference to the Ultimate, there is a hint that there is still some more powerful force or reality that the Toymaker has not faced.

TOYMAKER: There’s only one player I didn’t face. The one who waits.
DOCTOR: What do you mean?
TOYMAKER: That’s someone else’s game.

Doctor Who has had a wonderful tradition of throwing in such tantalizing lines, with them perhaps being revisited and unpacked decades later. I hope this will be used in that way and is not a set-up to a season-long theme that will then end with a quick and perhaps unsatisfying resolution.

I did try to imagine the Toymaker encountered by the Doctor in the William Hartnell era dancing to music by the Spice Girls.

The Doctor asks at one point what is I think the most crucial question one can ask any supposed deity or concept of the divine: A being who can turn bullets into balloons has the potential to do much good, to prevent suffering rather than cause it by playing games with lesser beings. “Why be so small?” The god of many people’s theology is small, petty, and mean in ways that don’t even match the best humanity is capable of, never mind point beyond it to transcendence.

The Toymaker’s appearance as the foe in this episode offers lots of other opportunities to explore the Doctor’s life through the lens of games and toys. The Doctor asks at one point, “Take away the toys and what am I?” He also says the odds are against them because he beat the Toymaker previously, which leads Donna to object, adding that her Grandfather used to say, “Dice don’t know what the dice did last time. Every game starts from scratch.”

The biggest surprise in the episode is that the Doctor bi-generates – something that was thought to be just a myth. The new Doctor emerges while the previous remains. I suppose we would have to presume that the Doctor in fact regenerates into two separate instances of the Doctor, rather than the old remaining, although perhaps we could posit that the regeneration energy heals the current as well as producing the new. Either way, some suspect that Russell may be planning to expand Doctor Who so that there are more of the Doctor and more storylines to tell with more actors. That’s something of a gamble. Doctor Who has delighted for decades at the filling in of stories about other adventures by past regenerations in the form of comics, audiobooks, and mini-episodes. If Davies is planning to make Doctor Who movies, this would be one way to do it without it interrupting or distracting too much from the flow of the television series.

Ultimately the Doctor(s) challenge the Toymaker to one final game, the first game ever, the ball, catch. You drop it you lose. (Brief pause to recall the relevant episode of FRIENDS.) When the Doctor wins, he says “My prize is to banish you from existence for ever.” The Toymaker folds up into a box, and Kate Stewart gives UNIT personnel an order that points back to the game the Doctor played that invited the Toymaker in in the first place: “Take it to the deepest vault and bind it in salt.” Superstition and magic also treat the universe as a place that functions according to game mechanics.

Someone picked up gold tooth in which the Master had been captured, which was a nice touch, reminiscent of when the same was done with the ring the Master wore.

The episode doesn’t conclude before discussing and questioning the rules of the game the Doctor plays, the game all would-be saviors and healers play. When the new Doctor says to the old, “You can’t save everyone,” the response is “Why not?” The answer of course is that the universe is a place in which there is order and randomness, many actions of free entities which may be susceptible to being stopped, but it remains the case that within this universe’s functioning lives will end tragically and not all players can win all the time. The show had already made the point well that when one being tries to be the constant winner everyone else suffers, and when we all try to win all the time then everyone loses.

So why play? The show asks that directly: “We fought the gods of Ragnarok and never stopped to ask…” What’s the point of combatting these evils and taking upon oneself the burden of not having managed to save everyone? The new Doctor has found peace precisely because the old will now slow down, stop running, and work through these things. “We’re doing rehab out of order,” he says. Donna adds, “You regenerated with that face and found me. Know why?” The Doctor still doesn’t, so she explains: “To come home.”

Thanks to the “lingering game” of the Toymaker’s influence they split the TARDIS so each has one. The new one is finally wheelchair accessible, and it also has a jukebox.

The Doctor portrayed by David Tennant ends up with a family, an honorary uncle. Having a meal together he tells a funny story about a world in which they communicate with eyebrows. We also find out that the Doctor still takes them on short hops through time and space.

Donna pulls him aside and they have an exchange that includes these words:

DONNA: You don’t have to stay forever.
DOCTOR: We’ll see.
DONNA: Do you miss it?
DOCTOR: I fought all those battles, finally know what for…I’ve never been so happy in my life.

This was a good message to end with. What is the point of arguing with people on the internet? What is the point of arguing with your spouse, your relatives, at the dinner table? What is the point of trying to be first in that line of cars, of trying to get there faster by taking risks when everyone else on the road is in the same situation, and together you are all creating the situation? The episode poignantly reminds us that we aren’t stuck in traffic, we are traffic, that we can spend time arguing online because of our concern that people filled with hate are fostering and spreading it, only to become hateful ourselves. How do we play the game without becoming the problem ourselves? The answer is not to try to fight against the human race, against human nature. The answer is to stop, to slow down, put it aside, let it go, and enjoy friendship, tell stories, share a meal, and experience the joy and happiness that only come through connection with other human beings, with the universe as a whole, and thereby with the ultimate. Too many are filled with hate for their hateful enemies, not recognizing in themselves the mirror image of their opponents. Too many risk leaving their family bereaved by driving recklessly to get home to them, then arriving angry and irritable and hurting those that they were rushing to be with. The Doctor isn’t the only one who was at risk of forgetting the point of it all, the things that provide the only reason for trying to save the universe. Saving the universe is important in those moments when the need and opportunity arises. Savoring the universe, enjoying life, is not only something to do in brief breathers in between adventures. It is the point of it all. At this time when many have holidays, take advice from the Doctor and take a moment to slow down. Just be in the moment with others. Give them your full attention. If you’re someone who is trying to fight the good fight, to make good trouble, then please also make sure you make time to be good and savor what is good. Otherwise, you may end up merely fighting and making trouble in ways that undermine rather than foster goodness.

Thank you Doctor Who for this reminder of what it’s all for.

Next stop: DESTINATION CHRISTMAS.

What did you think of “The Giggle”? Did you notice and reflect on the prominence of gods in the episode, and if so were your thoughts similar to mine?

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