SPOILERS ALERT!!!
Hello everyone! 🙂
Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!
Wow! It’s been a while since I did one of these quick reviews on a recent ‘Doctor Who’ story. I know I did a quick review on Series 14, but that was a general summary on the whole season, not on an individual story. It’s nice to do this little review on one special. 🙂
If you haven’t seen my quick reactions on ‘Joy to the World’ yet, go and check them out now. Otherwise, here’s more of what I thought of the 2024 ‘Doctor Who’ Christmas Special called ‘Joy to the World’. I enjoyed it, for the most part, when I saw it for Christmas.
I was surprised to find that Steven Moffat was the writer of this Christmas Special and not Russell T. Davies, as is usually the tradition for a showrunner of ‘Doctor Who’ these days. But RTD happened to be very busy on Series 15 that he didn’t have time for the special. 😐
So, he asked Steven Moffat to write up the Christmas Special instead. I think this is one of Steven Moffat’s better Christmas Specials compared to some of the efforts he delivered in his era from 2010 to 2017, but there’s no denying this special has its flaws. 😐
And that’s more than what I’ve identified in my quick reactions via YouTube. That’s not to say ‘Joy to the World’ is awful. I think you’d need to watch it more than once to understand it. There are good moments included in this special, but I feel it’s sadly ruined by the end.
The special has Ncuti Gatwa as the Fifteenth Doctor travelling alone. He visits this hotel in London in the year 4202 (That’s 2024 spelled backwards. I just noticed that 😀 ) and it happens to be the Time Hotel. Well, it isn’t ‘The Space Hotel’ in my Fifth Doctor series. 🙂
Actually, the Time Hotel is a fascinating concept where you visit any time period at your leisure and you get to dress up in period costume. Honestly, I quite like that idea and I’m amazed that it occurs in the year 4202 for that to happen. I wonder if it’s at all possible. 🙂
Anyway, the Doctor notices something wrong involving a mysterious guest with a suitcase and he soon meets up with Nicola Coughlan as Joy Almondo, a cheery yet lonely hotel guest at the Sandringham Hotel in London 2024 (and filmed at a real hotel in Cardiff 😀 ).
If you don’t know who Nicola Coughlan is, she’s well-known for playing Penelope Bridgerton née Featherington in the Netflix series ‘Bridgerton’. “Oh, my Bridgerton”, as Ruby would probably say. 😀 I haven’t seen the series myself to appreciate who Nicola is.
That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy Nicola as Joy in the special. Far from it. She’s enjoyable enough. All the same, I didn’t feel she had plenty of interaction with Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor as I expected her to, which is ironic, since a huge deal had been made of her character. 😐
Honestly, I felt Ncuti’s Doctor was connected more to Steph de Whalley as Anita Benn, the Sandringham Hotel’s manager, when he befriended her whilst stranded in 2024 and waiting to get to 2025 for the path to the Time Hotel to open. I found it a nice little substory.
I quite wish the special was dedicated to Ncuti’s Doctor and Anita and it explored their relationship whilst he was stranded on Earth. At least the Doctor didn’t forget Anita by the time the special came to an end, and she was sought by the Time Hotel to work for them.
There are intriguing and debatable aspects to Joy’s character I found interesting, including the fact her mother died in 2020, and she couldn’t meet her face-to-face due to the Covid-19 pandemic. I know it wasn’t stated it’s the pandemic, but the touch-screen aspect said it was.
I was pleased to see Joel Fry guest starring as Trev Simpkins, a hotel worker, having seen the actor in films like ‘Cruella’, ‘Paddington 2’ and ‘Paddington in Peru’. 😀 He did a Big Finish audio story called ‘Quicksilver’ with Colin Baker, Miranda Hart and Lisa Greenwood.
Joel Fry as Trev could have also easily been a good one-off companion like Anita compared to Joy in the special. It’s a shame he got killed off in the story, though thankfully, via hologram, he was able to help the Doctor and Joy in the story’s second half, which, I guess, is a relief.
A Silurian makes an appearance in this ‘Doctor Who’ Christmas Special. As well as a T-Rex. 😀 I know I joked about it my quick reactions video on the special, but seriously, what is it with Steven Moffat’s obsession with dinosaurs? They’re fine, but…they’re dinosaurs!
And it was a joy for me to see Millie Gibson make a guest cameo appearance as Ruby Sunday in the special. I guessed that would happen, but it was still a thrill to see her even for a few moments. I’m looking forward to seeing Ruby in the upcoming Series 15 in 2025.
The special was ruined for me by the end when Joy self-sacrificed herself to be a star and she apparently ended up as the Star of Bethlehem. I’m sorry, but, even with my Christian upbringing, you know that ‘Doctor Who’ has become more a fantasy series nowadays. 😦
So, yeah, I can’t say ‘Joy to the World’ has been terrible as a Christmas Special in the new ‘Doctor Who’ TV series, but I don’t think it’s great either. It’s one of the better efforts by Steven Moffat, especially in the neo-RTD era, but it doesn’t match to what ‘Boom’ gave. 😐
I know I’m bound to be met with disagreements about this special and if you enjoyed ‘Joy to the World’ more than me when you saw it on Christmas Day, then that’s fine. I’m glad I saw it when it was shown on BBC One, and thankfully, it wasn’t put on BBC iPlayer first. 🙂
Ncuti Gatwa delivers an enjoyable performance as the Fifteenth Doctor and I feel like I’ve been able to get to know him more here than in Series 14. But with ‘Joy to the World’ being as it is, I’m pleased that ‘Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl’ was next to check out.
See you soon for Series 15 of the new ‘Doctor Who’ TV series in 2025.
Thanks for reading!
Bye for now!
Tim 🙂
Bradley's Basement 
Doctor Who is indeed more of a fantasy show in this generation. Even when bringing back some very serious villains from the classic series like the Daleks and Sutekh. When it comes to the Christmas specials and especially with ending reveals like for this one, the fantasy aspects are easily welcomed. But as a realistic reminder on how positively answered our needs can be this time of year, Joy To The World is a refreshing return to the Whoniversal Christmas specials. Thank you, Tim, for your review.
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Hi scifimike,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on ‘Joy to the World’. Glad you enjoyed this special. I suppose the ending didn’t do it for me because, having seen ‘The Nativity Story’ 2006 film recently, I prefer how it was explained how the Wise Man travelled many miles to get to Bethlehem by following the Star in the film. Having Joy ending up being the Star of Bethlehem and appearing in every time zone, including 1 AD, 2020 and 2025, does feel a stretch of the imagination for me. It’s down to interpretation, but it felt rather far-fetched, even if the Nativity is acknowledged in some form in ‘Doctor Who’, which I know had been done in ‘Voyage of the Damned’ by the Tenth Doctor and earlier in ‘Joy to the World’ by the Fifteenth Doctor where they both mentioned they got ‘the last room’ at the inn.
Also, having read up other reviews on the special lately, it felt rather mean-spirited of Steven Moffat and possibly Russell T. Davies to have a go at the Tory government when they broke the rules of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. Steven Moffat wanted to find a reason for people to hate something about Christmas Day. In my mind, that isn’t what a Christmas Special should do. It should bring people together as opposed to alienating what we consider to be bad pennies. I know there are complexities to this, but I think the Covid-19 pandemic shouldn’t have been mentioned in a way that would have a go at those involved in politics. Politics should be the last thing to consider in a ‘Doctor Who’ story. Or at least, if they’re going to make a reference to Covid-19 and the Tories, it should have been more thought-out in terms of the execution of the story.
I know a lot of what I’ve said needs more re-examination and perhaps I need to flesh out my thoughts on this, and that’s something I’m looking forward to doing when it comes to doing an in-depth review on ‘Joy to the World’. I’m glad Millie Gibson’s cameo in ‘Joy to the World’ brightened my day.
Many thanks for your comments,
Tim 🙂
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I can understand. Even with some of the most uplifting examples in Doctor Who as with Vincent Van Gogh, Agatha Christie, Rosa Parks and the Ninth Legion, the actual miracles, mysteries and myths can indeed take precedent for most of us. Science fiction or science fantasy can be a genre for giving ideas, as the classic Doctor Who could most reasonably achieve with the Loch Ness Monster (that’s Terror Of The Zygons and not Timelash), what could have caused the Great Fire of London and the destruction of Atlantis in regards to theoretical ET activity. Nowadays it’s shows like Ancient Aliens and Earthfiles that can be much more inspiring. But so long as Doctor Who like any truly good sci-fi show can still respect our freedom to think, even if it sometimes means some negative reviews, then it continues to earn enough of my respect. Personally I think that the scene with Joy saying “Merry Christmas” to a fly was a good sign of how special her outcome was going to be. Given my improved regard for insects in the recent years, I praise Nicola’s acting for that scene. I almost expected a interesting and special twist for that fly as well.
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Hi scifimike,
Thanks for sharing more of your thoughts on this. I’m sure over time before I get on to doing my in-depth review on ‘Joy to the World’, I’ll be able to share my thoughts in an evaluative manner on why this doesn’t work for me as well as what good can come of it. It’s an intriguing depiction of how a certain aspect of the Nativity is portrayed in ‘Doctor Who’ by Steven Moffat. Not one I agree with, but certainly intriguing.
Many thanks,
Tim 🙂
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Hi Tim
I gone into more depth on the forum why I disliked this episode, I’m very upset with the use of covid because of my dad & not being able see him in final days, I thought that was insensitive & Joy’s mother could easily had heart of liver condition & needed a transplant than to use covid no doubt this upset many viewers who lost loved ones.
As for the story I’m sick of this pantomime twaddle the shows become & the box ticking elements that showrunner RTD needs to include every episode, Ncuti Gatwas is a awful Doctor & lacks gravitas & doesn’t do a lot except flirt or cty, i enjoyed The War Games in colour much more than I did this rubbish & it breaks my heart say this but the show needs resting.
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Hi Simon,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on ‘Joy to the World’. I did think of you regarding the use of Covid connected to Joy’s character. I agree that Covid didn’t need to be included in the story, as it’s too soon following 2020 and 2021, and more thought should have been put into how the issue was to be tackled if it was going to be tackled at all. It goes back to the point I’ve made about the episode being mean-spirited in terms of its writing and that it shouldn’t have gone in the direction it did, which I hope to elaborate on when it comes to doing an in-depth review on the special.
I wouldn’t really blame Ncuti Gatwa in terms of how he plays his Doctor. I like him enough. It’s more to do with the writing and how the special is directed. It’s sad because there was a time where I really like RTD and Steven Moffat’s writing in ‘Doctor Who’ when I was getting into the series in the 2000s and thought they could do no wrong. Nowadays, ‘Doctor Who’ tends to be more gimmicky in terms of its writing and I wish more emphasis was placed on character drama than on spectacle.
Very pleased you enjoyed ‘The War Games’ colourisation recently. I agree, it’s better than what ‘Joy to the World’ gave us in terms of ‘Doctor Who’ over Christmas. I still stand by Millie Gibson’s cameo as Ruby Sunday in ‘Joy to the World’ as that made my day and was the saving grace of the Christmas Special for me.
Good news about Tom Baker getting his MBE recently. Very pleased about that.
Best wishes,
Tim 🙂
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No verdict from me, I’m afraid. I gave this one a skip.
I don’t jive with Steven Moffat scripts at the best of times. 2024 was a year of funerals and cancer. I wasn’t in the mood for many of the traits endemic in one of his scripts. (Including the “not really dead” crutch, which is in especially bad taste in the current climate.)
I did end up watching The Happiness Patrol, though, of all things. A story about the ugliness of toxic positivity as only Doctor Who could do. Oddly enough, that did make me feel better. Something rather empowering in that story there.
Was it a Christmas story? No. Did it suit Christmas 2024? Absolutely.
May the year 2025 bring better things because that was yuck.
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Hi Wolfie,
Okay, that’s interesting that you skipped this Christmas Special. That’s fair enough. Glad you enjoyed ‘The Happiness Patrol’ instead. A fascinating choice. I’m looking forward to re-examining my thoughts on that story when it comes to updating my reviews on Season 25 of the classic TV series in its Blu-ray box set.
From what I’ve discovered according to this BBC link, ‘Joy to the World’ had 4.11 million overnight viewing figures in the UK whilst ‘Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl’ had 9.38 million and ‘Gavin & Stacey: The Finale’ had 12.32 million. A sign that ‘Doctor Who’ might be in trouble? Probably. It’s an indicator that the current showrunner shouldn’t place too much confidence in their Christmas Specials if they’re not going to bring in the viewing figures required to achieve success depending on how well they’ve been received lately by both ‘Doctor Who’ and non-‘Doctor Who’ audiences.
Happy New Year to you, Wolfie. Hope 2025 is a better year for you compared to the previous year we’ve had.
Best wishes,
Tim 🙂
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The Happiness Patrol is a good example of how a society becoming overdependent on something that’s meant to help, whether its genetic advancements in Gattaca or some absolute law in Anon, can inevitably do more harm than good. Especially for individuals who are quite undeserving of the consequential oppressions. THX 1138 was the first dystopian future story to give me the best appreciation for that kind of sci-fi genre when I was a kid. Doctor Who’s uniqueness with such stories can still be effective today, depending on how good we can be on getting passed some of the overwhelmingly fantastical aspects. As a lesson on how what we give our attention to becomes our reality, I always appreciate the reminders that the Doctor’s ethical speeches to those like Helen A can give us.
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Hi scifimike,
I’m not usually a fan of ‘Doctor Who’ stories that have socio-politically charged themes to them, though ‘The Sun Makers’ is a pretty enjoyable romp. But if there was a Christmas version of ‘The Happiness Patrol’ made, albeit with a different style, atmosphere, setting and characters to explore how dependency on the commercialism of Christmas can affect a society, I’d welcome it. Maybe throw in a Grinch-like monster to add to the effect. I’m surprised that’s not been done yet in ‘Doctor Who’ or maybe it’s being considered. Who knows? 😀
Many thanks,
Tim 🙂
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Something’s definitely off about current Doctor Who. I don’t usually bounce that hard off a preview, but it felt… tacky?
The knee-jerk reaction is to lay it at the lead actor’s feet. As we saw with, oh, gosh… Jodie Whitaker, Matt Smith, David Tennant, Christopher Eccleston, Paul McGann, Sylvester McCoy, Colin Baker, Peter Davison, Tom Baker–
Yes, even MBE-winning Tom Baker was criticised for bad performances with no gravitas. He was in the shadow of Jon Pertwee, after all, who was in the shadow of Pat Troughton, who was no match for Bill Hartnell, really…
It’s a poor excuse. Genuinely poor. It was a tired excuse in the 1960s and it’s tired now. Doesn’t work with me, either, I still like seeing Ncuti Gatwa strut his stuff. It’s the stories…
I honestly think the problem is we have two major voices — Russell T. Davies and Steven Moffat — who have been much lauded in their time, but… We’ve seen all their content before. We know the story beats. We saw them for years. And now the initial glow has worn off.
Rogue was the most vital and new of those new Fifteenth Doctor tales, but it still felt like a refugee from RTD’s first era. Safe. The standalone stories of the previous season were grand, but push came to shove — aside from 73 Yards — we knew this dance already.
I think I’ve said this before, but Doctor Who has felt like it’s catching up to the landscape. Not vice versa. A place of Arcane, Gentry Chau vs. the Underworld, SPY X FAMILY, the new Ranma 1/2, etc. It’s strange to me that a story from 1988 has far more to say about the modern world than a story produced in 2024. That’s not a good sign.
You’ll see people jump to the Moffat name for this special like a Gucci handbag. It’s a brand as much as anything else, but… That’s all really Doctor Who feels like at the moment. A brand.
And that’s the clincher.
It reminds me of something said in an episode of Castle, I think it was. By a counterfeiter. He said: “These people, they don’t care about the bag, really. If it has the Gucci name on it, they’ll buy it. They’re buying the name, not the bag.”
Doctor Who has always been anti-corporate. Trying to twist that around and sell me Disney+ on a billboard with Gatwa’s image feels so wrong.
Now, if someone wanted to do a story about that — the grotesque tackiness of turning the Doctor’s image into a way to sell plushies. That could be quite interesting. I mean, it’s been done with Jubilee, but still… Add in Steamboat Willy, and a not-Disney theme park, you might have something there…
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Thanks for your additional thoughts, Wolfie.
I was sceptical about Russell T. Davies returning to be the showrunner of ‘Doctor Who’ when it was announced back in 2021. My opinion of that was coloured by the fact that I was unimpressed with his efforts in ‘Farewell, Sarah Jane’. I was hoping to be proven wrong, especially with enjoying ‘Mind of the Hodiac’ and his non-‘Doctor Who’ work in ‘Dark Season’ (both TV serial and novelization) in-between the time I checked out ‘Farewell, Sarah Jane’ and saw the 60th anniversary specials.
The 60th anniversary specials have unfortunately lowered my hopes for the neo-RTD era, but I didn’t expect that
a) my assumption of how the neo-RTD era would turn out to be about correct
and
b) the ‘Doctor Who’ fandom would be divided over how his efforts as showrunner have turned out lately.
It’s sad, and it’s especially sad when RTD and Steven Moffat don’t seem to take on board the constructive criticism that might help them to improve the show’s direction. At least, that’s the impression I’m getting. I also don’t know if it’s them who’s responsible for how things turn out in ‘Doctor Who’ lately or if it’s the BBC and Disney’s involvement or a combination of the two. I don’t like to judge these things since I don’t see enough evidence to point the finger of who gets the blame. The behind-the-scenes making-of documentaries and featurettes don’t help in that regard either, especially when they’re focusing on the showy aspects of ‘Doctor Who’ and not the intricate ins-and-outs of how a story is constructed. ‘Doctor Who Unleashed’ is not ‘Doctor Who Confidential’. ‘Doctor Who Confidential’, at least in my mind, found time to explain how a certain story is developed and why certain characters went on their journeys. That’s the impression I got from watching the David Tennant era-episodes of ‘DWC’ as opposed to the Matt Smith-era episodes. Nowadays, we’re given the Steffan Powell show where the episodes are 28 to 29 minutes instead of 30 or 45 minutes. Admittedly, I need to see more of the Ncuti Gatwa-era episodes to be sure of this (and I hope I will when I get to do my in-depth reviews on Series 14 of ‘Doctor Who), but I don’t watch ‘DWU’ much after a new episode is shown. I stopped watching it after seeing ‘Space Babies’ and ‘The Devil’s Chord’.
Regarding Disney, I’m saddened that they have a reputation of not always being able to produce good content nowadays, especially as they used to produce good stuff in the old days when ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ started it all in 1937 before there was a lull around the 1980s with ‘The Black Cauldron’, I believe, and then Disney got back on track with their Renaissance in 1989 with producing films like ‘The Little Mermaid’, ‘Aladdin’, ‘The Lion King’, Tarzan’, etc. Yes, there have been ups and downs, but Disney’s always managed to find a way to get back on top with good storytelling. Frankly, I think Disney’s trying to do too much with owning as much content as possible such as the ‘Marvel Cinematic Universe’ and ‘Star Wars’ and not understanding what makes them work well half the time. They seem to be taking ‘Doctor Who’ in that direction too, which is sad to think about. I’d like to think I’m wrong about this, but again, it’s the impression I’m getting with how ‘Doctor Who’ is being produced nowadays.
Many thanks,
Tim 🙂
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I think you’ve hit the nail on the head, Tim. Disney has always been good at doing Disney…
But Doctor Who has never been Disney. Doctor Who cannot be Disney by definition. The series far too subversive. Far more like The Owl House or Nimona, stories that Disney condemned for “not fitting their brand”.
The Doctor is an outsider, an anarchist, a scientist, a mystic. The first Dalek story is an anti-nuclear story, what some modern critics uncharitably would call “woke”. That was 1963.
The Doctor is not part of the establishment. Especially if we look at the “marketable” ones like Tom Baker or David Tennant. I think the series was acquired and those pulling the reins — whoever they are now — thought they were getting something quite different. “Goofy British guy,” rather than “dignified tales about culture clash, justice and morality.” And now they’re trying to squeeze the series into a box it never belonged in.
I think it’s best exemplified by something I saw on the official promotions. “The Doctor and the Silurians — best frenemies.” You know: A recurring tragedy that serves as a strong allegory for the struggle between colonial and indigenous cultures. Three instances that have resulted in major massacres. “Frenemies.” That’s… a bit tone deaf.
This feels a lot like the debut of Paul McGann film. We got a great Eighth Doctor from it and two companions (that sadly can’t be used), but not very much else. Ironically, Highlander the Series — made roughly at the same time — does a far better job of capturing the feeling of Doctor Who (if every other week the Doctor was battling renegade Time Lords).
But, heck, if we’re looking practically at this, we’ve these obstacles to overcome as the viewer:
Ncuti Gatwa didn’t get a regeneration story. There was no passing of the torch, as desperately needed.
Add to that we’ve so little of the Fifteenth Doctor in his debut season because of prior film commitments.
The episode count is so small for no reason. Every story in Series 1 could have been told with half the budget (did we need millions for Boom?).
Not a single risk was taken. Not even with diversity, really. Maestro was modelled after a drag queen, but portrayed as a villain. Hardly progressive. Alpha Centauri, a sympathetic genderfluid character, in The Curse of Peladon from way back in 1972 fares better (Lucifer does the subject matter quite well, too).
There’s no real sense of threat. How do you take Sutekh — an omnicidal terror worthy of the Illithids from Baldur’s Gate 3 — and make him ineffectual? I don’t need The Caves of Androzani, but things seem terribly easy for this Doctor.
I will grant it this: The individual episodes are technically excellent. 73 Yards, Boom and Rogue are all really cleverly scripted. But there’s so preciously little to latch onto for the season that it just… doesn’t leave an impression. They feel like latter-day Marvel films. All fizzle, no pop. Incomplete.
Doctor Who will survive. The series survived a death of 15 years, it can survive anything. It’s just going through its latest rough patch. My worry is how long that rough patch will last. It’s impossible to predict.
I’d like to get to the end of it with something to show for Ncuti Gatwa and this era. The very last thing I’d want is for it to be a wasted opportunity.
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Disney taking over both Doctor Who and Star Wars made me a little uneasy. I liked Disney sci-fi when it was originally their own like The Black Hole, TRON and The Watcher In The Woods. But allowing another organization a big amount of control over what you originally created is clearly a most troubling issue with much of our TV and cinema.
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Hi Wolfie, Hi scifimike,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
I really enjoyed Season 3 of ‘The Orville’ on Disney+ where the 10 episodes were told within 80 minutes or so to allow the stories and characters to be developed naturally and you could feel the tension building up when a dangerous situation was happening. If ‘Doctor Who’ episodes can be told in say 90 minutes like ‘The War Games’ colourisation was told and if there wasn’t the rush-rush aspect of the show to tell the stories needed to be told and the characters needed for development, then it’s likely the stories would be very compelling and they don’t need to rely on being gimmicky or have overdoses of humour to compensate any shortcomings. The classic ‘Doctor Who’ stories when told in their entirety can often be regarded as movies. I think ‘The Power of the Doctor’ did well with being able to tell its story within 90 minutes. It astonishes me that RTD hasn’t followed that example, especially when ‘The Power of the Doctor’ did decently well in terms of viewing figures and how it was reviewed postively by critics.
Best wishes,
Tim 🙂
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