The 111th episode of Doctor Who airs on the BBC. This is part one of the story now collectively known as The Celestial Toymaker. The first story of the series under the stewardship of its third producer, Innes Lloyd, this episode is missing from the BBC’s archives. 
After leaving the Ark behind, the Doctor shows signs of having picked up Dodo’s sneeze, but he then exhibits a startling behavior that can’t be attributed to the common cold: he vanishes completely for a few moments. The TARDIS lands in a realm populated by toys, games and clowns, and a man in Mandarin clothes whom the Doctor instantly recognizes as the Celestial Toymaker. The Toymaker whisks the Doctor away, forcing him to play the lengthy, unforgiving Tri-Logic game with deadly stakes, while Steven and Dodo are trapped with the Toymaker’s minions and a host of characters whose only motivations seem to be to deceive the time travelers to lure them into making the wrong moves in their own deadly games. With his TARDIS, his companion’s lives and his own life up for grabs, the Doctor must play to win, but he’ll have to start playing dirty to stay ahead of an opponent who has no qualms about cheating.
written by Brian Hayles
directed by Bill Sellars
music by Dudley SimpsonGuest Cast: Michael Gough (Toymaker), Campbell Singer (Joey the Clown, Sgt. Rugg, King of Hearts), Carmen Silvera (Clara the Clown, Mrs. Wiggs, Queen of Hearts), Peter Stephens (Knave of Hearts, Kitchen boy, Cyril), Reg Lever (Joker)
Notes: The Toymaker resurfaces many times in audio and prose form, but his appearance in 2023’s The Giggle appears to be his definitive rematch with the Doctor, who mentions having challenged him only once before.
Broadcast from April 2 through 23, 1966
LogBook entry & review by Earl Green
Rightly held up as an example of the Hartnell era’s ability to evoke an intensely creepy atmosphere, The Celestial Toymaker is an intriguing and spooky four-parter that ultimately asks more questions than it answers. On its own merits, the whole thing is actually rather simplistic in its treatment of the various games and challenges, and in places it seems deliberately vague in explaining everything. We know no more about the Toymaker, his origins and his domain at the end of the proceedings than we do at the beginning; he and the Doctor are apparently well acquainted (if not terribly well disposed to one another), and all that we find out in the course of the story is that he’s an immortal being who can assemble a powerful space (strong enough to trap a TARDIS?) around himself, where he holds sway over the laws of nature, by sheer force of will. In retrospect, it’s a wonder that no reunion with this character was planned until Colin Baker’s era (The Nightmare Fair, a four-parter written for season 23 but abandoned when a publicly-decried attempt to cancel the series resulted in the Trial Of A Time Lord season instead).
Could The Celestial Toymaker be done today? Part of me wants to say yes, but in truth, so many of the reversals of our heroes’ fortune come about simply because someone takes advantage of Steven and Dodo’s comparitively genteel manners. But, though it pains me to suggest bringing Michael Gough out of retirement in his 90s, perhaps a rematch with the current Doctor is in order.