The Final 'Doctor Who' 60th Anniversary Special Sets the Franchise On a New Course with "The Giggle"

The third and final Doctor Who 60th anniversary special had to serve a lot of masters: Come up with a meaningful way to say goodbye to David Tennant's Fourteenth Doctor and fan favorite companion Catherine Tate, introduce Ncuti Gatwa's new incarnation ahead of his first proper Christmas adventure, and revisit a Classic era villain in Neil Patrick Harris's Toymaker. Plus, you know, give a few quiet moments to returning guest stars like former companion Bonnie Langford and UNIT commander Jemma Redgrave. Did it achieve every goal? No, not really. But that fact doesn't matter as much as it probably should, because showrunner Russell T. Davies's greatest strength has always been his ability to tell stories that, while rarely making sense from a larger narrative or even structural franchise perspective, get the emotional beats exactly right.

Davies loves the Doctor, and it's evident in every line and plot twist throughout "The Giggle," an hour that brings back the (Celestial) Toymaker only to not really do all that much with him, introduces a new Doctor without ever actually retiring the old one, and reminds us that a happy ending is actually the greatest adventure of all. Is Davies perhaps too attached to Tennant as the Doctor? Probably. (I mean, at this point, I'm genuinely starting to wonder if Crowley from Good Omens is secretly some sort of Doctor variant accidentally created way back during the Season 2 "The Satan Pit" two-parter.) But, to Davies and Tennant's credit, both they and the show understand what recent seasons have too often failed to properly convey: The key to this franchise isn't the timey wimey twists or the ridiculous villains it's the big, soppy emotional heart at the center of it, that loves everything about the universe and boy if this whole 60th anniversary situation didn't just embrace that down to the ground.