20th September, 2024: the Introduction.
Just to be different … ?
I’ve changed things around, today.
Yes: I’ve put that nice red picture … on the other side of this post!
Which possibly only makes sense if you’ve read earlier posts!
At any rate, it’s Friday: shopping is done, phones appointments out of the way …
And dinner started.
All I need to do, now … ?
Is possibly clean the carpet: and let you know I’started this post, yesterday!
~≈👨⚕️≈~
21st September, 2024.
Part One: the Summary.
Episode 3 of The Celestial Toymaker – “The Dancing Floor” — reminds us of the riddle the Toymaker has given Steven and Dodo (Peter Purves and Jackie Laine).
“Hunt the key to fit the door,that leads out on the dancing floor.Then escape the rhythmic beat,or forever tap your feet.”
Once through the door?
The pair find themselves not in a dancehall: but in the kitchen run by Mrs Wiggs (Carmen Silvera): who is soon joined by Sergeant Rugg (Campbell Singer).
The nursery characters have been promised lives, real lives, and being freed from the Toymaker’s realm: if they can get across the Dancing Floor, before Steven and Dodo.
The only, initial, problem?
Is that one of the two teams … has to find the key …
~≈👨⚕️≈~
Part Two: Thoughts.
So … what did I think of this episode?
“Paul”, I hear you say, “what did you make of ‘The Dancing Floor’”?
I have to confess, “The Dancing Floor” is much like “The Celestial Toyroom”, and “The Hall of Dolls”: all three are light, fluffy, episodes designed to puzzle us: rather than scare us, as the episodes I grew up watching, did.
Definitely light and fluffy, I think: ten minutes worth of Sergeant Rugg and Mrs Wiggs (Campbell Singer, and Carmen Silvera) having a food fight, definitely bordered on the slapstick.
And the solution to this week’s puzzle — Steven and Dodo swopping dancing dolls for each other — seemed obvious from the minute the characters walked into the Dance Room.
So … it’s light and fluffy … ?
We might need to say more on that, later.
~≈👨⚕️≈~
Part Three: Observations.
If I’m going to be honest, this episode got me thinking of other things.
For one … ?
For one thing, “The Dancing Floor” made me realise this serial reminded me, vaguely, of The Rocky Horror Show: the original stage musical, rather than its cinematic equivalent.
Why?
Simply because both play and serial re-use actors in different roles.
In the play? The actor who plays Eddie in act one, usually plays Doctor von Scott in the second: the actress who plays Magenta is also the one who plays the Usherette, at the play’s start.
That way, you get eleven different parts played by nine different actors: and the production can save a bit of money.
“The Dancing Floor”?
Reminded me that Singer, Silvera and Stephens play a third character in this third episode.
That’s one similarity I saw.
Another?
I’ve been watching the animated, colour, version of the story.
And, in this version, when Steven and Dodo first enter the ball room, there’s a stage area at the back of the room: complete with red curtains*.
That’s something I usually associate with the work of David Lynch: even his black and white work.
But in this case, it wasn’t Lynch I was thinking of.
It was “The Giggle”, the first of the 60th Anniversary specials.
As the Toymaker using a similar — if not identical — space to torment the Doctor and Donna.
Is that similarity deliberate? Did the respective TV and blu-ray release dates see “The Giggle” influence the design work of “The Dancing Floor”?
I couldn’t fell you: I think it’s just a meaningful co-incidence, rather than a co-ordinated decision on the part of two different production teams†.
One last thing I was thinking?
Was that I found the Campbell Singer, and Carmen Silvera, characters reminiscent of other people.
Singer’s Sergeant Rugg put me in mind of Obadiah Hakeswill: the bullying sergeant from the Sharpe TV series, played by the late Pete Postlethwaite.
And Silvera’s voice, for Mrs Wiggs?
Heavily reminded me of Dandy Nichols: as Else Garnett in Till Death Do us Part.
Why? I don’t know.
But I suspect that the writing and the performances — of Rugg, especially — put me in mind of some old tropes.
Just as a last thought … ?
Did you ever read a William Gibson story called “Johnny Mnemonic”?
This episode’s title, “The Dancing Floor”, put me mind of “Johnny Mnemonic”, as its key fight scene is on what gets called the Killing Floor: named for the Howlin’ Wolf song, it’s a boxing ring, rigged to amplify the sounds of fighters’ footsteps.
I know: the two names have nothing in common.
But did leave me with an earworm, ever since I first heard the name of the episode … !
~≈👨⚕️≈~
Part Four: Last Words.
Given all that … ?
What did I think of this episode, of “The Dancing Floor”?
I have to admit, I’ve enjoyed the episode.
Yes: there’s issues.
Yes: the way that Steven and Dodo get off the Dancing Floor, and to relative safety, seemed obvious from the second they wolked through the door.
Yes: the Food Fight between Wiggs and Rugg seemed a little too slapstick …
But Peter Stephens’ introduction — as the menacing Cyril — was very well done: as was Gough’s performance as the Toymaker.
And both Purves and Lane as the two main characters.
Frankly?
This is a light, fluffy episode in a light, fluffy story.
But it’s one that is still perfectly watchable.
“The Dancing Floor”★★☆☆
* The stage doesn’t seem to be in the telesnaps version of the episode. But I possibly won’t be able to confirm that, until the BBC finds and releases those missing episodes.
† As a footnote? The china plates Mrs Wiggs has in her kitchen have a blue pattern: with red police boxes in the centre. From the very little I know, there are or were, some red police boxes in Glasgow. And there was a red phone box on the East India Dock Road, near Blackwall Tunnel: for use by people who needed to contact London Fire Brigade. I don’t know if it’s still there: but we used to pass it, on family trips to London.
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