Doctor Who is well and truly back, as evidenced by the return of Christmas specials. Last year’s, “The Church on Ruby Road,” introduced Millie Gibson as Ruby Sunday and gave us our first full adventure with Ncuti Gatwa as the Doctor. Hot on the heels of the finale, which saw a change of the guard, we have the next Christmas special heading our way. My guess? At Christmas. “Joy to the World” will be the very first Christmas special not written by the showrunner. Its writer is a previous showrunner, Steven Moffat. I have to say, Moffat always did write the best Christmas specials.
San Diego Comic-Con 2024’s Friday Hall H panel gave fans our first glimpse of the special in the form of a teaser. Check it out!
Just as you’d expect from a Moffat script, “Joy to the World” is a strange mystery with sci-fi silliness in the mix. The Doctor keeps popping through doors in different ages to present someone with ham and cheese toasty and a pumpkin latte. Eventually he happens upon Joy (Nicola Coughlan), who is alone on Christmas. Out of the locked door that always happens to be in every hotel pops a Silurian in a suit. Joy is terrified and brandishes a hairdryer which scares the Silurian. Just then, the Doctor shows up with the same tray, sees Joy, and smiles.
This doesn’t make a ton of sense to us now, but it will! Oh boy, will it….probably. Locked doors, alien worlds, time-hopping, and delicious food? It must be Christmas! “Joy to the World” will air on Disney+ and BBC One this December.
Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.