Doctor Who - Joy to the World review: A Very Moffat Christmas pays off

The Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) is adjusting to life as a solo traveller again after Ruby Sunday's (Millie Gibson) departure from the TARDIS last season, when he stumbles upon the Time Hotel, a lodging capitalising on time travel to sell festive stays through history.

But, of course, something's off. The Doctor encounters an old enemy on a mission that threatens to eviscerate all of human history - and the Time Hotel inadvertently gives them exactly what they need to do that (you guessed it, time!).

He isn't alone for long, as he encounters a cast of intriguing characters, including Nicola Coughlan's Joy and Steph de Whalley's Anita, as he attempts to save humanity from certain death.

From the off, Joy to the World doesn't slow down for a second as we're immediately thrown into World War II, onto the Orient Express in 1962, the Base Camp of Mount Everest in 1953, and the Sandringham Hotel in 2024, where we meet Joy, before returning to the sprawling Time Hotel years and years into the future.

As for the Time Hotel? It's surprising it's never been done before at some point in Doctor Who history - it just suits the show so well, especially at Christmas. It never gets old seeing the Doctor race through time and space in an instant and if that big old Disney budget is going to be used anywhere, it's surely best spent on making every different part of time and space – and the T-Rex, of course – look as beautiful and as real as possible.

While the episode verges into the frantic at points, due to having just so much to fit in, it's forgivable for a Doctor Who Christmas episode - especially one that covers thousands of years. We've got festive adventures to have, after all!

The cast are also wonderful. Although guest star Coughlan is underused, Joy is still a nuanced and fleshed-out companion in her own right - something that's not easy to pull off with an ensemble cast in a stand-alone special clocking in at under an hour.

We already know Gatwa is a marvel and it's a joy (sorry!) to watch him back on screen. Somehow, after gorgeous performances in season 14, we still get to see a surprising new side to his Doctor that won't be forgotten in a hurry, in a back-and-forth between Gatwa and Coughlan that will keep fans glued to their screens.

But, rather unexpectedly, it's Steph de Whalley who steals the show as Anita, the staffer at the Sandringham Hotel, with a genuinely beautiful sequence of television. Publicity around the episode hasn't focused much on her character (maybe intentionally) but in the space of just a few minutes, she and Gatwa create a spot of magic that feels straight out of Moffat's era as showrunner.

In fact, as you would expect, Moffat's signature is all over the special - the bold concept, the in-jokes, the returning villain and, most of all, the heartbreaking twists. But, largely, that's a good thing, and Joy to the World just works as a Christmas special (although, naturally, you're going to have to get the family to pay attention!). It's fun, witty, captivating and quintessential Doctor Who at Christmas.

That's not to say it's perfect, though. The ending will require a bit of generosity from the viewer as it attempts to wrap everything up into a neat Christmas gift – and the final scene particularly might provoke a few eye rolls.

A larger point is that there's a big emotional moment towards the end that will likely divide viewers, maybe even feeling insensitive and jarring to some.

It's something that will hit home for many viewers and it's hard to say whether it was entirely necessary. It'll be interesting to hear the conversations that Moffat and showrunner Russell T Davies had around its inclusion and the decisions they made regarding it.

Overall, though, Joy to the World is a stellar addition to the roster of Christmas specials that we'll return to in years to come. Moffat claims it could be his last contribution to Doctor Who but, considering the fun he clearly had writing it, we'll take that with a pinch of salt.

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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