The Hall of Dolls (The Celestial Toymaker Episode 2)

The one where Dodo almost gets frozen to death...

As soon as the Toymaker made the Doctor both invisible and mute, I knew William Hartnell was off on his holidays again! It's a pretty blatant way to explain the absence of your leading man, and demonstrative of the contempt which producer John Wiles had for the argumentative Hartnell behind the scenes. Making the Doctor invisible was one of Wiles's ideas for changing the series' star, as he hoped that when the Doctor reappeared, he'd be played by another actor. Thankfully, Wiles's rather two-faced plan did not come to fruition, and we would enjoy another six months of Hartnell's twinkly magic.

The handful of lines the Doctor does have are delivered so dispassionately by Hartnell that it's obvious they were recorded separately and played back into the studio. There's no immersion in the moment from Hartnell, he's simply reading the lines from a piece of paper, and not performing them.

The physical absence of the Doctor from the story means that the Toymaker himself has a much reduced involvement in proceedings, despite the story supposedly being about him, or at least to do with him. It's a shame, because Michael Gough is so winning in the part, but is sadly reduced to a couple of indistinct interactions with Steven and Dodo. His menace is diminished. It's a little short-sighted to minimise the use of both your leading man and your high-profile guest star too!

This time around the Toymaker brings to life a selection of playing cards, the Hearts to be precise, and the characterisation of these four is much more amenable than The Celestial Toyroom's irritating clowns. Amusingly, the same actors are used to play the King and Queen of Hearts as Joey and Clara, and Campbell Singer and Carmen Silvera give enjoyable performances this time. Very much in the vein of the royal Hearts depicted in the Alice in Wonderland stories, the King (aka Henry) is a dopey dullard who bickers with his domineering wife, the Queen. Silvera is particularly good, branding Steven and Dodo as "peasants", and at one point delivering the line "A plaaaa-ying caaaa-rd!?" like Edith Evans says "A haaaand-baaaag?!" in the 1952 film version of The Importance of Being Earnest.

There are two other playing cards brought to life too, the Knave (aka Cyril) and the Joker/ Fool. Reg Lever doesn't get much to do as the Joker, but manages to make him a sympathetic character, particularly when his King and Queen are so determined to use him as cannon fodder for the deadly chairs. Peter Stephens's Knave is simply annoying, and rather pointless.

The deadly chairs game is dragged out for the entire episode, which is a little too long, but at least the variety of grisly deaths they offer keeps the ante up. There are seven chairs, but only one of them is safe to sit in, and the person who finds the correct throne wins the game. Steven and Dodo's prize for winning will be the TARDIS (or maybe a false TARDIS), whereas the King and Queen of Hearts seek liberation from the Toymaker's power, and freedom from being playing cards "for the rest of eternity". As with the less sympathetic clowns in episode 1, these guest characters have just as much to play for as Steven and Dodo. Now they've been given a corporeal existence, they're very reluctant to give it back.

But at least they don't cheat, like Joey and Clara did. A number of dolls are used by the players to test each chair, but once the dolls run out, the King and Queen plot to trick the fool Joker into sitting in a chair. I had to smile when the Joker rumbled their ruse and scarpered, with the parting shot: "Not on your life, sire! A joke's a joke! I'm giving notice. You can try out your chairs for yourself!" Fist-bumps to the Joker.

Admittedly, the chairs are gruesome in their deadly effect. Chair 1 chops you in half, Chair 2 freezes you to death, Chair 3 electrocutes you, Chair 4 makes you disappear, Chair 6 collapses in on you and Chair 7 vibrates you to death (ahem). At one point Dodo sits in Chair 2, for no apparent reason at all other than to create some threat in the episode, and begins to freeze, until Steven manages to pull her free. I know the dodo is extinct, but the way this girl's going, she's going to live up to her name!

The King and Queen decide to sit in a chair together ("If we go, we go together") and are trapped, leaving Dodo and Steven to choose the safe Chair 5 and win their prize of... a false TARDIS! They've not won, so here we go again with another episode of bizarre games. Also, it has to be said that the cliffhangers so far have been beyond poor, consisting of meaningless riddles which won't make sense for another seven days. Sigh...

Hunt the key to fit the door;

That leads out on the dancing floor.

Then escape the rhythmic beat;

Or you'll forever tap your feet.

First broadcast: April 9 1966

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: Campbell Singer and Carmen Silvera are great as the bickering King and Queen of Hearts.
The Bad: Peter Stephens's Knave/ Cyril is irksome.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆

NEXT TIME: The Dancing Floor...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: The Celestial Toyroom (episode 1); The Dancing Floor (episode 3); The Final Test (episode 4)

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site: http://doctorwhocastandcrew.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/the-celestial-toymaker.html

The soundtrack to The Celestial Toymaker is available on BBC CD. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Celestial-Brian-Hayles/dp/0563478551. The existing episode 4, The Final Test, can be found on the Lost in Time DVD set - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Lost-Time-DVD/dp/B0002XOZW4