Episode Discussion - “Joy to the World” the Christmas special 2024

Thanks @Tian for reminding me of this. These aren’t linked on the site anymore, they are going to be done in a whole new way eventually.

EDIT: Added the links back for now.

11 Likes

I am not quite sure what to say about this one.
I can see people loving it in this thread, but I didn’t really get an emotional response to it. Had we maybe gotten to know Joy a bit more I would feel differently.

The part with Ncuti slowing down and living a year day to day with Anita was great and I really enjoyed that - but wasn’t that the point of the Fourteenth Doctor, that he did just that, that rehab out of order so that the Fifteenth would be alright?

And the Silurian prosthetics and makeup looked off to me (and I still would like the third eye back :wink:)

It might not just have been what I expected and I will feel differently after a rewatch. Right now I rated it at 3/5 :star: , felt a bit harsh but it felt a bit middle of the road to me.

Trev was the highlight of the story. :grin:

21 Likes

I quite enjoyed that one– it was certainly full of fun– but I didn’t love it, and I especially didn’t love the ending. It felt a bit too perfect and shiny and uber-sweet for me.

My favourite moment was when Joy fully exploded at the Doctor, before the dinosaur showed up; that felt real and powerful. After that I feel it kind of fell apart a bit.

The bit with Anita was lovely though. :slight_smile:

17 Likes

I will say im glad that Moffat’s view on the afterlife is extremely more pleasant than RTD’s view of the afterlife.

With Moffat we had The Nethersphere, the Library, the beings made of glass in Capaldi’s finale, and now the one in Joy to The World. Probably a couple more that I’m missing.

Compared to RTD’s “there’s nothing after death btw. Just darkness and cosmic horror nightmares”

15 Likes

I loved it. I loved the Anita part, probably the highlight of the story. It was a bit like The Power of Three but with a good ending. I thought that the time hotel was nice and a good setting. Ncuti Gatwa did an amazing performance. I liked the Bethlehem stuff. I thought that the covid stuff was powerful and I think that it was done in a good and respectful way.

RTD + Moffat is the best Doctor Who combination. Feels like they never fail when doing it together.

20 Likes

Random question that I thought of when watching. Is that a Hobbit door? If yes does that mean that Lord of the Rings are part of the Whoniverse? Or more interesting does it mean that the Peter Jackson films are canon? Does that mean that Sylvester McCoy is canon to the Whoniverse? Could he then meet the seventh Doctor?

Okay I might need some sleep now…

19 Likes

I thought of the Hobbit too when I saw that :grin:

14 Likes

Lego Dimensions says this could be canon

13 Likes

Just because it’s a round door, doesn’t mean that it’s a Hobbit door :wink: other cultures might also have round doors!

But it would be pretty cool though! Will we get that Peter Jackson-directed Christmas Special now? It would be 3 hours long and the extended edition would add another hour to that!

15 Likes

There’s probably someone creating a YouTube video showing the Doctor bursting into Bilbo Baggins’ house asking “ham and cheese toastie and a pumpkin latte?”

14 Likes

I’ve actually added the links to Behind the Scenes, Unleashed, Confidential, Video Commentaries, etc all back in!

(Unfortunately, the video commentaries seem to be gone from iPlayer - I think they are DVD-only now).

Can anyone please share a link to the Disney+ version?

10 Likes

Coming to DVD and Blu-Ray 27th January.

DVD
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0DP7RXLSS

Blu-Ray
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0DP7S2X6Z

8 Likes

Thanks, added both to the site :blush:

10 Likes

Therapy is never really “done”. And the Fifteenth Doctor has been through some more tough times, and ‘lost’ another companion, since then.

I see it more that the Fourteenth Doctor got over his guilt about Rose, Clara, Bill, Donna, and the Flux through the ‘therapy’ - it’s what the Toymaker focused on in his play after all.

I don’t think we’ve seen the end of our sad Time Lord, and I’m glad. Sadness creates drama. I love the show the best when it’s tearing my heart into pieces :smiley: :smiley:

18 Likes

I think I liked it but… This one was weird! My girlfriend and I kept asking “where is this going?”. Seriously, it was all over the place! That’s not completely bad though. I liked his time spent on Earth for that year with Anita. And the Time Hotel was a fun setting. Not sure if I’m totally into the star itself as part of the plot, or Joy for that matter, or the ending. Didn’t have any problem with Bethlaham. I liked that the previous locales the Doctor visited connected together at the end. Still, this one was weird, even for a “timey-wimey” episode.

18 Likes

Here’s the Disney+ link:

https://www.disneyplus.com/browse/entity-d18f08d4-d7e3-489f-b117-b56ecdb44fbb

6 Likes

Really glad to see so many positive reactions to this one, I just can’t share them unfortunately. I’ll gather my thoughts more comprehensively at some point, partly because they need to percolate a bit more but mostly just because I don’t want to be a Scrooge about it. Though I am genuinely happy that it hit the right notes for so many.

21 Likes

So did we! Definitely a Hobbit door.

12 Likes

I will keep this in mind when doing a rewatch (probably today :grin:)
And I really enjoyed the sequence with Anita, it was fantastic :slightly_smiling_face:

Also I can’t wrap my head around that Ncuti’s first Christmas Special was a whole year ago! Don’t know why but Church on Ruby Road feels like it just came out to me :slightly_smiling_face:

15 Likes

Really enjoyed the Christmas special. Overall well made, several emotional themes did resonated with me perfectly.

One highlight in this regard was the developing friendship between the Doctor and Anita and the theme of loneliness and friendship in it.

Another one was the hospital scene with Joy’s mom. Like probably many people, I had a somewhat similar situation with a loved one back in the pandemic (luckily it ultimately went well, but for a time it looked really bad). So I actually teared up a bit. And that’s a good thing. Stories are there to make us feel, in my opinion. So, from my point of view, it was a very powerful, good scene. At the same time, I empathize with people for whom this scene might be just a little too close, a little too much, and a little too unexpected in an afternoon Christmas movie.

I found the Christmas Star plot good and very clever. It had a perfect Christmassy vibe, elevating the hopeful scenes at the end. But it was also one of the examples where they were already successful with ‘show, not tell,’ and then ruined it with telling, telling, telling.

I thought it was already obvious what was meant before we got back to the Doctor in Bethlehem. It was even more obvious when the Doctor smirked and said something along the lines of ‘no wait, of course!’ It was finally absolutely obvious when we saw the three camels. And then, they actually did spell it out in big letters on screen. Oh man, why?

Overall, my first impression is a solid 9/10.

16 Likes