Happy Christmas! For me, Christmas Day is synonymous with new Doctor Who, and that’s definitely the case this year with the release of “Joy to the World.” After a disappointing season finale, let’s see if “Joy to the World” sticks the landing in my spoiler-filled recap.
The special begins prior to the title sequence in war-torn London during the Blitz, where an old couple are randomly interrupted by Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor offering a ham and cheese toastie and pumpkin spice latte. The Doctor continues to pop up in random points throughout Earth's history, offering a ham and cheese toastie and pumpkin spice latte to the bewildered people he meets. Joy, played by Bridgerton’s Nicola Couglan, arrives at a rather shabby London hotel on Christmas Day, very much alone. Eventually, The Doctor ends up in that hotel room in 2024, meeting Joy and a Silurian.
Seemingly having jumped back in time a bit, following the title sequence, we’re in an extremely elegant hotel in the distant future. The Doctor, dressed in his best dressing gown, comes out of the TARDIS to get some milk for him and, instinctively also for Ruby, even though she of course stayed on Earth at the end of the last episode. Here he meets an employee from the hotel, Trev (Joel Fry), and the two begin to investigate a strange man who has appeared at the hotel carrying a briefcase that he is also chained to.
The Doctor discovers that he has landed in a Time Hotel, which has doors to various fixed points in time – leading to a cacophony of guests from different time periods at the hotel. Meanwhile, the mysterious man with the briefcase transfers said briefcase to a variety of hotel staff members, with the chain leaching onto a new host (including poor Trev), before landing on a Silurian manager of the hotel. Trying to get ahead of the threat, the Doctor begins searching for the Silurian, and wherever his final destination may be – which brings us back to the hm and cheese toastie scene from the beginning of the episode.
We cut back to Joy’s hotel room, and the case has transferred itself to Joy, who almost immediately takes on a new demeanor. The Doctor tries to comfort the Silurian as he lays dying, as Joy accesses the door to the Time Hotel. After a tense scene where the Doctor opens the briefcase, which could lead to the incineration of the host (Joy), they need a passcode to stop it from happening – which is provided by a future Doctor, who then pulls Joy away and back into the Time Hotel, while the present Doctor is left, stuck in 2024.
While the Doctor contemplates contacting Ruby, he instead takes up a job at the London hotel, and forges a very sweet relationship with the manager of the hotel, Anita (Steph de Whalley) over numerous scenes that for me, end up being the emotional highlight of the episode. We really get to see a bond form between the two, and I think that we may not have seen the end of this relationship. Eventually, after waiting the year required, the Doctor heads to New York to be at the Exeter Hotel on Christmas Eve to access the Time Hotel.
The Doctor is now caught up with his future self and Joy back in the Time Hotel. Trying to break the briefcase’s hold on Joy, the Doctor begins to taunt her in a cruel, but necessary way – talking about the death of her mother, and how she was alone on Christmas Day – which eventually works, as they end up a room and the briefcase has detached itself. Unfortunately, they also traveled back to the prehistoric age, and a Dinosaur appears and swallows up the briefcase, and almost them too.
Turns out Villengard, the biggest arms manufacturer in recorded history (and previously featured in last season’s “Boom”), is once again behind the machinations of this episode, and we get some explanations from the image of that deceased Silurian. The briefcase is carrying a Star Seed, which the company looks to plant in order to create a new star, using the Time Hotel as a convenient shortcut. There’s just one problem – if the Star Seed explodes at any point in history, it will burn every living thing.
With help from a similar deceased hologram of hotel employee Trev, the Doctor is able to locate the briefcase in a mausoleum, having been sealed for centuries. After a bunch of time travel shenanigans, Joy reveals that she and the Star Seed have become one, containing the star within her. She rationalizes the decision as a way to see her mother again, and the Doctor and Joy have a tearful farewell as she turns into a star. The episode concludes with some touching moments revisiting characters from the story, and even Ruby briefly! As Joy of 2020 talks to her mother through an iPad on her deathbed, the Joy star flies overhead, which her mother immediately recognizes as Joy. One last twist awaits as the Doctor realizes that her name might just have something to do with the joy of Christmas, shouting out “Joy to the World,” as it is revealed he is standing in Bethlehem in the year 0001.
“Joy to the World” is a perfect Doctor Who Christmas special, showcasing why Doctor Who on Christmas works so well. There’s joy, sadness, hope and fear – everything that makes Christmas, Christmas makes Doctor Who, Doctor Who. If you found yourself bogged down by the season-long arc, rest assured, this is a fun and memorable stand-alone story that is sure to leave a smile on your face on Christmas Day!
“Joy to the World” is now streaming on Disney+, and a new season of Doctor Who is on its way in 2025!