We’ve come back around to the best time of year, Christmas! It feels like a dream being able to say we’ve now gotten two Doctor Who Christmas specials, back to back, but I’ve pinched myself, and this is indeed reality. Last year’s Christmas Special gave us an introduction to the Fifteenth Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson), while providing us with a musical number that shot up the Christmas charts and also setting up the story for the first season with Ncuti as the Doctor.
Doctor Who Season 1 ended with Ruby Sunday finally solving the mystery of her birth mother, who was just a regular woman in plain hiding. Having reunited with her, she had to say goodbye to the Doctor, leaving him as she stayed behind to catch up with her mother and as he went on to continue travelling time and space. While it was an ending that was divisive amongst the fans and myself, we still question where The Doctor went to next.
‘Joy To The World‘ follows Joy (Nicola Coughlan) as she checks into a London hotel in 2024, where she opens a secret doorway to the Time Hotel—discovering danger, dinosaurs, and the Doctor. But a deadly plan is unfolding across the Earth, just in time for Christmas.
Hotels are one of this world’s biggest mysteries. Why is there no 13th floor in a hotel, and what’s with all the extra doors in rooms that don’t open? Well, ‘Joy To The World‘ answers one of those questions, which is the latter, and that’s the Time Hotel in London, 4202. This episode primarily takes place between two locations (well, many thanks to the Time Hotel): the Sandringham Hotel in 2024 and the Time Hotel in 4202. The Time Hotel is one of the few locations from Doctor Who that you wish was real. The Time Hotel, instead of hosting rooms, hosts time portals, which allow people to go to any era that they please or just leave their own era to have a “mini break,” as the Doctor puts it.
This episode feels like a gradual return to form of what to expect from a Christmas special of Doctor Who. There are two key factors that should be present when you’re sitting down with the family in front of the telly after Christmas dinner on BBC One. The first is that obviously the episode must be set during Christmas because then what’s the point of it even being a Christmas special? The second is that it must feel like Christmas; it should give you that warm, joyous feeling you feel during Christmas Day.
While my personal favourite Christmas special is ‘A Christmas Carol,’ which not only pays homage to Charles Dickens’ story of the same name, but it was full of that feeling which I mentioned. This episode doesn’t quite get there, but the episode does take a break in its second act to provide this sense of Christmas that wasn’t present in last year’s episode and clearly wasn’t present in the New Year specials we were stuck with.
Although it’s only for roughly 10 minutes out of the 55 minutes we have, it was still a beautiful moment for the Doctor to share as he finally gets to sit down and spend time on Christmas with Anita Benn (Steph De Whalley), the receptionist at the Sandringham Hotel. It’s a small moment, but it’s a moment that will stay with the Doctor and hopefully bring a change to his character for the second season.
The Doctor comes across a character holding a peculiar briefcase, which catches his attention as soon as he enters the Time Hotel, and this is where the mystery begins. What is inside the briefcase? Why does it keep possessing whoever holds it? What the hell is going on here? Unfortunately, the mystery sounds better than it actually is and is the major downside to this episode, but it’s lifted right back up in holiday spirits as we get this great character development with Joy and begin to understand why she seems lonely but is also so bubbly and full of joy.
Steven Moffat wrote ‘Boom,’ an episode for the first season, and returns again in Russell T Davies’ second run as showrunner to deliver this Christmas special. ‘Boom‘ still stays a standout episode from the first season, and although Moffat’s writing is better there than it is here, he still manages to create an overarching story surrounding Joy that brings us one of the most wholesome endings that’s fitting for a Christmas episode. I’d argue that you can’t get more Christmas with how beautifully this episode ends. Viewers and fans will be pointing at their screens as they realise the reference of a lifetime, something that RTD has wanted in Doctor Who for a while now.
Moffat’s writing also brings in heaps of humour for this episode, which was truly unexpected because of how funny the episode was while genuinely still sticking on track with a story that has a serious tone to it as it deals with topics such as COVID and the deaths following it. From the opening moments with the Doctor going door to door to deliver a ham and cheese toastie and a pumpkin latte to arriving in the Time Hotel in a robe to grab fresh milk because supposedly the Tardis has a nav-com algorithm that homes in on fresh milk (he needs a fridge badly), as ridiculous as it all sounds, I’m not making any of this up.
A singular moment that had me laughing so hard but, at the same time, is the biggest wake-up moment for The Doctor, is when he runs into his future self. The Doctor refuses to answer The Doctor’s questions, leading him to send a flurry of insults to himself, some of which were about him being mysterious, alone, and how there are no chairs on the Tardis. It sounds confusing, but with all the context, it’s the greatest singular scene we’ve gotten from Ncuti’s Doctor, and I need more of this humour that doesn’t feel like too much but also isn’t a poor attempt at trying to make the audience laugh.
‘Joy To The World‘ is a great Christmas episode that almost feels like a return to form for Doctor Who Christmas Specials as it returns us with that warm feeling of being around family on Christmas Day. The overall mystery of the episode isn’t as captivating as Moffat hopes it to be, but he makes it up with Joy’s storyline, the Doctor’s development, and the humour. There are some returning faces from Season 1 that’ll bring a smile to your face, and if you remember why December 25 is so significant, you’ll know exactly who, but there’s no tease for what’s to come in Season 2.
We’ll just have to wait and see what awaits us.
Doctor Who Christmas Special: Joy To The World airs on BBC One in the UK and streams on Disney+ internationally on December 25.
