Doctor Who's lost story The Celestial Toymaker animation confirmed
The lost episodes will be restored in animation.
Doctor Who is officially releasing an animated version of The Celestial Toymaker after the original master tapes of the 1966 story were wiped.
The fourth episode of the four-part story was the only episode in the BBC archives after a recording from Australia was given to the BBC in 1984.
The official Doctor Who account on Twitter (which was recently re-branded to X) confirmed that the animation is coming soon to DVD, Blu-ray and steelbook, sharing a snippet of the footage.
The 1966 story features the Doctor (played by original actor William Hartnell) and his companions Steven Taylor (Blue Peter legend Peter Purves) and Dodo Chaplet (Jackie Lane) pitted against the immortal villain known as the Toymaker, played by Michael Gough.
The Toymaker successfully tears the Doctor apart from his companions to play a twisted game, while Steven and Dodo themselves are also forced into some deadly challenges of their own thanks to his schemes.
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The classic villain is set to return in the next Doctor Who 60th anniversary special, The Giggle, played by Neil Patrick Harris.
A recent teaser trailer for the episode also gave us a glimpse of him in action, as he says: "We meet again – the Time Lord and the Toymaker... one final game!"
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Showrunner Russell T Davies recently told Doctor Who Magazine of the villain: "Having Neil Patrick Harris there from scene one gives a fantastic air of menace and approaching danger to the entire episode. It’s doom-laden from the start, and Neil does it brilliantly."
Doctor Who's third 60th anniversary special The Giggle airs at 6:30pm on Saturday 9th December on BBC One and BBC iPlayer. Previous episodes are available on BBC iPlayer and on BritBox – you can sign up for a 7-day free trial here.
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