Doctor Who – Joy to the World ending explained: What happened in the Christmas special?

Amid all the chaos of Christmas Day, it's possible to miss the details of what just happened in Joy to the World – but don't worry, we've got you covered.

This year's special, written by Steven Moffat, sees the Doctor encounter the Time Hotel, a hotel capitalising on time travel to sell stays at Christmas across time.

But a returning villain of the Time Lord's has nefarious plans – can the Doctor save humanity and his new pal Joy (played by Nicola Coughlan)?

The special covered a lot, from taking us to World War II and expeditions up Mount Everest, to the Doctor living through a year like a normal person, and a visceral depiction of real-world events.

But here's how it all ended – with a dose of heartbreak for good measure.

Doctor Who - Joy to the World ending explained: What happened to Joy in the Christmas special?

Joy embraces and becomes one with the star, sacrificing herself to save humanity.

During the course of the episode, the characters pass a Villengard briefcase to each other, which contains a star seed. When a character is holding it, the briefcase handcuffs itself to the person and conditions them to do whatever is in the star seed's best interests.

When the connection is broken (by handing it over to another person) the character who had been holding the briefcase's motor functions begin to shut down and they die.

We see multiple characters die in this way, including the Silurian hotel manager (Jonathan Aris) and Time Hotel staffer Trev (Joel Fry) – but, by the end of the episode, it's revealed that they're not as gone as you might think.

Later on, a hologram of Trev appears as he helps the Doctor to relocate the briefcase and the star seed, in order to stop it destroying all of humanity.

But, in the end, it's Joy who sacrifices herself, embracing the star and becoming one with it.

While the Doctor is devastated, she argues that it's not dying – that she'll continue to shine over Earth.

The final scenes of the special show her doing just that, with Millie Gibson making a cameo as companion Ruby Sunday. Ruby looks out at the star, with a last shot revealing that it's the star of Bethlehem.

Joy's ending might seem a little morbid for a Doctor Who Christmas special, but the show's got form – in fact, Joy's sacrifice is very reminiscent of Kylie Minogue's guest appearance in Voyage of the Damned, which saw her character Astrid sacrifice herself to save the Doctor, dissipating into atoms.

What happened to Joy's mum?

Joy's mum dies in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, however she recognises that Joy has become a star and dies happy.

It's suggested that she turns into stardust and will be reunited with her daughter.

When the Doctor attempts to make Joy angry in order to sever her connection to the briefcase and save her life, she lashes out and tells him about her mother's death.

It's revealed that her mother died in the Covid-19 pandemic alone in hospital, with Joy following the lockdown rules and having to say goodbye to her over a video call, rather than seeing her in person.

At the end of the episode, after Joy's sacrifice, we're taken back to the day in question.

Joy's mother recognises that Joy has become a star and dies happy. As she dies, she appears to turn into stardust and mentions her hopes of seeing her daughter again in an afterlife.

Doctor Who: Joy to the World will air on Wednesday 25th December on BBC One and BBC iPlayer at 5:10pm. Previous seasons are available to stream on BBC iPlayer.

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