This year's Doctor Who Christmas special, "Joy to the World," brings together Doctor Who and Bridgerton in the shiniest way ever by welcoming the dazzling Nicola Coughlan into the Whoniverse as the eponymous Joy. "The stars literally aligned," the show's current showrunner and executive producer Russell T Davies said of the Irish actress's casting, noting that "everyone in the world wants to work with her." And watching this latest Doctor Who Christmas special, it's little wonder why, as Davies put it: "There she is, and she's absolutely wonderful!"
Within the episode Joy (Coughlan) is on a lonely holiday in a London hotel when the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) gleefully intrudes with a ham-and-cheese toastie, a pumpkin latte, and a time-wimey adventure across Earth's history. Not only will this cheery singleton be overtaken by villainous tech, but she'll also cross paths with a polite "lizard man," a raging T-rex, and double the Doctors. But in the end, her fate is bittersweet while pointing a true north for the Time Lord's return in Season 15.
Mashable spoke with Davies and "Joy to the World" executive producer and screenwriter Steven Moffat about the episode, and what it means for next season.
As has been the case in some of the best (and most heart-breaking) holiday specials, "Ode to Joy" ends with the death of a friend. But as far as Doctor Who exits go, Joy's is pretty radiant!
In our Zoom interview, Moffat expressed how such a bittersweet conclusion is crucial to a Doctor Who holiday special, explaining, "Well, Christmas is always about all the people you love and and the people you love who aren't there this year. That's what it's always about. It's looking around the table and seeing who's not there. So it's joyful because everyone you love is there, and it's sad too, because someone's missing. So, you know, its love and loss are, I'm afraid, inextricably connected. There's nothing we can do about that. To love is to lose."
No show on television might recognize this as well (or often) as the decades-spanning saga of a person reborn over and over, destined to love and lose much more than the rest of us. "That just fits," Moffat said. "The Doctor loses quite a lot. He loses all his friends. He must do. So just making [the special] a little bit about loss, but not miserable, just acknowledging a bit of sadness that things do end. And things have to end — otherwise, nothing could get started."
Davies concurred, adding, "It's a very emotional show. That's what we love about it, is we love dialing everything up to 11. It's like, if the Doctor feels slightly sad, we bring in 100-piece orchestra. We're gonna bring them in [and tell them], 'Play loudly. Please play loudly!'" He continued, "I think that's the program at its finest. It's setting out to make you laugh more than any other show and make you cry more than any other show. And actually, it's one of the program's strengths.You have to look at what Doctor Who does that other shows don't. That's absolutely one of the things that we do, so lots more than to come!"
At the end of the episode, Joy has resigned herself gladly to becoming a star. And while the Doctor fears she will burn and die, she shrugs this off, saying that she's "changing."
"I will shine. Everywhere. Forever." she promises, smiling brightly. "And sometimes on you, my funny little Doctor, because you need to change too." More directly, she gives the Doctor a new mission: "You need to find a friend. Do that. Go and find one now. I'll be watching."
Davies promises Season 15 will pick up from this quest to combat his loneliness. "Here is a man who makes coffee for two, then realizes that he's on his own — in a dressing gown," Davies said of the episode's first act. "The man is just born to talk and needs someone to talk to. And so she's told him that. When we find him in the first episode of the next season — coming up quite soon — he is actively looking [for a friend], but for different reasons than I just explained."
Davies kept things vague, but assured, "It's a slightly different setup that will unfold as the season goes on. But you get Varada Sethu coming in as Belinda Chandra, who's magnificent." Last spring it was announced that Sethu, who'd previously appeared in Season 14's "Boom," would be the Doctor's next companion, following on the heels of Millie Gibson as Ruby Sunday. But Davies didn't drop any more details about this new character.
Speaking of next season, he assured a continuity of emotion. "When you watch this all as a run on streaming, it'll flow very naturally from Joy setting it up with the Doctor's happiness at the end, and where you find next will feel like a straight line," Davies said. "Actually, it's nice."
Speaking of nice, there's a surprisingly sacred allusion at the end of "Ode to Joy." While the episode ends with loss, the Doctor swells with, well, joy as he watches his new friend become a star that shines across time upon his loved ones, and hers, and even the birth of Jesus.
When asked if this iconic scene in Bethlehem might mean Jesus could become a character within Doctor Who, Davies joked, "A companion, I think. That would be amazing," before bursting into giggles.
How to watch: Doctor Who is now streaming on Disney+.
