Doctor Who: Joy to the World

As an avid Doctor Who fan, Joy to the World has been a long awaited episode. The exciting countdown to Christmas is something that a Whovian experiences especially deeply, waiting for the forever adored special of a Doctor saving a species and making some sort of declaration that declares the type of Doctor that the actor would portray. Are they going to be funny? Lighthearted? Deep? Haunted? It all lies in the Christmas special. 

The Whovian Nostalgia

Growing up surrounded by Doctor Who, I’ve loved David Tennant and Matt Smith’s eras of the show the most. The nostalgia that comes from watching a good old Tennant episode with Rose or Donna or a Smith episode with the Ponds is an unbeatable feeling. It’s one of those comforts that I often turn to in times of stress and overwhelming life events. 

The Christmas specials of Tennant’s and Smith’s eras have been truly… well, special. They’re the kinds of episodes that make you think about what the show really means as a whole. They showcase every Doctor in an incredibly unique way – even providing fans with some of the most iconic moments from the show. It’s for this reason that fans mostly expect something quite mind-blowing when it comes to the long-awaited episode of Christmas. 

Gatwa’s Era

With the rise of Gatwa as the Doctor, I’ve been incredibly excited to see where the actor would take the series. I was pleasantly surprised throughout the first season of Gatwa’s Doctor where he was traveling the universe with Ruby Sunday, played by Millie Gibson. The two became quite a pair and while the storylines of most of the episodes were not particularly moving or even that interesting, I did find myself enjoying the banter between the Doctor and Ruby. 

Adding to it all, there was the unending mystery of how – and why – Ruby was making it snow in every single episode and who really left her at the church on Ruby Road. The episodes continued to add to the suspense surrounding Ruby’s past and who she truly was, giving the show a similar feel as the Bad Wolf era. The end of the season was definitely something I was waiting for, especially as I was curious about Ruby and why all of these mysterious things were happening surrounding this somewhat ordinary girl. With the end of the season, we did get to find out the answers to all of the questions we had been asking – yet, it was so disappointing? 

Joy to the World

Disappointing is probably the word I’d use to describe the Christmas special as well. For an episode so hyped up with actors that are well established – why was it so… boring? 

The episode surrounds a hotel called “The Time Hotel”, a hotel with doors leading to various points in human history. We’re following a mysterious briefcase and a woman named Joy who arrives at a different hotel in 2024. It becomes clear the briefcase carries a star that Valengaurd is planning to use for power. 

The story is interesting, don’t get me wrong, but it isn’t… wow. There isn’t anything making it special or exciting compared to yet another filler episode in the Who franchise. This was Gatwa’s chance to establish himself as The Doctor – an iconic character in sci-fi entertainment, a character loved by many. It was his opportunity to give a mind-blowing speech, get angry, or show his darker side. While we saw a little bit of this in Dot and Bubble, episode 5 of Gatwa’s first season, we don’t see anything that makes him unique from another actor. He’s eccentric, sure, and a bit more colourful than the previous Doctors, but there is absolutely nothing setting him apart. 

The worst part of it all was that Nichola Coughlan had been promoted extensively throughout the promotion of the episode, yet she barely had an impact on the episode. Her character, Joy, was a forgettable one. 

The more important character, and one I’d like to see more of, was Anita Benn, played by Steph de Whalley. Not only was she a delight to view on screen but she seemed to pull out the best parts of the show. Through Anita we can see the humanity behind the show, the parts that the Doctor has always feared as a traveling time lord – staying still. 

Another area of the episode that I was truly annoyed with was the fact that Time Hotel was barely explored. Fans were provided a setting that was so interesting and could have been used as a proper plot point of the episode. It could have even brought in some of the show’s old favorite episodes into play. I mean how cool would it be to bring in The Christmas Invasion – maybe when all of the people with the blood type were about to walk off the buildings. It would have been amazing to see some sort of tribute to previous doctors or even to just use the Time Hotel as something other than a minor aspect of the story. 

Final Thoughts

I’m not going to discount Gatwa yet. I think that there’s hope for the upcoming seasons, but not as much hope as I once had for him as the Doctor. Perhaps Moffat will take some of the fans’ feedback into consideration and write a truly mind-blowing episode that we’ll never forget. I can’t even blame Gatwa, the character is so iconic and fans will always have high expectations, it’s the story that let us down. The flashiness and excitement of the Doctor saying “Run!” to his latest companion was drowned out by the absolutely nothingness that the episode provided. 

Joy to the World easily could have been the starting point for Gatwa’s Doctor to take off into the universe and become a fan favorite. The episode completely missed this incredible opportunity and to say the least, I’m disappointed. This is yet another episode proving that the show is going downhill and becoming less of what it was at the root – a time lord that escaped the clutches of his home world to show a human the wonders of the universe while traveling the stars.