{"id":88872,"date":"2024-12-26T00:05:45","date_gmt":"2024-12-26T00:05:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/26\/doctor-who-joy-to-the-world-review-what-a-star\/"},"modified":"2024-12-26T00:05:45","modified_gmt":"2024-12-26T00:05:45","slug":"doctor-who-joy-to-the-world-review-what-a-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/26\/doctor-who-joy-to-the-world-review-what-a-star\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Doctor Who: Joy to the World review:&#8217; What a star"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><strong><em>Spoilers follow for \u201cJoy to the World.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>If there\u2019s one thing Steven Moffatt loves to do with <em>Doctor Who<\/em>, it\u2019s to find a monster buried in the mundane. He\u2019s made statues, shadows, lost children and even the idea of silence into some of the show\u2019s most terrifying villains. Sadly, the mysterious extra door you often find in older hotel rooms isn\u2019t as universal a concern, but it\u2019s still a rich seam for him to mine. That\u2019s the inspiration for \u201cJoy to the World,\u201d<em> Doctor Who<\/em>\u2019s 2024 Christmas Special. Which is light, fun and a little bit scattershot, much like Christmas is meant to be, right?<\/p>\n<p>When <em>Doctor Who<\/em> returned, the show was woven back into the UK&#8217;s cultural firmament in a way it never had been before. Part of that process was adding the show to the BBC One Christmas Day schedule, making it a universal cultural touchstone. For most of its post-2005 run, it has aired an episode next to the <em>Strictly Come Dancing<\/em> and <em>EastEnders\u2019<\/em> festive specials. Imagine the British equivalent to those everyone-gathered-around-the-TV events like the Super Bowl or the Macy\u2019s Day Parade, but on Christmas Day. Even if you don\u2019t like any of the fare on offer, you\u2019re still expected to sit with the family and consume it.<\/p>\n<div class=\"caas-iframe-wrapper\" data-embed-anchor=\"811847a3-9551-596a-9b83-39e96221e648\">\n<div class=\"caas-iframe youtube\" style=\"padding-bottom:56%\" data-type=\"youtube\">\n<blockquote data-src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/lob6oEvq164?rel=0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" scrolling=\"no\"><p><noscript><iframe title=\"CHRISTMAS SPECIAL TRAILER #2 | Joy to the World | Doctor Who\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/lob6oEvq164?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/noscript><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>With these specials, the prestige timeslot, longer runtime and bigger budget are burdens as much as they are benefits. The show has to play to a far broader audience than normal, with diehard fans sitting elbow-to-elbow with elderly relatives filling every silence with gossip about their neighbor&#8217;s garden project. Consequently, the story needs to be a little looser, with less need for the audience to be paying undivided attention to what\u2019s going on. And it needs to be an oasis of fun in the melodramatic drudgery that is the BBC One Christmas Day schedule.<\/p>\n<p>Normally, the festive special would be the sole province of the showrunner but Russell T. Davies handed the reins to Steven Moffatt. Moffatt succeeded Davies as showrunner the first time around, co-created <em>Sherlock <\/em>and is widely-regarded as the best Who writer of the 21st century. With a pedigree as impeccable as that, and having already written &#8220;<a data-i13n=\"cpos:1;pos:1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/doctor-who-boom-review-all-hail-the-conquering-hero-000001420.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:Boom;cpos:1;pos:1;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Boom<\/a>&#8221; for the Ncuti Gatwa\u2019s first season in the title road, expectations are high.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"caas-figure\">\n<div class=\"caas-figure-with-pb\" style=\"max-height: 640px\">\n<div>\n<div class=\"caas-img-container caas-img-loader\" style=\"padding-bottom:67%\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"caas-img caas-lazy has-preview has-width\" alt=\"Promotional still from \u2018Joy to the World\u2019 the 2024 holiday special of \u2018Doctor Who\u2019&#10;\" src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/sY_6ShrdNZguIv1d9NtJWw--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTY0MA--\/https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/os\/creatr-uploaded-images\/2024-12\/e141ce10-bebc-11ef-b5ff-884dd851f874\" height=\"640\" width=\"960\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Promotional still from \u2018Joy to the World\u2019 the 2024 holiday special of \u2018Doctor Who\u2019&#10;\" src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/sY_6ShrdNZguIv1d9NtJWw--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTY0MA--\/https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/os\/creatr-uploaded-images\/2024-12\/e141ce10-bebc-11ef-b5ff-884dd851f874\" height=\"640\" width=\"960\" class=\"caas-img has-width\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><figcaption class=\"caption-collapse\"><span class=\"caption-credit\"> Bad Wolf \/ BBC Studios<\/span><\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Moffatt is an arch farce writer and has a strong grasp of structure, so it\u2019s no surprise we open <em>in medias res<\/em>. The Doctor is offering room service to a variety of people in different time periods including Edmund Hilary\u2019s base camp at Everest and the Orient express before stumbling in on Joy in a miserable London hotel room in 2024. After the credits, we spool back to the Doctor arriving in the Time Hotel, which allows guests to vacation throughout history. Don\u2019t worry about causality or any <a data-i13n=\"cpos:2;pos:1\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/A_Sound_of_Thunder\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:A Sound of Thunder;cpos:2;pos:1;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \"><em>A Sound of Thunder<\/em><\/a><em>\u00a0<\/em>shenanigans, the Hotel is somehow built to protect its guests from screwing up the timeline.<\/p>\n<p>The Doctor is looking to steal some milk for his coffee from the hotel buffet, but his eye is caught on something sinister: A person carrying a briefcase with a handcuff chain is trying to check into a room. The Doctor recruits Trev, one of the employees, to keep watch while he scouts ahead to work out what scheme could be afoot. As it turns out, the case is sentient <em>and<\/em> evil, leaping from host to host and possessing each one in turn. Once it\u2019s leapt to the next host, the last one disintegrates.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"caas-figure\">\n<div class=\"caas-figure-with-pb\" style=\"max-height: 640px\">\n<div>\n<div class=\"caas-img-container caas-img-loader\" style=\"padding-bottom:67%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"caas-img caas-lazy has-preview has-width\" alt=\"Promotional still from \u2018Joy to the World\u2019 the 2024 holiday special of \u2018Doctor Who\u2019&#10;\" src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/OErEzMiNrvdVlo_Z_MyvMg--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTY0MA--\/https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/os\/creatr-uploaded-images\/2024-12\/c8f56830-bebc-11ef-af8f-c4f311e40918\" height=\"640\" width=\"960\"\/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Promotional still from \u2018Joy to the World\u2019 the 2024 holiday special of \u2018Doctor Who\u2019&#10;\" src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/OErEzMiNrvdVlo_Z_MyvMg--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTY0MA--\/https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/os\/creatr-uploaded-images\/2024-12\/c8f56830-bebc-11ef-af8f-c4f311e40918\" height=\"640\" width=\"960\" class=\"caas-img has-width\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><figcaption class=\"caption-collapse\"><span class=\"caption-credit\"> Bad Wolf \/ BBC Studios<\/span><\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>It\u2019s here the Doctor bumps into Joy who, through hijinks, winds up handcuffed to the case in place of the hotel manager. When the Doctor opens the case to try and find a solution, the case threatens to kill whoever it\u2019s connected to unless it gets a four digit code. Who shall provide the code? The Doctor, emerging from his own future, taking Joy with him while leaving \u201cour\u201d Doctor trapped in 2024 without the TARDIS. As the hotel door closes, the Doctor hurls abuse at his future self, about why he\u2019s always alone and people are always leaving him. He\u2019s doubly upset as he never normally has to travel \u201cthe long way around,\u201d one day after the other.<\/p>\n<p>And so, the episode essentially stops to give us an extended sequence of the Doctor making friends with Anita, the hotel manager. The Doctor gets a job as the hotel\u2019s handyperson, and slowly lets his guard down, spending more time with Anita until they\u2019re a platonic couple. It\u2019s a sequence you\u2019d never see in a regular episode, with snatches of the Doctor and Anita\u2019s life. He makes the microwave bigger on the inside, repaints Anita\u2019s car TARDIS blue and they even sit and talk to one another on chairs \u2014 a key visual given the lack of chairs on the TARDIS. But as the year elapses and it\u2019s time for the Doctor to return to his own show, he waves goodbye to Anita.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"caas-figure\">\n<div class=\"caas-figure-with-pb\" style=\"max-height: 477px\">\n<div>\n<div class=\"caas-img-container caas-img-loader\" style=\"padding-bottom:50%\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"caas-img caas-lazy has-preview has-width\" alt=\"Promotional still from \u2018Joy to the World\u2019 the 2024 holiday special of \u2018Doctor Who\u2019&#10;\" src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/glN1M5HosNy7gWPscMPKjQ--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTQ3Nw--\/https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/os\/creatr-uploaded-images\/2024-12\/b21bcc30-bebc-11ef-bbd7-864d59a40239\" height=\"477\" width=\"960\"\/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Promotional still from \u2018Joy to the World\u2019 the 2024 holiday special of \u2018Doctor Who\u2019&#10;\" src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/glN1M5HosNy7gWPscMPKjQ--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTQ3Nw--\/https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/os\/creatr-uploaded-images\/2024-12\/b21bcc30-bebc-11ef-bbd7-864d59a40239\" height=\"477\" width=\"960\" class=\"caas-img has-width\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><figcaption class=\"caption-collapse\"><span class=\"caption-credit\"> Bad Wolf \/ BBC Studios<\/span><\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Returning to the time hotel, the Doctor bursts back in on the events of a year ago, sharing the code and yanking Joy off to new adventures. The Doctor works out the briefcase holds the embryonic form of an artificially-created star that would offer a source of imaginable power to whoever owned it. But unless you own the Hand of Omega, stars take a long time to develop, far longer than anyone would be able to wait and test their experiment. Unless, of course, you hijack a time hotel and send it back to dinosaur times, waiting for when human history begins to see if it works.<\/p>\n<p>Joy, still possessed by the case, heads to the hotel\u2019s dinosaur room while the Doctor tries to break its hold over her. To do that, he provokes an emotion strong enough to poison the link between the case and its host before it obliterates them. He bullies her, goading her into disclosing why she&#8217;s staying at a downmarket London hotel. Turns out she\u2019s grieving the loss of her mother who died of COVID-19 in an isolation ward and Joy was unable to say goodbye to her in person. Sadly, before the Doctor can deactivate the star seed, it\u2019s eaten by a (brilliant-looking) dinosaur, putting it out of his reach.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"caas-figure\">\n<div class=\"caas-figure-with-pb\" style=\"max-height: 475px\">\n<div>\n<div class=\"caas-img-container caas-img-loader\" style=\"padding-bottom:49%\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"caas-img caas-lazy has-preview has-width\" alt=\"Promotional still from \u2018Joy to the World\u2019 the 2024 holiday special of \u2018Doctor Who\u2019&#10;\" src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/FkrwTVRiOmrwr5fC9DV58Q--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTQ3NQ--\/https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/os\/creatr-uploaded-images\/2024-12\/816677c0-bebc-11ef-b529-41bba3a47bd7\" height=\"475\" width=\"960\"\/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Promotional still from \u2018Joy to the World\u2019 the 2024 holiday special of \u2018Doctor Who\u2019&#10;\" src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/FkrwTVRiOmrwr5fC9DV58Q--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTQ3NQ--\/https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/os\/creatr-uploaded-images\/2024-12\/816677c0-bebc-11ef-b529-41bba3a47bd7\" height=\"475\" width=\"960\" class=\"caas-img has-width\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><figcaption class=\"caption-collapse\"><span class=\"caption-credit\"> Bad Wolf \/ BBC Studios<\/span><\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>The Doctor and Joy head back to the hotel and, 65 million years later, find the star is now ready to detonate. It\u2019s been locked inside a stone structure with a heavy stone door that neither of them can move, and time is running out. So, the Doctor, who boasts that he\u2019s \u201cgood with rope,\u201d steals a rope from the Everest base camp, hanging it off the back of the Orient Express to haul the stone away.. It\u2019s an impressive and kinetic sequence let down only by the dreadful CGI when Gatwa\u2019s standing on the train. Typical <em>Doctor Who<\/em>: It can now do convincing dinosaurs, but now can\u2019t do a convincing train.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s here things lose their coherence, since Joy\u2019s eyes flash with possession energy, but by the time the Doctor returns, Joy has\u2026 eaten the star? Absorbed it somehow? Made friends with and bonded with it? He finds her standing on a cliff edge, where Joy says she\u2019ll merge with the star and take it to the heavens, where it will do nobody any harm at all. At this point in my notes, I wrote \u201cDon\u2019t let this be Bethlehem,\u201d when the camera pulls out to reveal that\u2019s exactly where they are, complete with three camels parked outside a stable. Oy.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"caas-figure\">\n<div class=\"caas-figure-with-pb\" style=\"max-height: 640px\">\n<div>\n<div class=\"caas-img-container caas-img-loader\" style=\"padding-bottom:67%\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"caas-img caas-lazy has-preview has-width\" alt=\"Promotional still from \u2018Joy to the World\u2019 the 2024 holiday special of \u2018Doctor Who\u2019&#10;\" src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/SfHdxkQJE1WMc1jIxL3s.g--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTY0MA--\/https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/os\/creatr-uploaded-images\/2024-12\/97146500-bebc-11ef-bdfb-f8eb5cb0d6dc\" height=\"640\" width=\"960\"\/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Promotional still from \u2018Joy to the World\u2019 the 2024 holiday special of \u2018Doctor Who\u2019&#10;\" src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/SfHdxkQJE1WMc1jIxL3s.g--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTY0MA--\/https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/os\/creatr-uploaded-images\/2024-12\/97146500-bebc-11ef-bdfb-f8eb5cb0d6dc\" height=\"640\" width=\"960\" class=\"caas-img has-width\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><figcaption class=\"caption-collapse\"><span class=\"caption-credit\"> Bad Wolf \/ BBC Studios<\/span><\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Joy reunites with her mother and the Doctor goes back to traveling, but not before he gets Anita a job running the Time Hotel. We also get a little shot of Ruby Sunday, who will return to the show for its second season proper.<\/p>\n<p>As I said at the top, you can\u2019t judge \u201cJoy to the World\u201d on the merits of a regular episode since it\u2019s serving multiple masters. But I don\u2019t think we could call it the strongest episode of either Steven Moffatt\u2019s oeuvre or the show\u2019s various Christmas Specials. Like all of the Disney-era episodes, it has a slightly incoherent quality where the pacing sags and zips in all the wrong places. I\u2019m for the lengthy aside where we see a \u201cnormal\u201d year in the life of the Doctor, but the story framing it should have been tighter to balance out the slowness. It\u2019s a fun enough way to pass an hour with a stomach full of holiday turkey (or your preferred equivalent) with enough mawkishness to make you think you\u2019ve seen something quite profound. But I don\u2019t think I\u2019ll be coming back to watch this one again and again like I would for, say, \u201cThe Christmas Invasion.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/entertainment\/tv-movies\/doctor-who-joy-to-the-world-review-what-a-star-190018215.html?src=rss\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Spoilers follow for \u201cJoy to the World.\u201d If there\u2019s one thing Steven Moffatt loves to do with Doctor Who, it\u2019s to find a monster buried<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":88873,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[157],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gadget"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}