TL;DR – An episode that is filled with fascinating character moments and an interesting setup, yet tied together with a dull narrative.  

Disclosure – I paid for the Disney+ service that viewed this series.

Doctor Who Review –

Many traditions exist out there for those who celebrate Christmas, and for many years now, for many, including myself, it has been capped off on Boxing Day with the Doctor Who Christmas Special. Last year, we got The Church on Ruby Road, which brought the two main characters for Season One together for the first time. In the past, we have gotten new regenerations, deaths, famous people from history, and even Catherine Tate that one time. Thus, the question is, what will we get today?

So, to set the scene, it is the Queen’s Hotel, Manchester, during the middle of the Blitz. People are lamenting the fall of democracy when a man bursts through the door carrying a ham and cheese toasty and a pumpkin latte. Wrong door, that’s okay. Let’s try The Orient Express. No. Okay, maybe Everest Base Camp? But maybe, just maybe. The Sandringham Hotel, in 2024, will be the right spot. Right where Joy (Nicola Coughlan) is arriving to spend the week. Now, from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead. 

I think part of this potential third era of Doctor Who has been the combination of highs and lows inside the confines of a single episode. It feels at times that you are taking two steps back for every step forward, jump to the left, and step to the right. Part of me is a bit concerned that they filmed all of Season Two before getting the feedback from Season One. Which means there is a chance that there will be years before we will see any response flow through the system because this episode shows all the strengths and weaknesses from the last season in Christmas form.

One of the core strengths that is still here is the energy that Ncuti brings to the role of The Doctor. In that opening setup gag, he jumps onto the screen with all the power of a tornado. Like, I now want to go and make a ham and cheese toasty and a pumpkin latte. Because he sold every moment. We see moments of that energy throughout the episode. The most touching of which was when he was with The Manager (Jonathan Aris) trying to keep him from dying in his arms. It was an incredibly touching moment that only works because Ncuti sells the emotion.    

I would say that the MVP of the episode was Anita Benn (Steph De Whalley). Tonally, I think she honestly had more of an impact than the titular Joy because we get to spend a whole year in one of the most wholesome montage-time-jump that I have ever watched. It was both the writing of that section and the chemistry of the actors that made it possibly the highlight of the episode for me. It was charming, funny, and I would say that their parting at the end probably had the most impact of any of the departures in this episode. Sorry, Trev (Joel Fry), you are a close second.

While I am not sure that the Time Hotel was used to its fullest, I did like how wild they went with some of the features. Most notably in their Presidential Assassination special, which had family packages available. A lot of the fun was hidden away in the background, and there were moments where it almost felt like we were watching a backdoor plot rather than a simple episode of Doctor Who. They only made the most of the odd-time situation once, and it felt like an opportunity to have some fun with the franchise that was left longing.

While this episode has a strong setting and is filled with engaging characters, it is left with one of the most frustratingly bland narratives. Now, the start was quite interesting: a suitcase filled with something dangerous hopping from an important person to the next most important person, killing those it has let go. However, from that strong start, we got more and more diminishing returns. A lot of this comes from Nicola Coughlan’s character, who has to do a lot of the heavy lifting in the back half of the episode, and the show just has not done enough to support that. But more than that, as the episode went on, it felt like there were no stakes. We had elements like COVID that felt more forced in than anything and the need to wrap everything up in a bow at the end, but not in the way it felt like it meant anything.  

In the end, do we recommend Doctor Who: Joy to the World? Look, it is not a bad episode by any stretch of the imagination. However, it was an episode where there was a lot of potential, and they ended up picking the safe option nearly every time, so much so that even the dinosaurs didn’t land for me. Have you watched Doctor Who yet? Let us know what you thought in the comments below.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day.    

Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Doctor Who
Directed by – Alex Sanjiv Pillai
Written by – Steven Moffat
Production/Distribution Companies – BBC Studios, Badwolf & Disney+
Starring – Ncuti Gatwa, Nicola Coughlan & Millie Gibson with Steph De Whalley, Jonathan Aris & Joel Fry and Peter Benedict, Julia Watson, Niamh Marie Smith, Phil Baxter, Samuel Sherpa-Moore, Ruchi Rai, Joshua Leese, Ell Potter, Liam Prince-Donnelly, Fiona Marr & Fiona Scott