April 11th, 2024
71 comments
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Doctor Who The Celestial Toymaker Animated Blu-ray
Available to order from www.amazon.co.uk, www.zavvi.com, www.hive.co.uk and HMV via www.ebay.co.uk
Available to order from www.amazon.com #ad
BBC Studios continues to offer Doctor Who fans the opportunity to extend their collection by announcing the latest release Doctor Who: The Celestial Toymaker on DVD and Blu-Ray. The two-disc set contains the third season story as well as special features. This classic series stars the First Doctor, William Hartnell and companions Peter Purves as Steven Taylor and Jackie Lane as Dodo Chaplet, with Michael Gough as the Toymaker.
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Fans of Doctor Who have long lamented the loss of the original 1966 master recordings of all except one of The Celestial Toymaker. BBC Studios have carefully created an animated presentation of this lost classic story using off-air audio recordings of the missing three episodes.
The Celestial Toymaker sees the Doctor and companions separated when they come up against The Toymaker. While the Doctor plays the Trilogic Game, Steven and Dodo are forced to play seemingly childish but ultimately dangerous games with the aim of being reunited and getting back to the TARDIS.
All episodes have been animated in both colour and black and white and include original film elements which have been fully restored.
Special features include:
Disc One
- Episodes 1-4 – Animation – Black and White
- Episodes 1-3 – Reconstruction
- Episode 4 – Original 1966 Episode newly restored
- New Audio Commentaries
Disc Two
- Episodes 1-4 – Animation – Colour
- Making The Animation
- Doctor Who Escape Room – Team First Doctor
- Sylvester McCoy Introduction for episode 4 as per the original VHS release
- Photo Gallery
- PDF Material including camera scripts
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Alan Silvester
June 12th, 2024 - 5:06pmSadly, I think Peter Purves comes across as being a bit “controlling” in the Escape Room feature – but I think this is because he and Maureen (O’Brien) were both having difficulty hearing the instructions and, therefore, understanding the game! Enjoyment nonetheless, and the animation was better than I was expecting. Yes, maybe the faces could look more like the characters, but heaps better than the third episode of The Web Planet.
Anon
June 12th, 2024 - 5:55pmYes web planet 3 is awful! I know what you mean about the escape room. Can’t say I enjoyed it.
Gordon
June 13th, 2024 - 12:05amDidn’t hate the escape room but I feel it will work better with people who are more fans of the show. Watching Peter purves spend quite a bit of time getting frustrated and repeatedly fiddling about with a logic puzzle and getting it wrong isn’t exactly fun. Nothing against Emily cook (who is lovely) but I found when they cut to her repeatedly explaining things it became annoying
Considering they already filmed all 7 and show a leader board at the end of this they probably have a fair idea of the order of them being released. I assume it’s not getting released in team order. It would be a bit anticlimactic if the next one ended up being the seventh doctor team and it showed the leaderboard and all 7 teams results and we end up knowing who won
Bellal
June 13th, 2024 - 8:02pmDidn’t enjoy the escape room at all. A waste of 70+ min of a good in-depth documentary (even if it didn’t feature original actors). Other teams might be better to watch though
Bookcollector
June 10th, 2024 - 6:22pmRight, I’ve only watched the black and white version so far, going to watch the reconstruction tonight and the colour tomorrow but here are my thoughts so far.
The animation is decent. The sets are great and the choices made work well with this story. I did feel that the human characters (doctor, Steven, dodo and toymaker) were facially weak. There wasn’t much change in their expressions throughout and Peter purves says it perfectly on the commentary that it’s not quite like watching himself but it’s near enough but that the expressions are all to stern on the characters. I do agree with him. I also felt some of the movement was jerky, like stop motion at times. Overall though the animation works well and helps bring the story to life. I still can’t say I think this is a great story but I’ll happily watch the animation again. It takes a bit of getting used to but it’s an improvement over web. I do think a log of work needs to be done on character likeness for any other animation in the future. Here you can get away with most of the characters looking different but those human ones do stand out as weaker than the others. Still it’s early days with this style and improvements will come with more stories being done.
Right. I’ll watch the reconstruction and update as I go. I have to say I’m looking forward to seeing it in colour tomorrow. Oh, and the offensive line is gone and if you didn’t know it was in you would not even notice. Personally I think it was the right choice to remove it. Give this a go and approach it with an open mind! (Yes I know, not always the setting for who fans!)
Robert Watkins
June 10th, 2024 - 8:05pmThe recon has some computer animation in places, which is a nice touch
Bookcollector
June 10th, 2024 - 8:29pmJust watched the recon and it’s good. The CGI is decent, a long, long way from being used to do full stories before people get too excited! I’ll watch the rest tomorrow now.
Anon
June 10th, 2024 - 8:53pmDid anyone notice on the reconstruction at the beginning during the reprise from the ark that it seems odd. Like it’s been edited. As dodo turns there seems to be a fade from one position to the next. Anyone else seen it as it’s fine on the loose cannon version.
Bookcollector
June 10th, 2024 - 9:19pmYes, mine looks like that. As if it’s not a full scene but edited down
Rex F
June 10th, 2024 - 9:24pmYou can watch the same story three times in a row? You’re made of sterner stuff, sir.
Rex F
June 10th, 2024 - 9:43pmWould the reprise have been a re-record? Now they’ve got the full soundtrack, from the Randolph tapes, they might have needed to re-time the Ark footage slightly to match the re-recorded sound used at the start of Toymaker.
Bookcollector
June 10th, 2024 - 10:19pmOh it might be. That would explain it if it’s slightly different timing. Actually yes it would be a re-record as they pretty much all are in the hartnell era. Have to say I enjoyed the reconstruction but I think I enjoyed the animation more. Really looking forward to the colour version tomorrow. I still don’t think the story is great but the animation makes it come alive.
Bookcollector
June 11th, 2024 - 10:36amYes it’s not the greatest one too watch multiple times but I like to get a first watch done just mainly as a disc check. I’ll then rewatch one version a week. I have to say that as much as Marco polo would be a nice animation the idea of watching it three times in a row is not appealing! It’s another one that is one I find a bit dull (sacrilege I know!)
Bookcollector
June 11th, 2024 - 3:35pmWatched the colour version and it is glorious. I know the likenesses aren’t great but you soon forget that and as Peter purves said it’s close enough. The extras are fine (haven’t watched the escape room yet) the making the animation is rather poorly edited! Lots of obvious cuts and Gary Russell’s interview seems to freeze a couple of times (he seems to be doing the interview via zoom or such like) overall I’m happy with the animation.
Gordon
June 10th, 2024 - 3:49amBecause I was an impatient sod I got this on iTunes. It took a bit of finding though.
Had a real fun time. Such an improvement over web of fear 3. The character movements and motion capture is executed so much better over web 3. It’s night and day. I was a little uneasy the first minute or 2 but once the story got going I became engrossed in it. Still do feel there are room for improvements mainly in the likeness and expressions department and the odd bit of lip sync but that’s something that can be improved upon for future releases. It’s not accurate to what was shown in 1966 however i feel if they had the time and money and technology back then i do feel a lot of the things in this they would have done if they had the ideas. Very imaginative inventive and very cleverly done. There is 1 sequence in ep 3 that is absolute bonkers in the best way possible. Mark Ayres has done an amazing job with this. Sounds the best it’s done since broadcast. His additions enhance it in the best way possible. Admittedly It’s not gonna be for everyone. I wouldn’t want every story like this but for the surrealist celestial toymaker it works. I’m definitely more positive to the idea of them doing more in 3d. Think space pirates could work quite well I feel. If you are on the fence give it a try.
The making of the animation is quite short at 10 minutes and not very massively informative but it does mention the changes that have happened since they did web of fear.
The escape room feels very much a bbc2 midday quiz show. Quite an easy watch but a bit slow in places when they get stuck. I do feel I’d enjoy it more if I was actually taking part but I did get into it the further it went on. Nothing against the team doing it but I do feel it will be more fun when you get more knowledgeable participants on the show ie Toby hadoke or Matthew Waterhouse. Emily is a good likeable host however when it cuts to her comments during the event it becomes is a little distracting. Having seen it I can understand why it’s 72 minutes.
Prof Horner
June 10th, 2024 - 2:35pmThanks for your review Gordon. I appreciate it. I was going post asking what people they thought of it and it would be nice If other people on this site who have seen it, give their views. I do intend to get at HMV here in leeds, on my next day off.
Snowman
June 10th, 2024 - 7:19pmThe Animation is very Good, like Gordon says it’s a big improvement on Episode 3 of Web.
There’s always room for improvement with animations and I’m sure they’ll tweak it until it’s just about perfect for Future Dr Who animations. Good times.
Bookcollector
June 11th, 2024 - 8:27pmHave to say the escape room did nothing for me. Found it rather dull. Still, others will probably like it so that’s fine.
RPG74
June 12th, 2024 - 3:11pmBased on the teaser I was dead against this, but given then comments I’ve been reading I might file this under Wait Till The DVD’s A Tenner. If only for the decent recon. And the audio, which I gather is a slight improvement on the audiobook version. One question though-any of that dreaded s20 style judder on the surviving episode?
SV7
June 12th, 2024 - 3:38pmI got the Blu-ray steelbook version, I haven’t noticed any judder on the surviving Episode 4.
The recon is fantastic, I’ve come away from it genuinely feeling like I’ve just watched the original episodes. Probably the best recon on any of the animation DVDs so far.
The audio is a huge improvement. As mentioned in another of my replies it is night and day vs the CD release.
Go on, never mind when it drops to a tenner or less, treat yourself! I’m positive you’ll love it even if it’s only the recon you’re after! 🙂
Bellal
June 12th, 2024 - 4:11pmTop notch recon indeed. Very enjoyable
RPG74
June 12th, 2024 - 8:32pmThanks, Bellal and SV7.
Gordon
June 12th, 2024 - 11:31pmYep really enjoyable recon. Highly recommended
Robert Watkins
June 9th, 2024 - 9:46amI suppose the positives are this is better than web 3, improved characters with more details. Shame about the characters not looking like the cast and lack of facial expressions.
The production is a whole different debate all together. Do you stick to original as much as possible or go for something completely different?
I’m for latter
Bob
June 9th, 2024 - 11:55amI think if a story is completely missing then creative liberties are more acceptable, but if there are surviving episodes then they should try to match it to at least some degree.
Anon
June 9th, 2024 - 12:38pmThat’s why I’ve stopped watching the animations with surviving episodes. Not that I don’t like the animations but that they don’t match now. I find it more enjoyable to watch the full animation as the original episodes now jar when watched in situ. Better to watch the original episodes in the reconstruction for me. Personally I’d prefer a more accurate animation but I don’t mind changes if they don’t spoil the story.
Robert Watkins
June 10th, 2024 - 2:39pmI think the Toymaker is difficult story to do as it very slow, so with the added effects and changes it’s more interesting.
I actually enjoy it, but still it needs work on the faces and movement
Rex F
June 10th, 2024 - 9:47pmI don’t understand why they’ve made so little effort with the likenesses. It’s as if they’ve deliberately created new faces, perhaps to reinforce that it’s not an accurate re-creation.
Anon
June 11th, 2024 - 10:02amHave you considered that it may just be prohibitively expensive to do photo accurate likenesses for a full 100 minute project? Would I prefer it to be more accurate? Yes. Does it spoil it? Not really. They have done a great job on what is a tiny budget.
Rex F
June 11th, 2024 - 1:39pmThat’s not what I meant, clearly. The 3D models use different shapes and texture maps to the actors’ actual features, when for equal time, money and effort they could have chosen a more accurate one – but didn’t.
Anon
June 11th, 2024 - 7:04pmThe making of explains the likeness choice
Rex F
June 11th, 2024 - 9:25pmIn which case I’ll be finding out about it in a couple of years, when I can get a copy on ebay for six quid.
Glenn
March 23rd, 2024 - 12:39amAny word on a release date?
Gordon
March 23rd, 2024 - 9:14amNot yet but I’m sure they will announce it when it’s ready
GA
April 11th, 2024 - 11:16am10th June as per HMV
Ian Cotterill
April 12th, 2024 - 10:03amAmazon also gives 10th June as the release date.
Gordon
February 17th, 2024 - 7:27amThe blu ray cover is up on the American Amazon website. The tardis has the St John ambulance sign on it. Just why?
Gordon
February 17th, 2024 - 7:28amhttp://www.amazon.com
Anon
February 17th, 2024 - 10:02amWell that is a dreadful cover…
Gordon
February 17th, 2024 - 10:18amI don’t think it’s a terrible cover per say as I think it’s better than almost any of the 2016 onward animated covers (power and web special editions excluded) but considering how bad they normally are it’s not a high bar. I’m just absolutely baffled they got the tardis wrong. Was there nobody at all checking that?
SV7
February 17th, 2024 - 10:51amThe St. John Ambulance logo is on the TARDIS in the trailer as well.
Rex F
February 17th, 2024 - 11:51amIt also has square new series panels.
Rob
February 17th, 2024 - 11:57amDreadful cover, looks nothing like Gough. More like the Joker, is that what they are aiming at?
Gordon
February 18th, 2024 - 3:43pmApparently it was there in the original episodes but the tardis was so dirty at this point it was barely visible. Rob Ritchie has fixed the badge off the cover on twitter which does improve things slightly.
Bobby Davros
April 11th, 2024 - 9:48pmOh dear, eating your words there, Gord. The badge wasnt painted over till the last episode of the War Machines when the white window frames were blued out for the rest of the props life.
David Minter
January 20th, 2024 - 2:46pmIt appears that in the North American market, the Blu-Ray is the ONLY option for The Celestial Toymaker. At least thus far, the Blu-Ray is the only option for purchase on Amazon.com. No DVD offering as of now.
Sofia Fox
January 21st, 2024 - 1:29amThis has been the case since Galaxy 4.
David Minter
January 21st, 2024 - 8:40pmI hadn’t really paid attention since The Evil Of The Daleks was the last animated reconstruction I bought and that was released on both DVD and Blu-Ray.
Sofia Fox
February 17th, 2024 - 5:49pmEvil of the Daleks was only on DVD in North America.
Time Agent
December 10th, 2023 - 10:30pmIf people continue to complain about the animation then the makers will think is it worth the effort.
A lot of work goes into these releases.
You do not have to buy them
.But please don’t ruin it for others who are very grateful for something we may never get otherwise. Time Agent
Rory
December 11th, 2023 - 11:13amI agree to an extent.
Money matters, and if the sales justify it then they’ll keep making the animations. As has been said before, how many other TV shows get this much merchandise? The animations, the Collections, the novelisations, unlimited rice pudding, etc. etc.
While fandom has sometimes influenced products, such as getting the right version of the Master onto the S3 steelbook, it will ultimately be the money that decides.
Rob
December 11th, 2023 - 11:28amPeople can complain, it’s their hard earned money that they chose to spend.
I will probably buy yes, but I don’t feel it looks very good. Many I know are on the fence about buying it.
Rex F
December 11th, 2023 - 12:07pmNone of the animations have been great, but clearly enough people are still buying them new to make it financially viable. Pointing out the (obvious) shortcomings has absolutely no effect, so stop worrying – it’s all about the cash, not hurt feelings. They don’t even take notice of the regular complaints about the arms always being too long.
Gordon
December 11th, 2023 - 12:36pmI don’t think there has been any animation where there has not been things people have complained about. Even invasion, moonbase and evil which were the most critically acclaimed got things people complained about. As long as they remain profitable they will continue. Only 10 to go. 11 if you count mission as an individual story.
D84
December 11th, 2023 - 4:00pmI quite agree Time Agent, surely anything is better than nothing right?
Rex F
December 11th, 2023 - 7:50pmD84: So it is worth me pitching my idea for sock puppet reconstructions? Sock puppets have no problems rendering tartan.
More then 2 alphabets
December 13th, 2023 - 3:53pmBBC and those working on it don’t care about comments/blogs – its all about the sales.
All those haters will still buy it and those that actually want to enjoy it will buy it. It will get streamed on iPlayer/ disney+
contrary to belief, the 2% of keyboard warriors have no impact on this or anything else they elect to trash
Robert
December 13th, 2023 - 9:05pmMore then 2 alphabets
It’s not about “hating” or “keyboard warriors”. It’s about the disappointment of the quality of the animation in the trailer. I buy all the range, but I am still entitled to an opinion on my purchases.
Duncan
December 16th, 2023 - 11:42amWell, I never hand over my hard earned without reading reviews or checking out You Tube videos about the product. Do that with everything- records, CDs, Blu rays. I can’t say I like what I see in the one clip so may end up sticking with the soundtrack CDs. Ive got to be honest with myself- if I bought this I know Id watch it once and that would be it so I suspect Ill either keep my £s or buy something else. Alternatively this may be praised to the Heavens in which case Id probably bite.
My personal feelings are that they’re so far into the animation range now, its not a good time to start experimenting. First time I watched the clip I immediately thought of a 90s computer game that I used to play. I think it was called Little Big Adventure? The character had a similar look if I remember correctly. Ill look forward to hearing what you guys say about it as and when.
Duncan
December 16th, 2023 - 11:44amSo, everyone is welcome, but not people who have a different opinion to yours ? Hmm.
Yep. It’s definitely still 2023.
Gordon
December 19th, 2023 - 12:18pmMy opinion is we haven’t seen enough of it yet. 30 seconds of footage and a handful of stills is all we have seen. There is still 97 minutes of soundtrack in which we haven’t seen anything from. Those 30 seconds of shots are only 7 shots and only 2 of those look like consecutive shots. We don’t know how the animation is when flowing from scene to scene. It doesn’t really give us much of a feel how the animation is going to work in actual scenes. Reign of terror looked great but let’s not forget the constant cutting was highly criticised. People have already prejudged this as terrible despite only seeing 30 seconds. Ian Levine has already posted a review on it on Amazon. Personally I feel reviews are pointless on there. I don’t think is them experimenting. I feel the 3d style was deliberately chosen as it feels like a better way of telling the story and especially as they aren’t exactly going to be faithful to the sets. Considering how cheap the original sets were I’m very open to doing their own thing on this one. Plus let’s not forget this 3d style is supposed to make the ones that are supposedly too expensive and time consuming easier. Personally I feel they need to really up their game before they go anywhere near Marco Polo, crusade or the massacre
Rob
December 19th, 2023 - 10:29pmAt the time I saw Reign of Terror at Riverside and had a chat with Dan Hall afterwards about the range. He took my aside opened his Mac to show me some footage of Tenth Planet 4 and I was more blown away, some of that footage didn’t make it to the release and it was incredible. Hope they can include it when it comes to the boxsets. It’s funny because I think this was the same event that Ian Levine tried to press a copy of the animated Evil of the Daleks 7 into Dan’s hand.
I will always try to be constructive about the releases, as I know many of the people who work on are fans and without them they range wouldnt be as good. We are so lucky that Who fandom has people in all professional services with audio, video, production and animation skills. All are fans, working within a budget and I am sure if I had a skill I would love to contribute to the range for nothing. But that 3D animation on Web 3 was awful and I thought they’d leave that way of doing things well alone.
Gordon
December 20th, 2023 - 10:06amIan Levine trying to get the bbc to take animations that they didn’t ask for or commission. Some things never change.
David
December 10th, 2023 - 9:42pmThere’s some animation of TCT on YT by Dinopuff that’s far superior to this.
Time Agent
December 10th, 2023 - 10:31pmWatch that instead then.
Gordon
December 11th, 2023 - 9:15amI like dinopuff’s version but it’s only part 1 that was done and even then it was split into 2 episodes and had bits cut out. We aren’t getting the rest. YouTubers can take as much time as is necessary to get it right but the official animations are on a strict deadline. If they run out of time on a shot or a section well tough. They have to move on to the next bit.
I know some have said why didn’t they get dinopuff in to finish/oversee his version but being realistic that was never going to happen. Firstly the official animation was already commissioned paid for and was quite well on in production by the time they had even heard of dinopuff and second of all he was 17 at the time of making his version and was still at school with zero professional animating experience under his belt. An impressive achievement but they aren’t going to hire school kids with zero professional animation experience to oversee giant productions like this no matter how good or professional it looked.
Secondly these animations are team led and despite what you think of the likes of Chloe grech and Anne Marie Walsh’s work they had a bunch of experience in other roles before they were given the reigns the chance to lead and oversee it.
Once he builds up his cv with professional jobs like a meeting on the common he just did for vworp magazine they might hire him and he can maybe work his way up from there
Rob
January 12th, 2024 - 3:09pmif you like dino puff his work is on the dvd free with fanzine Wvorp Wvorp 6, it’s amazing and so it the magazine.
Kenny
December 8th, 2023 - 3:31pmLove this.
Hope it’s out soon
davidhhh
December 8th, 2023 - 12:17pmHave we gotten a date for the download/streaming release yet?
The unknown Timelord
December 7th, 2023 - 6:53pmThis looks awful, surely they can at least get the animation to look like the characters
Rob
December 7th, 2023 - 2:51pmI wish they’d work more on the faces to make them like the characters.