Landing in a mysterious realm, the Doctor, Steven and Dodo must play and win against the Toymaker and his minions if they are to escape…

Let’s get this out of the way straightaway – this is unlike any animation that BBC Studios has released so far. It takes the idea of using the script and soundtrack for the story and creating something new to the limit… and in the context of this story, it works. You may quibble at the rendering of the TARDIS team, but it’s internally consistent, and the lunacy only kicks in once they are outside the confines of the Ship (and I’ll admit I love the way that the invisible Doctor is shown, so to speak).

Purists who want a recreation of what was on screen nearly 60 years ago are likely to hate this (oh, who am I kidding? The complaints started from the moment the first images were revealed), and for them there is a reconstruction of the first three episodes (not telesnaps as I originally wrote!) as well as the original episode 4. For the rest of us, it’s a wild ride, using the benefits of animation to provide a fresh perspective on the story. (The short feature about its creation is well worth a watch, as is the commentary on the animated episode 4 discussing the process.)

It’s not the strongest set of episodes in the canon, and some of the padding (particularly in the kitchen scenes) is very noticeable, but the imagination of the animation team gives a fresh edge to the depiction of the Toymaker’s dolls – the playing cards in particular. Cyril isn’t quite as Billy Bunter-ish as he was in the original, and a certain rhyme vanishes after its first line, but the inventiveness of this matches the Toymaker’s return in The Giggle.

In terms of the extras, we get commentaries with star Peter Purves, camera operator Dudley Darby, dancer Delia Lindon, make-up assistant Sylvia James, and animation producer/director David Devjak in various combinations, ably moderated by Toby Hadoke as ever; Sylvester McCoy’s introduction from The Hartnell Years; an interesting audio interview with Carmen Silvera; a photo gallery; and a rather lengthy Escape Room feature that fits thematically but is probably one that’ll get watched just the once.

Verdict: Different doesn’t mean bad automatically, and this very different take on the Hartnell story is a fascinating 90 minutes. 8/10

Paul Simpson

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