Anita to the World! Joy too, of course. Image: BBC

The Tides of Time has continued to ask past and present members of the Oxford Doctor Who Society to make predictions about new episodes and then let us know what they thought of them. We’ve been making our way through the backlog of comments and will be publishing anticipations and reactions to Series 15 soon. But first, time to revisit Christmas 2024 and Joy to the World. Compiled by Adam Kendrick.

Our predictions…

Considerable excitement for Ncuti Gatwa’s second Christmas special meant that Joy to the World received more predictions than any other episode from Series 15. News that the script would be penned by Steven Moffat (his fiftieth script, to be precise) led to many members attempting to second-guess him; there were unsuccessful predictions that he would tidy up loose ends from his time as showrunner (such as the mystery of the missing ducks from Leadworth’s duck pond), make a “lame” joke about browser history, and have the Doctor openly flirt with himself during the multi-Doctor scenes seen in the trailer. More successful guesses included references to Villengard, the arms manufacturer whose factories were replaced with a banana grove by the Doctor, and the Delta Wave from The Parting of the Ways (2005), a prediction which belatedly came true six episodes later in The Interstellar Song Contest. Impressively, three different members correctly predicted that the Nativity would be involved in some fashion, with two of these predictions explicitly stating that the star seed inside the briefcase would become the Star of Bethlehem.

With Millie Gibson’s departure from the TARDIS still a recent memory, many fans expected Ruby Sunday to make a cameo appearance towards the end of the episode. Would the Doctor visit her for Christmas, just like how the Eleventh Doctor spent Christmas dinner with the Ponds in The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe (2011)? Or maybe he would hear some carollers performing Carol of the Bells and be reminded of her? As for her successor, two members would have been let down by the lack of a post-credits scene featuring Belinda Chandra. Meanwhile, speculation continued over Mrs Flood’s identity and her involvement in this special. Perhaps she would appear in one of the hotel rooms à la Madame Kovarian, or would break the fourth wall to wish “a Happy Christmas to all of you at home” before introducing the trailer for the upcoming series – all while wearing Rose Tyler’s outfit. Ironically enough, Joy to the World turned out to be the only episode in the Fifteenth Doctor’s era where Mrs Flood didn’t make an appearance, a surprise which she later explained was because she had taken Christmas off.

Our responses…

As Christmas Day showed, the Fifteenth Doctor’s second Christmas special took place in a futuristic hotel which offers rooms throughout time and space, and involved a mysterious briefcase that possesses and eventually disintegrates those who carry it. While the average rating was comparatively lower than The Church on Ruby Road (7.50), three different members gave Joy to the World nine out of ten. “Absolutely brilliant… Great fun and a possible contender for a Top 5 Doctor Who Christmas special” exalted one breathless member. “An instant classic, incredible” proclaimed another. The middle section of the episode, in which the Doctor spends a year working at the Sandringham Hotel while befriending the manager, Anita, was singled out for praise: “Ncuti’s performance as the Doctor is the strongest we’ve seen yet” stated one member, while another may have had the gift of prophecy by describing Anita’s farewell scene as “the best companion departure we’ve seen in a while, and I hope that’s not the last we ever hear of her”. Steven Moffat’s willingness to confront the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown of 2020 and focus upon loneliness at Christmastime was also highlighted.

The main criticisms from our members related to the role played by guest star Nicola Coughlan and the story’s overall logic. Despite being promoted as the one-off companion, some members lamented how Joy was sidelined in favour of Anita and spent most of the episode possessed by the briefcase. The ending, in which Joy became the Star of Bethlehem was described by one member as “terribly misjudged… turning her into a star really isn’t the happy ending I’m being told it is, particularly as it seems to mean the Villengard corporation have succeeded in their goals!”, while another felt it was “rather abrupt” and muddled the story’s message. Overall, the plot was described as being “an illogical mess”, “nonsensical”, and “needed neatening up”, but there was a small divide on whether the “half-remembered, slightly hazy logic of a Christmas afternoon” worked against the special: although one member felt that the episode didn’t stand up on its own when compared to previous specials, another argued that when it comes to the festive season, the plot “comes second to vibes, which Joy To The World had in spades”.

Joy to the World’s average rating from the society was 6.40 (from 10 responses). We’ll reveal where it stands in comparison to Series 15 and the entire Ncuti Gatwa era in due course.