Doctor Who: The Celestial Toymaker (3 page)

Dodo and Steven looked around in
astonishment. During their short talk with the Toymaker, the clowns
had performed a seeming miracle.

The room now resembled a cross between
a gymnasium and an army training obstacle course. There were two
ropes slung over a number of sharp pointed iron spikes. A series of
stepping stones were placed on something that looked like a carpet; a
long thin plank was mounted over two sets of step ladders; and a long
caterpillar-like tube snaked across the room and ended up at a square
marked 'Home'. The floor itself seemed to have taken on the aspect of
a large playing board.

'It's Snakes and Ladders!' cried Dodo.
'Doesn't it look like Snakes and Ladders, Steven. I had a set once
that looked exactly like that.'

'It looks crazy and more than a little
dangerous to me,' said Steven.

'Oh, I don't know,' said Dodo. 'It
looks rather fun. I'd like to play it.'

Clara, overhearing Dodo's voice, turned
to her and beckoned her towards a glass booth standing in a corner of
the room. 'You play from there,' said the female clown. She pointed
to Steven. 'He plays the actual game.' Then she lent forward and in a
loud comical whisper said, 'That's because he's got the brawn and
you've got the brains.'

Dodo couldn't help laughing, especially
on catching sight of Steven's disgusted expression. 'Forget it,' he
said. 'Me play on that? Not on your life.'

'Oh,' said Dodo disappointed. 'But this
is the game we have to play in order to get back the TARDIS isn't
it?'

Clara nodded. 'This is your game. If
you lose it you'll never see your police box again.' She looked
across at Joey whose face was set in an even more miserable
expression than ever. The clowns turned back to Steven and Dodo and
nodded together.

The Doctor and the Toymaker, meanwhile,
were standing in the Toymaker's private office. The Doctor was
examining the cluster of gleaming hi-tech toys which were suspended
from the end of the room. All were deadly weapons of destruction.
There was a model of an advanced missile complete with a deadly
warhead, made to scale with exact measurements. Next to it was the
long gleaming black hull of a nuclear submarine. Above it, the thin
elegant dart shape of a supersonic bomber.

'You see, Doctor,' said the Toymaker.
'I'm not the only one who likes to play with expensive toys. On
Earth, these are considered the most expensive toys of all.
Expensive, because they are made solely to be played with, and never
to be used.'

'Pshaw,' said the Doctor irritably.
'I'm not the slightest bit interested in your toy collection. Kindly cease this practical joking and let us
go at once.'

The Toymaker turned back and smiled
ironically, then walked over to his desk, sat down and leant back,
placing his fingertips together and looking at the Doctor through the
tops of his fingers. 'Patience Doctor, patience. You have only just
got here, now relax. It's so very nice to see you again.'

The Doctor came up, stood in front of
the desk and slowly turned around. 'Now,' he said with a rare flash
of humour, 'you've seen me, so let us go.'

The Toymaker laughed. 'I'm glad you
haven't lost your sense of humour, Doctor. I think you're going to
need it.'

'What do you mean?' said the Doctor.

'Please sit down,' said the Toymaker.
As the Doctor sat opposite him, the Toymaker continued. 'The last
time you were here, I'd hoped you'd stay for a game or two, but you
hardly gave me the time of day before you took off again.'

The Doctor stared at him. 'And very
wise I was too.' The Doctor slapped his lapels in irritation. 'And
you've been conniving ever since to bring me and my companions back
here. You and your games are notorious throughout the universe. You
draw people to this place like a spider attracts flies. Then you
enmesh them in this devilish web of yours and they never get away
again.'

'My games, notorious!' replied the
Toymaker. "Really Doctor, you are quite wrong.' The Toymaker
motioned to his elaborate office: 'This is my universe. All I expect
people to do is to play games to amuse themselves. It also amuses me
to see them play. There is no web to enmesh them. If they continue to
play throughout eternity, perhaps they were - how shall I say? -
fated to do so.'

'Fate?' The Doctor paused for a moment
then leant forward and picked up a small, perfectly made model of an
astronaut off the Toymaker's desk and stared down at it suspiciously.
'I suspect this fellow was one of your victims of fate. Was he amused
by your games?'

The Toymaker's eyes flicked over
towards the small astronaut doll. He shrugged. 'Perhaps he was,
Doctor but then he lost the game, you see, and became one of my
toys.' The Toymaker reached over, took the doll from the Doctor's
hand and put it back on the desk.

'But, like all my dolls, he will have a
chance to play another game and regain his human form. Surely this is
what life is all about. We all play games, even you, Doctor.'

'Your universe, Toymaker, has blinded
you to reality. Everything is not predetermined according to your
desires. Humans do have free will.' The Doctor leant back, crossed
his arms and shook his head obstinately. 'I refuse to play your
games,' he said.

'But you are here now, Doctor, and
subject to my will,' replied the Toymaker. 'I have a doll's house
hanging over there which should be just right for you. It's full of
furniture that exactly matches the period of your clothes; Victorian,
I think.'

The Doctor stared back at him. 'I
should never have come out of the TARDIS,' he said.

'But you're insatiably curious,
Doctor,' said the Toymaker. 'That's why I ensured that the scanner
should be blank. I knew that would make you come outside. Besides, if
you had taken off immediately, you might have remained forever
invisible.' At the thought, the Toymaker threw back his head and
laughed.

The two ancient enemies locked glances
across the desk for a long moment. Finally the Doctor nodded slowly
in acknowledgement: the Toymaker had won the first round. 'What game
do you want me to play?' asked the Doctor.

The Toymaker smiled. 'At last,' he
said. 'Here, Doctor.' He rose, turned, and gestured over towards the
table on which stood the trilogic game. He waved his hand and the
three piles resolved into one big pyramid. Each segment of the
pyramid from the tiny cone at the top to the largest segment at the
bottom was numbered. 'All you have to do Doctor is to reassemble
these segments in the same order they are now, on point C. He pointed
to one of the three triangles of the game.

Interested despite himself, the Doctor
stared at the board and quickly calculated. 'I'm only allowed to move
one piece at a time right?' he said.

The Toymaker nodded. 'That's right.'

'And I'm never permitted to put a
larger piece on a smaller one?' said the Doctor, pleased as always
when his sometimes fallible memory worked efficiently.

'Absolutely correct,' said the
Toymaker. 'And you have 1023 moves to do it in, and that is the exact
amount, mind you - no more or less. If you make one mistake - you
lose!' He crossed back to the desk and pushed a lever. At the far
side of the table, there was a tally recorder with two lines of
figures. 'This is to help you count. The top line shows 1023 moves.
As you progress, the bottom will record the moves you make.

When the two lines match, the game is
over.'

The Doctor raised his head, intrigued
by the challenge the game presented. 'I see,' he said. 'Can I begin?'

'Wait,' said the Toymaker. 'Don't be
too impatient. Look at this.' The Toymaker touched another button at
his desk and waved his hand at a large ornate mirror hanging along
with the other objects behind the desk. The mirror turned cloudy and
then gradually resolved into a picture of Steven, Dodo and the clowns
in the other room. 'Don't forget your companions,' he said.

The Doctor sniffed. 'You aren't going
to make them play this game are you?'

'Good heavens, no,' said the Toymaker
with a hint of condescension. 'This would be much too difficult for
Steven and Dodo. They're on a competitive quest.'

'Tcha, tcha,' said the Doctor. 'You
don't make sense, man. Competitive quest? What do you mean? And who
are those others with them!'

The Toymaker pointed over to the
screen. 'Those are two clown friends of mine. They're what we could
call the home team. They're going to play against your friends and
win the quest.' Again, the Toymaker laughed.

'I don't understand you,' said the
Doctor irritably. 'Quest? What quest?'

The Toymaker waved his hand at the
screen again before answering. Again the picture defocused and
gradually resolved to a picture of the TARDIS, 'The quest for your
interesting little spacecraft,' he said. 'The TARDIS. All you have to
do is win the games and you can have it back, Doctor. But you must
both win the games at exactly the same time.' So you
will have to pace your' - the Toymaker bowed slightly - 'brilliant
playing with the lesser efforts of your friends.'

Stunned by the Toymaker's sarcasm, the
Doctor raised his finger and snapped it in a derisive gesture. 'You
couldn't vanquish me last time, and you won't vanquish me this time,'
he said. 'Nor my friends. They will beat your clowns or anyone else
you send against them, just as I will master this trifling game of
yours.'

The Doctor turned back to the table and
sat down at the chair opposite the counters, hoping that the Toymaker
could not read the slightly anxious set of his frown. The Doctor and
his companions were really up against it this time. He only hoped
Steven and Dodo were as aware of the danger as he was.

Snakes and Ladders

Meanwhile in the Toyroom, the clown
Qara was explaining the rules of the game to Steven and Dodo. 'You
start here blindfolded. It's really very simple,' said the clown.
'You have to cross these obstacles safely without falling.'

Steven pointed over to the male clown
with the sad face. 'What's whatever his name going to be doing all
this time?' he asked.

'His name is Joey,' said Clara. 'And
I'm Clara. He will do it too, of course.'

'And if he loses?' queried Steven.
Clara turned away. Steven turned back to Dodo. 'No answer that time.
Well, suppose we both manage it?'

'Then we do it again,' said Clara.
'Until someone loses.'

'Yes,' said Steven. 'Great future the
Toymaker's mapped out for us! Okay, chum, you want to show us how
it's done?' He turned to Joey who was just putting the finishing
touches to the course. Joey nodded his head, beeped on a horn which
he carried at his waist and rang a little bell.

Steven raised his eyelids a little
wearily. 'That means yes, I suppose?' Again Joey honked his horn
while Clara tied a blindfold over the clown's eyes. Then she turned
to Dodo.

'You must come with me,' she said. 'You
can come too, Steven.' She led the way across to the glass booth in
the corner of the Toyroom. Inside was a simple control desk and a
large red button.

'This is the buzzer button,' she
indicated. 'One buzz for right turn, two for left, three for stop,
four for start.' Clara pressed the buzzer four times.

As Steven and Dodo watched, they saw
Joey feel for the rope, untie it and swing across the sharp spikes,
expertly feeling for and landing on the first stepping-stone. He then
started striding confidently across the remaining stepping-stones.

'Well, if that's all there is to it,'
said Steven, 'any clown can do it.' He turned around expectantly,
waiting for a ripple of laughter or at least a glimmer of
appreciation for one of his rare jokes. But neither Clara nor Joey
even giggled. Steven shrugged, regaining his offhand manner. 'Well,'
he said. 'There's certainly nothing there that I can't manage to do.
When do I start?' He looked to Clara.

Inside the Toymaker's study, the Doctor
was watching Dodo and Steven intently on the monitor. Now he walked
quickly over to the Toymaker's desk and searched for the
inter-communication button that linked the Toymaker with the Toyroom.
He pressed it, leant forward and spoke urgently through the desk
microphone. 'Steven! Dodo! Listen to me: be very careful how you play
this game. It's not as innocent as it looks. So be on your guard.
Watch out for -' the Doctor went on ... but there was a click behind
him and he realised that he was talking into a dead microphone.

Whirling around he saw the Toymaker
suddenly materialise by the desk. 'That was unwise of you, Doctor.'
The Toymaker sounded serious.

The Doctor confronted him. 'I must warn
them.'

'No,' said the Toymaker. 'You'd better
attend to your own game. Go for move 152.'

On the trilogic board, the pieces
started moving of their own volition. The counter number went up from
110 to 152. 'Keep playing,' said the Toymaker. 'And to stop you from
interfering further, I shall have to dematerialise you again. Like
this.' The Toymaker waved his arm and the Doctor faded from sight.

The Doctor's voice rang out across the
study as if to compensate for his lack of visible presence. 'You are
overreaching yourself, Toymaker,' he said. 'How can I play this game
of yours?'

The Toymaker considered for an instant
then nodded. 'Let's see. I think if we left you one hand ...' He
snapped his fingers and the Doctor's hand with his distinctive ring
materialised over the board. 'There now,' continued the Toymaker, 'I
suggest you resume the game if you are to win back the TARDIS.'

There was a moment's pause and then the
hand with great dignity picked up a piece from one section of the
board and placed it on another.

'I thought you'd see it my way Doctor.'
The Toymaker's voice was almost a purr.

In the Toyroom, Joey had just reached
the end of the tube, and as he crawled out, he felt the end of the
square marked 'Home' and stood up. At once, a light came on and
flashed, reading HOME. He raised his hand, whipped the blindfold off
and clasped his hands in the air in a gesture of victory. 'We've
won,' said Clara. 'We've won!'