Starting off with the positives: the cast! NPH nailed the Toymaker! What a performance! DT and Catherine Tate are as great as ever. At times, even stronger than they were in "Wild Blue Yonder." Mel was a HUGE surprise and a very welcome one! All the cast were fantastic. However, the story itself didn't live up. Kate, Shirley, and even Mel all just stood there and watched. They didn't do anything. This story is a personal fight between the Toymaker and the Doctor. Everything else is completely redundant.
The first 15 minutes are tough to get through. More poor pacing and whizzing through what should have been important, emotional moments. Such as Kate Stewart hugging the Doctor. There is an apocalyptic threat where all humans turn into Karens, and it's taken without any hint of humor. It's all painfully serious. It's also hard to connect with because we don't get to experience the threat through the eyes of someone on the ground. RTD used to be great at that, like in episodes such as "The Poison Sky," where we see Wilf and Sylvia barricading themselves at home, fighting against the rising smog. Here, we have a conversation with one dude and then the rest of the concept is explained by Kate Stewart in a UNIT PowerPoint. Not only that, but the concept itself stops mattering after the 15-minute mark. We never hear about it again for the rest of the episode. There was no point in introducing it.
After that crucial 15-minute mark, the episode finds its rhythm, allowing space to deliver some of the best characterization for the 14th Doctor. He finally feels like a different incarnation from 10. The way he chastizes himself and his past actions is unique. He is the man who finally recognizes the harm his hubris causes, and has to face the consequences of it. A genuinely fresh take on the Doctor! It sucks that this only happens during his final episode, but I'm happy we got it. The horror funhouse vibe of this section is the highlight of the episode. The marionette sequence, Donna's fight with Sue, and the puppet show recap of the Moffat years were all brilliantly realized. NPH's monologue while shuffling the deck sent chills down my spine! Ending off with that "best two out of three" twist is quintessential Doctor Who.
However, things really get weird in the third act. Bi far the weirdest of them being (I'm so sorry for that pun), Bi-generation. I want to say Bi-generation isn't a bad concept, but I don't know if I can. It's hard to judge because it's frustratingly unexplained. It just happens, and nobody knows why. I'm pretty sure RTD himself doesn't have an explanation. He just thought it would be cool, so he went for it without really thinking about how it fits into the story. Turning this into a surprise multi-Doctor story was a cool idea, and since they're the same person, they both challenge the Toymaker to a game that strains his physical form. That concept works, it really works. However, it needed a better explanation. RTD didn't give much thought to why it's happening, so the script kinda just tells you to accept it and move on. That's the part which feels like bad fanfiction.
The game of catch 14, 15, and the Toymmaker play was just absurd enough to be thoroughly enjoyable. While the director aimed for a sense of tension by cutting to shots of the legacy characters gasping, DT, Ncuti, and NPH made it a goofy and cool spectacle. Eventually, the Doctors won out, and even though I wish more emphasis was put on their winning throw, it still works as is. The denouement was touching with DT's Doctor settling down and finally getting a family again, after all these decades. This is also a nice meta send-off for DT himself, having come back to the franchise to play the Doctor for a third time. Meanwhile, Ncuti Gatwa sails off across the stars, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, ready for a new adventure! Hopefully this time, with pants on...
So, yeah, that's a lot. Certainly the biggest review I've written. So much happens in this single-hour special that this script alone could've spanned the entire 60th trilogy. Part 1 being the Karen Apocalypse where the Doctor and Donna are reunited, and stop the signal together with UNIT. Part 2 could see them tracing the signal's origin back to 1925, and be dedicated purely to the Horror Funhouse. Part 3 would return the Doctor and Donna to 2023 to play the UNIT game. More time might've allowed Kate, Mel, and Shirley something to do, a way to impact the plot and the audience aside from them just being there, and would've given the Bi-generation the time it needed to be properly explored and explained.
All in all, the core of this story is the Toymaker wanting to get revenge on the Doctor. That's it. But since it's an anniversary event, the script has a lot of legacy characters thrown in that end up being completely redundant. Remove them all and nothing changes. It's another Chibnall-era complaint, again, but even he gave Tegan and Ace stuff to do in "Power of the Doctor." Poor Mel just stands there the whole episode, and at one point just describes her backstory. When you just focus on the Doctor and the Toymaker, it's really something special, everything else is meaningless noise.
The first 15 minutes are tough to get through. More poor pacing and whizzing through what should have been important, emotional moments. Such as Kate Stewart hugging the Doctor. There is an apocalyptic threat where all humans turn into Karens, and it's taken without any hint of humor. It's all painfully serious. It's also hard to connect with because we don't get to experience the threat through the eyes of someone on the ground. RTD used to be great at that, like in episodes such as "The Poison Sky," where we see Wilf and Sylvia barricading themselves at home, fighting against the rising smog. Here, we have a conversation with one dude and then the rest of the concept is explained by Kate Stewart in a UNIT PowerPoint. Not only that, but the concept itself stops mattering after the 15-minute mark. We never hear about it again for the rest of the episode. There was no point in introducing it.
After that crucial 15-minute mark, the episode finds its rhythm, allowing space to deliver some of the best characterization for the 14th Doctor. He finally feels like a different incarnation from 10. The way he chastizes himself and his past actions is unique. He is the man who finally recognizes the harm his hubris causes, and has to face the consequences of it. A genuinely fresh take on the Doctor! It sucks that this only happens during his final episode, but I'm happy we got it. The horror funhouse vibe of this section is the highlight of the episode. The marionette sequence, Donna's fight with Sue, and the puppet show recap of the Moffat years were all brilliantly realized. NPH's monologue while shuffling the deck sent chills down my spine! Ending off with that "best two out of three" twist is quintessential Doctor Who.
However, things really get weird in the third act. Bi far the weirdest of them being (I'm so sorry for that pun), Bi-generation. I want to say Bi-generation isn't a bad concept, but I don't know if I can. It's hard to judge because it's frustratingly unexplained. It just happens, and nobody knows why. I'm pretty sure RTD himself doesn't have an explanation. He just thought it would be cool, so he went for it without really thinking about how it fits into the story. Turning this into a surprise multi-Doctor story was a cool idea, and since they're the same person, they both challenge the Toymaker to a game that strains his physical form. That concept works, it really works. However, it needed a better explanation. RTD didn't give much thought to why it's happening, so the script kinda just tells you to accept it and move on. That's the part which feels like bad fanfiction.
The game of catch 14, 15, and the Toymmaker play was just absurd enough to be thoroughly enjoyable. While the director aimed for a sense of tension by cutting to shots of the legacy characters gasping, DT, Ncuti, and NPH made it a goofy and cool spectacle. Eventually, the Doctors won out, and even though I wish more emphasis was put on their winning throw, it still works as is. The denouement was touching with DT's Doctor settling down and finally getting a family again, after all these decades. This is also a nice meta send-off for DT himself, having come back to the franchise to play the Doctor for a third time. Meanwhile, Ncuti Gatwa sails off across the stars, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, ready for a new adventure! Hopefully this time, with pants on...
So, yeah, that's a lot. Certainly the biggest review I've written. So much happens in this single-hour special that this script alone could've spanned the entire 60th trilogy. Part 1 being the Karen Apocalypse where the Doctor and Donna are reunited, and stop the signal together with UNIT. Part 2 could see them tracing the signal's origin back to 1925, and be dedicated purely to the Horror Funhouse. Part 3 would return the Doctor and Donna to 2023 to play the UNIT game. More time might've allowed Kate, Mel, and Shirley something to do, a way to impact the plot and the audience aside from them just being there, and would've given the Bi-generation the time it needed to be properly explored and explained.
All in all, the core of this story is the Toymaker wanting to get revenge on the Doctor. That's it. But since it's an anniversary event, the script has a lot of legacy characters thrown in that end up being completely redundant. Remove them all and nothing changes. It's another Chibnall-era complaint, again, but even he gave Tegan and Ace stuff to do in "Power of the Doctor." Poor Mel just stands there the whole episode, and at one point just describes her backstory. When you just focus on the Doctor and the Toymaker, it's really something special, everything else is meaningless noise.