Doctor Who Special Reviews: The Giggle

The Giggle Could Have Been A Lot Longer Episode

The Giggle marks the end of Doctor Who’s trilogy of specials, and, like each one, I enjoyed it a lot and found a core issue. This one is perhaps the most flattering flaw on paper, though, even if I consider Wild Blue Yonder to be the stronger episode overall. Simply put, The Giggle is too short—way, way too short. The episode is firing on all cylinders, but because it’s playing with four different important aspects, it’s stretched thin.

And since I’ve already talked about the incredible acting from David and Catherine (and everyone else), the much-appreciated focus on diversity and representation, the middle-of-the-road special effects that heavily dilutes what could’ve been exquisite horror, and the sheer camp and techno-babble shenanigans underpinning so many scenes, I’m going to have this review focus almost exclusively on those four aspects. There are references to previous episodes I didn’t get—including an inexplicable maybe-robot/maybe-alien that I hope is a callback—but those are for fans who recognize them to weigh in on.

This Episode Has So Many Different Callbacks In It

Okay, enough preamble. Point one, The Toymaker. I don’t think anyone will be surprised to hear that Neil Patrick Harris did an amazing job. Threatening, chaotic, funny—though I question why the accent shifts so often and what the point of that was exactly. Regardless, if you like god villains, you’ll like The Toymaker. The dance sequence was incredible, and the puppet scenes were truly creepy, but if I had to pick a favorite, I actually preferred the juggling monologue. It really got across that The Toymaker considers games and violence as always linked, almost interchangeable, and indelibly part of human nature. I don’t want to spoil too much, but I hope we get to see Neil play this character again during Ncuti Gatwa’s time as The Doctor. This wasn’t nearly enough.

The Toymaker Was Unsurprisingly A Big Highlight

Second point, and related: The Giggle itself. It’s messy, conceptually, for a few reasons (and yes, this article does have lists within lists). The more lore-focused reason is that, if you consider the canon, just how many secret things have been revealed to exist on Earth at this point? It’s gotten comical if you stack them all on any degree of a timeline. And it’s especially funny when you consider we already had an episode about evil Wi-Fi. But more to the actual critique: I didn’t get the full scope of the social commentary. I love, love, love the idea of an apocalyptic event that renders everyone incapable of conceding any point or changing any opinion. But the references to cancel culture, taxes, and more were too rushed to make any coherent statements. I think it’s meant to be a condemnation of bigotry and selfishness, especially considering we see exposure prompts someone to make ableist remarks, and I understand they don’t show much of those manifestations because—if that was the intent of The Giggle—it would be upsetting, triggering, and not child-friendly, but maybe someone could’ve rattled off a few lighter examples to make it clear. Further, The Giggle’s effects aren’t consistent. They don’t hold up to scrutiny as a defined set of “game” rules. It doesn’t lock people into whatever opinion or belief they currently hold; it mostly seems to cause regression toward hateful/aggressive perspectives. Unless the plot seriously wants us to think those are Kate Lethbridge-Stewart’s active interior thoughts about the people around her, we can only assume The Giggle simply brings out the worst parts of humanity and that The Toymaker’s speech was a justification for making people turn to violence.

The Logic Of The Giggle Doesn’t Quite Make Sense

Thirdly—and switching topics almost completely—I don’t know how to feel about how the regeneration and the ending were handled. I’m avoiding spoilers, but unless it was introduced in a Jodie episode, there’s been no indication this odd phenomenon is even known about, let alone can happen without special circumstances—and the idea it’ll happen every time is concerning. I understand the desire for a happy ending, and it’s a nice enough conclusion for the “reusing a face” stuff, but it could wind up really messy down the road. The logic of Doctor Who’s universe is already tenuous at best, and picking at the edge of that shifts it even more toward soft-magic-system science fantasy.

Regardless of the surrounding details, though, my fourth and final point is we did get our next regeneration. And though I need a proper adventure to form my opinion fully, I already love Ncuti Gatwa’s portrayal. He’s energetic, excited, and ready to face anything. Though I very much appreciated the more serious stories and versions of the Doctor, it looks like we’ll be focusing more on the fun of the universe and the joys of exploring it. I know it’s customary to have a season-long, dire, dramatic arc, but I wouldn’t mind a whole twelve episodes of just interesting, varied, creative science fiction stories set throughout the universe with Ruby and The Doctor.  

No matter what’s next, though, I’m so happy to see Doctor Who revitalized like this. There’s an energy to these projects, a joyous desire to push onward with what can be done with the series. And with the new season starting less than twenty days from now, I think it might be time for an episode-by-episode review saga.

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