Doctor Who: Top 10 missing stories we want to see completed

10. The Celestial Toymaker - Episodes 1 to 3

The Celestial Toymaker is one of those stories that has grown in importance over the years. While it may have taken almost six decades for the Toymaker to return to television, the character has appeared in various stories across a wide range of expanded media over the years.

He even came extremely close to returning to television during Colin Baker's era, in the planned opening story for Season 23. However, due to the season being axed and then heavily reworked into something completely different, The Nightmare Fair was never made. (At least not on television - the story was later adapted into a novel and a full-cast audio drama.)

It's amazing that this character had such a big impact after only one TV appearance for so long. To be honest, after watching this year's newly animated version of the original serial, The Celestial Toymaker doesn't stand out as a story. Each episode sees the Doctor's companions playing a different game, usually something as basic as hopscotch. The Doctor himself, meanwhile, is stuck playing "the Tri-Logic Game" - essentially the Hanoi Tower - for the entire serial. While being invisible for the whole time!

As I mentioned, The Celestial Toymaker is a basic story. Yet at the same time, one thing that has helped it to stand out is the character of the Toymaker himself. The idea of an incredibly powerful being taking innocent mortals to play his games is terrifying in itself.

And while the original story's budget couldn't have depicted the Toymaker's godlike power in terms of special effects, Michael Gough's menacing performance was enough to give the character a sense of power, at least from what we can see in the surviving final episode of the serial. I suspect that's true for the rest of the story, too. So while The Celestial Toymaker might not be one of the greatest serials, it would still be worth viewing for Gough's full performance of the iconic character.