The third and final Doctor Who 60th anniversary special, titled “The Giggle,” is just a few days away from appear, and with it will bring arguably the most famous member of the 60th anniversary’s cast. Las year, it was announced that Neil Patrick Harris was joining Doctor Who to play, as showrunner Russell T. Davies described him “the greatest enemy the Doctor has ever faced,” and this was later revealed to be The Toymaker. Funny enough though, though Doctor Who has developed a wider global fanbase since the show relaunched in 2005, the How I Met Your Mother alum had never heard of it when he was approached for the role.
Davies recounted how he looped Harris into the Doctor Who 60th anniversary proceedings during an interview with EW, as well as explained what made the actor the perfect fit for this role:
He’d never heard of it in his life, bless him. I was lucky enough to work with the great man on a show called It’s a Sin, about the AIDS crisis in the 1980s, and working with him was such a joy. The Toymaker, he's kind of the god of games, so he shuffles cards, he does magic tricks, and all of that fits Neil Patrick Harris. If you go through agents, they often tell you to go away. I was able to send just a text saying, 'Do you fancy reading this?' He read it and literally phoned me up going, 'Let me get this right, so the Doctor’s an alien, right?' I was like, 'Oh my god, you really have never heard of Doctor Who!' But he couldn’t resist it, and he came to Cardiff, and we had the most spectacular time.
The Toymaker is actually an established Doctor Who villain, although unlike adversaries like the Daleks, Cybermen and Master who frequently appear, this character hasn’t appeared onscreen since “The Celestial Toymaker” serial premiered in 1966. Michael Gough played him back in the day, and most of the serial is now missing. Nearly 60 years later, Neil Patrick Harris is getting to put his stamp on The Toymaker, and though he wasn’t familiar with the timey-wimey ride that is Doctor Who, Davies knew that his penchant for games and magic tricks made him just the man to revive the long-absent antagonist.
There’s still a lot of mystery surrounding what The Toymaker is up to “The Giggle,” although as teased in the Doctor Who trailer released in September, he’s responsible for the wave of madness that’s swept the Earth, which was set up at the end of “Wild Blue Yonder.” This time around, The Toymaker will face off against David Tennant’s Fourteenth Doctor and Catherine Tate’s Donna Noble. Here’s what Russell T. Davies had to say about Neil Patrick Harris acting opposite Tennant and Tate:
... [I]t's very hard to find the villain who can match David Tennant and Catherine Tate. To have a character who can be in danger of defeating those two is very hard to find. Sometimes on Doctor Who, you need armies of a thousand robots who could do that. This is just one person, so casting them was absolutely crucial and this becomes a pivotal event in the Doctor’s life. We needed that man, and, god, we had a glorious time. It’s so lovely working with Neil. When I text him now, [we ask], what’s our third project together? We’ve got to keep going!
In addition to bringing The Toymaker back, “The Giggle” will also officially introduce Ncuti Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor, although we did get a cameo from him a few weeks back when he was inserted into the 2013 docudrama An Adventure in Time and Space. So even though it was just last year we watched Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteenth Doctor shockingly regenerate into the Fourteenth Doctor, and a only few weeks back when we watched him establish a hilarious tie to the Daleks, David Tennant’s new iteration of the Time Lord is already stepping away from the spotlight. What I’m interested to learn, though, is if we’ll see more from The Toymaker following the 60th anniversary, whether he’s reprised by Neil Patrick Harris or a new actor takes over the role.
Although Doctor Who continues to air on BBC One in the United Kingdom, a Disney+ subscription is now required to watch new episodes elsewhere in the world. Following the release of “The Giggle” on Saturday, Ncuti Gatwa’s first full Fifteenth Doctor story, “The Church on Ruby Road,” drops December 25 on the 2023 TV schedule.
