There’s some truly lovely stuff in this year’s Doctor Who Christmas Special, with the Fifteenth Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) meeting the almost infectiously optimistic Joy (Nicola Coughlan), after trying to track down a suspicious, high tech briefcase in a future hotel which allows access to important events and destinations across time.

The special, written by one of Doctor Who’s most important architects of the modern era, Steven Moffat, shows quite a few of the writer’s hallmarks, getting quite timey wimey at points too.

It’s also not afraid to push some very emotional buttons, and there’s a genuinely beautiful, extended sequence of the Doctor living a whole year in a linear fashion, bonding touchingly with a hotel employee named Anita (Steph de Walley), which is the highlight of the episode for me, and which I’m not afraid to admit left me in a somewhat emotional state.

Speaking of which, Joy gets put through the wringer herself, and the final act twist,. revealing a devastating loss for Joy, has already left ‘fans’ up in arms, but the only issue I had with it was a speech delivered from above, which just looked completely awkward and took me out of the moment somewhat. The pointed and blunt commentary on rule breaking by the ruling classes, during what was a difficult and highly traumatic period in recent history, has been the point of division and derision, but it’s something that still feels as if it wasn’t properly addressed or punished, and even now, those responsible have been trying to minimize, excuse or walk back the apologies made for their behaviour, and Moffat is (quite rightly in my opinion) taking the opportunity to remind people of just what callous bastards they were, and are.

Does this have a place in the Doctor Who Christmas Special? I say why not; Who has always been relevant in tackling social and political situations, often without much subtlety, and that’s no different here; perhaps people were expecting an easier watch for the post-Christmas dinner food coma.

In any case, I thought Joy to the World was great fun, with Gatwa once again being absolutely electric in the role of the Doctor and several sequences that give both him and his co-stars a big opportunity to shine. Oh, and the scale, and special effects, feel appropriately huge and well done for the most part too.

Despite enjoying Gatwa’s first season as the Doctor overall, there were definitely some glaring issues with the writing, and the finale being so weak didn’t help, dampening my enthusiasm for this special somewhat; however, I needn’t have worried, as this was a great return to form for the Doctor; light and fluffy, with a very emotional edge and some truly impactful stuff hidden amongst the timely wimey dashes through history.

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