BBC Audio adventure, April 2 - 23, 1966
I like the challenge games that Stephen and Dodo are presented with, though they’re very talkative for people on a time table. And Dodo seems a bit more wrapped up in enjoying herself rather than solving the problems at times. Odd that. When she sees some other character get killed, she gets the point but it’s brief. Stephen seems like the only one who gets it and keeps lecturing Dodo on it. The chairs challenge seems to be particularly arduous, honestly. Then searching for the key in the kitchen is almost as bad because it’s also pointless.
The Doctor basically isn’t in this episode—on vacation perhaps? The episode doesn’t really suffer from his lack of presence but it does seem quite strange how easily the Toymaker controls the Doctor. The final solution is a bit hokey as well, since the Toymaker’s world disappears along with the TARDIS. For the time, I think this was very creative. And the budget! Interesting to listen to but the bad guy is just so powerful yet lame because he has no real ambitions except to trap people into living in his little universe of power. No taking over a planet, universe, or solar system? Nothing extravagant, just being lonely without someone to challenge his power and intellect over the years makes him more of a pathetic character than a threatening one. The games are deadly and real yet the characters introduced tend to make them more silly. The moment on the freezing chair for Dodo was tense but I think some of the suspense is taken out of the adventure by the audio-only affect. A classic with a lonely old villain just takes a bit of the wind out of it all, though it’s still pretty good.
Peter Purves does a great job of reading the story. And the music fits right into the theme as well. So all in all, it’s fun but not outstanding. Something to be appreciated from a 21st Century perspective looking back on the 1960s. Very creative!
William Hartnell, Peter Purves, and Jackie Lane
writers: Brian Hayles and Donald Tosh
director: Bill Sellars