Doctor Who’s 2024 Christmas Special Brings Joy to a Turbulent Time for the Series

It’s safe to say that the honeymoon period for Doctor Who is over.

After a middling to sometimes even bad run with Jodie Whittaker’s 13th Doctor under showrunner Chris Chibnall, 2023 saw the return both of David Tennant as the 14th Doctor, previously having performed as the 10th Doctor, and the showrunner who made his run so great, Russell T. Davies.

After years of mediocrity at best, the return of these kings was euphoric. By the time the 15th Doctor, played by Ncuti Gatwa, stepped in to take the reins in the 2023 Christmas special, it felt like the dark days of Doctor Who were behind us.

I still think the darkest days have passed, but after a solid slate of episodes in 2024’s regular season, the finale was a sobering reminder that even someone like Davies isn’t infallible. Without writing a full review of the two-part ending, it was, in a word, disappointing.

But through good and bad, Doctor Who always continues. Enter “Joy to the World,” the traditional annual Christmas special in the beloved—and only sometimes complained about—series. We’ve seen a few Doctor Who specials like “Joy to the World” before, ones that take place after the departure of one companion but before the introduction of the next. I dub these types of episodes “Companion for a Day” stories. In this case, the departed companion is Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson), and the new one is confirmed to be, well, Ruby Sunday, as well as Belinda Chadra, played by Varada Sethu, who played a different character in an episode of the 2024 season.

The companion for a day, then, is the titular Joy, played by Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan. However, there are a few other characters who grow close with the Doctor over the course of the episode as well, effectively creating an ensemble of instantly lovable characters for him to work with.

The special is written not by Davies, but by Steven Moffat, the showrunner of Doctor Who between Davies’ first run and Chibnall. This is Moffat’s second episode he’s written this year, and it’s great to see him telling more self-contained stories than the multi-season stories he was responsible for when he was in charge of the show.

The entirety of the special takes place at a place called the Time Hotel, a hotel that has portals to different time periods and locations within it. Of course, the Doctor and friends end up falling through different portals, making the special a fun twist on the usual time traveling conceit, since the rules of the Time Hotel’s time and space travel are different from those of the TARDIS.

This leads to all kinds of classic Doctor Who shenanigans, hunting down the secret behind a mysterious briefcase that handcuffs itself from host to host, taking over each one’s mind in the process. This is not a plot-heavy special, with very little in the way of progressing the overall story of the show, instead opting to be a fun, festive romp that does little that’s likely to either anger fans or amaze them—that is, aside from one roughly 15-minute section of the middle of the special that acts like its own mini-episode. There aren’t any crazy reveals, but the story told is one of the most genuine and emotional moments in the show’s recent memory.

It’s probably for the best that “Joy to the World” was written by someone other than Davies, as the truly dogshit finale of the previous season has had many, this writer included, second-guessing the legendary status the showrunner used to have. A single bad episode might be forgiven, but an entire season of clues hyping up an episode as bad as that finale makes forgiveness much harder. Even worse, it’s going to be much harder to trust that wherever the overall story goes in the future will have a solid payoff, since as long as Davies is in charge, he could easily pull off the same or similar nonsense.

Even in the recent dark days of Doctor Who, there were plenty of good stand-alone episodes, usually written by guest writers. The question about “Joy to the World” that will only be answered in hindsight is: Is it a part of a solid string of stories, or is this a respite before more dark days?

Joseph Stanichar is a freelance writer who specializes in videogames and pop culture. He’s written for publications such as Game Informer, Twinfinite and Looper, and currently works as a full-time reporter for The Morrison County Record in Little Falls, Minnesota. He’s on Twitter @JosephStanichar.