In a recent teaser for the upcoming season of Doctor Who, there were plenty of things that made fans excited. When I saw it, I tried to connect some dots between what we saw in the trailer and what was in behind-the-scenes photos; and more specifically, I began thinking about Alan Cumming’s return to the Whoniverse, with his role as Mr. Ring-a-Ding.
Mr. Ring-a-Ding is an animated character whose power to transform real life things into animation. This is a power that may suggest bigger connections and meaning than we might first think. One thing that came to my mind is that Mr. Ring-a-Ding could be another child of the Toymaker (Neil Patrick Harris). I’ll delve more into that theory below.
Alan Cumming returns, with a new chapter in the Doctor Who saga
Season 2 will follow the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) traveling with his new companion, Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu), as they go on new and thrilling adventures across time and space. While the plot details remain very secret, teasers suggest that the show will continue exploring past events, especially those that weren’t resolved/explained yet.
One of the more intriguing elements of this season is the show’s willingness to experiment with unconventional storytelling. The inclusion of Alan Cumming’s animated character, Mr. Ring-a-Ding, is a perfect example of how Doctor Who is having fun with removing the boundaries between animation and live-action, while preserving the “logical” explanation for those events. Alan Cumming’s return to Doctor Who is also particularly exciting. His role may seem like a comic relief or something we will treat as “another villain of the week”, but I believe it is so much more.
The Toymaker’s legacy in the Doctor Who universe
The Toymaker is one of the most dangerous villains the Doctor has ever encountered. He was re-introduced during the 60th Anniversary of Doctor Who with David Tennant as the 14th Doctor. His powers were shown as unpredictable, creepy, and awful. His goal was to keep playing games over and over again for all eternity. When two Doctors defeated him, we thought it was the last time we saw him, but we didn’t know that he had children.
In the previous season, one of his children was introduced: Maestro. Maestro (Jinkx Monsoon) wanted to remove all the music from the universe. When the Doctor found out about this, he tried to fight Maestro, but he barely succeeded. Maestro was trapped in their dimension, but it wasn’t the end of this story.
First of all, one of the behind-the-scenes pictures from season 2 shows the name of a movie, “The Harvest Bringer.” After dropping a few letters, that gives us the name “The Harbinger”, which is the nod to the first appearance of Maestro and Sutekh (Gabriel Woolf).
That’s where Mr. Ring-a-Ding (Alan Cumming) comes in. He is described as a cheerful, sing-along cartoon residing in Sunny Town alongside his friend, Sunshine Sally. However, after years of cinematic repeats, Mr. Ring-a-Ding becomes conscious and realizes that there is a world beyond the screen. This sudden awareness and unnatural interaction with reality raise intriguing questions about his origins and who he is.
My theory is that Mr. Ring-a-Ding is a creation of one of the children of The Toymaker or one of their children. The ability to travel through dimensions and manipulate matter doesn’t seem like regular Doctor Who fare. The one time we saw something like this, and it was during the episode with Maestro. Having fun with movies and showing their impact on people (just like music does, as mentioned in Maestro episode, “The Devil’s Chord”) would be the way to show how important they are. Some movies in history were so important that they caused political and social changes.
Therefore, to cause chaos, Mr. Ring-a-Ding may decide to either make every movie boring, destroy the industry, or even create his versions of iconic movies just to destroy the world. If you want to go into such dark corners of the Doctor Who universe and its lore, Alan Cumming is the person you’d want to narrate the story and be the villain of it.
Mr. Ring-a-Ding’s role & more Children of The Toymaker
Mr. Ring-a-Ding’s emergence from the cinematic realm into the real-world serves as a pretext for exploring new themes that may have seemed unachievable back in the day. The Doctor’s encounter with Mr. Ring-a-Ding could challenge his understanding of dimensional barriers and natural laws once again. From the Doctor’s point of view, this confrontation is one of the catalysts to destroy the boundaries between fiction and reality.
The idea that The Toymaker, one of the most terrifying villains in Doctor Who history, could have more children is a fascinating and scary concept. One of the most dangerous beings that escaped its universe was barely defeated on Earth, but it’s revealed that he has many kids. That sounds like huge trouble. Events like Flux or Sutekh killing the whole universe sound like nothing compared to this chaos. One theory that I had in my mind says that while the Toymaker himself is still contained and ultimately defeated, his real influence was never truly shown. Therefore, his kids don’t need his guidance or powers to survive and do damage.
The Toymaker’s abilities were unconventional. He was like a magician who would do a trick and everything you could imagine would appear. That’s why his children have similar powers; they can manipulate only certain aspects of matter or pop culture. The Toymaker could control games and the environment, Maestro could control music, and Mr. Ring-a-Ding can control movies, animations, and pictures.
If we think about this regarding the potential story of season 2, Alan Cumming’s character, Mr. Ring-a-Ding, could be one such entity. The nature of this character, as a sentient animated figure who gains self-awareness and the ability to interact with the real world, suggests he is a being whose existence destroys the boundaries of this world. Beyond Mr. Ring-a-Ding, there could be other children introduced in season 2, who, just like him, are scattered across the universe. The Toymaker’s children may exist in different forms, some hidden in the depths of space, others lurking in the shadows of human society, waiting for the right moment to reveal themselves. Perhaps some individuals can control stories from books, human emotions, or even time.
Season 2 of Doctor Who could explore this idea in many ways, using the concept of The Toymaker’s children to expand upon his legacy. We still don’t know who and why they picked The Master’s tooth. We don’t know who Ms. Flood (Anita Dobson) is. And we still don’t know what happened to Rogue (Jonathan Groff). So that’s why season 2 may focus on this story arc, but it will not be an arc that dominates the whole season from the first episode to the last.
Could Mr. Ring-A-Ding be a child of the Toymaker?
The introduction of Alan Cumming’s Mr. Ring-a-Ding as a possible child of The Toymaker would signify a nice shift in the Doctor Who narrative by introducing more supernatural elements of this universe. This storyline would not only pay homage to the history of Doctor Who but also introduce us to new stories and characters while being faithful to the whole core of the series.
All in all, my theory that that Alan Cumming’s Mr. Ring-a-Ding is a child of The Toymaker gives me the huge hope that the legacy, influence, and the long battle between The Toymaker and the Doctor won’t be forgotten. Introducing us to the new characters and villains that are directly connected to the Toymaker would prove that you don’t have to forget about other villains, you just have to have a good idea on how to use them and their connection to the Doctor.
Doctor Who returns April 12, 2025. What do you think about this theory? Let us know on social media @mycosmiccircus!
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