Playthings

Playthings is a special episode of the BloodLoomis Productions' Lego Doctor Who Series, which was uploaded on 23rd December 2016. It was written by Cameron Hughes and James Stone. It is the second in a series of specials featuring the Ninth Doctor and Jessica Hampton, and the first Christmas Special of the series.

In the episode, the Doctor and Jess are drawn off course to a snowy landscape where they discover a toy shop amidst a forest of trees. Whilst Jess is forced to play a series of deadly games, the Doctor must contest with his old enemy, the Celestial Toymaker.

The special received positive reviews, with many praising the inclusion of the Celestial Toymaker as the villain.

Plot
The Doctor is planning on taking Jess home for Christmas, and after choosing a new outfit, he and Jess head to the console room. However, something takes control of the TARDIS, causing it to materialise in a snowy woodland. A mysterious figure watches the events unfold on a monitor.

Upon leaving the TARDIS, the Doctor and Jess see a light in the distance, and after tracing it to its source, find it's emanating from a toy shop. Inside, they meet an elderly shopkeeper, who welcomes them in out of the cold, yet seems strangely evasive as to who he is. Jess goes upstairs to find a bed for the night, whilst the Doctor heads back to the TARDIS to fetch supplies. To his horror, he discovers it has been rendered 2-dimensional, meaning he cannot get in. Upon returning to the toy shop, the Doctor confronts the shopkeeper, who reveals himself to be the Celestial Toymaker in disguise.

Jess finds herself in a darkened corridor, and suspects that something is wrong. She has to get past a number of lethal games that test her endurance and mental ability, such as Snakes and Ladders, Battleship, Cluedo and a futuristic game show, Pandora's Blocks, hosted by a sinister announcer. Meanwhile, the Doctor and the Toymaker are locked in a battle of wits.

Jess beats the last game, and is brought into the main toyroom, where she is the victim of a game of Hangman: the Doctor must guess a four letter word correctly or she dies and the Doctor is stuck in the Toymaker's dimension forever. The Doctor figures out that the word is actually a number: the number of moves in the Trilogic Game (1023), the game the Doctor beat the Toymaker at before. Jess and the Doctor are released and escape the Toymaker's world, but not without major damage to the TARDIS console room. The Doctor and Jess relax on Earth in the year 2026, enjoying the Christmas spirit.

Continuity
The Doctor discards his grey costume for a more vibrant, purple one, in response to Jess' claim that the grey one was boring. The Celestial Toymaker first appeared in The Celestial Toymaker, and went on to encounter the Doctor again, notably in Blackpool, which is mentioned in this story. Jess hints at her troubled home life: saying that seeing her family at Christmas will be the first time in a while. Her alcoholic father is also referenced.

Writing
It was decided very early on that a Christmas Special would be made, and that it would be written by the two writers credited so far. This marks the first collaboration between two writers in the series. The outline was drafted in one day, and both Stone and Hughes went off and wrote different parts of the story separately. The intention was to make a Christmas Special that was different to the usual specials seen in the New Series (light comedy stories), by making a darker, though ultimately fun experience. The return of the Celestial Toymaker was a quick decision, as he had not only been absent from the TV series since his first appearance, but fit the tone of the desired special.

Filming
The story, despite being set at Christmas, was filmed over the summer of 2016. It required a number of complicated set designs, namely the toy shop, which was one of the most lavish made for the series so far. The 2D TARDIS was made by photographing the die-cast TARDIS used in the series, and printing it out on a small piece of paper. This is also the first story to feature other voice actors, as both Tom Markiewicz and Cormac Mateer (two fellow LDW creators) offered their services.

Trivia

 * The debut of the Doctor's purple costume.
 * The new title sequence is first seen here: a mixture of the Tom Baker and Colin Baker titles.
 * The console room from Season 1 makes its last appearance here, destroyed in the last act of the story.