Doctor Who Christmas Special Review (2024 Edition) – A Very Moffat Christmas

When I got into Doctor Who during the Matt Smith era (and I soon went back and watched 9 and 10’s whole run leading up to Smith), I learned a couple of “key things” from the fanbase. One was that Tennant was the best Doctor, with a big reason for that being the writing of one Russel T. Davies. Then, as the Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi eras went on, the fanbase noted that Stephen Moffat was the best or worst DW writer out there…depending on the episode. As my Doctor Who Christmas Special Review (2024 Edition!) will note, my feelings on both writers have definitely soured since the new era began.

My feelings on Davies (who is now showrunner, and thus oversees everything) can be found in the entire run of reviews I did on last season. Despite the greatness of Ncuti Gatwa, it was incredibly inconsistent and downright maddening, including in the season finale! My problem with “Joy To The World” honestly encapsulates much of what I said in those reviews, while adding new layers of confusion. Not the least of which is…it didn’t really feel like a Christmas episode at times, and I know many fans out there felt the same way. In fact, I’ll be referencing the fans many times over in my review.

So, let’s start at the beginning. The Doctor ends up in a kind of “Time Hotel,” where its tenants can go to any point in time (while in period appropriate clothing, of course) and experience the wonders of history. A clever concept, I must admit. Naturally, The Doctor stumbles in when it’s a special “Christmas event,” where they celebrate “Christmas everywhere, all at once.” Again, very clever.

But, of course, something is very wrong in the hotel, as The Doctor spots someone acting very strange. Sure enough, there is a mysterious briefcase that is literally taking over people’s minds, and when the briefcase gets transferred to another person…the previous caseholder dies. Yeah, that got dark quickly!

Where does the titular “Joy” come into play? Well, she accidentally gets roped into things and becomes the new bearer of the case, which The Doctor needs to not only save her from but figure out the truth behind it before “the star will rise and flesh shall be burnt.” Or something to that effect.

Sadly…that’s where things go off the rails in a hurry, and it never gets back on them.

Because within a minute or two of The Doctor meeting Joy and her getting attached to the briefcase…The Doctor is trapped in the past (because of himself) and told to go the “long way around” (nice Smith reference, Moffat) to “figure out the code” to save her, because the future version of himself already “figured it out.”

We’ve seen time travel shenanigans in the past before, including The Doctor being stuck in a certain period without his Tardis. However, here, it lasted a nice chunk of the episode, as he had to literally wait a year for it to be Christmas again just to get back to the Time Hotel and be the future version to help the past one. Confusing? A bit.

Oh, but that “year in exile” had one big benefit…Anita! She ran the place where Joy was staying, and she was a treat! Anita was kind and needed a friend and a helping hand (which she got two-fold via The Doctor staying around). Through the many scenes, you could tell how much she appreciated his companionship and didn’t question things like you would expect her to because she trusted him and appreciated the “wonder” that was all around him. You wanted to see her go on adventures with The Doctor. She was great, and their parting was sad because it didn’t make sense that he wouldn’t invite her to the Tardis to journey with him, given the connection they had, and there were PLENTY of people online who preferred Anita to Joy.

…and I’m one of them.

So, what was wrong with Joy? Technically, nothing. Confusing, right? The catch here is that while we got to see Anita in various ways and in various scenes while she interacted with The Doctor, we didn’t get that with Joy. On the contrary, if I asked you to explain who Joy was…you’d probably only be able to list one major thing. That thing was that she lost her mother on Christmas, and it heavily affected her.

While that is a great building block for a character, we never got more than that! She had little true interactions with The Doctor in her non-mind-controlled state, and when time “synced up again” and they had to figure out what to do with the Star Seed, the episode was already almost over, and they were rushing from one thing to the next.

Thus, in contrast to Anita, when Joy “departed” with the Star Seed, I felt no connection to her, and I saw many posts online saying the same thing. In fact, many called out the “dark Doctor Who holiday tradition” of people dying during the Christmas specials instead of becoming true companions.

While I won’t touch on the “Joy becomes the Star of Bethlehem” moment, I will say that it did rub me the wrong way, and I’m sure many others felt that way, too. If nothing else, I think Moffat wanted to take the phrase “Joy To The World” and craft it into an episode…even though it didn’t “fit the holiday season vibe” he thought it would. If you think about it, we almost literally saw The Doctor spend more time OUTSIDE of Christmas than in it.

Speaking of The Doctor, while Ncuti Gatwa continues to prove why he can act the heck out of almost any script, some of his moments really came off as forced. Don’t forget the conversation he had with 2nd version of Tennant’s Doctor where he said he (Gatwa) was the version that finally “let himself grieve and heal” versus keeping it all in. Yet, in “Joy To The World,” we saw the present version of Gatwa’s Doctor yelling at the future one because “You’re always alone!” and “Everyone hates you!” That didn’t feel right, given the adventures with Ruby he had and how he was more than fine with WILLINGLY letting her go so she could be with her true mom.

Even the “find out the code” line was a riff on the “Beethoven’s 5th Symphony” moment from Capaldi’s run and didn’t really add anything to the plot…outside of giving us Anita.

Look, as I wrap up my Doctor Who Christmas Special Review, I want to note that I have fond memories of multiple Christmas specials, and I know Moffat can do incredible pieces because ones like “Heaven Sent” or even “Day of the Doctor” were incredible. Yet, with “Joy To the World,” it just felt like a half-hearted attempt to make a Christmas Episode, and the results just weren’t that great.

…but…if you want me to end this on a lighter note… We do have a tease for the next season!

"There are forces beyond this universe… It's all a game to them" #DoctorWho returns in 2025. pic.twitter.com/DhH1QCzqf1

— Doctor Who (@bbcdoctorwho) December 25, 2024