Review of The Giggle
Warning: This review may contain episode-specific spoilers and wild speculation about future episodes.

I’m not sure I’ve ever come out of a Doctor Who episode feeling simultaneously so shocked and so delighted. I’m not entirely sure how he managed, it but RTD has broken everything we thought we knew about regeneration and made us love it. He has every right to feel smug about doing something unexpected.

Source – bbc.co.uk – © 2023 BBC

In case it’s not clear, I loved this episode. Probably my biggest point of contention with it is the title (which sounds ridiculous). It makes me feel almost apologetic to my readers, because I don’t think I’m going to be able to be even the slightest bit objective this time.

From the Doctor having a “team” again to the return of a Hartnell-era villain to That Plot Twist, I was an eager rider on this roller coaster. While several things settled into the back of my mind for further inspection, none of it spoiled my enjoyment.

Perhaps foremost in my mind is the presence of the Vlinx, the random alien working with UNIT. Everyone takes the Vlinx in stride—including the Doctor—and doesn’t bother to question the Zeedex that the Vlinx has provided to UNIT to combat the titular threat. Even when Kate Stewart rages against the Doctor’s alienness under the influence of “the spike,” no one bats an eyelash at the presence of the Vlinx. I can’t believe that won’t come back at some point in the upcoming series.

I also found it interesting that RTD chose to make a nod to the racist history of the antagonist. In the pre-credits sequence, the shopkeeper at the toy shop uses a stereotypical, heavy German accent (and glaringly faux German vocabulary) while insinuating rude things about his customer. While it helps the audience hate the guy from the get-go, it also alludes to the fact that the serial in which this character (whose name I’m not using until under the cut, to avoid potential spoilers) first appeared openly used the N-word. It makes me wonder whether the character will return, and whether race will be a theme when he does.

This time, RTD continued his social commentary on disability issues, building on groundwork he’d laid in The Star Beast. While Kate is being her worst self, UNIT’s current Science Advisor Shirley Anne Bingham (played by real-life wheelchair user Ruth Madeley) comes under fire for daring not to live up to an able-bodied person’s unrealistic stereotype. Madeley could undoubtedly have written some of the comments from the internet well in advance of her character’s initial appearance, so I’m glad RTD addressed it so directly (along with calling out humanity’s general tendency to be nasty to each other, especially online).

I really hope we see more of Shirley. The strong presence of UNIT here has great possibilities, especially when we learned that Mel had returned to Earth and is now on staff. (Brief pause to say Hooray for Mel!) Further, the fact that Kate recruited Donna by offering a decent salary and then meeting Donna’s doubled counteroffer without hesitation bodes well for the possibility of more UNIT stories with all sorts of former Companions in our future (on Big Finish if nowhere else).

Aside from the heartwarming return of Mel, there were a slew of fantastic moments throughout. There was Donna being her brilliant self, figuring out the peaks in the signal were music, and later making use of her killer typing skills. There was the Toymaker putting on a show for Donna to summarize some of the major points of the Doctor’s journey after he left her (and using a fourth accent—this time his natural American one). And there was Neil Patrick Harris being Neil Patrick Harris with that ridiculously, fantastically over-the-top “Spice Up Your Life” dance number.

But I don’t think anyone would argue that the one, true, important part of the entire episode was Ncuti Gatwa’s on-screen debut as the Doctor.

I nearly screamed when I realized that we were getting the next Doctor two-thirds of the way through the episode, rather than in a cameo appearance at the very end. It was certainly an unprecedented surprise (though I wouldn’t object to it becoming the norm)! The whole premise was bonkers, and I’m sure lots of fans will hate it, but I thought it was amazing.

More than the whole bi-generation thing, though—which, don’t get me wrong, is fascinating; what sort of timey-wimey bullshit is going on there, since Ncuti’s Fifteenth Doctor [yes, yes, I’m on board now with this version of Tennant’s Doctor being Fourteen] clearly has all of their predecessor’s memories in there, too—I am ecstatic to have enough of an introduction to Fifteen to get a sense of who they are.

Because they are beautiful, inside and out. They are finally comfortable in their own skin. They’re tender and compassionate and openly affectionate (that kiss on the head!). They are still a little wacky (a cartoonish hammer to perform a cartoonish duplication on the TARDIS). And they have a not-straight-white-cisman’s manner of speech (calling their previous regeneration “love” and “honey”).

This very much feels like a soft reset on the entire franchise. Fifteen is calling out some of the traumas they’ve gone through in their long life—Mavic Chen [One]; put on trial [Two and Six]; exiled [Three]; Key to Time and Logopolis [Four]; Gods of Ragnarok [Seven]; Time War [Nine]; Pandorica [Eleven]; and losing Adric [Five], Rose [Nine, Ten], River Song [Ten; also many others], and Sarah Jane [Three, Four, Five, Ten, Eleven]—and giving Fourteen permission to stop. To rest. To process.

But that doesn’t mean there won’t still be adventure. UNIT is chock full of amazing friends. The Toymaker talked about “the one who waits” (and we still don’t know who the Meep’s “boss” is). And a hand with brightly painted nails picked up a conspicuous gold tooth.

I can’t say I have any real idea where the Fifteenth Doctor is headed, but wherever it is, I’m ready to follow. I look forward to welcoming the coming years of their era in the same way that I began: with sheer glee.