‘JOY TO THE WORLD’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

The Fifteenth Doctor meets Joy for Christmas

Well, here we are again, everyone! 🙂

It’s astonishing to think that back in December 2024, ‘Joy to the World’ was shown on Christmas Day! This is the second and – as it turned out – final ‘Doctor Who’ Christmas Special to feature Ncuti Gatwa as the Fifteenth Doctor. 😐 Probably not intended that way.

But that’s what it became on reflection of the entire Ncuti Gatwa/Russell T. Davies era of ‘Doctor Who’ from 2023 to 2025. And it’s fascinating to revisit this Christmas Special after having viewed the Fifteenth Doctor’s journey in ‘Doctor Who’ with the benefit of hindsight.

As always, when doing these in-depth reviews on ‘Doctor Who’ stories in the new TV series, I try my best to be analytical and evaluative when it comes to identifying what’s good, what’s bad and what could be improved upon regarding a particular story I’ve seen.

‘Joy to the World’ as a ‘Doctor Who’ Christmas Special has more flaws in it upon rewatching it compared to first viewing it. I hope I’ll be able to illustrate what I consider to be good and bad in the 2024 Christmas Special as I’m sharing my in-depth review on it. 🙂

Hopefully, my thoughts in my in-depth review will be more fruitful compared to when I did my quick reactions video and my quick TV review on ‘Joy to the World’ back in 2024. I’d like to think I’ll comprehend this story more and provide entertainment throughout the review.

Before we get into ‘Joy to the World’, I need to address something concerning how this Christmas Special was handled in the neo-Russell T. Davies era. And I’d like to share my thoughts on Christmas Specials in general and how they should connect to audiences. 🙂

Basically, Christmas is a time to celebrate and spend time with family and friends. It’s something that can be done in a Christian manner as well as in a secular one. Regardless on background, Christmas should accommodate everybody in celebrating the occasion.

This isn’t something that’s always appreciated. Sadly, not everyone celebrates Christmas in the same way that one might want them to. There are many reasons why certain people don’t celebrate Christmas, whether they dislike the occasion itself or hate it completely.

It might be that some people don’t celebrate Christmas due to religion reasons. Some people might not celebrate Christmas since they’re lonely and they struggle with it. And some might not celebrate Christmas because it doesn’t always provide a happy escape.

It might be down to poor family backgrounds, whether domestic abuse is involved or not. Not everyone is going to celebrate Christmas in the same way the majority would annually celebrate the occasion. 😐 And it’s important this is acknowledged at Christmas.

I love celebrating Christmas every year, especially when I’m with my family and friends. But I do appreciate there are people out there that don’t have the same enthusiasm as me. And to dismiss people not liking Christmas is arrogant and insensitive in my opinion.

It’s an attitude that’s alienating and I feel that it shouldn’t be considered when it comes to celebrating the occasion on Christmas Day. We can acknowledge certain people don’t want to celebrate Christmas, and we mustn’t ignore them if we find that to be the case. 😐

Certain people can be Scrooges and Grinches at Christmas time for a reason and we mustn’t dismiss that. Incidentally, I’m surprised we haven’t had a ‘Doctor Who’ Christmas Special involving a Grinch yet. We’ve had a Scrooge already. Why not a Grinch?

Having a ‘Doctor Who’ story with a Grinch-like monster that addresses how many of us depend on the commercialism of Christmas and how it affects society would be interesting to watch. I’d welcome seeing it, as it would challenge our views on Christmas.

But yeah, we should put aside differences and celebrate Christmas with everyone, especially with those not wanting to celebrate it. We can encourage people to be part of Christmas, but we mustn’t force it upon them, as, sadly, Christmas can’t be for everyone.

Ideally, Christmas Specials, when shown on TV, should adopt that approach. It doesn’t matter if certain people don’t celebrate Christmas when seeing the specials. They should at least be able to enjoy them and not feel downhearted or depressed when viewing them.

Christmas Specials should provide an atmosphere that’s fulfilling and reassuring. They should provide escapism for those wanting to get away from the real world. And they should accommodate all audiences. Not alienate everyone wishing to view the specials.

Now sometimes there can be exceptions to that rule when soap operas like ‘EastEnders’, ‘Coronation Street’ and ‘Emmerdale’ provide depressing depictions of Christmas. But generally, a Christmas Special should appeal to everyone and shouldn’t be mean-spirited.

You might be wondering why I’m bringing this up in my in-depth review for ‘Joy to the World’. Well, it concerns something that I’ll be addressing later in the review regarding the story’s guest character and her backstory, which is sadly connected to a real-world event.

The handling of ‘Joy to the World’ as a Christmas Special by writer Steven Moffat and the showrunner Russell T. Davies is quite off-putting and unintentionally mean-spirited. I’ll delve into this more as we progress further in the review regarding the special’s approach.

Essentially, with all I’ve established about Christmas Specials needing to accommodate everyone, I reiterate a Christmas Special shouldn’t alienate anyone the writer or showrunner has a grudge against. A negative opinion about a certain group should be kept out of the story.

Again, I’ll explain what I mean by that later on. For the most part, I enjoyed ‘Joy to the World’ when I saw it back in December 2024. But in revisiting thia special in 2026, I must admit there were elements of the plot that I completely forgot about compared to first seeing it.

Yeah, no joke. I couldn’t remember what the plot of ‘Joy to the World’ was about and what danger the Doctor found himself in when with his one-off companion. Having revisited it and knowing how it connects to the story’s ending also doesn’t make it that better for me.

Admittedly, this is one of Steven Moffat’s better efforts as a Christmas Special compared to when he wrote Christmas Specials in his own era when he was the showrunner from 2010 to 2017. But I can’t say this Christmas Special stands out for me after first seeing it.

Make no mistake, this Christmas Special is flawed, and it’s surprising this is the case considering I praised Steven Moffat’s efforts as a ‘Doctor Who’ writer when he wrote ‘Boom’ under Russell T. Davies’ stewardship as showrunner. Was I wrong to give him that praise? 😐

But yes, Steven Moffat is the writer of the 2024 ‘Doctor Who’ Christmas Special! I was surprised to find Steven Moffat as the writer of this special instead of RTD. Usually, it’s the tradition of the ‘Doctor Who’ showrunner to be the Christmas Special’s writer every year. 😐

It’s a fascinating change and I wonder if RTD asked Steven Moffat to write the 2024 Christmas Special instead of him because he was impressed by his efforts in writing Christmas Specials from 2010 to 2017. It’s possible, although there’s another reason for thia.

From what I understand, RTD was very busy working on Series 15 of the new ‘Doctor Who’ TV series and he didn’t have time to write the 2024 Christmas Special. Thus, he asked Steven Moffat to write the Christmas Special instead whilst finishing the rest of Series 15.

Judging by how Series 15 turned out, maybe it was for the best Steven Moffat wrote the 2024 Christmas Special instead of Russell T. Davies. I mean, the culmination of storytelling in the Series 15 two-part finale doesn’t help, but we’ll get to that when we get to it eventually.

Again, I stress that ‘Joy to the World’ isn’t awful. Far from it! I think you need to see this special more than once to appreciate what it’s getting across in terms of understanding the plot from start to finish. There are some good things to take away from seeing this story.

But considering how it concludes and the somewhat mean-spirited approach in a certain scene featured in the special, I can’t say it left me feeling very satisfied. Frankly, I enjoyed ‘Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl’ on Christmas Day more than ‘Joy to the World’. 😐

The special begins with a scene at the Queen’s Hotel in Manchester in 1940 during World War II. Great way to start off your Christmas Special, isn’t it? You start off in the middle of a war! 😀 Mind you, it’s fascinating to see how Christmas is celebrated in this instance. 🙂

Inside the Queen’s Hotel, we’re introduced to an elderly couple – Peter Benedict as Basil Flockhart and Julia Watson as his wife Hilda. In fact, wait a second! A hotel? Basil? I’m surprised his wife wasn’t called Sybil, as they could easily be ‘Fawlty Towers’ characters. 😀

I wonder whether John Cleese thought that, provided he ever saw this special at all. 😀 Eventually, Ncuti Gatwa as the Doctor enters, offering the couple a ham and cheese toastie and a pumpkin latté, as if he was providing room service. Basil and Hilda are bemused.

As it turns out, the Fifteenth Doctor is travelling throughout various eras of Earth’s history and is encountering people. As well as Basil and Hilda in 1940, there’s Niamh Marie Smith as Sylvia Trench aboard the Orient Express in Italy 1962. She’s reading a book and writing a letter.

Incidentally, the book she reads is ‘Murder on the Orient Express’ by Agatha Christie. Seriously? You have someone reading ‘Murder on the Orient Express’ aboard the actual Orient Express? Ah well, at least it isn’t the outer-space Orient Express we’re seeing here.

After seeing Sylvia Trench on the Orient Express in 1962, the Doctor visits Edmund Hillary and his team on Mount Everest in 1953. Phil Baxter plays Edmund Hillary in the special and he’s joined by Samuel Sherpa-Moore as Tenzing Norgay, one of Hillary’s team members.

In the time zones the Doctor visits, he’s always offering a ham and cheese toastie and a pumpkin latté to the people he meets. The people he meets are very confused and it prompts the Doctor to leave immediately. I wouldn’t be at all surprised by their confusion.

Incidentally, I like having a ham and cheese toastie at Coffee #1 when celebrating Christmas. Though I prefer having a hot chocolate with marshmallows and no cream instead. Never tried a pumpkin latté. I don’t think it’d work with a ham and cheese toastie.

Not for me, anyway. 😀 Incidentally, according to the DVD audio commentary for ‘Joy to the World’, it was originally a latté in the script before one of the executive producers – Jane Tranter – suggested that it be changed to pumpkin latté instead. Interesting that, isn’t it? 😀

Back to the special, we then cut to the Sandringham Hotel in London in the year 2024. And already, I don’t believe that, since I can clearly see that the Sandringham Hotel’s exterior was filmed in Cardiff. 😐 St. Mary Street in central Cardiff in case you’re wondering.

And it turns out there is a real Sandringham Hotel on St. Mary Street in central Cardiff. Hmm. Who would’ve thought it? Makes me wonder why these scenes weren’t filmed in Cardiff itself instead of London. I’m getting a ’73 Yards’ issue about this again, aren’t I? 😀

It’s here we meet Nicola Coughlan as Joy Almondo arriving at the Sandringham Hotel. Joy is the one-off companion character featured in the special. She happens to be a cheery yet lonely person. 😐 The reason for her loneliness is…well, we’ll get back to that part later.

Incidentally, if you’re wondering who Nicola Coughlan is, she’s very well-known for playing Clare Devlin in the Channel 4 sitcom series ‘Derry Girls’. She’s also very well-known for playing Penelope Bridgerton née Featherington in the Netflix drama series ‘Bridgerton‘.

Ruby: Oh, my Bridgerton!

I still haven’t seen ‘Bridgerton’ as a series yet to appreciate who Nicola Coughlan is. Yet Russell T. Davies is expecting everyone to know who Nicola is when checking out this ‘Doctor Who’ Christmas Special. 😐 Another sign he’s out of touch with his own audience?

Now that’s not to say I didn’t enjoy Nicola Coughlan as Joy in the Christmas Special. Not at all. I found her enjoyable enough, although I didn’t feel like she had plenty of interaction with Ncuti Gatwa as the Doctor as I expected her to, which is rather ironic, quite frankly.

This is especially when such a huge deal was made of her character in the promotion before this Christmas Special came out on Christmas Day in December 2024. I’ll delve more into that as we go further into the review, but Joy isn’t so standout for me in this story.

Once inside the Sandringham Hotel in London, Joy asks the hotel’s owner – Steph de Whalley as Anita Benn, for a single room for a week. Once in her room, she notices an unusual, locked door, but she dismisses it as something that’s found in every hotel room.

Whilst Anita goes to fetch some towels, Joy settles into her hotel room. After seeing a fly in her room and saying “Merry Christmas” to it – That’s sweet. Mind you, is that the blue bottle from ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’?  😀 – Joy searches a chest of drawers.

Fetching a hairdryer from one of the drawers, she’s interrupted when a Silurian with a briefcase attached to his arm emerges from the unusual, locked door. The Silurian himself is played by Jonathan Aris. He happens to be the hotel manager of the Time Hotel.

Again, more on that later on. Incidentally, Jonathan Aris has appeared in numerous Steven Moffat-related productions, including episodes of the TV series ‘Sherlock’ and the 2020 TV adaptation of ‘Dracula’. I wouldn’t have realised when viewing him as a Silurian in this.

Upon entering her hotel room, Joy threatens the Silurian with her hairdryer, almost as if she were pointing a gun at him. 😀 The Silurian raises his hands at this. Very soon, the Doctor enters, grinning, as he offers Joy a ham and cheese toastie and a pumpkin latté. 🙂

And that’s the opening teaser sequence before the opening credits roll up. I saw this opening sequence back in July 2024 when it was released as a preview on the official ‘Doctor Who’ YouTube channel. 🙂 Nicola Coughlan introduced that in the YouTube video.

That was when Nicola Coughlan couldn’t make it to the San Diego Comic Con in July 2024 and Ncuti Gatwa, Millie Gibson and Russell T. Davies were guests for that event. How times flies? And I’ve met Ncuti and Millie at conventions already! I find that so incredible!

Incidentally, in-between the transmission of Series 14 of the new ‘Doctor Who’ TV series and ‘Joy to the World’, I met Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson for the first time at the ‘London Comic Con Winter’ in November 2024. I didn’t think that would happen whilst seeing this era.

Anyway, back to the Christmas Special, we cut to events before the opening title sequence where we see Ncuti’s Doctor travelling alone and ending up at the Time Hotel in London in the year 4202. And yes, it happens to be 2024 spelled backwards. 🙂 I noticed. 😀

And yes! This is the Time Hotel the Fifteenth Doctor has ended up in. Well, at least it isn’t ‘The Space Hotel’ in my ‘Doctor Who’ series featuring the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa and Billy. Perhaps I should do a Christmas Special set at the Rotenhend Hotel 360 someday, right?

In the Time Hotel, the Doctor arrives inside via his TARDIS. He emerges, yawning widely, wearing a bathrobe and carrying two mugs. I wonder if Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor is adopting the Arthur Dent look from ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ from TV and the 2005 film. 🙂

Would you be surprised if he didn’t? 😀 The Doctor takes the two mugs to taps to fill them with milk. As he does so, he observes a man with a briefcase chained to his arm. The man approaches the reception desk before requesting for a room on the third floor at the hotel.

The Doctor is then approached by hotel employee – Joel Fry as Trev Simpkins. I was pleased to see Joel Fry in this ‘Doctor Who’ Christmas Special, having seen him in films like ‘Cruella’, ‘Paddington 2’ and ‘Paddington in Peru’. I instantly recognised him in this. 🙂

Joel Fry also guest starred in a Big Finish audio story called ‘Quicksilver’, starring Colin Baker, Miranda Hart and Lisa Greenwood. He’s also been in the Big Finish audio episode ‘No Place’, starring David Tennant, Catherine Tate, Jacqueline Hill and Bernard Cribbins.

Trev Simpkins informs the Doctor that refreshments are for hotel guests only and asks him if he’s a guest. The Doctor says he’s not and tells Trev that he only needed milk for his cups, since the TARDIS has an algorithm that homes in on fresh milk. That’s rather handy.

Incredulous, Trek asks whether the TARDIS is a toilet. 😀 Whilst the Doctor seems offended, Trev points out he has a newspaper. I suppose people read newspapers when they go to the toilet. Though nowadays, people look on their phones when going to the loo.

But as the Doctor points out when he has coffee in one of his cups:

Doctor: Who takes a coffee to the loo?

I mean, that would be weird, wouldn’t it? Mind you, there was a mock TARDIS shaped like a portaloo called the STARDIS in the Big Finish audio story ‘The One Doctor’ starring Colin Baker and Bonnie Langford, so I suppose anything is possible when you think about it. 😀

Incidentally, the newspaper the Doctor happens to have is called the The Timey-Wimey. Yeah, great joke there, Mr. Moffat. 😐 I wonder if the newspaper is actually fiddley and complicated as much as the actual concept of ‘timey-wimey’ is. Is it bigger on the inside?

Trev then notes that the Doctor has two mugs, asking if there’s someone else with him in the TARDIS. Realising that he has two mugs, the Doctor admits the force of habit, saying that he can never get used to ‘them’ leaving. This is of course a reference to Ruby Sunday.

Ruby left the TARDIS at the end of ‘Empire of Death’. Given that ‘Joy to the World’ takes place between Series 14 and 15 of the new ‘Doctor Who’ TV series, I imagine it hasn’t been very long since the Fifteenth Doctor last saw Ruby. I’d be missing her by this point too.

Before seeing this Christmas Special, I hoped that Millie Gibson would make a small appearance as Ruby Sunday in ‘Joy to the World’. I’ll readdress this towards the end of the review, but it turns out there could’ve been more of Ruby than first thought on seeing this.

The Doctor gives one of the mugs to Trev, telling him to keep it, saying that it’s ‘bigger on the inside’. Because everything has to be ‘bigger on the inside’, doesn’t it? 😀 Hmm, I wonder if Trev will pay many trips to the loo if he used that mug given to him by the Doctor. 😀

Entering the TARDIS, the Doctor changes out of his bathrobe and into his leather coat, which he wore in ‘The Church on Ruby Road’, for a short while in ‘Space Babies’ and at the end of ‘Empire of Death’. It’s great to see the Fifteenth Doctor back in the leather coat. 🙂

In putting on his leather coat, he asks why he did. He then picks up his sonic screwdriver, which I don’t think he meant to do. The Doctor then asks himself what it was he saw earlier before he exits the TARDIS again to observe the man with the briefcase on his arm.

As the Doctor observes the man with the briefcase on his arm – played by Joshua Leese, whose character name is given Mr. Single, apparently – he’s approached again by Trev, who addresses his confusion about the TARDIS being present within the Time Hotel itself.

The Doctor uses his psychic paper to tell Trev that he’s ‘Special Agent Clint Rock’ and he was sent by the Head Office. Hmm, the psychic paper gets the Doctor everywhere, doesn’t it? In fact, I just realised. That must be a new psychic paper the Doctor’s using. 😐

Wasn’t the previous psychic paper given to Graham in ‘Revolution of the Daleks’? Anyway, the Doctor tells Trev he’s working for him now. Taking him for a stroll, the Doctor asks Trev what he thinks about Mr. Single. 😐 Trev is confused, since Mr. Single isn’t doing anything.

The Doctor agrees, as Mr. Single ‘keeps doing it’, noting that the man hasn’t looked up once, despite the amazing sights of the hotel. Soon, Ruchi Rai as the receptionist informs Mr. Single that they can’t give him a room on the third floor until the current guests have left.

Whilst the receptionist suggests that Mr. Single uses the bar DeTamble’s in the meantime, Trev asks the Doctor if they’re going to follow him. The Doctor says he hates following people, which is a contradiction, since he tends to do that in most of his travels.

The Doctor studies a brochure and the people around him before he asks what the Time Hotel is all about. The Doctor works it out with a bit of help from Trev and essentially, the Time Hotel is a hotel where, instead of rooms, it’s time portals to various times and places.

I find the Time Hotel to be a fascinating concept when thinking about it. The idea that you can visit any time period at your leisure and you get to dress up in period costume for that. I honestly quite like that idea and it’s incredible that it happens in the year 4202 here.

I do wonder how it all works though. I mean, would humanity be capable of achieving that in the 43rd century? Mind you, I had holographic technology in a space hotel working in the 37th century for my ‘Doctor Who’ story ‘The Space Hotel’, but still. Is it possible at all?

I would’ve liked this to have been explored further if we spent more time in the Time Hotel itself. Again, that’s often the problem with these one-hour specials, as we don’t have enough time to appreciate the concepts the Time Hotel has when visiting various time zones.

Mind you, the Doctor says…(sighs)…this line:

Doctor: No wonder there was no room at the inn.

Seriously? You’re implying that people from the Time Hotel visited Bethlehem in biblical times, causing for all the rooms at the inns to taken for Mary and Joseph to end up in a stable where baby Jesus was born? It does contract something that the Tenth Doctor said.

 

Astrid: This Christmas thing, what’s it all about?
Doctor: Long story. I should know, I was there. I got the last room.

And maybe that was a joke on both the Tenth and Fifteenth Doctor’s parts when they made those statements in those Christmas Specials. But it’s not needed. And it highlights how the ending of ‘Joy to the World’ turned out, which makes me cringe thinking about it.

Incidentally, I’m counting this as a repeat of something that happened in the original RTD era in the neo-RTD era with the Doctor saying something about ‘the last room’ at the inn. I know it’s Steven Moffat who’s writing this story, but it still counts that it is being repeated.

Very soon, the Doctor approaches the reception desk and asks the receptionist if he can have a room service menu. As they wait, the Doctor tells Trev that the existence of the Time Hotel can help them solve the biggest mystery that seems apparent in many hotels.

Like the Doctor being trapped on a landmine in ‘Boom’, the idea Steven Moffat had for this special was, “Why is there always a mysterious door in your hotel room that’s locked?” It’s intriguing that Steven Moffat came up with that idea, as I’ve never questioned it before.

And it seems that the answer Steven Moffat comes up with is that the mysterious doors in a hotel room lead into the Time Hotel. So, if I was staying at a Premier Inn on holiday or for a convention weekend, there’s a possibility a mysterious door could lead to the Time Hotel.

Not a bad concept when you think about it. But I do wonder what happens to the people who accidentally end up in the Time Hotel when they come from a different time period. I mean, it isn’t addressed as far as I’m aware, as we don’t explore the Time Hotel enough.

The Doctor asks Trev, “Is this Christmas?” concerning the current time the Time Hotel is in. Trev says “Yes” and reveals that the Time Hotel is doing a special ‘Christmas everywhere all at once’. It sounds like Christmas dinners at every hotel and restaurant. 😀

Speaking of food, the Doctor gets his room service menu, and he orders ‘a ham and cheese toastie and a pumpkin latté’. He’s then surprised when a server – played by Ell Potter – brings the ham and cheese toastie and a pumpkin latté to him quite immediately.

I’d be surprised too if I ordered my ham and cheese toastie and a hot chocolate with marshmallows and no cream from the room service menu. I mean, I know fast food at McDonald’s is meant to be fast, but this is going the extra mile as far as I’m concerned. 🙂

Trev explains to the Doctor that the kitchens are thirty minutes into the future. That doesn’t stop the toastie from being microwaved though, according to the Doctor. Thankfully, the cheese and ham toasties that I have at Coffee #1 are often panini pressed.

Or contact grilled. Incidentally, I noticed from checking out the room service menu, they also serve Timeless House Burgers, Korean Fried Chicken Burgers, Ceasar Salads, Butter Chicken, a Range of Tea, Bubble Tea, Fizzy Drinks, Iced Drinks, a Selection of Juices, etc. 🙂

Clearly, a lot of thought is put into the room service menu when you pause the special, whether on DVD, Blu-ray, BBC iPlayer in the UK or Disney+ in non-UK parts of the world. A shame that can’t be appreciated when you view the special first time. It’s blink-and-you’ll miss it.

Acquiring the ham and cheese toastie and pumpkin latté, the Doctor tells Trev that he’s going undercover. He tells Trev to be his point man downstairs whilst he’s going undercover upstairs. Trev has an implanted psychic graft to keep in touch with the Doctor.

Initially, I didn’t know why the Doctor needed to go undercover in the special. I mean, I know it’s to keep track of Mr. Single and what he’s doing with the briefcase attached to his arm. 😐 But I wasn’t entirely sure about why the Doctor decided to go undercover upstairs.

Of course, having seen the special recently and analysing it in-depth via BBC iPlayer, the Doctor is going undercover upstairs to check out which of the time portals in the Time Hotel is Mr. Single going to visit. And he’s making sure he’ll get into that time portal first.

He tells Trev to let him know when Mr. Single leaves the DeTamble’s bar – hence why Trev is staying downstairs. I suppose the Doctor carrying a ham and cheese toastie and a pumpkin latté whilst checking out the hotel’s various portals is meant to provide the cover.

But it’s something that baffled me in revisiting this story. As is often the case with the latest ‘Doctor Who’ TV stories, explanations tend to be caught up in the rush-rush of things. I know that’s often to be expected in modern ‘Doctor Who’ these days, but it’s quite wearisome.

Trev is determined not to let the Doctor down whilst the Time Lord heads off upstairs, taking the ham and cheese toastie and pumpkin latté with him to act like he’s providing room service. Makes me wonder whether Trev let people down in the past before meeting the Doctor. 😐

Anyway, with Mr. Single, he visits the DeTamble’s bar where he meets the barman – played by Liam Prince-Donnelly. Approaching the barman behind the bar, Mr. Single’s eyes blink in a manner that form slits and he states, “The star seed will bloom and the flesh will rise.”

With the barman confused, Mr. Single asks for his briefcase to be put behind the bar. The barman reaches for it, but the briefcase soon unchains itself from Mr. Single and attaches to the barman instead. An automated voice from the briefcase says, “Access upgrading”.

Mr. Single comes over confused and disorientated before he asks the barman what he’s to do now. The barman, blinking in the same manner as Mr. Single did earlier, tells him to make himself comfortable, as he’ll be dead quite shortly. Wow, that’s rather harsh, right?

Repeating the statement of “The star seed will bloom and the flesh will rise”, the barman soon goes to Trev, who’s waiting outside DeTamble’s. The barman asks Trev to give him a hand, saying that someone left a case. 😐 Trev follows him inside, but it’s not good for him.

Once inside, the barman transfers the briefcase to Trev. Trev becomes horrified when he sees Mr. Single, who originally had the briefcase, disintegrating before his eyes. Soon, the barman disintegrates. Trev laments, realising the fate and situation he finds himself in. 😦

Trev: But I was on a mission.

Meanwhile, with the Doctor, he tries one of the doors at the Time Hotel. But it’s unavailable, due to the guests local to the time period still in residence. The Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver to override this, and we have what we had in the opening sequence.

The Doctor meets Basil and Hilda in 1940, he meets Sylvia in 1962, and he meets Edmund Hillary and gang in 1953, always offering a ham and cheese toastie and pumpkin latté. So, it turns out the ham and cheese toastie and pumpkin latté wasn’t for anyone specific.

It was just something the Doctor used as a cover to investigate what was going on with Mr. Single and finding out which time portal he’d end up in. I’m sure the Doctor would be surprised if somebody randomly went for the ham and cheese toastie and pumpkin latté.

That someone in the time portal would take it from him and he, she or they weren’t part of the undercover plan. I mean, that ham and cheese toastie and pumpkin latté is going to get cold by the time the Doctor’s finished with it. 😐 Surely, it’s a waste of food and drink.

Back in the Time Hotel, Trev approaches the reception desk where the Silurian hotel manager – called Melnak, apparently – is. Declaring the ‘star seed’ statement Mr. Single and the barman said, Trev asks Melnak if he has priority access to the hotel’s time portals.

With Melnak confirming that he does since he’s the manager, the briefcase unfastens from Trev. We don’t see it, but we can all assume that the briefcase attached itself to Melnak. Poor Melnak. 😦 He didn’t expect to have a bad day when he began that morning.

Incidentally, I noticed that there’s a restaurant in the Time Hotel called Dodo Burgers. Does that mean there’s actual dodos in the burgers? I hope not. Or maybe it’s just the name of the restaurant. If so, how come there isn’t an image of a dodo for the restaurant?

Back with the Doctor, as he continues to check out various time portals, he soon notices Melnak has the briefcase attached to him. Following him, the Doctor tries to contact Trev, but Trev has ended up in the DeTamble’s bar where he tragically disintegrates like the others.

Trev: Oh, dear. I went and let him down.

It’s sad Trev got killed off in the special, as he could’ve easily been a good one-off companion compared to Joy in the Christmas Special. Fortunately, Trev does return at some point in the special, but we’ll get to that when we get to it later on in the review itself.

Meanwhile, the Doctor soon enters the portal that Melnak enters, discovering him with Joy Almondo at the Sandringham Hotel in London 2024. And we’re back to where the opening sequence ended. Amazing it took us that long to get back to that point in the story.

After the Doctor asks Joy for her name and she introduces herself, Anita, the hotel’s owner, unexpectedly enters with towels and is surprised once she sees who’s also in Joy’s room. 🙂 Joy demands an explanation and asks why there’s a lizard-man in her hotel room.

Doctor: He’s a Silurian. Don’t call him a lizard man.
Joy: Yeah, but it’s just a mask, isn’t it?

No argument from me on that one. 😀 Anita apologises to Joy, saying this has never happened before. I find it quite amusing how Anita seems to take it all in her stride with what’s happening when she’s going off to the bathroom and sorting out the towels for Joy.

Meanwhile, the Doctor questions Melnak about the contents in the briefcase attached to his arm. Melnak refuses to answer and insists the Doctor take the case instead, saying he’ll know all the answers to his questions via that. Of course, the Doctor doesn’t buy it.

Despite the Doctor asking what will happen afterwards once he takes the case, Melnak tells him to take it regardless. The Doctor also notes that he first saw a hotel guest – Mr. Single – with the briefcase attached to his arm before he’s now seeing Melnak with the case.

Doctor: Pardon my French, but what the French is going on?

Well, at least it’s not the actual F-bomb he’s using here. He sort-of uses another F word later in the story, but we’ll get to that. Annoyed and getting aggravated by the lack of explanations, Joy soon takes the case herself. Immediately, it chains itself to her. 😮 It shocks the Doctor.

The Doctor examines the suitcase with his sonic screwdriver and whilst Anita makes to leave the room, saying she has Joy’s towels sorted, Joy says ‘the star seed will bloom and the flesh will rise’ thing. Surely, Joy can’t be killed. She’s the special guest star, right? 😀

And when Joy said ‘the star seed’ thing, Anita’s reply to that is:

Anita: Oh, I know.

Does nothing shock or surprise Anita when unusual things happen in her hotel? Are we sure ‘this has never happened before’, according to Anita? Maybe I’m missing something, but I think Anita would be just as shocked by what’s happening as much as Joy is here! 😀

As Melnak recovers from his ordeal and asks, “What do I do now?”, Joy, like the barman before her, tells the Silurian that he’ll shortly die. I imagine there’s an inbuilt programme somewhere in the briefcase that prompts victims to say these things in a casual manner.

To be fair to Joy, she advises him to settle on the hotel bed before he has a nasty fall. Baffled by Joy’s statement of Melnak shortly about to die, the Doctor attends to the Silurian, pleading him to focus and telling him he isn’t going to let him die on his watch. 😐

Gradually, Melnak reveals how he came to be the manager of the Time Hotel. He was lost in the caves – long ago, I presume – before he found the door that led him to the Time Hotel. The people that he met in the future were so kind to him, which is very nice to hear.

I would’ve thought that Melnak would’ve been a Silurian from the future rather than Earth’s past, as presumably humans and Silurians can coexist with each other in Earth’s future. A shame that’s not established and it’s a pity Steven Moffat didn’t come up with it.

The Doctor tells Melnak to stay alive for the people who were kind to him, but sadly, Melnak disintegrates like the others before him. It’s rather sad to see Melnak die and I like how the Fifteenth Doctor has a very sweet scene with a Silurian in this Christmas Special.

In fact, you could say that this is one of the rare occasions where the Fifteenth Doctor meets a classic ‘Doctor Who’ alien in a Silurian. It’s not happened with the Daleks nor the Cybermen, and it’s interesting it happens to be a Silurian in a Steven Moffat-penned story.

In a monotone voice, Joy regards Melnak’s death as sad. The Doctor warns Joy that what happened to Melnak is going to happen soon for her if he doesn’t stop it in time to save her. I believe Joy’s subconscious is speaking whilst she has the briefcase attached to her.

Joy repeats ‘the star seed will bloom’ thing again, but the Doctor is aware that it’s not her speaking, as she’s being mansplained by the briefcase. For you to know, mansplaining is the act of condescendingly explaining something, which is usually by a man to a woman.

This is for the man to appear knowledgeable, or from a mistaken presumption that the woman has an inferior understanding of the topic. I’ve never heard of mansplaining before. Joy shoots back by saying she thought she was being mansplained by the Doctor.

The Doctor challenges Joy by asking her if she knows what a star seed is. She says she does and asks him if he does. Admitting he doesn’t, the Doctor begins to find out and, over her protests, opens the briefcase. Inside is a bright glowing orb. Quite pretty, isn’t it?

And it’s not an orb from ‘Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’, for your information. The Doctor’s opening of the briefcase unfortunately triggers an automated message, stating that the case must closed within 20 seconds or the current holder will be disintegrated. Shocking!

The briefcase is soon closed by Joy just before the countdown reaches zero after the Doctor babbled about him missing something obvious in this situation. However, the closing of the case prompts a control panel to appear as well as another announcement.

This time, the case states that a four-digit code must be entered within 15 seconds or else Joy will be disintegrated. Can nothing stop this death trap? 😀 The Doctor admits that he didn’t see this coming and Joy asks him if he knows the code. He, of course, doesn’t know.

It’s amusing that Joy panicked when begging the Doctor to close the briefcase to prevent her being disintegrated, only to make it worse with the control panel appearing on the closed case for the Doctor to enter the four-digit code. 🙂 The tension’s raised by this point.

There happen to be 10,000 possibilities and the Doctor would be able to figure it out if he had time. He can’t use the TARDIS in the Time Hotel, as that would re-engage the casual nexus. So, what else can the Doctor do? How can he work out what the code is in time? 😐

Yep! As you saw in the video, at the Doctor’s “Come in!”, another Doctor enters the hotel room, telling his other self that the code is 7214. This, of course, is the Doctor from the future. And he’s wearing the same orange-brown leather coat as the original Doctor is. 😀

As soon as the original Fifteenth Doctor enters the 7214 code, the briefcase is disarmed. Thank goodness that worked. And it’s incredibly lucky the original Fifteenth Doctor knew that the future Fifteenth Doctor would be behind that door as soon as he said, “Come in!”

Joy enquires how there can be two Doctors. The original Doctor says there aren’t, as the future Doctor is the one who gets the code. The future Doctor soon takes Joy by the arm and leads her away. The original Doctor gets up and asks how he gets to be his future self.

The future Doctor says, “The long way around” and that he’ll ‘find out’, refusing to give him more answers. The original Doctor becomes frustrated at this, protesting this is why nobody likes him, as he has to be mysterious every time and it’s why everyone leaves him.

Rather harsh that, Doctor? I mean, I know I complained about RTD writing Ruby Sunday out at the end of ‘Empire of Death’, but she and the Doctor didn’t leave on bad terms, did they? Ruby told the Doctor that she ‘loved’ him before she left to be with her family, right?

Was there miscommunication between Steven Moffat and RTD regarding the writing of this Christmas Special in connecting it to what happened before in the Fifteenth Doctor’s life? Am I missing something? 😐 Telling himself that nobody likes him is self-depreciating.

The future Doctor tells the original Doctor that he must say in the Sandringham Hotel in 2024 to complete the loop, as it’s the only way for him to get the code. The future Doctor closes the door and the original Doctor shouts at him with this…fascinating statement. 😐

Doctor: Do you know how alone you are?! You live in a great big giant spaceship and there aren’t any chairs! And you haven’t even noticed because nobody ever comes round!

Hmm. Recall what the Fifteenth Doctor said to the Fourteenth Doctor in ‘The Giggle’?

Doctor: One thing you need in this place is a chair.

I know people have complained about the TARDIS interior in the neo-RTD era being empty and sterile. I still like the TARDIS interior, as it harkens back to the classic TV series when the TARDIS interior used to be white compared to later TARDIS interiors in the new TV series.

But yeah, it’s rather fascinating that the Fifteenth Doctor didn’t add any chairs in his TARDIS after he doubled the blue box in ‘The Giggle’. There’s the jukebox certainly, but there isn’t any piece of furniture in the new TARDIS interior once Fifteen gets to have his own adventures.

You’d think that RTD would develop that as the new TV series went on following ‘The Giggle’, and it’s interesting that Steven Moffat brings it up in this Christmas Special. I find it oddly bizarre. 😐 Did RTD forget about that ‘chair’ line he wrote to develop in the TV show?

The Fifteenth Doctor’s mention of chairs in this Christmas Special does connect to what happens to him in the time he spends at the Sandringham Hotel in 2024, which we’ll get to shortly. But beyond this, it’s never brought up again, which is a huge pity in my opinion.

After using his sonic screwdriver on the door, only to find there’s a brick wall behind it since the future Doctor disconnected the Time Hotel from 2024, the original Doctor goes downstairs and asks Anita at reception if he can book Joy’s hotel room for a whole year. 🙂

She lets him, of course. Noting that he’ll need money to pay for his time at the Sandringham Hotel, the Doctor ends up working for her. 🙂 This includes working as a waiter, using his psychic paper to anticipate the customers’ orders before they get made.

I imagine the customers would find that quite scary when the Doctor gives them what they want before they’ve ordered it. 😀 He also uses his sonic screwdriver to automate a mop whilst reading a newspaper. Not the Timey-Wimey, mind. At least, I don’t think it is.

On New Year’s Day, whilst the fireworks are on the telly ( 😀 ), the Doctor and Anita discuss the meaning of Auld Lang Syne, which translates to Times Long Past. Funnily, there’s an episode called ‘Auld Lang Syne’ in the ‘Back to Earth’ audio anthology with the Ninth Doctor.

Anita also notes that the Doctor is resolutely not phoning someone, which he admits to being Ruby Sunday, saying he’s letting her get on with her life. We’ll get back to that later in the review, since it concerns a deleted scene that I wish was included in the special. 😦

The Doctor also fixes the hotel’s microwave oven in the time he spends at the Sandringham Hotel, though Anita notes that it’s bigger on the inside now. Okay, why does Steven Moffat have to make things bigger on the inside when the Doctor fixes something?

There’s a funny moment when Anita asks the Doctor to fix a blockage using a sink plunger and he reacts horrified, asking, “Er, is this armed?” Besides a comic story, it’s a shame the Fifteenth Doctor doesn’t get to meet the Daleks on TV after this Christmas Special.

Anita also complains when the Doctor fixes her SatNav for her car, as it’s not taking her where she wants to go. He tells her that it’s now taking her to where she needs to go. Also, the car is now blue instead of…whatever colour it was before. Why did the Doctor do that?

In all seriousness, this is the reason why I didn’t feel Joy stood out for me as companion character in the Christmas Special. Because I feel that Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor is more connected to Step de Whalley as Anita whilst he finds himself stranded for an entire year.

He gets to befriend Anita throughout the time he spends at the Sandringham Hotel from 2024 to 2025. It’s a very nice little substory in the Christmas Special. I wish the special was dedicated to Ncuti’s Doctor and Anita and it explored their relationship more fully. 🙂

More so than when the Doctor interacts with Joy in the special. Him with Anita is more meaningful to me than what’s going on between the Doctor and Joy in the special’s main plot. 🙂 Because Anita is such a likeable character and Steph de Whalley plays her so well.

This is exemplified in the scenes where the Doctor and Anita have ‘chair nights’ together in his room at the Sandringham Hotel. They grow quite close, especially when Anita observes the Doctor with various models of police boxes, which he’d purchased online.

In their regular tradition of ‘chair nights’ from 2024 to 2025, they share meals together and plays games including Snakes and Ladders, Twister and Cluedo. At Easter time, they play Connect4 whilst eating Easter Eggs at the same time. Those Easter Eggs look very yummy.

There’s a point where the Doctor investigates a door in the honeymoon suite whilst a couple is in bed, which is amusing. This is when the Doctor tries to reconnect to the Time Hotel again, but it doesn’t work as he hoped and he realises he’ll have to keep on waiting.

Incidentally, the whole reconnecting and disconnecting thing to the Time Hotel by going through mysterious doors does put me in mind of ‘Monsters, Inc.’ a bit. I’m sure if that’s what Steven Moffat had in mind when he wrote this story or if this is the Disney influence.

The Doctor and Anita get to enjoy the sun in Summer whilst wearing sunglasses. There’s also a scene that takes place at Halloween time with a pumpkin in the background. The Doctor and Anita also enjoy watching fireworks together on Bonfire Night in November. 🙂

The Doctor comments that Guy Fawkes would’ve loved Bonfire Night. Anita doesn’t get the reference before the Doctor explains to her that Guy tried to blow up Parliament. She then asks whether Guy Fawkes is his boyfriend, to which he tells her he doesn’t have one.

This is to imply that the Doctor told Anita at some point he was a time traveller. I mean, I assume that would be the case considering that she asked him whether Guy Fawkes was his boyfriend or not. Also, did Anita believe that the Doctor was a time traveller so easily?

As well as being an alien? It’s not explored. Hence why I think it would’ve been great if this Christmas Special had been about the Doctor and Anita getting to know each other when he was stranded on Earth from 2024 to 2025. Rather than having the Joy story to deal with.

When it comes to Christmas Eve in 2025 – Incidentally, a caption pops up to tell us that. How come there weren’t any captions for Easter, Summer or Halloween throughout 2025 in the Doctor spends with Anita? It would’ve helped us as audiences keep track of things.

Anyway, on Christmas Eve in 2025, Anita sees the Doctor is about to sneak off without saying goodbye, as he leaves her a small, wrapped gift on the reception desk. The Doctor claims that he’s only going to be away for a few days, but Anita doesn’t buy into that claim.

The Doctor explains to Anita that he has a complicated life, as he doesn’t normally just live one day into the next. He tells her it was amazing to live a whole year with her, but he has promises to keep. Anita admits that she always knew that one day he would leave. 😦

I like it when Anita gets to hug the Doctor goodbye, telling him never to be alone at Christmas. And she tells him that she’ll always be at the Sandringham Hotel. This is a sweet farewell scene between the Doctor and Anita when seeing this Christmas Special.

And don’t worry, this isn’t the last we’ll see of Anita in ‘Doctor Who’. She does get to return later in the Christmas Special, which we’ll get to later in the review. She would later return in a future ‘Doctor Who’ episode in Series 15 of the new TV series, but that’s for another time.

After seeing ‘Joy to the World’ on Christmas Day in 2024, I got to meet Steph de Whalley at the ‘Capitol Cutaway’ convention in London in April 2025. It was lovely to meet and chat to Steph at that convention, and I had an autograph signed by her, which is amazing.

Back to the Christmas Special, we have the Doctor ending up at the Exeter Hotel in New York on Christmas Eve in 2025. How he ended up there is never explained. I assume that he took a plane to get to New York. He couldn’t have used the TARDIS, as the ship isn’t with him.

Were flights available in London for the Doctor to get to New York on Christmas Eve? I suppose there would’ve been a time difference between getting from London to New York on Christmas Eve when going by plane, but again, it’s never explained or shown to us here.

Also, how did the Doctor know that ending up in the Exeter Hotel in New York would get him back in the Time Hotel in 4202? I know he had a leaflet for the Exeter Hotel and he would’ve had to work this out, but he never told Anita he was going to end up in New York.

Anyway, the Doctor sits waiting at the Exeter Hotel before a light comes on behind a locked door. He uses his sonic screwdriver to open the locked door, and he finds himself back in the Time Hotel. That’s lucky. 😀 He then heads for the door leading into Joy’s room.

Once his past self says, “Come in!”, we have the scene that we had before of the Doctor telling his past self to enter the code 7214 to disarm the briefcase. The Doctor takes Joy out of the Sandringham Hotel into the Time Hotel while his past self is shouting at him. 😐

Thus, the paradox is complete. Except from the current Doctor’s perspective, we see him eying the chair that Anita would sit at in the year he spent with her from 2024 to 2025. A pity that doesn’t follow through with him having chairs in the TARDS afterwards, but still.

When with Joy, the Doctor explains to her that the code he got came from his past self, which he heard a year ago. It’s bootstrapping. The code came from nowhere. He also says that the universe came nowhere, and nobody complains about that. And that’s his belief.

Whether you also believe that is up to you. I don’t, personally. 😀 Joy then asks if he just time travelled and told himself the code, but he claims there wasn’t any time travel involved. That’d be impossible and the time zones of the Time Hotel are physically linked.

Joy repeats ‘the star seed’ thing she says with the briefcase attached to her. The Doctor informs her he’s had a long time to think about ‘the star seed’ thing and is sure he’s figured it out. It’s also why the entity that’s in the briefcase controlling Joy requires the Time Hotel.

The Doctor tells Joy to fight against the briefcase, as it’s reasserted control over her now it’s resealed. Joy struggles to fight against the briefcase’s control. It soon has Joy heading for one of the hotel time portals, where she and the Doctor end up in prehistoric Earth. 😐

On the way to that portal on the hotel’s top floor, the Doctor deduces that she’s scouting for the right time zone based on the briefcase influencing her. He’s also worked out that the case has a single atom inside where a quantum reaction has started for the star seed.

Joy, in her entranced state, states that ‘the star seed will bloom’ and the Doctor agrees that, in theory, the star would be born. He also mentions that no-one’s ever been able to test that theory because it would take a long time. 😐 Thousands of years or perhaps more.

Still entranced, Joy also mentions that a corporation wants a star for their own personal energy and that they need time. Hence why we’re in the Time Hotel. What the corporation that Joy mentioned is, well, we’ll get back to that. We’ve encountered it before though. 😀

When going in the elevator to the top floor, the Doctor tells Joy that he’s worked her out too. He says that her room in the Sandringham Hotel in 2024 was the loneliest and saddest in the world, and he asks what kind of person would choose that as a hotel room.

The Doctor challenges her on whether people laugh at her when she tells them her name. Whether her mother had a laugh when she named her Joy. In retaliation, Joy shouts at the Doctor, telling him to not talk about her mum like that, as she apparently died in hospital.

Joy’s mother died in hospital during the Covid-19 pandemic. We’ll get back to this in a bit, but it’s part of the point I was making at the start of this review regarding how Steven Moffat and Russell T. Davies handled this Christmas Special and with mean-spiritedness.

Joy tells the Doctor that she couldn’t even visit her mother in hospital at Christmas time, as she had to talk to her on an iPad because of the rules. The Doctor challenges her again, saying that he’s sure she’s good at obeying the rules and Joy shouts at him not to say that.

Once they’re in the room set in prehistoric Earth, the Doctor continues to taunt Joy on never minding her poor mother so long as she obeyed the rules. And we see Nicola Coughan giving a very good performance in this scene where she shoves him and shouts.

It’s revealed Joy’s mother died alone on Christmas Day, due to the Covid-19 pandemic rules. Joy cries that she let her mum die alone and thus can never be home nor with anybody on Christmas Day. Hence why she was alone at the Sandringham Hotel in 2024.

Joy breaks down in tears on that she can’t change what happened with her mum dying on Christmas Day. She hugs the Doctor, and it turns out the Doctor was taunting Joy to get her angry in order for the briefcase to detach from her. To which it does. Joy is still alive. 🙂

Now, I appreciate what Steven Moffat was trying to do here. He was trying to provide this situation where the Doctor helped Joy to be free from the briefcase by getting her angry at him with recalling a very tragic, emotional event, as it was only way for him to save her. 😐

Doctor: You’re thinking that maybe that wasn’t a good way to save your life. Let me tell you something. There’s no such thing as a bad way.

But…did it have to be Covid? Like, it was fascinating to see these aspects of Joy’s characters where her mother had died in 2020 where she couldn’t meet her face-to-face due to the Covid-19 pandemic. But did we have to be reminded of that very specific event?

I know people suffered from the Covid-19 pandemic with losing their loved ones, including family and friends, from 2020 to 2021. I know friends who went through that. But it’s not ideal for people to be reminded of that when watching this Christmas Special.

It was also very mean-spirited of Steven Moffat as well as (very possibly) Russell T. Davies to have a go at the Conservative government in the UK where certain political members broke the rules of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 when we were all told to stay at home.

Steven Moffat wanted to find a reason for people to hate something about Christmas Day. He wanted to give a sharp ‘kicking’ to the Tory politicians involved in the Partygate scandal that happened in 2020. And make no mistake, that was an awful thing to happen.

But in my mind, and this reiterates the point I’m trying to make about how Christmas Specials should be handled, this isn’t in the way to do it. Christmas Specials should bring people together. Not alienate those who we consider to be very bad pennies indeed. 😐

Yes, yes, I know there are complexities to this, and I know not every politician was involved in the Partygate scandal in 2020. But the fact that the Covid-19 pandemic was mentioned and that it connects to Joy’s character shouldn’t have been a thing that happened in this.

You could’ve easily had Joy’s mother dying because of cancer or some other medical condition that’s not Covid. The reason why I think Covid was brought into this special was because it was a very recent thing that happened. People would be very aware about it. 😐

And yet, it’s something that people don’t want to be reminded of. Look, I know Covid was a terrible thing that happened in 2020 and it affected many people’s lives in severe ways. But it’s something that shouldn’t have been included in a recent story for a family TV series.

This is one of the issues of modern television nowadays. We have stories that tell of certain recent socio-political events, including Covid-19, and yet people don’t want to be reminded of that when it’s not done very subtly whilst viewing it in a TV show or in a movie.

Big Finish have done the same thing when featuring the Covid-19 pandemic in one of the ‘Stranded’ box audio sets (the fourth one) featuring Paul McGann’s Eighth Doctor. I’ve not heard the ‘Standard’ audio box sets yet, but I know some were so upset by the fourth one.

They were upset that Covid had been mentioned or referred to in the fourth ‘Stranded’ box set because it reminded them of real-world events. And quite often, real-world events are something that we want to escape from when we know how terrible those situations are. 😐

In 2020, I did a ‘Doctor Who’ short story called ‘The Curse of Dr. Filthy’ with the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa and Billy. In the story, they stayed inside a house because of a deadly disease. I didn’t specify it being Covid, since it was another world the story took place on.

It wasn’t not Earth. Essentially, the story was about the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa and Billy coping with being in lockdown inside a house and finding a way to combat the disease. The story ended on a happy note and that was at a time when 2020 was coming to an end.

Looking back, it wasn’t the best short story I put together, and I’ve not revisited it since then. But I acknowledge that I tried my best to not make it specifically Covid-19, as I know making it the actual thing wouldn’t have helped how things turned out in the real world. 😐

Because the happy ending I provided in ‘The Curse of Dr. Filthy’ wouldn’t match to what was going on in the real world. Since sadly, in the real world, we’re still paying the price for what happened in 2020. There are still variants of the Covid-19 virus being dealt with. 😦

Going back to ‘Joy to the World’, this is an example of where things aren’t well thought out in the neo-RTD era. Because the Covid-19 pandemic shouldn’t have been mentioned in a way where creatives like RTD and Steven Moffat can have a go at those involved in politics.

Because politics should be the last thing to consider in a ‘Doctor Who’ story. Or at least, if a reference to Covid-19 and the Tories is going to be made, it should’ve been more thought-out in terms of the execution of the story. And certainly not at Christmas time. 😐

Christmas is a time where people should be together in peace and harmony. Where nobody is being discriminated. Where any grudge we have against people are taken out of the equation. Where we can be happy and generous to those that we have around us.

By giving a sharp ‘kicking’ to a certain group of politicians because they broke the rules at a time when the world was in a bad place, you’re not really sharing the good will to people as you may think you are. Having a go at the politicians shouldn’t be done at Christmas time.

Covid didn’t need to be included in this 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. The mean-spiritedness aspect of this story is very unnecessary.

After freeing Joy, she and the Doctor investigate what the briefcase is about. The Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver at the briefcase, which reveals a holographic logo that reads Conflict Solutions spinning around a V. The Doctor now knows what they’re dealing with.

They’re dealing with Villengard, the weapons manufacturers and very old enemies of the Doctor’s. Recall Villengard? They were in the previous episode Steven Moffat wrote called ‘Boom’. Steven Moffat seems obsessed with using Villengard as ‘Doctor Who’ villains lately.

Joy asks why Villengard would want to make a star. Soon, an automated voice comes from the briefcase, saying a Q+A has been activated. It explains Villengard are engaged in creating a customisable and functionally infinite energy source. That sounds so complex.

The Doctor calls it ‘definitionally insane’. Joy recognises the automated voice to be of Melnak the Silurian, and a hologram of him appears. Melnak informs the Doctor and Joy that his consciousness has been uploaded to the case as a communications interface. 😐

Whilst talking to the Melnak hologram, the Doctor protests that if the star seed exploded anywhere on Earth, it would burn every living thing. He tells the Melnak hologram to tell that to its users, but it replies saying that Villengard ‘respects’ their collateral sacrifice. 😮

The Doctor tells the hologram that it has it wrong, as they don’t have enough to grow a star. Human history is only a few thousand years long and Villengard needs way longer to achieve their purpose. They would need to check into the Time Hotel 65 million years ago.

Whilst the Doctor is saying these things, Joy is troubled when a thudding noise is made in the background. Stuff starts to shake around them and very soon, a dinosaur – a tyrannosaurus rex – appears and gobbles up the case, roaring before being it’s taken over.

Yep! Another T-Rex appears in ‘Doctor Who’ again! I joked it about in my quick reactions video on the Christmas Special back in 2024, but seriously! What is it with Steven Moffat’s obsession with dinosaurs? I mean, they’re fine, but…they’re dinosaurs. Just dinosaurs! 😀

And I don’t think ‘Jurassic World: Rebirth’ has helped much in making dinosaurs impressive. Or maybe it has, I don’t know. I do wonder though if that is the T-Rex dinosaur from ‘Deep Breath’ where the Twelfth Doctor and Clara inside the TARDIS ended up in. 😀

And then, the Doctor says this!

Doctor: Oh, fridge!

I know in the subtitles for BBC iPlayer and on the DVD, it’s “Oh, French”, but to me, it still sounds like “Oh, fridge!”. So, I’m sticking to that. Either way, it still sounds like the Doctor’s swearing by using the F-bomb in that scene. And it still hilariously doesn’t fit. 😀

I mean, was Steven Moffat desperately wanting to use the F-bomb in that moment but instead, he came up with ‘fridge’ instead? Or ‘French’? Let’s hope that kids will be using ‘fridge’ or ‘French’ as the F-bomb instead of the actual F-bomb. 😀 I find it pretty hilarious.

He could’ve said ‘frog’ instead of ‘fridge’ or ‘French’ if he wanted to as well. 😀 I’m digressing, of course. Back to the story, as the bungalow collapses, the Doctor and Joy find themselves falling down towards the dinosaur’s mouth. That dino must be hungry. 😀

Thankfully, they manage to stop themselves at the last second and they soon flee back into the Time Hotel. Once back in the Time Hotel, Joy points out the dinosaurs were about 65 million years ago. 😐 She also points out in the time that they’re in, Earth will soon burn.

The Doctor however says Villengard would have to put in a way to retrieve the case before the Earth blows up, since it wouldn’t be part of their plan. He realises Villengard would have to send a signal, a connection that broke when he severed Joy’s link to the briefcase.

Very soon, there’s a buzzing noise and the Doctor and Joy finds it’s coming from his sonic screwdriver. A hologram of Trev Simpkins appears and tells the Doctor he’s reporting for duty. Trev also tells him their mission is proceeding as planned, even though he’s dead. 😦

The Doctor is shocked to learn that Trev is dead. Of course, he didn’t know that Trev was one of the briefcase carriers before he passed it onto Melnak the hotel manager. I wonder how much the Doctor thought about Trev in the year he spent with Anita from 2024 to 2025.

I’m pleased Joel Fry returned as Trev as a hologram later on in the special, as Trev was able to help the Doctor and Joy in the story’s second half. I guess it’s a relief that his continued existence is via hologram. 😐 Then again, Steven Moffat isn’t good at keeping people dead.

Trev explains to the Doctor that he’s part of the star and he’s inside the communication interface. He says that the psychic graft has been duplicated virtually to allow their communication to continue. Trev also spent several million years to work out the answer.

He tells the Doctor and Joy that they need to get the star seed off-world before it detonates. The Doctor asks Trev why he would be helping them if he’s part of Villengard now. Trev told him before he wouldn’t let him down. Even in death, he won’t let him down.

Doctor: Trev, I love you.
Holo-Trev: Oh.
Doctor: I actually, really, physically love you, Trev.

Time and place, Doctor! Time and place! 😀 Actually, to be fair, the Doctor does ask the hologram Trev to help him out a bit more before he and Joy go downstairs in the Time Hotel. 🙂 Thanks to Trev, the Doctor and Joy go to Room 48 where the briefcase is situated.

Incidentally, when the Doctor asks Trev to tell him exactly when and where he is within the briefcase, the word ‘rotational mavity’ is used. Mavity! (sighs) I’ll save my next rant about ‘mavity’ when we get to my in-depth review on ‘The Interstellar Song Contest’ soon.

Needless to say, I didn’t pick up on the word ‘mavity’ when I saw ‘Joy to the World’ for the first time on Christmas Day in December 2024. Or maybe I did and I just forgot about it completely. Either way, this keeps on being a very annoying thing for me in RTD’s neo-era.

I liked it when Joy ran first to get to Room 48 whilst the Doctor was thanking Trev for telling them that the briefcase was in Room 48, Eventually, in Room 48, the Doctor and Joy find an ancient monument where the briefcase is kept. No time zone is specified at this point.

Don’t worry, we’ll get to it, but the revelation is disappointing for me. The Doctor explains to Joy that the T-Rex would have soon thrown up the case or deposited it. Thinking of the T-Rex depositing the briefcase makes me realise it would’ve smelled bad after so long. 😀

The monument happens to be a shrine, since the Doctor confirms it was manmade when it was built around the briefcase. The Doctor elaborates that the case is emitting a psychic field, possessing people to build the shrine around it in four-and-a-half millennia.

Doctor: It’s basically how you start a religion.

I suppose that would fit, but what kind of a religion would that be? Considering that the shrine is more or less underground and what the time zone we’re going to find out about by the end of the special is, it’s not really explained what those people were worshipping.

Keeping in touch with Trev, the Doctor asks him how long they have until the briefcase detonates. Trev tells him that it’ll be four-and-a-half millennia left. The Doctor tells him to run the numbers again and it turns out they have four-and-a-half minutes left. 😐 Whoops!

Doctor: Oh! Great! Bags of time! Thanks for that, Trev.

No need to be rude, Doctor. 😀 After the Doctor switches off Trev’s hologram, Joy asks what he intends to do next. The Doctor tells Joy that he’s going to throw the star seed into space by using a ‘phone box’. I assume that he meant the TARDIS. He must’ve done, right?

Realising that he needs rope, the Doctor tells Joy to stay in Room 48 before he goes off to make for the portal where Mount Everest is. That’s Mount Everest in 1953 where Edmund Hillary and his mountain team are, in case you weren’t paying attention. A lot to take in! 😀

The Doctor acquires the rope and the equipment that he needs from 1953. I found it funny when Hillary and Tenzing challenged the Doctor on why he was taking their equipment and the Doctor answered, “Because it was there”. 😀 As if it makes it alright for him to steal it then.

Eventually, the Doctor rigs the rope through the Orient Express in Italy in 1962 where Sylvia Trench is still aboard. Running through the train, the Doctor unwinds the rope behind him until he gets to the final locked door before using his sonic screwdriver again.

Up on the carriage roof, the Doctor throws the grappling hook like Indiana Jones, and it digs into the track, jerking the train. The rope strains across the Time Hotel and finally pulls the stone out of the monument in Room 48 where Joy is. 🙂 Lucky that worked, right?

The rope breaks and whips through the train. Much as that was an impressive sequence of the Doctor getting a monument door open to free the briefcase in Room 48 by using the Orient Express in 1962, it can be considered a generic sequence being used of late. 😐

Back with Joy, she stares at the briefcase as it opens, revealing the star seed. She tells it not to worry and that it’s okay, saying that she wants it to live. I suppose Joy had more insight knowledge about what the star seed was about than she was letting on to say that.

Meanwhile with the Doctor aboard the Orient Express, he meets up with Sylvia Trench and they talk about the letter she wrote. He says that she’s better off without ‘him’ and that his sentence structure’s appalling. Sylvia corrects him by saying she wrote the letter.

She also says that the recipient is female, not male. I’m not sure if it’s implied that Sylvia’s gay or whether it’s a friend she’s sending the letter to, but it’s likely it’s a lesbian thing going on considering it’s the neo-RTD era we’re in. The Doctor says he was glad to help. 🙂

Returning to the Time Hotel, the Doctor contacts Trev and asks how long they have left and the Trev hologram tells him the star seed is about to detonate. The Doctor returns to Room 48, only to find the suitcase empty. 😮 He shouts for Joy before going up some stairs.

Up on top and out in the open, the Doctor finds Joy there and she’s glowing. She turns to him, and it becomes clear that the star seed is pulsing inside her. She tells him that she was hoping he would come back to say goodbye. The Doctor is clearly shocked by this. 😐

Soon, a series of images cover Joy, confirming that the star seed is inside all those it has encountered. This includes Mr. Single, the barman, Trev – who gives the Doctor a thumbs up, saying the mission is complete – Melnak, and finally Joy who last had the briefcase. 🙂

Joy tells the Doctor that the star seed will bloom and he doesn’t need to worry. She and the others will be far away in the sky, and no-one will be hurt. Joy says that she thinks she’s saving the world. The Doctor protests by saying that he’s supposed to be saving her.

He says he won’t allow Villengard to do this to Joy and everyone else that came into contact with the briefcase. But Joy says that Villengard are nothing and that they’re far beyond them. It’s amazing Joy is taking this so well in the climax of this Christmas Special.

The Doctor pleads with her, saying that she doesn’t understand and that she will burn and die. Joy tells him not to be silly, as she claims she isn’t dying but only changing and saving something beautiful. She tells him she’ll shine everywhere and forever, including on him.

Joy also tells the Doctor that he needs to change too. Can’t tell whether that’s foreshadowing for what’s to come in the two-part finale of Series 15 in ‘Doctor Who’ when she supposedly appears in that again. Probably not, considering the circumstances of it.

As Joy reminds the Doctor that everything he said about her hotel room was right and that he stayed in that room for a year, he claims it wasn’t so bad, as it had nice chairs. Joy tells him that needs to find a friend. That he should go and do it now and she’ll be watching.

Sadly, that doesn’t mean the Doctor will go back to Ruby to pick her up for more adventures, but still. 😐 As Joy says goodbye, she rises into the sky and tells the Doctor that her mother was right in that she is Joy and she’ll see her again and will be with her. 😐

If it wasn’t for how this special ended in terms of what Joy became and what time period she and the Doctor ended up in in Room 48, maybe I would’ve taken that sentiment about Joy being with her mother again to heart. 😐 But I can’t really, and I’ll explain why shortly. 😐

Eventually, Joy departs in a burst of energy, becoming a star in the sky. What follows is a montage of Joy as a star appearing in various times and places on the planet Earth where she shines so brightly. And the many people we’ve seen before look up at the night sky. 😐

This includes Basil and Hilda in 1940, Sylvia aboard the Orient Express in 1962 where she tears up her letter, and Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay at Mount Everest in 1953. I’m surprised Basil and Hilda didn’t have a part to play in the dramatic climax of this special.

We then come to my favourite part of the entire Christmas Special itself. We see Millie Gibson as Ruby Sunday make a guest cameo in the special. In 2024, she looks up at the night sky to see Joy as a star from a window. I was very pleased to see Millie back as Ruby.

It was a joy – no pun intended – for me to see Millie Gibson in the 2024 ‘Doctor Who’ Christmas Special. I guessed that would happen before seeing this special on TV, but it was still a thrill to see Ruby, even for a cameo. Mind you, it transpires there’s more to this.

When the Series 15 deleted scenes compilation of ‘Doctor Who’ was released on the official ‘Doctor Who’ YouTube channel in November 2025, it turns out there was another scene of Ruby celebrating on New Year’s Eve with her family and friends in December 2024. Wow!

How come they didn’t include that deleted scene of Ruby Sunday in the Christmas Special itself? Why was it cut? I would’ve loved to have seen that scene in the Christmas Special itself, as it would’ve made me feel happier, especially as Ruby left too soon at the end of Series 14.

I’m very disappointed that we didn’t get to have that extra scene of Millie Gibson as Ruby Sunday in ‘Joy to the World’. That would have been so amazing if that was included in the Christmas Special. Don’t get me wrong, I’m very happy she made a cameo in the special.

But it makes me wonder, “Why film that scene with Ruby and her family and friends on New Year’s Eve in 2024 at all if you’re not going to use it at all in the special? It would’ve highlighted the Doctor’s sadness at Christmas time whilst he was at the Sandringham Hotel in 2024.

It was lovely to see the extra scene of Millie Gibson as Ruby Sunday in ‘Joy to the World’ in the Series 15 deleted scenes YouTube video. Having met Millie at conventions, getting to see more of her in ‘Doctor Who’ is great, as she’s one of my favourite companions.

After seeing this Christmas Special, I was looking forward to seeing Ruby again in Series 15, due to be shown in 2025. Little did I know how Ruby’s story would turn out in Series 15, but nevertheless, it was something to look forward to before that season come along.

Incidentally, in the transmitted scene where Ruby sees the star from a window, she gets a call from her mum – her birth mother, Louise Miller, I presume. I’m not sure, as it could’ve easily been Carla who made the phone call, though Ruby is clearly in the Sundays’ flat. 😐

We then cut to the Sandringham Hotel in 2025. Anita is busy vacuuming before she picks up and holds a model police box in her hand – the gift the Doctor gave to her before he left. 🙂 She then looks out of a window, seeing Joy as the star shining bright in the night sky.

A door then opens and Fiona Marr as Angela Grace, the new Time Hotel manager, enters and approaches Anita, telling her that she comes highly recommended by an old friend. She hands her an envelope, asking her if she would be interested in working at the Time Hotel.

Anita opens the envelope and sees the Doctor’s Christmas card with the message “For Auld Lang Syne” on it. I’m glad the Doctor didn’t forget Anita as the special was coming to an end. 🙂 What will happen next for Anita? Will we see her again at the Time Hotel? 😀

We then cut to London in the year 2020 – What, that gets a caption and not any of the other time zones we visit during the special’s closing moments? 😀 – where we’re in the Royal Hope Hospital. Say, that’s the hospital Martha Jones worked at in ‘Smith and Jones’!

Joy’s mother, played by Fiona Scott, is talking to her daughter on her iPad. Well, Joy is doing the talking mostly. This is like a day before Joy’s mother sadly passed away on Christmas Day in 2020. Joy tells her mum she’ll see her soon once the ‘nonsense’ is over.

Excuse me, Joy! That ‘nonsense’ you were talking about was taken seriously by most of us in that year! Then again, Joy probably didn’t take the Covid-19 pandemic seriously as some didn’t back then. I hope Joy did take it seriously when the vaccines were being handed out.

Joy tells her mum to be brave, wishing her a Merry Christmas before bidding her goodbye. Once the call is finished, Joy’s mother soon sees the star shining brightly outside the hospital room window. 🙂 It flares brightly and soon Joy’s mother’s body glows with energy.

As this happens, Joy’s mother realises that it’s her daughter who’s the star in the night sky as she says “Joy”. Her energy flows into the star. Gee, I wish that could happen in real life where people on the verge of death join the stars. Maybe Steven Moffat is wishing for that.

And…(sighs) Here we go. This is what lets the special down for me as I’m concerned. ‘Joy to the World’ as a ‘Doctor Who’ Christmas Special comes to a close when the Doctor smiles at the star in the night sky before he notices a nearby town and realises something.

Doctor: Oh, of course. Joy. Of course you are, you’re Joy.

As soon as the Doctor shouts in a loud voice, “Joy to the World!”, he gives the star a final salute, before he returns down where we came from in Room 48. The special ends on a shot where we see what the town is with the star in the night sky and how it’s significant.

No! No, no! I’m not buying that! No way! Joy can’t be the Star of Bethlehem! This is what ruined the special for me. Joy can’t have self-sacrificed herself to be the Star of Bethlehem! Even with me as a Christian, you know that ‘Doctor Who’ is more fantasy now!

Having seen ‘The Nativity Story’ 2006 film, I prefer how it was explained how the Wise Man travelled many miles to get to Bethlehem by following the Star. Having Joy end up being the Star of Bethlehem and appearing in every time zone does feel a stretch of imagination.

I know this is down to interpretation and I’m sure some would disagree with me on this, but it feels rather far-fetched. Even if the Nativity is acknowledged in ‘Doctor Who’ by this point. 😐 It just makes me cringe along with ‘the last room’ line said by the Fifteenth Doctor.

As well as what the Tenth Doctor said in ‘Voyage of the Damned’. I suppose you could say it challenged my Christian beliefs on how the Nativity happened. But then I’ve also seen the BBC’s ‘The Nativity’ in 2010 and I’m still not convinced by how things happened in that.

It’s unnecessary and shouldn’t have been included in the Christmas Special at all. I know it’s to provide context about the First Christmas and maybe it was done in a sentimental way, especially with Joy saving her mother from dying. But it does not have me convinced.

No doubt, it’s an intriguing depiction of how a certain aspect of the Nativity is portrayed in ‘Doctor Who’ by Steven Moffat. It’s not one I agree with, but it’s certainly intriguing. Would a full ‘Doctor Who’ take on the Nativity have made it up for me? 😐 I’m guessing not.

The DVD/Blu-ray special features for ‘Joy to the World’ are as follows. On the ‘Joy to the World’ DVD and Blu-ray discs and on Disc 1 of the Series 15/Season Two DVD/Blu-ray box set of ‘Doctor Who’, there’s an audio commentary with Steph de Whalley, writer/executive producer Steven Moffat and director Alex Sanjiv Pillai. There’s the ‘Doctor Who Unleashed’ episode for ‘Joy to the World’ and a behind-the-scenes featurette on ‘Joy to the World’. There’s a scene breakdown on ‘Joy to the World’ with director Alex Sanjiv Pillai, ‘TARDIS Talk’ with executive producer Russell T. Davies and writer/executive producer Steven Moffat, the Christmas trailer for ‘Joy to the World’ (which I’ve shared at the top of this page) and a preview on ‘Joy to the World’ by Steven Moffat.

So, yeah. I don’t think ‘Joy to the World’ is terrible as a ‘Doctor Who’ Christmas Special as some have made it out to be. But I don’t think it’s great either. It’s one of the better efforts by Steven Moffatt, especially in the neo-RTD era, but it doesn’t match to the episode ‘Boom’.

I’m sure 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 pleased I saw it on BBC One at the time, and fortunately, it wasn’t put on BBC iPlayer first.

I enjoyed Ncuti Gatwa’s performance as the Fifteenth Doctor and I feel like I’ve been able to get to know him more here compared to when I saw him in Series 14. I hoped that would continue to be the case when checking out Series 15 as well as beyond in the new TV series.

It was also lovely to see Millie Gibson’s cameo as Ruby Sunday in ‘Joy to the World’ as that brightened my day when I saw it. It was the saving grace for me. I hoped it would happen and I’m glad it did, even if two scenes featuring Ruby were filmed and only one was used.

I also consider Steph de Whalley’s performance as Anita to be a highlight in the Christmas Special. More so than Nicola Coughlan as Joy. Don’t get me wrong, Nicola Coughlan is fine as Joy, but she didn’t have a lot of interaction with Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor.

With what ‘Joy to the World’ ended up becoming when I saw it on Christmas Day in December 2024, I’m glad that I saw ‘Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl’ next. I found the ‘Wallace & Gromit’ film a lot more entertaining and fulfilling on Christmas Day.

Incidentally, I revisited ‘Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl’ on Netflix after revisiting ‘Joy to the World’ on DVD for this in-depth review. I still consider ‘Vengeance Most Fowl’ more fulfilling compared to ‘Joy to the World’, especially when its plot is more straight-forward.

It’s sad this is the case, as there was a time when I enjoyed ‘The Next Doctor’ and the ‘Wallace & Gromit’ film ‘A Matter of Loaf and Death’ in tow more back in December 2008 compared to when I checked out ‘Joy to the World’ and ‘Vengeance Most Fowl’ in tow in December 2024. 😐

From what I’ve discovered, according to a BBC link I found online, ‘Joy to the World’ had 4.11 million overnight viewing figures in the UK. ‘Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl’ had 9.38 million whilst ‘Gavin & Stacey: The Finale’ had 12.32 million. Not a very good sign. 😐

It was a sign that ‘Doctor Who’ was in trouble. An indicator that the current showrunner shouldn’t place too much confidence in the Christmas Specials if the specials aren’t going to bring in the viewing figures that are required to achieve the success the TV show needs.

This was depending on how well the Christmas Specials and the main seasons of the new TV show had been received by both the ‘Doctor Who’ and non-‘Doctor Who’ audiences. And it’s very clear that audiences were already losing interest in how ‘Doctor Who’ was turning out.

I didn’t know what to expect when it came to checking out the next season of ‘Doctor Who’ with Ncuti Gatwa as the Fifteenth Doctor. I hope that it would be entertaining and perhaps it would turn out better than anticipated. Did Series 15 turn out to be a good season?

(sighs) It’s ironic to think I’m doing these in-depth reviews in 2026, isn’t it? 😐

‘Joy to the World’ rating – 6/10

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The previous story For the Fifteenth Doctor was ‘Run’ (Comic) For Ruby was ‘The Legend of Ruby Sunday’/’Empire of Death’ (TV)	The next story For the Fifteenth Doctor is ‘Dance Till You Drop’ (Comic) For Ruby is ‘Lucky Day’ (TV)
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