Doctor Who's Steven Moffat teases "humorous" Christmas special with Joy to the World: "It's not Blink"
"It's whimsical and heartwarming and emotional."
The countdown has begun.
Doctor Who fans shouldn't worry too much about this year's Christmas special being too dark, after all, it is called Joy to the World, as Steven Moffat has promised it is more lighthearted than his previous work.
As previously announced, Moffat has penned the 2024 Christmas episode of Doctor Who and for long-time fans, Moffat's episodes aren't always the happiest of affairs.
Just earlier this year, Moffat penned the acclaimed Boom for season 14, which saw Ncuti Gatwa's Doctor stuck on a landmine for the entire episode as Millie Gibson's Ruby Sunday scrambled to save his life.
"It's got your Christmas whimsy in there, so I suppose it leans toward the slightly more humorous end, to a degree," he told SFX magazine.
"But actually it gets quite emotional, and there's also the fun element that within the context of the wider series the Doctor has just lost one of his mates."
In the season 14 finale, fans watched on as Ruby Sunday said goodbye to the Doctor and the TARDIS as she reunited with her long-lost mother and it appears the Doctor will be on a solo adventure this festive season, but that is until he meets Joy, played by Nicola Coughlan.
Moffat continued: "That puts the Doctor in a particular place, and in the modern show we've always honoured that. So it's the Doctor alone - which makes it sound sombre and it's really not.
"It's whimsical and heartwarming and emotional. It's not Blink. That's how they review all my episodes - it's not Blink!"
While not much is known about the plot details of Joy to the World, the return of the Silurians was recently teased in a clip for the special and saw Joy confronted by one in her hotel room.
It isn't clear exactly what the Doctor and Joy will get up to, but Moffatt did reveal some interesting plot points in an interview with BBC South News back in November.
"Imagine in the far, far future that a hotel chain got hold of the idea of time travel," he began.
"What's the first thing a hotel chain would do if they had time travel? They'd realise they had an opportunity to sell all the unsold nights in their own hotels in history."
Joy to the World will be on screens on Christmas Day, so there isn't long to go now!
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Doctor Who will return to BBC One and BBC iPlayer this Christmas. Previous seasons are available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
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Authors
Katelyn Mensah is the Senior Entertainment Writer for Radio Times, covering all major entertainment programmes, reality TV shows and the latest hard-hitting documentaries. She previously worked at The Tab, with a focus on reality TV and showbiz news and has obtained a BA (Hons) in Journalism.
