Doctor Who: Joy to the World Review

It’s a happy holiday season for Whovians everywhere since Doctor Who is back with a new holiday special. Doctor Who: Joy the World finds the Doctor having to, you guessed it, save the world before Christmas. 

The series introduces a new location, The Time Hotel, which seems like such a perfect plot device for the show that it should have been introduced sooner. The Doctor goes from stealing milk for his coffee to finding a suspicious briefcase to investigate which leads him to working with hotel clerk Trev (Joel Fry) and meeting a stranger named Joy (Nicola Coughlan). 

The mystery of the briefcase seems secondary for most of the episode when the Doctor gets stuck in 2024 before he can stop the star energy it contains from blowing up the world, but it does bring back the Villengard Corporation from Season 14. It’s worth noting that this Doctor keeps coming up against them and this is potentially a tease for Season 15. 

It’s surprising the story chooses to sideline Coughlan’s character for a stretch of the episode while the Doctor is stuck in 2024, but it brings the story back to a recurring theme the series likes to revisit. The theme of loneliness and needing a friend isn’t new to Doctor Who, but it is the first time we see this Doctor go through the loss of a companion after leaving Ruby. 

However, this isn’t an angry or closed-off Doctor of seasons past, this is Gatwa’s vivacious, friendly Doctor! It feels only natural that for this Doctor it wouldn’t take him long to find a good friend in Anita (Stephanie de Whalley), the hotel manager.

So the loneliness angle is a little forced, but where Gatwa shines is showing the conflict the Doctor feels when it’s time to move on from these friends he collects. He doesn’t fully let them go as seen by the favor he does for Anita at the end and the episode’s cut-away to Ruby.

The plot around the star energy planted in the suitcase itself feels more mad dash and like a typical Doctor Who story, but also a little too rushed. The Doctor spent a whole year working in a hotel just to have four minutes to stop this thing from exploding?

Coughlan’s comedic chops are too underutilized on the episode, but Joy is a character audiences are also used to seeing her as, the sweet, put-upon girl who has more to her than people initially see. 

Doctor Who holiday specials make you feel good, but only after putting you through the wringer, so watching Joy’s sacrifice to save the world brings mixed feelings. She gets peace, but it’s at the cost of her human life as she absorbs the energy to stop it from exploding and becomes the star. 

The final reveal that the place in time the star ends up created is none other than ancient Bethlehem implies Joy doesn’t become just any star, but the star the three Wise Men in the Christian religion followed to find baby Jesus. A very Christmas, “Joy to the world,” indeed!

Ultimately Doctor Who: Joy to the World is a sweet Christmas adventure that doesn’t add much to the canon but will make you shed a tear or two this holiday. 

What did you think of this episode of Doctor Who? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Critic Rating:

User Rating:

 

Doctor Who: Joy to the World is streaming now on Disney+.

Follow us on X and on Instagram!

Want more from Tell-Tale TV? Subscribe to our newsletter here!