Doctor Who's The Giggle includes powerful William Hartnell flashback
The First Doctor, William Hartnell, and the original Toymaker, Michael Gough, will make an appearance.
As Doctor Who's final 60th anniversary, The Giggle, makes its way to our screens, it's been confirmed that the episode will pay tribute to the First Doctor, William Hartnell, and the original Toymaker, Michael Gough.
The special will see David Tennant's Fourteenth Doctor face one of his oldest enemies, The Toymaker, this time brought to life by Neil Patrick Harris.
A new clip from the episode reveals that when the Doctor and Donna (Catherine Tate) first meet the Toymaker, the Doctor's terror begins to show as he orders Donna to get back to the TARDIS.
The episode then flashes back to when the First Doctor originally met the Toymaker, in newly-colourised footage from the 1966 story.
Hartnell, who paved the way for every Doctor after him, died in 1975 at the age of 67. Gough, who not only played one of the most iconic Doctor Who villains, but starred in films like Dracula and the first four Batman movies, died in 2011 at the age of 94.
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The Celestial Toymaker, which marked the first meeting of the Doctor and the Toymaker, aired in 1966 – although much of the footage was lost after the original master tapes 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.
However, the BBC has confirmed that the story will be restored in the form of an animated release.
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 original story sees the Toymaker successfully tear the Doctor apart from his companions to play a twisted game, while Steven (Peter Purves) and Dodo (Jackie Lane) themselves are also forced into some deadly challenges of their own thanks to his schemes.
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Doctor Who: The Giggle will air on Saturday (9th December) at 6:30pm on BBC One.
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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