2nd Opinion, Take 1 “Joy to the World” – Moments of Doctor Who Brilliance Let Down by Deeper Issues
Gustaff Behr reviews the 2024 Christmas special.
This year’s Doctor Who Christmas special arrived with a heavy burden of skepticism. After the underwhelming finale of Series 14, my excitement for this episode was lukewarm at best. The trailers did little to inspire confidence, showcasing what felt like a standard holiday romp without much heart. With my faith in the RTD2 era steadily waning, I approached this special more out of hope than anticipation, clinging to the possibility that maybe, just maybe, we could end the year on a Christmas miracle. How does “Joy to the World” stack up against some of the best Christmas specials penned by the Moff?
Well, the Fifteenth Doctor is well-characterized. The episode actually does a great job of revealing more about this incarnation’s personality. We see that he is a forgetful Doctor, often relying on his instincts, which are sharp but sometimes leave him a bit behind in understanding his own actions. Ncuti Gatwa puts in a wonderful performance, using his incarnation’s boundless charm to win over everyone he comes across. This incarnation knows what it’s working with.
However, the real MVP of the episode is Anita. It’s shocking that she wasn’t invited aboard the TARDIS, given the fantastic chemistry she shares with the Doctor. In just ten minutes of screen time, their interactions feel more genuine than the Doctor’s relationship with Ruby Sunday across all of Series 14. The emotional connection between the Doctor and Anita is believable, and it puts “Rogue” to shame by showing how a real, heartfelt bond between two characters should look. The Doctor’s forced goodbye with Anita, caught sneaking away, provides a satisfying payoff for the episode’s emotional arc.
Despite some strong character moments, the episode (and fans of it) tries to handwave away many of its nonsensical elements, often by labeling them as “it’s a Christmas special, turn off your brain”. Unfortunately, the episode doesn’t allow for much brain-turned-off enjoyment, as it piles on more and more confusion. One of the more baffling elements is the inspiration for the story. Steven Moffat claims that the idea for the plot came from his own experience with “extra locked rooms” in hotel rooms, which is supposed to be the ultimate mystery. I’ve stayed in over fifty hotels, and I’ve only encountered these “extra” rooms twice—both of which were adjoining rooms to other ones. Mystery solved, move on.
The episode introduces the concept of doors in the Time Hotel leading to “extra” doors that connect to different points in history. Arguably, the biggest plot hole is indirectly referenced by the characters themselves towards the end: Why does Villengard need planet Earth? Or any planet, for that matter? The crucial resource for their Star Creation is time, which the episode makes abundantly clear is available. So why not hire a time agent or some rogue time traveler to drop off the briefcase in the vacuum of space four billion years ago or in some other time period, far removed from any planet? This episode’s conflict exists because of…reasons? …Villengard could just buy the Time Hotel.
Capitalism bad, right?
Speaking of the Time Hotel, why isn’t the Doctor more disturbed by the fact that someone has set up a capitalist operation (the indoctrination is working, see) allowing individuals to potentially meddle with the history of his favorite planet? A Time Hotel seems like the ultimate poster child for irresponsible time travel, and the Doctor’s nonchalance here is baffling.
The episode also suffers from the ramifications of having the Fourteenth Doctor retire in the 21st century. This choice continues to create plot holes for modern-day Doctor Who episodes. Why doesn’t Fifteen simply pop over to the Noble household and borrow the TARDIS that the Fourteenth Doctor currently owns? Why does Fifteen need to work for a year to earn money? UNIT is still around, and he’s technically on their payroll. It feels like this episode could have avoided many of these issues by simply stranding the Doctor in the 19th century instead, safely removed from his Twelfth (1950s-2017) and Fourteenth (2023-?) incarnations.
Then there’s the emotional baggage of the Doctor. Once again, we see the Doctor crying—twice in this episode—bringing his total to twelve or thirteen instances of crying in just ten episodes. We also seem to be backtracking on Fifteen’s whole ‘Without Baggage’ through-line that Russell T Davies forced down our throats at the end of “The Giggle“.
I thought this Doctor was emotionally healed after his ‘rehab’. It doesn’t look like it because he cites his compulsion to be mysterious as the reason people ‘don’t like’ or ‘leave’ him. Where is that coming from? In short cause we really don’t have that long on here: Susan Foreman (Left behind), Barbara Wright & Ian Chesterton (Returned from kidnapping), Vicki (Love), Steven Taylor (Fear), Katarina (Dead), Sara Kingdom (Also dead), Jo Grant (Love again), Liz Shaw (okay, I’ll give you this one), Sarah Jane Smith (Abandoned), Harry Sullivan (Work), Leela (Love…kinda), K9 (Still not sure why the Doctor doesn’t just build a new one), Romana (E-Space…dead?), Adric (Dead), Nyssa (Helping people), Tegan Jovanka (Fear), Vislor Turlough (Redemption), Kamelion (Dead), Peri Brown (Abandoned…Dead…Married to Brian Blessed), Mel Bush (Still around), Ace (Okay, that makes two, but it’s not even shown onscreen…also still around), Grace Hollaway (Universal Pictures), Rose Tyler (Trapped, Untrapped, Married a clone), Jack Harkness (BBC), Mickey Smith (Still around, but BBC), Martha Jones (Still around), Donna Noble (Mind wipe…then not…then still around), Amy Pond (Dead), Rory Williams (Also Dead), River Song (Dead/Still around), Clara Oswald (Dead/Still around), Bill Potts (Dead/Still around), Yasmin Khan (Russell T Davies), Ryan Sinclair (Who cares?), Graham O’Brien (Still around), Ruby Sunday (Plot convenience).
The episode also introduces a troubling dynamic where the Doctor inadvertently gets two people killed due to his curiosity and willingness to involve them in his chaotic adventures. This plays into the episode’s broader issues with tone and characterization. There’s also a strange commentary about “mansplaining” that doesn’t sit right, especially given that just under a year ago, the Doctor was portrayed as a woman for at least two decades (in-universe). The attempt to appeal to a female audience at the expense of alienating the male one feels patronizing and unnecessary.
Please, stop it.
The Doctor claims the Time Hotel is ‘paradox proof’ in the same conversation where he just used (and explained) a bootstrap PARADOX. There’s also some nonsense about what you can tell about a person by the hotel rooms they select which is a load of bull. It comes down to 1) Room availability, 2) Distance from holiday attraction and 3) Pricing. This becomes doubly insulting when he uses Joy’s hotel room to emotionally break her out of Villengard’s control…only Joy didn’t pick the room, she ‘asked’ for one and we’re shown her being assigned one. Nothing about her picking that one.
I haven’t mentioned Joy in this review yet because, while a key character in the episode, she is mostly overshadowed by Anita and, for much of the runtime, feels under-utilized. Joy is largely absent in the first half of the episode, and when she does appear in the second half, she spends much of the time acting under the influence of Villengard’s briefcase. Her tragic backstory feels rushed, relegated to an exposition dump and a COVID reference that feels out of place. Doctor Who hasn’t made a reference to COVID since the pandemic, and it doesn’t feel fitting here.
As for Joy herself, I found the character somewhat annoying. She abandons her survival instincts when the Doctor shows up by discarding the hair dryer the Silurian mistook for a gun. Joy is incapable of recognizing a dangerous situation or reading the room and fails to take instructions. Her “find a friend” speech also feels forced, given how little time she’s spent with the Doctor. This line was likely intended for Anita, but for some reason, it was given to Joy, perhaps to create an emotional connection.
In fact, this character’s consistency goes from berating the Doctor for almost getting her killed when he refuses to shut the briefcase containing Villengard’s Star Seed, then roughly fifteen minutes later (in-universe) is totally cool with killing herself for no real reason. This leads to one of the worst messages the show has ever delivered when Joy says, “I’m not dying, I’m changing.”
The idea of “changing” through death, while likely intended to parallel the Doctor’s regenerative process (and the burning CGI), is potentially very dangerous. For the Doctor, regeneration is a fantastical ability that allows survival and transformation, but for regular people, death is final. Children or emotionally sensitive viewers might misinterpret this line to mean that death isn’t something to fear or that it’s a transformative experience. By framing death—particularly Joy’s voluntary sacrifice (she is in control of most of her faculties and wants the Seed to “live”)—as a “change,” the show risks romanticizing or glorifying it as a form of personal growth or redemption.
This is especially troubling because Joy doesn’t confront or resolve her past trauma; her sacrifice instead feels like she just wants to die. Portraying death as an aspirational outcome, particularly in moments of emotional distress, sends a potentially harmful and irresponsible message to vulnerable audiences.
In conclusion, while the Fifteenth Doctor’s portrayal and the emotional moments between him and Anita are highlights of “Joy to the World”, the episode’s inconsistencies leave it lacking. The narrative often relies on vague explanations to cover plot holes, and many character arcs feel rushed or underdeveloped. There are moments of Doctor Who brilliance, but they’re ultimately overshadowed by the episode’s deeper issues.
