#I'd also forgotten that there was an origin story for the doctor's toothache in the gunfighters

[billpottsismygf]

Just rewatched The Celestial Toymaker and I think I had somewhat underrated it in my memory. It's not the most exciting, but the way the Toymaker and his world work is actually really well pitched.

One of the most effective parts of the story is the way his toys work. They play against Dodo and Steven, often cheating or being otherwise difficult, but they're people under there. It's ambiguous whether they had lives before they were toys - it's certainly possible, given that the threat is that our main characters might become like them - but Dodo points out that they do have personalities of their own even if they were created as toys. All they want is to be allowed to keep living. They don't want to go back to the toybox. The clowns becoming solemn when they realise they might lose is the first time this is evident, but perhaps the best moment is the "if we go, we go together" between the playing card king and queen. It makes you feel for these people trapped within the Toymaker's world!

The Toymaker himself is also such a good villain. His motivations make complete sense, and even when he's lost at the end, I really believe he doesn't care about losing his world; he just wants to spite the Doctor for beating him. He's also just a fantastically menacing presence, with a really effective, reigned-in performance. It makes me worry slightly just how big a performance NPH looks to be giving in the upcoming episode, but I'll withhold judgement till I've actually seen it. (I also wonder how they'll handle his face having changed, since he's not a Time Lord. Though for a character with the power to bring toys to life, changing his appearance is probably not all that difficult.)

I also love that the Doctor has clearly met the Toymaker before, and that we don't learn when or how or why. It's just allowed to be a relationship with an obscured past, somewhat proto-Master. And, of course, as the Doctor says, "there will be other meetings in an other time." Indeed there will, Doctor!