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Doctor Who: Joy to the World saw Steven Moffat blend clever, timey-wimey laughs with heartfelt tears for a truly perfect Christmas special.
Posted in: BBC, Disney+, Doctor Who, Review, TV | Tagged: christmas, doctor who, joy to the world
Doctor Who: Joy to the World Review: Moffat Special Lives Up to Title
Doctor Who: Joy to the World saw Steven Moffat blend clever, timey-wimey laughs with heartfelt tears for a truly perfect Christmas special.
"Joy to the World" might be the most eagerly anticipated Doctor Who Christmas Special in years, partly because it's only the second one post-60th anniversary but mostly because it's written by former showrunner and the series' cleverest writer Steven Moffat. And he makes sure it's as Christmassy and Doctor Who as possible… "The Most 'Doctor Who' Christmas Special Ever"! There are no spoilers here because the joy (pun intended) is in watching it for the first time. If you saw the trailers and clips, they only teased what's to come. We can talk about the spoilers after you've all watched it – and we will have an extended, spoiler-filled review for you after it hits BBC One, BBC iPlayer, and Disney+.
Moffat's Timey-Wimey Laughter and Tears
Christmas Specials often feature the Doctor on their own and helping someone who becomes their temporary companion. This year, it's a lonely soul named Joy Macondo, played by Bridgerton and Derry Girls star Nicola Coughlan, who checks into a lonely little London hotel on Christmas Eve. The Doctor isn't the Doctor without someone to show off to and be the Doctor with, so of course, she winds up in trouble almost immediately. Nothing draws The Doctor like a fellow lonely soul, especially when there are cosmic stakes. It's not a Moffat script without lots of timey-wimey shenanigans and funny banter, and loads of in-jokes and callbacks, some to his past stories to make longtime fans go gooey.
The latest sonic screwdriver gets a lot of work here, making it look cool which should result in upping the toy to many kids and fans. It's not Christmas without rampant merchandise and toy sales, after all, even if many people won't get it until after Christmas. But this being a Moffat script, the clever plotting starts with laughs and ends with tears. Coughlan fits right in as a screwball comedy heroine with a melancholic heart, and Moffat is deft as ever with turning, making side characters memorable and lovable with just a few lines of dialogue. There's also his light touch of social commentary about evil corporations and the trauma of the COVID lockdown.
Doctor Who: The Doctor of Loss
Most of all, Moffat pins down the core of what makes Ncuti Gatwa's Doctor different from all his predecessors. The Fifteenth Doctor may be the most emotional, with his heart on his sleeve, weeping for the people he loses. This is the Doctor who keeps losing people, even though that was always part of the character. He is the lonely god who brings solace to lonely solace, the wandering angel who makes people he meets better even if he loses them. The Fifteenth Doctor is arguably the saddest Doctor of them all. If this is Moffat's final script for Doctor Who (unlikely as he may or may not have written one for season two), it's as perfect as a Christmas Special as we may ever get and a fine note for Moffat to end his run on.
Doctor Who Christmas Special "Joy to the World" will stream on Christmas Day on BBC, BBC iPlayer, and Disney+.
Doctor Who Christmas Special: "Joy to the World"
10/10
A pitch-perfect Christmas Special that shows off all of Steven Moffat's clever timey-wimey plotting, taking from laughter to tears and back again with what feels like the ultimate Doctor Who Christmas Special.
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