Doctor Who's 60th Anniversary: The Toymaker's Spice Girls Scene

The Zany Spice Girls Scene

The wonderfully zany Spice Girls scene from Doctor Who's 60th anniversary is more than just a hilarious diversion - it redeems a mistake from Russell T Davies' original stint as showrunner. With David Tennant's bi-generation, the debut of Ncuti Gatwa, and a mystery hand picking up the Master's gold tooth, "The Giggle" is not short on talking points. Perhaps even more memorable than those moments, however, is Neil Patrick Harris' Toymaker dancing through UNIT headquarters and miming along to the Spice Girls' "Spice Up Your Life." Despite bearing zero relation to the plot, this eccentric sequence is the moment the two disparate worlds of Doctor Who and 1990s pop become one.

Jemma Redgrave as Kate Stewart and Neil Patrick Harris as The Toymaker dancing in the Doctor Who episode The Giggle

The Toymaker's Musical Moment

Watching the Toymaker prance around UNIT's control room doing his best Geri Halliwell impression brings back memories of the Master from Doctor Who season 3's "The Sound of Drums." As the climax beckoned, John Simm's villain had already bested the Doctor and summoned the Toclafane, putting domination of Earth firmly within his grasp. To celebrate, the Master launched "Voodoo Child" on his iPod - probably, this was the late 2000s - and floated around the bridge of his airship with his wife joining in. Not drawing a parallel between the Master's "Voodoo Child" and the Toymaker's "Spice Up Your Life" is very difficult. Both sequences put sinister villains in silly musical situations, and both moments come when the antagonist's victory is imminent. The two scenes are each designed to be deliberately jarring, breaking a tense and suspenseful atmosphere with music, humor, and ill-timed joviality. The biggest difference between the Master's musical mishap and the Toymaker's number leading into Doctor Who's big 60th anniversary ending, however, is how well each version executes the idea.

Neil Patrick Harris as the Toymaker in Doctor Who

The Perfect Blend of Nostalgia and Ostentation

If "Voodoo Child" was just an awkward wannabe, Doctor Who's "The Giggle" gets the concept right. Rather than settling for half-measures, the Toymaker goes the whole way, dancing and lip-syncing for what feels like half a song before finally disappearing as suddenly as he arrived. With petals, balloons, and multiple characters joining in whether they want to or not, the sheer audacity and ambition of the scene makes it work. In the case of "The Giggle," there is no such thing as "too much," but the song choice also helps. Whereas "Voodoo Child" was a little too trendy to be the sonic backdrop of such a cheesy scene, "Spice Up Your Life" finds the perfect blend of nostalgic and ostentatious.

Neil Patrick Harris as the Toymaker making a heart symbol in Doctor Who