The Giggle

303 – "The Giggle"
Doctor Who episode
Promotional poster
Cast
Doctor David Tennant – Fourteenth Doctor
Companion Catherine Tate – Donna Noble
Others Charlie De Melo – Charles Banerjee Neil Patrick Harris – The Toymaker John Mackay – John Logie Baird Ross Gurney-Randall – Middle Aged Man Alexander Devrient – Colonel Ibrahim Ruth Madeley – Shirley Bingham Jemma Redgrave – Kate Lethbridge-Stewart Bonnie Langford – Melanie Bush Glen Fox – Pilot Tim Hudson – Edward Lawn Bridges Aidan Cook – The Vlinx Nicholas Briggs – Voice of the Vlinx Lachele Carl – Trinity Wells Leigh Lothian – Voice of Stooky Sue Luke Featherston – The Toymaker Dance Double Karl Collins – Shaun Temple Jacqueline King – Sylvia Noble Yasmin Finney – Rose Noble Ncuti Gatwa – Fifteenth Doctor
Production
Directed by	Chanya Button
Written by	Russell T Davies
Script editor	Scott Handcock
Produced by	Vicki Delow
Executive producer(s)	Russell T Davies Julie Gardner Jane Tranter Joel Collins Phil Collinson
Music by	Murray Gold
Series	2023 specials
Running time	62 minutes
First broadcast	9 December 2023 (2023-12-09)
Chronology
← Preceded by "Wild Blue Yonder" Followed by → "The Church on Ruby Road"
List of Doctor Who episodes (2005–present)

"The Giggle" is the third and final of the 2023 60th anniversary specials of the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who, written by Russell T Davies, directed by Chanya Button and broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 9 December 2023. It features the final regular appearances of David Tennant as the Fourteenth Doctor and Catherine Tate as Donna Noble, introduces Ncuti Gatwa as the Fifteenth Doctor and guest stars Neil Patrick Harris as the Toymaker, a character last seen in The Celestial Toymaker (1966). The episode also features Jemma Redgrave and Bonnie Langford as UNIT commander Kate Lethbridge-Stewart and Mel Bush, respectively.

Set directly after the events of "Wild Blue Yonder", the episode sees the Doctor, Donna and UNIT confronting the return of the Doctor's old enemy, the Toymaker, who is behind a series of signals in a form of a "giggle" being transmitted, causing majority of the human race to go mad over their beliefs.

The episode was watched by 6.85 million viewers and received positive reviews from critics, who praised Harris' performance and the writing.

Plot

The Doctor and Donna are taken by UNIT to its headquarters, as the world's population has gone violent. The Doctor is reunited with Shirley, head of UNIT Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, and former companion and friend Melanie Bush. The Doctor determines the cause of the violence is a giggle from a Stooky Bill video from 1925, which John Logie Baird had recorded to demonstrate his invention, television.

The Doctor and Donna travel to 1925 and discover that the Toymaker had sold Stooky Bill to Baird's assistant. The Toymaker traps the two in his domain and reveals he transmitted the signal to make humanity play a never-ending game of debate, by making all of their opinions supreme and causing them to go violent if they're proven wrong. The Doctor and the Toymaker play a game of cards, with the latter winning. However, the Doctor states that since he won the last game, they are tied.^[a] The Toymaker resolves to have one final game with him and transports himself to the present day, with the Doctor and Donna in pursuit.

The Toymaker attacks UNIT before taking control of a laser cannon. He reasons that since he faced separate incarnations of the Doctor for each game, he must face another, and mortally injures the Doctor with the beam, triggering his regeneration. However, to everyone's surprise, the Doctor instead splits into two incarnations via "bigeneration". Both the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Doctors challenge the Toymaker to a basic game of catch. The Doctors emerge victorious and the Toymaker is banished from existence and sealed in a box, which is then confiscated by UNIT.

Aboard the TARDIS, the Fifteenth Doctor advises his predecessor to recover from the extensive traumas that his past incarnations have accumulated across their lives. Donna suggests to the Fourteenth Doctor that his old face returned because, subconsciously, he is emotionally exhausted and needs to deal with these traumas. She invites him to consider retiring from travelling and staying with her and her family, but the Doctor signals his intention to not leave the TARDIS behind. The Fifteenth Doctor, realising that the Toymaker's rules of play still apply – that when one wins a contest, one gets a prize – uses a mallet from within the TARDIS to create a second identical TARDIS, which he departs in. The Fourteenth Doctor settles down with Donna and her family, while the Fifteenth Doctor travels the universe.

Continuity

The Toymaker taunts the Doctor by reminding him of the unfortunate fates of three of his companions: Amy Pond, Clara Oswald and Bill Potts, all of whom he met after leaving Donna behind. He responds to the Doctor's attempts to explain the nuances of each woman's departure with a dismissive "Well, that's all right, then!"^[1]

An unknown hand picks up the Toymaker's gold tooth, which contains the Master. This is similar to a scene in the third series finale "Last of the Time Lords" (2007), where the Master's ring is picked up by an unknown hand after his death.^[2]

Production

David Tennant and Catherine Tate returned to the series as part of the 60th anniversary specials.^[3] Tennant stars as the Fourteenth Doctor while Tate reprised her role as Donna Noble.^[4] Ncuti Gatwa made his first appearance as the Fifteenth Doctor. Neil Patrick Harris portrayed the Toymaker, a character last seen in The Celestial Toymaker (1966), then portrayed by Michael Gough.^[5][6] Chanya Button directed the episode.^[7] Filming for the specials commenced in May 2022, and wrapped at the end of July 2022.^[8] Due to failing health, Bernard Cribbins' role as Wilfred Mott was reduced, however, he was able to film one last appearance for the ending of "Wild Blue Yonder", his final performance before his death on 27 July 2022, one day after production for the specials wrapped.^[9][10] An uncredited double stood in as Wilfred for "The Giggle", which featured usage of an archival audio recording of Cribbins from "The Poison Sky" (2008).^[11]

Broadcast and reception

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Rotten Tomatoes (Tomatometer)	100%[12]
Review scores
Source	Rating
Empire	[13]
The Independent	[14]
The Guardian	[15]
The Daily Telegraph	[16]
the i	[17]

Broadcast

"The Giggle" was broadcast on 9 December 2023 as the third and final of the three 2023 specials, filmed for the 60th anniversary of Doctor Who.^[18]

Ratings

"The Giggle" was watched by 4.62 million viewers overnight, and had an Appreciation Index score of 85.^[19] It was the third most watched programme of the day.^[20] The consolidated ratings figures for the episode were 6.85 million viewers, making it the tenth most watched programme of the week behind episodes of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! and Strictly Come Dancing.^[21]

Critical reception

The special received positive reviews, with praise for Harris' performance and the writing.^{[15][22][14][23]} On Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator website, 100% of 7 critics gave "The Giggle" a positive review. The site's consensus reads "Capping off David Tennant's encore run, 'The Giggle' puts a twist on Doctor Who's regenerative conceit and gives fans the best of both worlds."^[12]

The bigeneration polarised fans, with some praising it as an interesting concept, while others felt it would undermine Gatwa's role as the Fifteenth Doctor in the upcoming fourteenth series.^{[24][25][26][27]} In 2024, the scene was nominated for a BAFTA award for most memorable TV moment.^[28]

Home media

"The Giggle", along with the other two specials "The Star Beast" and "Wild Blue Yonder", were released on home media on 18 December 2023.^[29]

In print

A novelisation of the episode, written by James Goss, was released as an eBook 14 December 2023^[30] and was released in paperback on 11 January 2024 as part of the Target Collection^[31][32] and as an audiobook read by Dan Starkey on 1 February 2024.^[33]

Notes

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to Fourteenth Doctor.

• "The Giggle" at BBC Online
• "The Giggle" at the Doctor Who Stories Website
• "The Giggle" on Tardis Wiki, the Doctor Who Wiki
• "The Giggle" at IMDb