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S00.E165 (BBC/D+): Joy To The World

DanaK

By DanaK
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DanaK

DanaK

2024 Christmas special with Ncuti Gatwa and guest star Nicola Coughlan

Premieres Christmas Day, Wednesday December 25 17:10pm GMT on BBC One and iPlayer in the UK and Disney+ internationally (that would be 12:10pm ET in the US)

Synopsis: When Joy opens a secret doorway to the Time Hotel, she discovers danger, dinosaurs and the Doctor. But a deadly plan is unfolding across the earth, just in time for Christmas.

Writer: Steven Moffat

Director: Alex Sanjiv Pillai

Full production info https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0026d24

Trailer #1

Trailer #2

 

  • Like 3
Lantern7

Lantern7

I'm a little surprised I wasn't spitting out teeth after ingesting all of that sugar. I mean . . . good story and all, but did Joy really turn into the North Star? Just . . . argh.

Yes, we did get a "Doctor living one year one day at a time" story in "The Power Of Three," but I think it was done better here. And I liked the concept of the Time Hotel . . . though I can't see the appeal of seeing an assassination unfold.

It wasn't a bad episode. I still think the bottom for Christmas specials was "The Return Of Doctor Mysterio," mostly because that felt like an inventory story with tinsel sprinkled on it.

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baldryanr

baldryanr

6 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

And I liked the concept of the Time Hotel . . . though I can't see the appeal of seeing an assassination unfold.

Are you kidding?  Every conspiracy theorist in the world would want to see that play out in person even though it was actually recorded.  Plus for these people the assassination was more than 4000 years ago so they're going to be a bit more emotionally detached.

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Llywela

Llywela

18 hours ago, baldryanr said:

So did 14 not spend the rest of his life (mostly) not zipping around in the TARDIS?  You'd think he'd a lot more accepting of it than 11 was back in the day.

You'd think Anita would be his first choice for a new companion, but instead I guess getting to work in a better hotel counts for something.

Various Doctors have spent considerable time staying in one place, living one day after another, yet every time it happens (in New Who) it is written as if it is the first time it has ever happened to him and a terrible ordeal that he has no idea how to handle. Because the idea of the Doctor as someone incapable of standing still is more important - to the writers, at least - than the actual history and lived experience of the character.

He could so easily have gone back for Anita, but there is no rhyme or reason, really, why one person he befriends becomes a companion and another doesn't. Or rather, there is, but those reasons are always external rather than internal to the show's universe.

I had lots of nitpicks, watching. Overall, an entertaining but forgettable episode, for me.

  • Like 3
DoctorAtomic

DoctorAtomic

Anita was the most compelling character for me. I thought maybe she was going to join the adventure. 

Joy had a good backstory, but I found her to be kind of a drip. I did buy that she'd be the star at the end. Though I rolled my eyes at the final part. 

There was a ton left on the table with the concept of the Time Hotel. 

Of course, it's been a million years since the last series so I don't know remember why Ruby left. 

  • Like 4
baldryanr

baldryanr

One other thing I was thinking about: Moffat LOVES the idea of aliens using the voice/likeness of dead people (or just various people in general) to communicate, doesn't he?  River's team at the Library, the soliders who were killed by the Weeping Angels, Prisoner Zero, that water thing going after Bill, the ambulances from last season.

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tkc

tkc

I found this to be one of the weaker Christmas specials. Although Joy was ostensibly the centre of the story, she actually got little story time.

Joy's most memorable scene was being the butt of Fifteen's (feigned) insults, and that came across as being mean more than anything else -- especially since she already seemed like someone who was going through a tough time. In The Lodger, Eleven launched a fake set of insults at a character (Sophie), but she responded with strength and quickly saw what Eleven's point was. I didn't get that same sense of relief upon hearing Fifteen's explanation.

In addition, Trev and the Silurian fellow (the actor who I'll always think of as Anderson from Sherlock) had nasty (but not atypical in Who), random deaths but Fifteen didn't really seem all that sympathetic. When that happened to people around Twelve, he might not have been all that sympathetic either (as in the victims in Mummy on the Orient Express), but at least he'd acknowledge that it was a brutal fact of the universe.

Also, I would say that Anita was the most successful character introduction in the episode. The story built her up from worker stuck in a tedious job to person with potential... and left her as worker in a fancier version of the tedious job. I hope she enjoys bringing towels around more in the Time Hotel than she did in the Sandringham!

Finally, the tag scene over Bethlehem was a bit on the nose. The earlier joke about no room at the inn was funny, but I would have been fine if they had left the Racnoss' webstar as the current series' only Christmas Star.

Oh yes -- despite my criticisms and seeming grumpiness, Merry Christmas 🎄 to all, and best wishes for the New Who Year!

  • Like 4
DoctorAtomic

DoctorAtomic

I did like the quick line from Anita about the weeping angels. It seemed like Fifteen was telling her tall tales of his adventures. 

30 minutes ago, tkc said:

I would have been fine if they had left the Racnoss' webstar as the current series' only Christmas Star

I don't know anything about that; too bad there wasn't a mention. 

dalek

dalek

I thought this was good but not great.  I liked Anita better than Joy, but I think that was the fault of the writing and the pacing, not a result of Nicola Coughlin's acting.  And while I do get what they were going for (with the subtlety of a chainsaw) with Joy Almondo's name, it mostly makes me think of the candy bar, not "Joy to the World."  And i'm "meh" on the ending with Joy becoming the star and it being the Bethlemhem star.  On the plus side, the doctor didn't cry his way through the episode.

  • Like 2
snarktini

snarktini

I totally lost it at:
"You are being mansplained by a briefcase."
"I thought I was being mansplained by you."
"Honey, the Doctor is in the room, this is mansplain central".
"Oh I'm getting that."

Also the chairs, yelling at himself:
"You live in a great big giant spaceship and there aren't any chairs. And you haven't even noticed because nobody ever comes round!"
(thinks)
"Oh my God. I don't have any chairs."

Like the Doctor, it had also never occurred to me that the TARDIS had no chairs lol. Not that it even makes sense for anybody to come inside, but it's a good comedy bit.

While I appreciate his friendship with Anita, she didn't have "companion" written on her. She did not strike me as having enough brashness / adventure in her, though I am sure she'll appreciate the better job.

  • Like 5
DanaK

DanaK

  • Author
9 hours ago, snarktini said:

Like the Doctor, it had also never occurred to me that the TARDIS had no chairs lol. Not that it even makes sense for anybody to come inside, but it's a good comedy bit.

Trust me, I thought about that a lot during Jodie’s era as well as the current era with Ncuti with his version of the Tardis control room that’s way too big and has no place to sit except maybe on a ramp

DanaK

DanaK

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16 minutes ago, DoctorAtomic said:

There has to be chairs somewhere. Not even by the pool? 

Probably, including in the kitchen, but we mostly see just the control room and that’s mostly what we know. I recall the 12th Doctor having a library area on the second floor above the control room and that had chairs. Jodie’s era didn’t have chairs in the control room but it did have steps starting in Series 12 that characters could sit on. So far in Ncuti’s era, no chairs in that huge, empty control room

Llywela

Llywela

On 12/27/2024 at 3:09 AM, snarktini said:

Also the chairs, yelling at himself:
"You live in a great big giant spaceship and there aren't any chairs. And you haven't even noticed because nobody ever comes round!"
(thinks)
"Oh my God. I don't have any chairs."

Like the Doctor, it had also never occurred to me that the TARDIS had no chairs lol. Not that it even makes sense for anybody to come inside, but it's a good comedy bit.

There have been chairs in the TARDIS at various points in the past. They come and go depending on the Doctor, writer and set designer.

Eight's cosy reading chair in the TV Movie was my favourite.

  • Like 1
Jimmy Mack

Jimmy Mack

(edited)

My favourite throwaway bit from the montage of the Doctor doing jobs about the Sandringham Hotel: Anita hands him a 'plumber's helper' (plunger) and tells him to unblock a toilet. He gawps at the plunger -- the very image of a Dalek weapon arm -- and squeaks, "Is this thing armed!?" 

Edited by Jimmy Mack
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tennisgurl

tennisgurl

That was a pretty fun Christmas special, although I sadly thought it had a lot of wasted potential. The time traveling hotel is a really cool concept in and of itself, I wanted more of the Doctor going around from Christmas to Christmas like we saw a bit of in the start and at the end, but we hardly saw any of that. I thought the same thing about Nicola Coughlan, who I really like, who I hardly felt we got to spend time with, despite being hyped as the big gust star. All we really know about Joy is that she's really sad and angry about her mom dying of COVID and that she wasn't there as she died, and she likes cute red outfits. The Doctor hardly even gets to spend time with her and neither does the audience, which is unfortunate when the whole climax of the episode is about her. 

I liked Anita and her whole "not paid enough to care about this nonsense" reactions to everything, but it feels like I missed opportunity not to have Joy be the person the Doctor spends a year with getting to know so that the ending has more of a punch. 

The bad guys from Boom return to be evil again, RIP Trev, the Silurian, and the other guy, of course they have to find the most evil way to power their star. 

So are we getting the Doctor to drop one dramatic tear every single episode this season? Am I sensing a drinking game?

Even with my complaints, I still had fun with the holidays vibes!

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