312 – "Joy to the World"
Doctor Who episode
Promotional poster, with the caption of "Joy to the Worlds", mirroring the title "Joy to the World".[1]
Cast
Doctor Ncuti Gatwa – Fifteenth Doctor
Companion Nicola Coughlan – Joy Almondo
Others Millie Gibson – Ruby Sunday Joel Fry – Trev Simpkins Steph de Whalley – Anita Benn Jonathan Aris – Hotel Manager Peter Benedict – Basil Flockhart Niamh Marie Smith – Sylvia Trench Phil Baxter – Edmund Hillary Samuel Sherpa-Moore – Tenzing Norgay Ruchi Rai – Receptionist Joshua Leese – Mr Single Ell Potter – Server Liam Prince-Donnelly – Barman Fiona Marr – Angela Grace
Production
Directed by	Alex Sanjiv Pillai
Written by	Steven Moffat
Script editor	David Cheung
Produced by	Alison Sterling
Executive producer(s)	Russell T Davies Julie Gardner Jane Tranter Joel Collins Phil Collinson Steven Moffat
Music by	Murray Gold
Running time	54 minutes
First broadcast	25 December 2024 (2024-12-25)
Chronology
← Preceded by "Empire of Death" Followed by → —
List of episodes (2005–present)

"Joy to the World" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One and released on Disney+ on 25 December 2024 as the fifteenth Christmas special since the show's revival in 2005. It was written by Steven Moffat and directed by Alex Sanjiv Pillai. It stars Ncuti Gatwa as the Fifteenth Doctor and Nicola Coughlan as his companion Joy Almondo.^[2]

The Doctor arrives at the Time Hotel, an establishment in the year 4202 that allows people to take vacations at various different points in human history. The Doctor gains the aid of Trev, a hotel worker, and begins to investigate a mysterious man holding a briefcase. Trev is tricked into holding the briefcase, which takes control of his mind, and then takes control of Trev's Silurian manager. Trev disintegrates due to the briefcase. The Silurian arrives in Joy Almondo's hotel room in 2024, with the Doctor following behind him.

The briefcase takes control of Joy, causing the Silurian to disintegrate, but the Doctor is able to open the briefcase, finding a strange object inside. The briefcase threatens to kill Joy if the Doctor doesn't give a security code. A Doctor from the future arrives and gives the past Doctor the code. The future Doctor seals the way back to the Time Hotel, leaving the past Doctor stranded in 2024. The Doctor takes up a job at the hotel Joy was staying at, befriending the manager, Anita, while waiting until a path to the Time Hotel opens in 2025.

The Doctor re-enters the Time Hotel via a hotel in New York City, and gives his past self the code, departing with Joy. The Doctor insults her, saying that no self-respecting person would stay alone at a hotel on Christmas Day. This goads Joy into lashing out, explaining that her mother died in hospital on Christmas, with Joy only able to say goodbye through a screen due to COVID-19 regulations. This anger allows Joy to break the mind control. The briefcase disconnects from Joy, and reveals itself to be of Villengard origin. Villengard plans to detonate a "star seed" to use as an energy source, using time travel to leave it in the past to grow.

The briefcase is eaten by a Tyrannosaurus Rex, and the Doctor and Joy flee. Trev, who connected psychically to Villengard's system before he died, contacts the Doctor through his sonic screwdriver. Trev reveals the briefcase's location, and the Doctor finds it sealed in a shrine. The Doctor is able to open it, using equipment taken from a 1953 Mount Everest base camp, and going via the Orient Express in the Italian Alps in 1962 (where he has a conversation with Sylvia Trench, a charterer who was James Bond's love interest in "Dr. No").^[3] Joy takes the briefcase outside, revealing she has let the seed enter her. Joy and the other people killed by the seed pilot it into space, where it detonates safely. The star is seen throughout many Christmases including the previously visited sites, as well as outside Ruby Sunday's flat in 2024 London, and near Anita’s hotel in the near-future (during which she gets a job at the Time Hotel on the Doctor's recommendation), and outside a hospital in 2020 where Joy’s mother merges with the star and joins her daughter.

The Doctor returns to the Time Hotel, as it is revealed that the star created by the seed was the Star of Bethlehem.

Russell T Davies, the Doctor Who showrunner, initially began writing the 2024 Christmas special. Davies had sent a portion of the script to former showrunner Steven Moffat to get his opinion on it. At the time, Davies was in discussions with Moffat to have him write a script for the fifteenth series. When Davies realised he was too busy to complete the script, he shelved it and asked Moffat to write the Christmas episode instead.^[4] Moffat had completed writing the episode by 20 July 2023.^[5] He considered writing a farce, but decided against it, believing that such an episode would be better suited mid-series.^[6] Despite this, Moffat said the episode still had a comedic tone with emotional elements.^[7]

Here's the pitch that got me the job. You know in just about every hotel room you've been in there's a locked door? It's weird, but there always is. Okay. We're about to blow apart the truth of that. In the far future there is a place called the Time hotel, and the Time Hotel has realised something brilliant, which is following the discovery of time travel they have an opportunity to sell all the rooms they failed to sell the last time. So they have built extensions into more or less every hotel room in history, and you get access to it occasionally.

— Steven Moffat, "The Joy Bringer", SFX 3 December 2024^[7]

Half the script had been completed before Davies informed Moffat that Ruby Sunday wouldn't be in the special.^[4] The character of Anita originally only had around ten lines but her presence was increased after the production team became fond of her.^[8] Working titles for the episode included "The Time Hotel" and "Christmas, Everywhere All at Once",^[9] but the episodes title was eventually revealed to be "Joy to the World".^[10] The story further explores the "Villengard Corporation", a recurring fictional weapons manufacturing company that has been mentioned in a number of Moffat's Doctor Who episodes. The Doctor last confronted Villengard in the fourteenth series episode "Boom" (2024).^[11][12] Moffat once again assumed an executive producer role during production of the episode.^[13]

In November 2023, Nicola Coughlan was announced to be appearing in an undisclosed role of an upcoming Doctor Who episode.^[14] It was later revealed that Coughlan would star in the 2024 Christmas episode as the Doctor's one-off companion,^[15] Joy Almondo, a guest at a hotel who "gets caught up in [the Doctor's] adventures."^[16] Initial reports indicated that Millie Gibson, who portrays the Doctor's current companion Ruby Sunday, would not appear in the special.^[17] Gibson however, made a brief cameo appearance near the end of the episode.^[18].

In November 2024, Jonathan Aris, Joel Fry, Julia Watson, Steph de Whalley, Peter Benedict and Niamh Marie Smith were also announced as guest stars.^[19]

Set design for the episode was underway at Wolf Studios Wales by 11 October 2023. The Mesozoic Era room was built on a gimbal that allowed the set to tilt to give the effect that it was being eaten by a dinosaur. The art department was working on graphic design by 17 October. The graphics team took fifteen 11-hour days to create enough artwork to fill the Doctor's hotel room. Seven different briefcases were purchased by the props department for use in the episode. A team at Millennium FX designed the Silurian prosthetics.^[5]

Principal photography began on 23 October, with recording extending into November.^[5] "Joy to the World" was directed by Alex Sanjiv Pillai^[20] in the first filming block of the fifteenth series.^[21] For the Sandringham Hotel, the production team chose to purchase two floors of an actual hotel, but had to build the lobby on a soundstage. The top of the Orient Express set was built in front of a green screen and placed on rubber tyres to allow the special effects team to replicate the look of a moving train. Mika Orasmaa was the episodes director of photography.^[8]

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Rotten Tomatoes (Tomatometer)	88%[22]
Rotten Tomatoes (Average Score)	6.8/10[22]
Review scores
Source	Rating
A.V. Club	B–[23]
Bleeding Cool	10/10[24]
Empire	[25]
GamesRadar+	[26]
The Guardian	[27]
IGN	[28]
Radio Times	[29]
The Telegraph	[30]

"Joy to the World" was broadcast on BBC One and released on BBC iPlayer on 25 December 2024 at 5:10 PM GMT.^[15][31] In the United States the episode was released simultaneously on Disney+ at 9:10 AM PT.^[32] Disney also handled international distribution of the episode outside of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland.^[33]

A trailer for the episode was released on 15 November as part of the 2024 Children in Need broadcast.^[34] The press screening took place in the week prior to broadcast,^[35] which was hosted by Angellica Bell.^[36] Promotional posters released by Disney listed the title of the episode as "Joy to the Worlds" rather than "Joy to the World."^[37]

Doctor Who was the sixth most-watched programme on Christmas Day, receiving 4.11 million viewers overnight.^[38]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 88% of 8 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.8/10.^[22]

Writing for The Daily Telegraph, Michael Hogan referred to "Joy to the World" as "the best Christmas adventure for more than a decade." He further elaborated by saying that "there’s something here for all generations to enjoy" and praising the guest cast, namely Nicola Coughlan, Steph de Walley, and Joel Fry.^[30] Authoring a review for Radio Times, Louise Griffin also praised the guest cast but felt that Coughlan had been underused.^[29]

IGN's Robert Anderson wrote that the special "masterfully blends the show’s signature whimsy with heartfelt storytelling, delivering a cozy, deeply human tale about the transformative power of friendship" and that "Moffat’s excellent script is central to the episode’s success."^[28] The writing was also applauded by Adi Tantimedh, who writing for Bleeding Cool, said "Moffat pins down the core of what makes Ncuti Gatwa's Doctor different from all his predecessors."^[24]

Stephen Robinson with the A.V. Club criticised the Doctor's characterization, saying the "the story that directly contradict the Doctor’s former growth" and that "he's a mix of the 'lonely god' from Russell T Davies' first run and Steven Moffat's 'madman in a box,' and the effect is discordant."^[23] Emily Murray from GamesRadar+ also criticised a portion of the episode, writing that the "villains quite frankly feel like an afterthought and feel threadbare."^[26]

• "Joy to the World" at BBC Online
• "Joy to the World" on Disney+
• "Joy to the World" at the Doctor Who Stories Website
• "Joy to the World" on Tardis Wiki, the Doctor Who Wiki
• "Joy to the World" at IMDb