- Title: Doctor Who – Joy to the World
- wiki: link
While the larger story of “Joy to the World” involves a the creation of a man-made star capable of destroying the Earth being handed off to innocents transformed into brainwashed couriers, the latest Doctor Who Christmas episode is most notable for the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) being force to stop running, for an entire year, and wait. The episode plays on similar themes to “The Power of Three” when the Doctor (Matt Smith) stayed with Amy (Karen Gillan) and Rory (Arthur Darvill) for an extended period on Earth, but this time the Doctor is forced to make his own fun with some Christmas trappings thrown in as well.
A bit lost after leaving Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson), the Doctor finds himself in the Time Hotel where he notices something quite odd is happening (even if he can’t quite tell what) involving a small briefcase. The premise allows the Doctor to pop in to different times and places without the T.A.R.D.I.S. showing everywhere from the Orient Express to a sad dreary hotel room where he will meet Joy (Nicola Coughlan) and later Anita (Steph de Whalley).
One of the young women will be the damsel the Doctor believes he must save, who chooses an expectedly different path for herself, while the other will become his friend as he wiles away an entire year Christmas to Christmas in a rather unremarkable hotel room in order to return to the Time Hotel, close a timeloop, and get around to finishing an adventure he began the year before. Without snowmen or Santa Claus, the episode still has quite the Christmas theme (and works better than pirate goblins) which ties directly into Joy’s fate which allows for a Doctor Who explanation for the North Star. As for the Doctor, with both women moving on (each being something of a red herring for a potential companion), it appears he is still without a companion who I’d guess we’ll see introduced in first episode of the upcoming season.
