Another day, another story in which William Hartnell is written out of the story after the first episode, not to return until the fourth. This time around, with The Celestial Toymaker, the plan was in place to fire him and replace him with a new actor. Somehow he managed a stay of execution, for at least a few more stories, so he will return with tomorrow's viewing. But then there's a whole other bit of drama there that I will go into tomorrow. But as for today's viewing, I was hoping for something a little bit gonzo and imaginative. Instead, I got something dull and predictable.

Let's talk about that.

The Celestial Toyroom / The Hall of Dolls

(TARDIS Data Core recap)

There are so many things going on behind the scenes in this story, all of them detracting from its final execution. Of course there were the temperamental issues with William Hartnell. In addition, there was a new series producer - Innes Lord - and a new production team, both taking over from pre-production work that had already been done by the previous producer and team. On top of that, the previous story (The Ark) had gone over budget, which forced this story to use minimalist set designs in order to cut costs.

On the upside, Innes Lloyd was much more liberal in terms of the costuming choices for the female cast. As such, this story contains the first instance of a female companion wearing a miniskirt. When Dodo enters the first scene, she is wearing a skirt with a hemline well above the knees and a sleeveless/collarless shirt with a prominent "O" right at the front. Actress Jackie Lane was 19 years old at the time, so I don't think it is completely creepy for me to have noticed that, much like Annette Funicello in her Mickey Mouse Club days, the lettering was noticeably closer to the camera  than the rest of the shirt. After hating her so much in the last story, who knew that all she needed to do to get me to warm up to her was just show more skin. So I guess I'm shallow and creepy.

Today I learned that Jackie Lane was the original Doctor Who "Dad Candy"

As for the story, such as it is: The TARDIS materializes inside the Celestial Toyroom, the Doctor is turned invisible and immaterial (what is it this season with invisibility?) and forced to play a logic game while Steven and Dodo are forced to play a series of other games and puzzles. The Doctor alludes to some previous encounter with the Celestial Toymaker, describing him as "an evil force", but no detailed explanation is ever given for why the Toymaker is able to do the things he does. Presumably he is some kind of god? I don't know. But the games don't make any damn sense.

For starters, the Doctor is forced to play a game called The Trilogic Game. The implication is that it is an extremely difficult, if not impossible, puzzle -- one that will tax the Doctor's mind to its limits. But really all it is is a rendition of The Tower of Hanoi, in which you have a stack of progressively smaller pieces. The goal is to move the entire stack from its starting position to a finish position by only moving one piece at a time, and never placing a larger piece on top of a smaller piece. I personally solved this puzzle when I was eight years old. I am not saying that to brag, but rather quite the opposite -- this is a puzzle that any moderately bright child can solve in an afternoon. It is certainly not something that would cause the Doctor to even wrinkle his brow.

There's an interesting side story about the puzzle set piece built for the episode, though. Apparently actor Peter Purves was allowed to keep it after the production completed, and he took it home as a kind of treasure. Unfortunately, not long afterward he himself was let go from the series. After eighteen months of unemployment as an actor, he finally sold the puzzle in order to pay the bills. Almost immediately afterward, he finally got a new job as one of the main presenters on the popular children's show Blue Peter where he worked successfully for over a decade. He figures that puzzle was bad luck, and he was fortunate to get rid of it.

In any case, while the Doctor is made invisible and silent and playing his simple logic game, Steven and Dodo are first forced to compete against a pair of clowns in an obstacle course, and then to play a logic puzzle against the King and Queen of Hearts in which they have to figure out which of seven chairs is safe to sit in. Shockingly, they win both games and are set to proceed to a new set of games in the next episode. Whoopie.

So there you go, a pair of episodes where behind-the-scenes stuff is infinitely more interesting than the writing or acting. Go figure. Just wait until the big drama with tomorrow's episodes...

STATS:

Doctor(s): First
Companion(s): Steven Taylor, Dodo Chaplet
Episode(s): The Celestial Toyroom / The Hall of Dolls
Steps Walked: 6,706 today, 385,753 total
Distance Walked:  3.36 miles today, 178.94 miles total
Weight: 288.20 lbs (five day moving average), net change -19.10 lbs