Doctor Who 60th Anniversary Specials
“The Giggle”
Posted by Kim
Going into the the 60th Anniversary Specials of Doctor Who, I had precisely four expectations:
- That Russell T. Davies’ first order of business would be righting the wrongs of Series Four and giving Donna Fucking Noble her memories and her best friend back because why the fuck else would you bring back Catherine Tate if not to do that?
- That David Tennant would remind the entire fandom exactly why he is THAT BITCH when it comes to NuWho.
- That RTD would torture the Doctor quite a bit because David Tennant is such a great crier and his Doctor especially was always all about the angst. (He’s “the man who regrets” remember?)
- That at the end of it all, David Tennant would regenerate into Ncuti Gatwa, launching us into a new era of Doctor Who.
Suffice to say, by the time the words “Destination: Christmas” popped up on my television at the end of “The Giggle,” my expectations were met. Really, they were obliterated. GOD, it feels good to be enthralled by Doctor Who again. And that’s the first word that comes to mind when I think of “The Giggle”: enthralling. RTD takes some big swings with this episode, but what sets his big swings apart from his predecessor’s big swings is the confidence with which he makes them. Basically, Russell T. Davies is the Babe Ruth of Doctor Who, stepping up to the plate and calling his shot. And even though he’s told us where he’s going to go, he still manages to thrill and surprise us with the way he executes his shot. I never in a million years expected this episode would turn into a multi-Doctor story, that we’d get the chance to see Ncuti Gatwa acting alongside David Tennant, that this regeneration would be a joyful occasion, not a sad one.
But I’m getting slightly ahead of myself.
One of the things that stood out to me the most about these specials has been the emphasis on the Doctor’s trauma and his avoidance of acknowledging and processing it. Honestly, the Doctor rivals Dana Scully when it comes to the very pointed and strained use of the phrase “I’m fine.” The Doctor is not in a good place, but he refuses to admit it, even when Donna keeps pushing him to talk to her. He’s still reeling from whatever it was that happened with the Flux. (Bitch, me too.) He gets Donna back but almost then faces one of his biggest nightmares when she allows her brain to be consumed by the metacrisis in her brain, sacrificing herself for her daughter and the rest of humanity. Sure, it’s gets undone almost immediately (WELL THAT’S ALL RIGHT THEN!) but the point is, the Doctor thought she had died and he had been powerless to stop it. The Not-Things did a number on him between the body horror and the poking at his mental state. It’s really a pile-on of trauma after trauma and he’s obviously near the end of his rope just trying to fucking keep everything together, which makes him a perfect target for a villain like the Toymaker.
I’m a NuWho girlie through and through, and I don’t consume any of the content in the extended Whoniverse, so I can’t speak with any authority about the Toymaker’s previous encounters with the Doctor, but I absolutely loved the use of the character here. One of the things I love the most about how Russell writes Doctor Who is how he makes it immediately accessible to new viewers. I may have never the Toymaker before, but the writing and the way the Doctor reacts to him makes me feel like I know the character instantly. He’s a baddie, through and through. He’s not a villain that you can look at and say “well, he did have his reasons for doing what he did.” No, the Toymaker thrives on chaos. He also has a strict moral code that he adheres to, even when he loses, which quite frankly makes him even more terrifying because it makes you feel like you CAN beat him, you know? You just have to win his game.
Neil Patrick Harris is spectacular in the role: deliciously campy and just doing the MOST, from utilizing his skills as an amateur magician to showing exactly why his sole Emmy win was for a guest spot on Glee. But he’s also perfectly menacing, bringing an unpredictable energy to the episode and his chemistry with David is spectacular. The puppet theatre recap of the Moffat and Chibnall eras? Truly horrific to the point where I was like “Geez, Russell, I know it’s fun torturing the Doctor, but give him a break.”
I should have known there was a point to all the emotional torment though. Forgive me, y’all. I’m a little rusty on my Doctor Who.
For most of the episode, “The Giggle” played out like any typical regeneration episode of the recent modern era. High stakes and big set pieces. Humanity in peril. A sense of impending doom. Kate Lethbridge-Stewart. A classic companion returning. But then the Toymaker shot the Doctor with a giant laser beam and he started to glow with regeneration energy and we still had more than 20 minutes left in the episode. At first it felt a little bit like the “Stolen Earth” and “Journey’s End” regeneration, but then the Doctor told Donna and Mel to pull his finger his arms and then I lost my fucking mind because the Doctor literally split in two, Ncuti Gatwa emerging from David Tennant fully formed and IMMEDIATELY the Doctor. TWO DOCTORS. LITERALLY. Someone get Captain Jack Harkness on the phone, because he isn’t gonna BELIEVE THIS.
From the moment he appeared, it felt like Ncuti had been playing the Doctor for years, which is saying something considering he was playing opposite David, a man who has played the Doctor for years and the man who is synonymous with the franchise as a whole. Ncuti’s performance is already so confident and ebullient. He commands your attention with that megawatt grin and that mischievous twinkle in his eye and his obvious zest for life. Welcome, Fifteen. We’re going to have so much fun together, I just know it.
Look, I can’t pretend to fully understand the ins and outs of bigeneration but I do know that I think it’s awesome. It’s the ultimate form of self-love and forgiveness. It’s about the Doctor recognizing all the fucked up shit that has happened to him but also learning and SEEING that he comes out the other side of that darkness healed and and rejuvenated. It’s about the Doctor learning how to stop surviving and start living again. I mean, imagine the gift of being able to see yourself after years of rest, relaxation, and therapy! Imagine being able to know that you’re going to be all right, that all the work you do on yourself is worth it. Because that’s what I feel Russell is trying to say here. He’s saying go to therapy. Learn how to feel and understand your feelings. Accept that trauma has happened to you but also let it go and don’t let it define you. Put one foot in front of the other. Live one day at a time. Find the people you love and who love you in return and hold on to them with all your might. Have family dinners in the garden and put force fields around moles and take covert trips in your TARDIS every once in a while.
Honestly, I can’t think of a better ending for David’s Doctor than spending years and years with Donna Noble, his best friend in the whole universe, finding peace and well-earned rest before eventually regenerating into Ncuti’s Doctor. It’s part of the reason WHY Ncuti’s Doctor is so overjoyed to see David’s Doctor in the immediate aftermath of the bigeneration because he has all the memories of his time of healing. It’s like “I bet you’re going to have a really great year,” except way less devastating. Everybody lives. Just this once. Everybody LIVES.
Timey Wimey Observations
- For a man who has made television his life’s work, RTD sure does love to weaponize it on Doctor Who. First “The Idiot’s Lantern” and now this! Are you saying that as a society we need to turn off the telly?
- It’s hilarious that the Toymaker’s plot was to basically turn real life into a living, breathing version of Twitter. It’s a perfect way to drag that section of the “fandom” (I use that word lightly, because let’s be real, these people are not fans) that complains about Doctor Who being too woke, except those people are going to totally miss that they are the ones being dragged.
- One of the things I appreciate the most about the influx of Disney money is the way they repurposed Avengers Tower to be the shiny new UNIT headquarters.
- “I wasn’t the first redhead?”
- I love that Donna was upset that the Doctor had never mentioned Mel not because she threatened by her (joke about not being the first redhead aside) but because Mel was his FRIEND and he never talked about her or shared stories about their time together. We stan a secure queen.
- May we all have the casual confidence of Donna Noble when it comes to negotiating a salary and benefits package.
- I love that basically all of UNIT’s upper management is comprised of bad ass ladies who used to travel with the Doctor. Can’t you just imagine Donna and Tegan huddled together in the corner gossiping at the annual corporate retreat?
- I may not know much about Mel, but I’ve seen Bonnie Langford at conventions and I am ALWAYS delighted to see former companions thriving in their post-Doctor lives. David Tennant is 100% not acting when the Doctor encounters Mel for the first time, and that little “Hi” they exchange over the control console has lived rent free in my head ever since.
- Justice for the one and only Rory Williams for being left out of the Toymaker’s Puppet Show of Companion Horrors. The Doctor loved him too, okay??????
- “Donna…” “I’m already running!”
- The “Spice Up Your Life” sequence was one of the most unhinged things I’ve seen on television this year and I loved every second of it.
- I’d really like to know what was going through Catherine Tate’s mind when Russell was like, “Okay, so you’ll be fighting this puppet babies…”
- The way NPH delivers the line about Clara being killed by a bird was hysterical because it was truly like one of those moments where you sound like a crazy person trying to explain this show to someone who has no knowledge of it and it SOUNDS ridiculous but was actually truly devastating.
- I love how David’s Doctor’s natural instinct is to ask the villainous man to run away with him. First the Master, now the Toymaker. Doctor, honey, your love can’t fix him.
- From “I don’t want to go” to “Allonsy” as last words! You know what that is? Growth.
- The image of Donna and Mel holding the Doctor’s hands and reassuring him as he is about to regenerate was TOO MUCH OKAY.
- Ncuti’s booty. That’s it, that’s the observation.
- Ncuti’s thighs. That’s it, that’s the observation.
- The One Who Waits has to be Jinkx Monsoon’s character, yes? I AM SO EXCITED FOR HER YOU HAVE NO IDEA.
- Speaking of Jinkx, that has to be her manicured hand that picks up the gold tooth that the Master is trapped in, right?
- It’s the geriatric millenial/Xennial in me, but when Donna was explaining to the Doctor about the adventure of living your life day to day and how it’s the one adventure the Doctor’s never had, my mind immediately went here:
- An accessible TARDIS!!! I hope this means we’ll see more of Shirley over the course of Ncuti’s tenure.
- This is emotional terrorism, Russell:
- “Okay, kid. I love you. Get out.”
Next up, we have our Christmas Special “The Church on Ruby Road” where it seems like we’re gonna have the Doctor meet his new companion Ruby Sunday because he’s being slutty in a club. GOD, I can’t wait.
Share Your Feels