YMMV / Doctor Who S3 E7 "The Celestial Toymaker"

• Character Perception Evolution: The title character was considered one of the show's best antagonists for decades thanks to reviews that praised the lost serial as a forgotten classic; there were even plans to bring him back for Season 23 before a BBC-imposed 18-month hiatus led to the season being completely rewritten. However, after a reconstruction of this serial released and sank the story's reputation (with many now knowing it for its copious padding and racist elements), the Toymaker would decline into curiosity status at most, with people praising Michael Gough's performance but considering his character an Orientalist relic of the show's Early Instalment Weirdness in the '60s.
• Condemned by History: For a long time, before it was possible to watch or even listen to any episodes of this story, it was regarded as one of the lost greats of the William Hartnell era; largely because the highly influential 1983 reference book Doctor Who: A Celebration gave it a very positive review. After the sole surviving episode and the audio from the first three episodes became more widely available, fans were able to see it was actually a rather dull story with tons of long, boring Padding and featured old white guy Michael Gough dressing like a Chinese Mandarin (presumably to make the villain more exotic and inscrutable). It's now often considered to be one of Hartnell's worst stories, as likely to be known for being the story where a side character, played by a white actor, casually dropped the n-word as for anything else.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: The Toymaker's only appearance in the classic series was in this one story, of which three of its episodes are now lost, but he's still one of the most iconic villains in the franchise. In fact, he is so iconic that he was originally planned to be brought back at the start of Season 23, had it not been for the feud with Michael Grade and consequent 18-month hiatus that motivated John Nathan-Turner to retool the season into The Trial of a Time Lord. After several more decades, the Toymaker finally returned to the screen for the 60th Anniversary specials, albeit played by Neil Patrick Harris this time.
• Ham and Cheese: The script was heavily hampered by No Budget conditions and the plot's central point was made impossible by copyright disputes, leading to much of the story being basically Padding. On the other hand, Michael Gough chews on scenery hand over fist and is obviously loving the opportunity to be an over-the-top, hammy villain. He even takes the script seriously in some places to deliver some surprisingly intense interactions with the Doctor.
• Overshadowed by Controversy: The story would generally be remembered as a middle-of-the-road Missing Episode once previously upheld as a classic thanks to faulty reviewers, if not for the fact that it contains a scene where a minor villain, played by a white actor, utters the n-word during a game of "eeny meeny miney moe." The BBC have had to go out of their way to censor the offending word in official releases of the story's surviving audio recording, but despite this the slur still dominates it, in part because while the Classic Series is no stranger to Values Dissonance, this is by and large considered the most blatant example by both fans and analysts.
• Padding: The story is packed full of this because Troubled Production meant the point of the script had to be removed late in development. There's all sorts of dance scenes and shots of the characters rolling dice and making moves on board games, and pointless conversations. At least they had a top-class actor having a great time hamming it up as the villain.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • The Toymaker is Michael Gough, nowadays best known for playing Alfred Pennyworth in the Batman Film Series.
  • Clara the Clown, the Queen of Hearts, and Mrs. Wiggs are played by Carmen Silvera, who would later be best known for playing Edith Artois in 'Allo 'Allo!.
• Took the Bad Film Seriously: As mentioned above, Michael Gough is having fun with the role, but he also does a great job in the moments where the script calls for the Toymaker to be menacing. For many fans, Gough is the best or perhaps the only good thing about this serial.
• Values Dissonance:
  • The King of Hearts casually uses an older version of the "Eenie Meenie Miney Mo" rhyme which uses the n-word in place of "tiger". On The BBC's soundtrack release (due to it being a Missing Episode), Peter Purves' narration is deliberately timed to obscure the offending word. Of note is that the n-word wasn't actually in the script — the corresponding stage direction simply reads "the king closes his eyes and Eeny-Meeny-Miny-Mos" — but the fact that the actor deliberately chose a racially-charged version of the rhyme without repercussion is indicative of British views on race in the '60s.
  • Some, including El Sandifer and Diamanda Hagan criticised the story for being racist due to the titular villain appearing in Yellowface (although this isn't true, as can be seen from several of the colour publicity stills taken at the time) and being dressed like a Chinese Mandarin.
  • Similarly, the word "celestial" is itself an old (mainly American and Australian) slur used to describe the Chinese. While contemporary production notes indicate that the use of the word is in the more innocuous sense (i.e. the Toymaker's ethereal and otherworldly nature), the juxtaposition of it with the Toymaker's "Mandarin" getup (itself meant to tie in with his Towers of Hanoi puzzle) has given more than a few retrospective analysts pause.

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