The Celestial Toymaker

The Celestial Toymaker is one of those extremely random serials which makes little sense. I have no idea who the Toymaker is supposed to be, how he accomplishes his evil deeds, what his motives are, or how he knows the Doctor. Nevertheless, I enjoyed this story immensely, despite it not making much sense. Basically, the Doctor is separated from Steven and Dodo, is made invisible and mute, and has to complete the Trilogic game (a board game) in exactly 1023 moves at a sufficient pace. Meanwhile, Steven and Dodo have to fight their way through a set of continuous games including Blind Man's Bluff, and Hunt the Thimble in order to win back the TARDIS.

These games don't sound so bad, but they're all scaled up to life-or-death experiences which makes it all the more interesting. The characters which Steven and Dodo play against are all pretty insane and interesting, especially Cyril the annoying and arrogant Schoolboy who makes up the rules as he goes along. You really share our heroes' annoyance for the character, and you want to push him on to the electrocuted floor (which he does himself in the end anyway, so it's not all bad).

The set design is unique, but suffers due to the show's budget. It could have been spectacular but turned out adequate only. The Doctor is again missed, but Steven and Dodo make up for that. The Toymaker is an interesting character although not much is revealed about him, and overall, this is one of my favourite Season Three serials so far.