One of the strangest places the TARDIS has ever landed is surely that peculiar realm, the Celestial Toyroom, ruled over by, you guessed it, the Celestial Toymaker, an enigmatic entity who trapped the First Doctor and his companions in the Toyroom to make them play his games. If they win, they get to go free. If they lose, they will be forced to remain in the Toyroom forever, as his playthings. In keeping with being an oddball episode of the show, this story goes against the norm for Doctor Who by never explaining who or what the Celestial Toymaker is (in the real world sense, the Celestial Toymaker is Michael Gough, later Alfred the Butler in the Batman films). For this and its mix of the cosmic and the childlike, this really is an unusual premise for a Doctor Who story and one that could only have been made during the show's first few years when it was still testing what ideas it could and could not play with. As this inventive and original serial shows, there was very little Doctor Who couldn't play with. In fact, you could say that the whole universe was its (celestial) toyroom.
