This story is so appalling I can't be bothered to write about the individual episodes. Brian Hayles didn't bother, so why should I? It's so dull and depressing I just can't bring myself to write anything much about it. Frankly I couldn't write much if I wanted to. There is an immortal being called the Celestial Toymaker who makes his existence less dull by playing games. So far so uninteresting. He has the Doctor (invisible and mute so Hartnell can have a holiday) play one boring game throughout the four episodes! That wouldn't be so bad, but Steven and Dodo have to play a series of "games" which are of no interest, and of no value, since the bad guys cheat, which defeats the Toymaker's entire purpose, but there you go. In part two the Queen of Hearts complains, "you're not paying the least attention again". Yes. My attention had wandered so much I'm not sure who she said it to. May have been the audience, frankly, as I doubt many would still be paying attention. That takes place in episode two, or the musical chairs episode, which is what it boils down to. Episode three has some vague interest due to the creepy dancers, which are a good idea, but the whole Wiggs/Rugg sequence is horribly tedious. The music is okay, I guess. I can see why people think Dodo is stupid, saying things like, "I think I'm going to enjoy this game," and falling for Cyril pretending to be hurt. The best thing about the story is the cliffhanger at the end. The Doctor eats a sweet and...oh, he's hurt himself! Now that is action packed. Because I was vaguely generous with the first episode, trying to be nice, I sadly had to give this story an extremely generous 2/10, even though it frankly would give Underworld a run for its money on the awfully tedious stakes.
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