Spoilers ahead for Doctor Who: The Giggle

As this review will run a few days after the episode airs, I’m going to just wallow in the spoilers. Really roll around in them and get them deep in the crevices. If that’s not your cup of tea, here’s a bit of Doctor Who trivia so you don’t feel like you’ve wasted the click. In the 1966 serial “The Celestial Toymaker,” the titular role was played by Michael Gough, best known as Alfred in the Tim Burton Batman films. Gough was married to Anneke Wilks, who played the First Doctor’s final companion, Polly. Wilks took the job because Gough told her he had so much fun on the set.

Right, everyone left okay with the spoilers? Good. Geronimo!

Bringing back The Toymaker was always a dicey idea. He appeared on the show at a time when Doctor Who was much more of a children’s program than it is today. Along with the Second Doctor adventure “The Mind Robbers,” “The Celestial Toymaker” is more British children’s fantasy than anything else. There’s not a lot of science fiction in making The Doctor fight obscure British cartoon characters.

That said, there have been a few appearances of the character over the years, and he arguably became a recurring nemesis to the Eighth Doctor. The audio adventure “Solitaire” (where the role was played by Michael Bailie) is especially good, cementing the character as a kind of Godlike version of John Kramer from the Saw films.

Neil Patrick Harris’ run does an especially good job of melding all the previous versions into something that fits perfectly into showrunner Russell T Davies' new, hokey aesthetic. At his deepest core, the Toymaker is a cosmic terror, something that defies all the rules of reality from beyond the known universe. Here, Harris is able to be both terrifying Lovecraftian nightmare and whimsical clown. The first half of the episode is absolutely frightening, and it speaks well to Harris’s ability that he is able to be so menacing while never losing the ridiculousness of concept.

This time the Toymaker’s game is to make everyone believe that they are always right. For all the impotent whining from the regressives about casting trans actresses and a person of color to play Isaac Newton, this is Davies at his most political. The Toymaker’s . . . beam? Field? It’s unclear. The Toymaker’s power basically turns the whole world into rampaging Tories (that’s British Republicans), who are happy to be run down in the street if it justifies their right to stand in front of a moving car.

There’s even an uncomfortable scene where Kate Stewart demonstrates the effect of the power by removing her inhibitor. She pretty much immediately turns into a racist caricature that hates The Doctor and accuses her own wheelchair-using subordinate of faking her disability because she is partially ambulatory. Davies is making his point as crystal clear as possible: y’all sound like dumbasses when you give into stupid tribal nonsense.

I would call the metaphor a bit heavy-handed if it didn’t give me immediate chills. A world full of Alex Joneses is way too close to reality. The subtle point that the Toymaker is only amplifying human nature, not causing it, is a nice touch. Remember when Daleks took over the British police force, but the show waved it away as an alien plot rather than embracing the fact that people in power would totally use Daleks as cops if they could get away with it? This is a much better version of that.

Let’s talk about Mel. As a companion from one of the least loved parts of Doctor Who, it’s nice to see her get some more screen time. Bringing back Sarah Jane or Ace was always guaranteed to move audiences. Mel? I had to go look up what even happened to her family.

Bonnie Langford steps back into the role admirably, and there is none of the tension that was seen in previous adventures in this style like “School Reunion.” Here, she has all the vivaciousness and energy of her classic appearance, tempered with a 21st Century pragmatism that makes her a perfect second-in-command figure to Kate. Of all the companions who could have used a second go, Mel is tops, and honestly Langford outdid herself.

And then there’s The Doctor. The new one that is.

New Who has been ripping pages out of the regeneration rulebook for decades now, so what’s one more? Having Ncuti Gatwa literally emerge from David Tennant’s side like a PG-13 version of Basket Case was not on my bingo card. Like so much of these last few weeks, it was silly, preposterous, un-scientific, and I couldn’t stop smiling.

Part of it is because Gatwa was just instantly The Doctor. Having him appear at the beginning of the third act instead of the very end allowed him to skip the most frustrating part of the show. There’s no soul searching about what the new form means, no lack of faith from his companions, and he doesn’t spend half the run time unconscious. He gets right to work, even without pants.

There’s a neat side theme of “The Giggle” that involves The Doctor being tired. His return to his current face is seen as a kind of cosmic half-ass effort. He literally turned in an assignment he had already done in the past to keep going. Tennant plays this wonderfully, adding to the ancientness of his characterization.

Gatwa, though, is boundless energy. His Doctor came out like a person who just had the best night’s sleep of their life. He practically skips into action, ready and raring to go. The two Doctors then challenge the Toymaker to a game of catch, and even the editing reflects this power dynamic. Tennant and Harris are constantly framed with quick cuts that don’t show them moving, a concession I imagine to the fact that both actors are in their 50s. Gatwa is like lightning, a physical presence that leaves sparks everywhere he moves.

It was wonderful to have Davies throw out so many rules. The episode ends in hugs, not tears. Tennant didn’t die, but instead goes into a semi-retirement working for UNIT. There are two Doctors out in the universe now. One embodies the essence of onward and forward, and Gatwa is simply the perfect version.

The other? He gets to hold onto the baggage of the last 60 years. Tennant has been the face of Doctor Who since 2006, the first person most people think of when the Tardis sound rings out. Davies has found a way to keep that past alive and thriving while also piloting the show into the future. It was a breathtaking experiment that paid off amazingly.

The show has never been in safer hands. See you at Christmas.