When Joy checks into a London hotel in 2024, she opens up a secret doorway to the Time Hotel- discovering danger, dinosaurs, and the Doctor. But a deadly plan is unfolding across the Earth, just in time for Christmas.
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Goddammit Doc, read the room. Nobody wants your ham and cheese toastie or your stupid pumpkin latte.
The Fourteenth/Fifteenth Doctors Ranked
Live-watched on BBC iPlayer
So who’s up for some ham and cheese toasties and pumpkin lattes?
Not going to do some big bullet-pointed deep delve into this one for a change, but if this is going to be the last Moffat script as it’s been hinted at, then it’s safe to say he ended on a positive note, even more so than Twice Upon a Time. Has a lot in common with both that (the melancholy moments that give off a more somber tone than usual such as Joy losing her mother to COVID, the initial threat actually being a benevolent force) and The Husbands of River Song (just the idea of the Time Hotel itself),…
“Ham and cheese toastie with a pumpkin latte.”
Wow, brilliant. Ncuti Gatwa really shines in this special. The use of the time hotel was a really interesting idea. I’m surprised how little was spoiled in advance, I like that about it. Moffat can do good Christmas specials, I’m glad RTD got him to do this one.
Joy to the World sees Steven Moffat ask audiences have we ever wondered what the deal is with those locked doors in hotel rooms. Yes, the man who once found the creepy in the everyday, is now some kind of sci-fi Seinfeld. The answer, Moff, is, of course, no. It's just where the bog rolls are kept, mate. Still don't let that interfere with another of your deeply predictable "everyone dies" stories eh?
"Many things about this are suboptimal" says the Doctor at one point in this "special" (someone call the trade descriptions act), but, honestly, it might just be a wholly accurate statement on Doctor Who right now. Here's a show that I've loved since my childhood in the…
Fell in love the moment The Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS in his bathrobe!
Trev was an utter darling.
The Anita section was my favorite! I adore that this Doctor can be happy living one day at a time in one place (didn't work so well for Eleven in The Power of Three!) with a friend. And ordering little blue boxes online....
I really do love spending time with Fifteen and can't wait to do it again!!!
There is just something right about Christmas and Doctor Who. To me, it felt little bit too fast paced, and a bit slow in places as well. A tad convoluted, but ultimately harmless and still enjoyable. Not the best Christmas special by any means, but still brings in the heart and sense of joy and hope Doctor Who does so well.
Fuck you, Chris Chibnall, fer depriving us of 'Doctor Who' Christmas specials all those years.
Like, yea, they all haven't been perfect (looking at you 'The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe'). This, tho', was definitely a return to form. A fun timey whimey Christmas mystery — that, halfway through, turns into an adorable story about friendship.
Sincerely, it's a year long friendship that's told in 15 minutes and I was fucking bawling when it was done. 🥲
[Watched on Disney+.]
How many times can we pretend the Doctor has never settled down to stay in one place and live a normal life before? He did it last December… was that not the entire point of letting David Tennant’s Doctor settle down and live forever with Donna? And she was forced to spend 20 years in a prison, for reasons unclear, back on New Year’s Day 2021. And he did it on Christmas, 2015, with River Song. And he did it on Christmas, 2012, to recover from losing the Ponds. And wasn’t Capaldi’s Doctor a University lecturer for, like, 70 years? How many times are we gonna do this, guys??? It’s the best bit of the episode, here, but it didn’t…
