Steven Moffat’s return to Doctor Who for the 2024 Christmas special, “Joy to the World,” was highly anticipated by fans, especially after his acclaimed episode “Boom” earlier in the year. As a celebrated, albeit divisive, figure in Doctor Who history, Moffat’s festive offering was met with considerable excitement. However, upon viewing, and after much discussion with fellow Whovians, it’s clear that “Joy to the World,” while showcasing Moffat’s signature whimsical style, ultimately stumbles with a confusing and somewhat unsatisfying conclusion.
Moffat, who served as showrunner from 2010 to 2017, penned “Joy to the World,” marking a unique instance where a Christmas special was written outside of the current showrunner, Russell T. Davies’ purview. Moffat himself expressed dissatisfaction with his previous Christmas special, 2017’s “Twice Upon a Time,” Peter Capaldi’s final outing as the Twelfth Doctor. “Twice Upon a Time,” while featuring the First Doctor, felt thematically and narratively lightweight, lacking a compelling antagonist or a truly pressing threat. Therefore, the prospect of Moffat revisiting the Christmas special format was intriguing, holding the promise of a more impactful and classic Moffat narrative. Unfortunately, “Joy to the World,” while entertaining in parts, doesn’t quite reach the heights of his best work, leaving one wishing he had perhaps left “Twice Upon a Time” as his final festive contribution.
“Joy to the World” finds the Fifteenth Doctor, portrayed by Ncuti Gatwa, momentarily companion-less following his recent travels with Ruby Sunday. In a quest for a simple cup of coffee and, crucially, milk, the Doctor inadvertently discovers The Time Hotel. This extraordinary establishment houses doors that act as portals to various hotels throughout Earth’s history. This clever concept ingeniously explains the ubiquitous mystery of the perpetually locked, non-leading hotel door – it’s a gateway to temporal adventures.
Within The Time Hotel, the Doctor encounters Joy, played by Nicola Coughlin, a solitary woman spending Christmas in a rather downbeat English hotel, the Sandringham Hotel. Simultaneously, a mysterious briefcase arrives at The Time Hotel, handcuffed and programmed to attach itself to the individual best suited to deliver it. The contents of this briefcase and the cryptic phrase uttered by its handlers, “The starseed will bloom, and the flesh will rise,” become central to the unfolding mystery. When the briefcase locks onto Joy, the Doctor is compelled to intervene and unravel the enigma to save her.
The antagonistic force, or perhaps more accurately, the orchestrator of events, is Villengard, the galaxy’s premier arms manufacturer, who also featured in Moffat’s earlier episode, “Boom.” Villengard’s presence allows Moffat to continue his characteristic satirical jabs at the military-industrial complex, a recurring theme in his writing.
However, Moffat’s satirical lens extends beyond corporate entities in “Joy to the World.” A poignant monologue from Joy reveals her heartbreaking experience of saying goodbye to her dying mother via iPad due to stringent COVID-19 pandemic hospital restrictions. Her lament highlights the stark contrast between ordinary people adhering to rules and the privileged elite who flagrantly disregarded them. Moffat has openly stated this as a direct critique of Tory rule-breakers in the UK during the pandemic, marking the first explicit acknowledgment of the pandemic within the canonical Doctor Who universe, albeit in a fictionalized context. This is in contrast to a charming, non-canonical mini-episode featuring the Thirteenth Doctor offering a message of hope to children during the initial lockdown.
Ncuti Gatwa Doctor Who Christmas Special
Image: Fifteenth Doctor, portrayed by Ncuti Gatwa, investigates the mysterious Time Hotel in the Doctor Who Christmas Special “Joy to the World”.
Spoilers Ahead: Proceed with caution if you wish to avoid plot details.
The briefcase, it transpires, contains a “starseed,” the nascent stage of a star destined to bloom into a manufactured celestial body, granting Villengard boundless power. Yet, echoing “Twice Upon a Time,” the Doctor’s initial suspicions of Villengard’s malevolence are somewhat subverted. The star ultimately manifests as a benevolent force for humanity, seemingly becoming the Star of Bethlehem. Throughout history, gazing upon this star evokes feelings of joy in people.
However, this celestial transformation comes at a significant cost. The star necessitates the life force of Joy and all those who carried the briefcase. The episode’s central perplexing element lies in the Doctor’s apparent acceptance of this sacrifice. The justification for why this manufactured star, achieved through such loss, constitutes a net positive for humanity remains nebulous. While the star’s connection to the Star of Bethlehem might resonate with viewers of Christian faith, the Doctor’s traditionally skeptical stance on religion makes his acceptance of this outcome feel somewhat dissonant.
Despite the narrative ambiguity of the ending, “Joy to the World” is replete with whimsical and inventive Moffat-esque touches. A prime example is the Doctor’s ingenious solution to disarm the briefcase bomb within the Sandringham Hotel. He engineers a bootstrap paradox, receiving the detonation code from his future self. This necessitates the Doctor spending an entire year, from Christmas 2024 to Christmas 2025, residing and working at the Sandringham Hotel. During this temporal interlude, he forges a deep friendship with the hotel manager, Anita (Steph de Whalley). His culminating speech to Anita, praising her inherent worth and the fortune of those who know her, is a genuinely moving and characteristically Moffat moment.
The concept of the Doctor experiencing an extended period within a single episode is a hallmark of Moffat’s writing. His Doctor Who narratives have spanned millennia and even billions of years, showcasing his mastery of time-bending storytelling. Furthermore, the Doctor’s capacity for empathy and his ability to see the good in everyone, exemplified in his friendship with Anita, are consistent traits of Moffat’s interpretation of the character. This paradoxical year and its emotional resonance are quintessential Moffat.
The very premise of The Time Hotel is another stroke of Moffat’s whimsical genius. It’s an instantly captivating idea, sparking both the viewer’s imagination and the Doctor’s inherent curiosity. Within this temporal hotel, the Doctor befriends Trev (Joel Fry), a somewhat simple but loyal employee, enlisting his help and adding another layer of charm to the episode. Trev’s blend of humor and endearing naiveté enhances the overall lightheartedness of the narrative.
On a personal note, Joy’s backstory, involving the loss of her mother to illness and the enforced remote farewell, resonated deeply. Having experienced a similar loss at a young age, the emotional weight of this scenario was palpable. While the “dead mother” trope can be overused as a motivational device, particularly for male characters, its application to Joy felt more nuanced and less exploitative. Here, a woman’s grief motivates another woman, avoiding the pitfall of female characters serving merely as props in male hero narratives.
However, despite these compelling and touching moments, the unresolved and somewhat illogical ending casts a shadow over the entire episode. “Joy to the World” juggles numerous narrative threads, and it feels as though Moffat, in his attempt to weave them together, dropped a few. For this reviewer, Moffat’s magnum opus Christmas special remains “The Husbands of River Song” (2015). That episode masterfully balances whimsy, adventure, and fantastical concepts with a coherent plot and a deeply satisfying resolution.
Ultimately, “Joy to the World,” while brimming with Moffat’s signature creativity and charm, buckles under the weight of its own ambition. Moffat has hinted that this may be his final Doctor Who contribution. While this episode offers glimpses of his brilliance, one hopes he might reconsider and return to pen a future episode that more fully encapsulates his storytelling prowess, leaving a more definitively triumphant final note on his Doctor Who legacy.
Rating: 79/100
“Joy to the World” is currently streaming on Disney+.
Photo courtesy of Disney+
Tags: Disney Doctor Who Joy to the World Ncuti Gatwa Nicola Coughlin Steven Moffat
