Since the Toymaker is back on our screens tonight, I thought it might be appropriate to pull out this vintage episode from AFT which used my original custom action figures.
INSPIRATION
The Celestial Toymaker had always been an interesting character for me. A seemingly omnipotent being that brought a certain whimsy and macabre quality to Doctor Who. This adventure was heavily inspired by the original but also The Mind Robber where the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe find themselves in the Land of Fiction.
Other inspirations come from Alice In Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz - especially where this 60s adventure turns colour in the Toymaker's realm.
CAST
Back when it first began in 2001, Dapol had recently stopped making articulated figures in favour of static statues, so I turned my hand to making my own customs, using copies of male and female Star Wars figures cast in resin.
This one has a minimal cast of just the 2nd Doctor, Jamie, Zoe and the Toymaker - all custom made 3.75" figures made by me back in 2001.
The Clockwork robots are made of paper and directly influenced by The Mind Robber. The snake was bought from The Early Learning Centre.
SHOOTING
The scenes inside and outside the toyshop use no sets but were filmed on a blue background with the backdrop filled in after in photoshop.
The giant cards used were (obviously) an ordinary pack of playing cards.
The story was filmed in 2002 but not edited until 2003.
EDITING
The whole story was shot in colour but using photoshop I made the opening and closing in black and white. This was only the second sixties adventure on the AFT at the time. The first, Land of the Dinosaurs had been presented in black and white, so that continued as the norm.
The Toymaker's snow globe was created entirely in photoshop during the editing process. Similarly, the silhouettes of the Doctor and his companions as the Toyshop is destroyed were also painted digitally.
The Toymaker's spherical monitor is a white polystyrene ball with an image from the story overlaid, using the 'spherise' filter.
CONTINUITY
You will obviously know by now that the Toymaker first appeared in The Celestial Toymaker in 1965. He was supposed to return in 1986 in The Nightmare Fair, this time battling the sixth Doctor but the story was abandoned when the show was taken off the air for 18 months.
The Toymaker has appeared in numerous books and comic strips and returned to TV in The Giggle on 9th Dec 2023 as part of the 60th Anniversary specials.
The title The Celestial Toyshop was used for a story in the 1969 Doctor Who annual but doesn't appear to feature the Toymaker.
Our story is set in Season 6 and takes place sometime after The Mind Robber, since Jamie mentions that story.
TRANSMISSION
This was originally Action Figure Theatre's Christmas special for 2003. After the site was temporarily taken down in 2005, The Celestial Toyshop was reposted (again at Christmas) in 2007.
The original novel-style cover uses artwork by Alistair Pearson in the style of the Target reprints from the early 90s.
It has been re-presented on 9 Dec 2023 to coincide with the return of the Toymaker. It had been my intention not to repost the 'vintage' AFT adventures but who knows, this may open the floodgates.