In the climactic episode of the 2023 Doctor Who 60th Anniversary specials, The Giggle, the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Doctors confront the formidable Toymaker atop UNIT HQ. Their battle hinges on a seemingly simple premise: defeating the Toymaker at a game. The game chosen? Catch. The stakes are immediately laid out:
Fifteenth Doctor: You said it. The first game ever. Fourteenth Doctor: The ball. The Toymaker: Catch? Of course, before we begin, there is one thing to remember. It’s a simple game, really, but I think… if you drop it, you lose.
Despite his chaotic nature, the Toymaker is portrayed as bound by the rules of the game, a point emphasized earlier when discussing a card game:
Donna: But he’ll cheat. The Doctor: No. The Toymaker: No! Shame. The Doctor: That’s the one thing he won’t do. Donna: But they’re his cards. It’s all tricks. Of course he’ll cheat! The Doctor: The only rules the Toymaker follows are the rules of the game. They bind his entire existence. I win or I lose, and that’s it.
This establishes a crucial constraint: the Toymaker must adhere to the agreed-upon rules. In the game of catch that determines his defeat, the sole, explicitly stated rule is: drop the ball, and you lose. This raises a significant question: How, then, could the Toymaker, a being of immense power and reality-altering capabilities, possibly lose such a basic game?
Throughout The Giggle, the Toymaker’s dialogue is peppered with boasts of vanquishing powerful entities across the universe. Even discounting hyperbole, the episode showcases his breathtaking abilities. He manipulates reality with ease, demonstrating time travel, spatial manipulation, matter transmutation (turning bullets into rose petals), and mind control, all wrapped in a theatrical flair. The Doctor himself acknowledges the Toymaker’s staggering power, stating he “can get from 1925 to now like stepping through a door.” Given this mastery over time, space, and reality itself, it’s difficult to fathom how a being capable of such feats could lack the hand-eye coordination necessary for a simple game of catch. Furthermore, both incarnations of the Doctor exhibit superhuman reflexes and speed. Logically, the Toymaker’s abilities should far surpass even these Time Lord traits.
Therefore, the question remains starkly apparent: How did the Toymaker lose a game of catch where the only condition for defeat was dropping the ball? This apparent contradiction presents a significant plot inconsistency within The Giggle, leaving viewers to question how such a powerful being could be undone by such a trivial act.
