YMMV / Doctor Who 60th AS "The Giggle"

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Does the Toymaker refuse to cheat because he's bound by the rules of the game, as the Doctor claims? Or is it for some personal reason? Some viewers have suggested that his refusal to cheat is one of the few points of honor he has, while others have postulated that he won't cheat because he wouldn't enjoy a game rigged in his favor. That he was insulted at Donna's suggestion that he would cheat has been used to back up all three of these interpretations.
• Epileptic Trees:
  • Some fans theorize that the retired Fourteenth Doctor grows to become the Curator, a future Doctor from "The Day Of The Doctor" who retired on Earth. Expanded Universe stories show that he can change form to look like earlier Doctors, and some Big Finish audios have had him take on the forms of the Sixth and Eleventh Doctors.
  • Likewise, it's entirely possible that this is also the stream of causality which leads to The Valeyard or other "dark" reflections of the Doctor.
• Evil Is Cool: When you get Neil Patrick Harris to play a Psychopathic Manchild Reality Warper, this is inevitable. The overwhelming positive reaction he has gained, especially with his Big Entrance while singing "Spice Up Your Life", makes it clear that the Toymaker is one of the highlights of the episode. Taking him into a Beware the Silly Ones route and Neil Patrick Harris switching between Large Ham and being utterly unnerving has made the Toymaker one of the most memorable Who villains in a long while.
• Fanon:
  • Since the Master who played the Toymaker for another chance at life was likely the Dhawan incarnation (last seen dying and unable to regenerate) who danced to Boney M's "Rasputin" in much the same way the Toymaker introduces himself to UNIT with "Spice up your Life", multiple fans concluded that their game took the form of a dance off/lip sync battle which the Master lost.
  • It's stated in the episode that the way the Giggle makes humanity turn against each other is by making everyone assume that they're right all of the time. Travelling through time in the TARDIS appears to make you immune but Wilf, who didn't travel in time when he was partnered with the Doctor, seems to be perfectly fine. To square this, fans theorised that Wilf believed so much in the Doctor coming back to save the day that, instead of becoming a jerk, he ended up just waiting patiently for the Doctor to prove him right. Due to the unfortunate timing of Bernard Cribbins passing, we don't know if this is how it would be explained.
• Fanfic Fuel:
  • The Doctor speculates that prolonged TARDIS travel has essentially inoculated Donna, Mel and Wilf from the Giggle’s effects, which opens up the question of how other companions such as Martha, Ace, Tegan or Captain Jack would have handled the crisis.
  • RTD saying during the iPlayer commentary that he imagines other timelines where all the previous Doctors (up to Fourteen) don't regenerate and go off on other adventures^{Such as....}Amy Pond getting both Ten and Eleven as childhood imaginary friends, Six and Seven facing off against the Rani together or Thirteen bringing Fourteen along to happily crash the Companion Support Group, which might also explain the events of "Tales of the TARDIS". It could also likewise be used to slot in almost every part of the Expanded Universe into canon, much to the possible glee of Big Finish.
  • The Toymaker states that he played a game with the Master for his life, which the Master lost. While there's a theory floating around that this game was the events of ''The Power of the Doctor", it's ambiguous enough that anyone can imagine what made the Master decide to play games with an extra-dimensional being.
  • In-universe, it's apparently only been a couple days since the TARDIS left in "The Star Beast" and the Doctor using the salt trick against the Not-Things which allowed the Toymaker into our universe. In that time he's apparently had enough time to set up shop in Soho, set up a plan involving a Hate Plague that took almost a century to kick in, defeat the Master at a game, terrorize various Eternals (even God), mess with whole galaxies and even interfere with the Doctor's own timeline. With all that in mind, what else did he get up to?
  • Now that Fourteen has ultimately settled down with the Nobles, what adventures — Earthbound or otherwise — could he possibly have going forward?
• I Knew It!: Some members of the fandom predicted that Fourteen's last words would be "Allons-y", owing to the fact that it would be the exact opposite of the Ten's final words. What no-one would expect is that he wouldn't be dying.
• Improved Second Attempt:
  • Right before his regeneration, the Fourteenth Doctor specifically mentions that regeneration is not like dying, in direct opposition to his tenth incarnation's comments on the process, which were widely criticized by the fanbase both for the lore contradictions and for the inherent Wangst, along with unintentionally stacking things against the Eleventh Doctor among the fandom. Also, while Ten regenerated alone and afraid, Fourteen regenerates with two companions and UNIT by his side, calmly accepting it with an "Allons-y". Of course, then the bi-generation happens...
  • In general, Fourteen settling down with the Nobles feels like RTD taking a second stab at what he attempted to do with the Meta-Crisis Doctor back in "Journey's End": the Doctor is effectively split into two beings, with one going off to continue having adventures while the other settles down with a former companion. However, whereas the former ending was seen by quite a few fans as an awkward attempt to pander to Ten/Rose shippers that was riddled with plot holes and ultimately had no real impact due to Rose and the Meta-Crisis Doctor being immediately written out of the show, here it's specifically emphasized that the Doctor and Donna are not romantically involved, as emphasized by Fourteen implicitly alluding to Donna as an adoptive sister in the final scenes, and it's all but stated that Fifteen is only as carefree and light-hearted as he is because Fourteen's time living a normal life will help him deal with his millennia of trauma.
  • And combining the above two, one of the reasons Ten was so upset about his regeneration is that, per Word of God, he was the shortest-lived Doctor In-Universe, as he only had a few years compared to the decades or centuries of the other Doctors. ^note It also doesn't help that thanks to Eight's regeneration into the War Doctor who later regenerated into the Ninth and Ten's aborted regeneration, meant that Ten was literally regenerating into his final incarnation of his first regeneration cycle. Now, on the second go with this face, he gets (what is implied to be) a good long life before his eventual regeneration into Fifteen.
• Jossed: In "The Star Beast", the Meep gloatingly mentions "the Boss" who will take revenge on the Doctor for their defeat. Given that the Toymaker's role in the third special was good as confirmed for months before release, it was widely assumed that's who they were referring to. By the end of the special, the Toymaker is cast from the universe without even a mention of the Meep, and we're just as in the dark regarding who they were working for as before (if not more so).
• Just Here for Godzilla: The Toymaker, one of the most well-known but underused villains of Doctor Who returning after 57 years, and he's played by Neil Patrick Harris?! Yes please!
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "Toymaker, the time has come for you to lip sync, for your life!"^ExplanationWhen the Toymaker makes his big entrance into UNIT HQ he does via lip syncing to the Spice Girls "Spice Up Your Life" while playing around with the UNIT staff. Every Drag Race fan who also watches Doctor Who immediately made the connection
  • "WELL, THAT'S ALRIGHT THEN!"^ExplanationThe Toymaker puts on a little show for the Doctor and Donna about some of the major companions (Amy, Clara, and Bill) the Doctor had since he left her and the terrible deaths they suffered. Every time the Doctor tries to correct him, the Toymaker sarcastically says "Oh, well, that's alright then!", dismissing the Doctor's attempts to assuage his own guilt in their unfortunate fates. Fans use the line when talking about the fates of other companions or characters, or whenever someone tries to make light of a bad situation. Alternatively, such memes will have the Toymaker give the Doctor a pass on more unpopular events that he tries to excuse, such as Adric and his death, or when he choked Peri in the midst of post-regeneration trauma. It has even appeared to discuss other shows - or historical events.
  • The Toymaker saying that Clara got "killed by a bird" without elaboration has spawned half-joking theories that Donna now believes Clara was literally carried off by a giant eagle.
  • Several fans have already made the observation that the Doctor "regenerated" by mitosis.
• Paranoia Fuel:
  • You thought making thinking dangerous last episode was bad enough? Now Who makes itself dangerous, in that it could have been transmitting Stooky Bill's Giggle since "An Unearthly Child"!
  • The Giggle is carried in all screens, not just TV screens. TV Tropes could be subliminally drawing out your worst instincts as you read this page. (Honestly, it would explain a lot.)
• Shocking Moments: The Fourteenth Doctor's regeneration. Everyone knew it was coming, but nobody could have possibly predicted that it would be a bi-generation, with Fourteen and Fifteen existing together.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • The effect that the Giggle has on the world is rather brushed aside after the first act of the story, with the last act being given over to the bi-regeneration. (There is a subversion of All Is Well That Ends Well in the falling action as Fourteen laments that a lot of people undoubtedly died as a result of the Hate Plague.) There's also the feeling that the episode could have been a double-parter, in order for the Doctor, Donna and UNIT to spend more time verbally sparring with the Toymaker.
  • The Toymaker could put the Doctor through any sort of complex, high-stakes game, using his reality-bending powers to heighten the threat and forcing the Doctor to rely on his wits to outsmart the opponent and survive the challenge. Instead, the games picked are... drawing the higher card and catching a ball. To make the matter worse, the latter isn't even won thanks to a particular throw or some strategy, the Toymaker just lets it slip. It feels more like the Toymaker was put in to use his powers to bend the rules and allow the presence of two Doctors and two TARDIS, rather than as a character of his own.
• Unexpected Character: Although the villain being the Toymaker was guessed by fans long before the episode's air date, no one expected the return of Mel, companion to the Sixth and Seventh Doctors! (And this is the second time she's been at the center of this trope, having previously had a cameo in "The Power of the Doctor", the finale for the Thirteenth Doctor.)

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