WARNING: SPOILERS from the Doctor Who Christmas Special 2024: “Joy to the World.“Steven Moffat and Russell T. Davies get into all of the spoilers for theDoctor WhoChristmas Special 2024 and what lies ahead for the beloved BBC drama. Following the introduction of Ncuti Gatwa as the 15th Doctor in 2023, the journey ofDoctor Whoseason 14earlier this year, 2024 is closing out with his latest Christmas Special. Following his ending inDoctor Whoseason 14, the 15th Doctor faces one of his most complex adventures yet.
2024’sDoctor WhoChristmas Special, titled “Joy to the World,” introduced the character ofJoy, played byBridgerton’sNicola Coughlan, who ends up checking into a London hotel in order to stay away from the holiday season. However, when Joy discovers the Time Hotel, she gets thrown into the madness of time travel. That’s how the Doctor and Joy join forces, as they now have to solve a new mystery, with the clock ticking faster than they expect.
Doctor Who Theory Explains How 2024’s Christmas Special Will Set Up RTD’s New Spinoff
Doctor Who is expanding the Whoniverse, and it could use the 2024 Christmas special as the perfect launching point for the upcoming spin-off.
Ahead ofthis year’sDoctor WhoChristmas Special,ScreenRantsat down with Moffat and Davies, who have been involved with the BBC revival since the start, to go through the events of “Joy to the World” as they explored how this story came about. TheDoctor Whoduo opened up about how they look at each Christmas Specials before putting things into motion, as well as the recruitment ofBridgertonstar Nicola Coughlan. Davies and Moffat also teased how the episode sets up the Doctor’s next season, including a very familiar face towards the end of the installment.
Russell T. Davies & Steven Moffat Break Down The Doctor Who 2024 Christmas Special
ScreenRant: When you guys are looking at developing the next Christmas Specials, do you go back and look at some of the previous ones to just see,‘How do we up the stakes from what has come before?’
Russell T. Davies: We’ve got them in our heads, really, to be honest - we don’t need to do that. You’re talking to two huge Doctor Who fans here! [laughs]
Steven Moffat: In my case, I scroll back more easily through old Doctor Who than our Doctor Who - I’m less good about it! [laughs]
Russell T. Davies: We know what’s been done, we know that.
Steven Moffat: We know the things and what has to be done and what sort of episode it should be. I think it’s quite good [that] Doctor Who feels like quite a Christmas-y show anyway. You don’t have [to do] much, you gotta get some snow in there. I think there should be a law that says there has to be snow. That should be the case for every Christmas Special. There should be snow in them, and they should be set at Christmas. None of this going on holiday in the middle of summer, that’s all rubbish, I hate [it.] But no, it’s just figuring out what you’re going to do. I love the Christmas Specials, I absolutely do. My favorite things to write were always the Christmas Special. So I was very pleased to get another one.
Russell. Davies & Steven Moffat On Booking Nicola Coughlan For The Doctor Who 2024 Christmas Special
“There’s a lot of work to be done to weave her in and out of that Bridgerton schedule.”
I love seeing Nicola Coughlan joining theDoctor Whouniverse. So I was wondering, was this a role that you guys created for her or was it something where you wrote the role and then the auditions happened?
Steven Moffat: Well, I just wrote it with no one in particular in mind, and who was it that suggested Nicola. Was it you? [looks at Russell]
Russell T. Davies: Andy Pryor, our casting director, [said] it directly, ‘You don’t audition Nicola!’ [It was] just an offer. I mean, certainly certain actors audition, certain actors of a stature are offered. I send them a script and say, ‘Please come do this. These are the days to offer.’ And I’m sure there’s no other name in play really, undoubtedly would have been [because of] our fantastic casting director Andy Pryor. Because, of course, she’s also busy, so there’s a lot of work to be done to weave her in and out of that Bridgerton schedule. She was doing Big Mood, as well, with Lydia West, she’s generating her own work now. The Big Mood was written by a friend of hers. So, she’s very hard to get a hold of. And that’s when you, the casting director, who will make it work and thank God that worked!
Just for fun, since we’re on the subject, are there any other busy stars of theBridgertonworld that you would want to try get into theDoctor Whouniverse, if you could?
Russell T. Davies: We’ve had a lot with Adjoa Andoh. We bumped into Golda Rosheuvel the other day at the theater. Jonathan Bailey’s been in it. I would bring Jonathan Bailey back any day. So we’ve used a lot, but yeah, anyone who was in that show is good news, really, so yes.
Steven Moffat Explains Joy’s Star Ending In The Doctor Who 2024 Christmas Special
I thought it was really cool how Joy became, really, the star of Bethlehem, tying it all into this legendary history that we’ve known for millennia now. What was it like coming to that reaching point of this is something we’ve heard of in religion, but now you gave us a very nice way of tying it together where there’s a special, lovely woman who gets to be that star.
Steven Moffat: It wasn’t our original plan. The Doctor would take the briefcase into space and chuck it out the TARDIS doors, and it would explode over Bethlehem, and that would be the clever twist. But it just became irresistible to me that this warm-hearted woman who was hiding from Christmas and hiding all her love away, would reverse all that and invert all that, and would explode everywhere and shine everywhere and bring joy to everyone, and launch every Christmas thereafter.
She actually becomes Christmas, instead of hiding in a hotel away from Christmas. She becomes Christmas and even saves her mom. That’s a Christmas story that is all because of the time hotel and the Doctor, and because she understands that there’s more to a star than just burning, which the Doctor is not likely to understand; the old scientist that he is.
I love that her last words to him are to find a friend and not be a lonely soul. But we know the Doctor, and taking advice is not always his strongest suit. How long does it take for him to really take her words into the next season?
Russel T. Davies: Oh, basically, he completely fails and is alone for the rest of eternity! [laughs] Not really, it’s a very beautiful handover that Steven’s written for us there because, of course, at the same time that you’re writing a show, the audience is equally aware of its publicity as well. You know that Varada Sethu is coming in as Belinda Chandra at the start of the new series, and all of the stories to come there.
She’s absolutely gorgeous and gives such a performance, so it’s very clearly handing over to that. It’s a slightly different introduction. We’ll talk again about it when the series rolls around in a few months, but you realize that the Doctor has taken on board Joy’s advice, and also [that] someone else has set him in motion as well. So, yes, he is actively looking for a new friend definitely.
Steven Moffat: I have no clue what he’s talking about, I don’t know what comes next!
Steven Moffat & Russell T. Davis On That Ruby Cameo In The Doctor Who 2024 Christmas Special
“That was goodbye for now, so she’s out there.”
Fans would like to kill me if I didn’t ask about that special cameo by Ruby, so what can you expand upon that? Because we know her story isn’t over, obviously.
Steven Moffat: I didn’t know I was going to do it at the beginning, but we had conversations about why the Doctor wouldn’t get in touch with Ruby while he was stuck in London for a year, or in touch with the many, many friends he has there. He’s got a bloody office there, for God’s sake, and we just came to the conclusion that he doesn’t do that. He’s just not that guy. He doesn’t go looking for help. He lets people get on with their lives and potters along by himself.
But I thought about Ruby, and then I thought when the star is shining down at the end, she should see it too. If you look at the way it ended, their relationship didn’t really end at the end of the previous episode. It doesn’t end as a relationship at all. Sometimes, like in The Angels take Manhattan, that’s the end for him, Amy Pond, and Rory. But that was not an end; that was goodbye for now, so she’s out there.
Russell T. Davies: Let’s face it Steven, if we had our way, we’d have cut all 63 companions even! [laughs]
Steven Moffat: It’s true, it’s true! [laughs]
About The Doctor Who Christmas Special 2024: “Joy to the World”
When Joy checks into a London hotel in 2024, she opens a secret doorway to the Time Hotel — discovering danger, dinosaurs and the Doctor. But a deadly plan is unfolding across the Earth, just in time for Christmas.
TheDoctor WhoChristmas Special 2024 is now streaming on Disney+ and BBC.
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Doctor Who: Released on July 31, 2025, this series follows the Doctor and their companion as they journey across time and space, encountering a range of extraordinary friends and adversaries, expanding the universe of the long-running British science fiction series.
