‘The funny thing is, I fought all those battles for all those years, and now I know what for.’ In some respects, these 60^th Anniversary Specials have replayed a typical RTD series in miniature. There was the light, present-day series opener, complete with a cute monster (see also Partners in Crime), then a very brief celebrity historical with Isaac Newton and a futuristic space adventure before coming back to the present for an apocalyptic finale with a classic series villain. There are some explicit references to Last of the Time Lords (the Archangel Network; the well-manicured hand picking up the Master’s remains) and some less obvious links to Army of Ghosts (the UNIT Tower standing in for the Torchwood Tower) and Journey’s End (a regeneration that creates a duplicate Doctor). We even get the triumphant return of Trinity Wells, reinvented as an anti-zeedexxer.

The difference is, the old RTD series finales were all at least two episodes. This one compresses their hundred-plus minutes into a cool 60. The relentless pace does, at least, reinforce the idea that the 14^th Doctor hasn’t stopped, ‘staggering along’, wearing himself out. I’d much rather this than a typical streaming episode that crams 10 minutes of story into an hour-long stare into the middle distance, but nevertheless, this is punishing. There are points when it feels like things are moving too fast – the Doctor’s reunion with Mel feels dashed off, for example, and the mechanics of Stooky Bill’s giggle being captured inside every screen are entirely hand-waved.

Fortunately, the nature of the episode lends itself to non sequiturs and leaps in logic that would otherwise be hard to excuse. The bi-generation comes out of nowhere (even the Toymaker is baffled); so does the magic hammer in the TARDIS. But, whereas the “Space Jesus” sequence in Last of the Time Lords raised eyebrows, here we can point to the Doctor’s invocation of superstitions at the edge of the universe to provide some rationale for why this is happening now. Once again, his hubris has unintended consequences, and the threat that nothing may be quite the same anymore.

I’m a big fan of Neil Patrick Harris’ Toymaker. There’s a risk with these type of characters that you get something merely arch and whimsical: Star Trek always ends up with the Squire of Gothos or Q, where everyone rolls their eyes and huffs a bit. But Harris is more unsettling than wacky, his games retain the original’s cruel edge of 1960s’ Victoriana in true Emma Peel Avengers or Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny and Girly style. RTD writes him and Harris plays him more like IT than Q – ‘You know full well this is merely a face concealing a vastness that will never cease’. There are some really horrible images: the burning Stooky Bill; Charles transformed into a wooden doll; a UNIT soldier’s soul trapped eternally inside a balloon.

Through the Toymaker, RTD can also throw some shade at his two fellow showrunners, particularly the gloomy fates Moffat inflicted on all his companions, and the muddle of the Timeless Children (here implied to be a Toymaker game: ‘I made a jigsaw out of your history’). But I also think there’s some mea culpa in this. Journey’s End was not a great outcome for either Donna or Rose, and The Giggle offers an alternative: Donna with her memory restored and a proper Doctor with his own TARDIS rather than a compromised copy abandoned in a next-door universe as a booby prize for Rose.

The fun bits, which include pretty much any scene with the Toymaker, plus Donna’s face-off with the Stookies, are very fun. It’s great to have Bonnie Langford back, and I think this is Jemma Redgrave’s finest hour as Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, given some big comedy and villainous moments, her performance expands to fit the space available. Ncuti Gatwa makes an instantly favourable impression, kissing his teeth and bringing a healthy dose of Doctorish energy just as the Tennant incarnation seems to be fading. His arrival is a clear indication that this is as much set-up for the imminent Disney series as a celebration of the 60 years of BBC Doctor Who. I suspect the rise of magic, the Vlinx and even Mel are also groundwork for 2024.

It might have been distracting if this had all taken place against a backdrop of David Tennant’s final roll of the dice. But that’s explicitly not what’s going on. Just like 2008, RTD has created a plausible opportunity for a parallel show with Tennant (had the Journey’s End Bad Wolf Bay scene not cut the 10^th Doctor and Donna gifting a piece of the TARDIS to the DonnaDoctor and Rose to grow their own, the similarities would be even plainer). The bi-generation is pitched as a chance for the physician to heal himself, to forgive himself (with a hug and kiss) for all that’s gone wrong since 2010, and to start afresh. So the BBC’s Doctor gets to live a life, day after day: the one adventure he’s never had (since 1973).

Meanwhile, Gatwa’s Doctor flies away for fabulous new adventures on Disney’s dollar. That might be the subject of a new story, but our present story is ended.

Next Time: The first adventure for a brand-new Doctor!