Tom Kingsley, the director of Doctor Who's second 60th anniversary special has provided a tease for his episode that supports a theory as to the identity of who Neil Patrick Harris is playing. Later in 2023, three feature-length episodes of Doctor Who will celebrate the show's 60th anniversary by pitting David Tennant's Fourteenth Doctor against Neil Patrick Harris' enigmatic antagonist, and fan-favorite comics monster Beep the Meep. The first special is directed by Rachel Talalay, who directed some of Peter Capaldi's most acclaimed episodes, with Tom Kingsley and Chanya Button on directing duties for the second and third entries, respectively.
The three directors were interviewed in Doctor Who Magazine #589, where they gave a great deal of insight into how they approached these hotly-anticipated special episodes. Director Tom Kingsley described receiving and almost rejecting Russell T Davies' script for the second special, because he was unsure how he could possibly direct it - "Because a lot of my episode is quite weird." Kingsley's tease that his episode is weird gives strength to the theory that Neil Patrick Harris will be playing the Toymaker - one of Doctor Who's weirdest and most high-concept villains.
Doctor Who's 60th Anniversary Will Be "Weird" - Could It Be The Toymaker?
"The Celestial Toymaker", the 1966 serial which introduced the Toymaker (Michael Gough), is a high-concept and very weird adventure. The First Doctor (William Hartnell) was rendered invisible, while his companions Steven Taylor (Peter Purves) and Dodo (Jackie Lane) were forced to play a series of childish games like hopscotch and hunt the thimble, and featured living playing cards. It's been widely accepted, but unconfirmed officially, that Neil Patrick Harris will be playing the Toymaker, so it's possible that recreating the Celestial Toyroom explains the weirdness that Tom Kingsley first found daunting.
Presumably, the games will be considerably updated for the new generation of viewers who'll be watching Doctor Who on Disney+, but it won't make the episode any less weird. The Doctor has rarely faced off against trickster gods like the Toymaker, who can create their own realities. Tom Kingsley's initial belief that the episode would be difficult to direct could, therefore, be rooted in its central villain being able to manipulate reality. Thankfully, Tom Kingsley directed the BBC sitcom Ghosts, which brilliantly merges the supernatural with the everyday, making him the ideal fit for such a potentially high-concept Doctor Who story as the return of the Toymaker.
Why The Toymaker Is A Great Doctor Who 60th Anniversary Villain
There's a classic Doctor Who comic strip called "Endgame", written by Alan Barnes, which saw the Toymaker create an imaginary version of the village of Stockbridge for the purposes of playing games with the Doctor. Over the course of that adventure, the Toymaker created a puppet Doctor, which the real version must defeat to save his friends. Having brought back Beep the Meep, it wouldn't be surprising for RTD to revisit other Doctor Who comic strips for inspiration. There has to be a reason why the Fourteenth Doctor has the face and silhouette of the Tenth, so maybe the Fourteenth Doctor is the creation of the Toymaker.
This could mean that the 60th-anniversary special adventures are part of some elaborate game, perhaps even a metaphor for the current state of Doctor Who fandom. The Toymaker could be the ultimate version of the entitled fan, using their godlike powers to create their own Doctor as a plaything to participate in elaborate simulations of his adventures. It would certainly be weird, but it could also be the perfect way to interrogate nostalgia for RTD's first Doctor Who era as the 60th anniversary heralds the second era and the arrival of Ncuti Gatwa as the Doctor.