Doctor Who: Joy to the World: Review

An emotionally led story with ties to writer Steven Moffat's scripts of yesteryear and a vicious attack on a 2020 event, Doctor Who's latest Christmas special, Joy to the World is yet another reminder of the brilliance of its lead actor Ncuti Gatwa.

Having left behind companion Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) after the cataclysmic events of Empire of Death, the Doctor arrives a mysterious Time Hotel. It's there he meets a lonely Joy (Nicola Coughlan, Bridgerton, Derry Girls), who's checking into a non-descript hotel room for personal reasons.

But soon the two of them are thrown together on an adventure involving a briefcase, dinosaurs and all of time.

Joy To The World is a return to the kind of festive fare witnessed first in Russell T Davies' The Christmas Invasion, where the threat is largely secondary to the more emotional core and a bit of Christmas cheesiness.

Beginning with a seemingly nonsenical trip around the globe, it takes but seconds to remember why Gatwa's the perfect guide as the two-hearted alien; he is still such a relevation, an amiable and warm presence, making the insane seem normal and pushing the desire to have you come along as a companion.

While Joy To The World largely feels like a series of mini-encounters thrown together for a larger story narrative, there's a lot of cohesiveness to the seasonal message of having friends and being surrounded by people you love (something that allows a scathingly overt rebuke from Moffat at the end to really sting).

A longer diversion provides plenty of fodder for Who fiction fans (and potentially Big Finish audio) as well as reminding of elements of Matt Smith tales The Lodger / Power of Three, but in each section Gatwa's Doctor has warmth with his mini companions - from Joel Fry's hotel worker through to Steph De Whalley's Anita. There's a lot of heart in these interactions.

And while Nicola Coughlan's Joy is not your traditional companion in the truest sense of being in every single scene, she absolutely nails every moment on screen. Shifting the gamut from breaking your heart to a self-aware feistiness swathed in sadness, she's a great foil to bring the Doctor back to life again. (And it would take a fool to not be able to see where Moffat's sentiment lies in this episode, and how it's wrapped up in a big cheesy Christmas glow).

Gatwa's first season may have had some ups and downs and been too short a time to spend with companion and host, but this Christmas special feels like the show's on a new footing once again and this lovely warm-hearted episode is exactly what the fractured world currently needs - without going too overboard on the saccharine.

Doctor Who: Joy To The World streams globally on Disney+ from December 26.