"Yes. I'm bored. I love to play games, but there's no one to play against. The beings who call here have no minds and so they become my toys, hmm! But you will become my perpetual opponent. We shall play endless games together - your brain against mine."
Yesterday was Thanksgiving here in the US. Angela and I drove down to her father's place and listened to this episode on the drive down. Holiday festivities prevented me from taking the time to write this post.
Well it's Black Friday now. Things are lazy here at Ang's dad's place, so I'll make this post and listen to today's episode later. Assuming that we don't have family over later, I should get the post for that episode tonight.
The TARDIS lands. Steven has changed into an unfortunate sweater, and Dodo has found a "fab" outfit in the TARDIS wardrobe. The Doctor begins to cough and vanish.
Steven thinks that this has something to do with the Refusians. Not a long shot given the fact that they were invisible and they were hanging out with one last episode. The Doctor quickly shouts him down and declares that it is an attack.
In addition to being invisible, he is intangible. The Doctor has Steven turn on the scanner. It revels nothing. The Doctor insists that it has nothing to do with a malfunction, the screen doesn't look like that when it's not working.
Steven, quiet rationally, suggests that the Doctor just tell him what switches he needs to switch to get them away from the danger, but the Doctor insists on facing it. He has Steven open the door of the TARDIS.
The script does deal with something that I was going to question. Dodo asks Steven, if the Doctor is intangible, why doesn't he just walk through the TARDIS wall? Steven suggests that, maybe it's just force of habit for the Doctor.
They leave to find themselves in this fantastic place. The Doctor is visible (and presumed tangible) again. There is a screen that both Steven and Dodo see images from their lives flash upon. They only see the images related to there own lives.
Dodo's character is filled out a bit as we discover that she was a young girl when she discovered that her mother was dead.
The Doctor tells them not to look at the screen; that it's a trap to dominate their minds. He tells them that he knows of this place and warns them of the games that are played here and of the horrible consequences of playing them.
The travelers turn and find the Toymaker standing where the TARDIS was. The travelers suggest leaving, but they don't know where the TARDIS is. The Toymaker shows them rows of hundreds of copies.
They will play their games whilst the Toymaker and the Doctor play theirs.
The two companions are left to play a game of blind man's bluff with two clown dolls that the Toymaker has turned into "real" clowns. The "sad" clown, Joey is mute. While the "happy" clown, Clara, speaks in a pitch just below helium induced.
The Toymaker knows the travelers. He refers to Steven and Dodo by name, even before the TARDIS doors open. They don't recognize him or his toyroom, so it's assumed that he has somehow found out about them. He knows the Doctor though and the Doctor knows him. There is mention of a time when the Doctor visited the Toyroom before. At that time he left almost immediately, not wishing to risk himself with the Toymaker.
This is the first example of the Doctor meeting a foe that he has already encountered in an untelevised story. The Master is probably the most notable example of this type.
The Doctor finds himself challenged to play the trilogic game with the Toymaker. He has precisely 1,023 moves to re-create a triangle formed of several smaller pieces. An amazing challenge of memory and thinking ahead. One mistake and the Doctor looses.
While the Toymaker is going about his business, the Doctor sees (on a monitor screen) that Steven and Dodo are getting ready to play their game. He uses the intercom to warn them of the dangers of the games and to not take anything at face value.
The Toymaker isn't happy with the Doctor's interference (who is) and makes him invisible and intangible again. The Doctor points out that this will make playing the trilogic game impossible. The Toymaker relents and allows the Doctor to have one hand become normal.
That hand was not Hartnell's.
Steven and Dodo end up having to deal with a pair of cheating clowns. When pressed to do things the right and fair way, the travelers win the game and proceed on to what turns out to be a mock TARDIS.
When they turn back to look at the game board they see that their opponents have reverted to discarded dolls.
Next up: The Hall of Dolls
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