Doctor Who's Best Standalone Episode In Years Might Not Be Standalone At All
The events of “Joy to the World” could be more significant than we thought.
Some Doctor Who episodes change everything. Some Doctor Who episodes are completely self-contained. And others are slightly more slippery. Sometimes there are innocuous episodes with stakes that seem resolved by the end of the episode’s runtime, only to be super relevant in tricky ways later on.
And now, thanks to a recently resurfaced comment from Steven Moffat, it appears that the self-contained 2024 Doctor Who Christmas Special, “Joy to the World,” might actually be setting up something very big in the next season. Mild spoilers ahead.
When it comes to holiday specials (either Christmas or New Year’s) Doctor Who episodes around that wintery time of year tend to either be very self-contained, or specifically designed to set up massive plot details later on. Starting in 2005 with “The Christmas Invasion,” the first Who Christmas episode literally debuted a new Doctor (David Tennant) and created a massive game-changing canon, including the low-key introduction of Torchwood. But, other Who specials have been more self-contained. For example “Voyage of the Damned,” (2007) “The Next Doctor” (2008), “A Christmas Carol” (2010), “The Doctor the Widow and Wardrobe” (2011), and “The Return of Doctor Mysterio” (2016) were all standalone.
Could this episode end-up being huge?
On the flip side are the three Who Christmas specials in which an incumbent Doctor regenerates into their next incarnation: “The End of Time” (2010), “The Time of the Doctor” (2013” and “Twice Upon a Time” (2017). All of those are obviously very rooted in the lore of the show and in the interconnectedness not just of the specific episodes of the preceding set of episodes, but also the vast tapestry of Who continuity more broadly. You could argue that when it comes to Who, Christmas specials are its kind of all or nothing; a big crossover event that sees the return of a fan-favorite character (“The Husbands of River Song” comes to mind) or an adventure in which the Doctor meets folks that we never see again, and were only there for that adventure. (Again, “A Christmas Carol” and “The Return of Doctor Mysterio” typify this sort of Who one-off.)
At first glance, the slam-dunk, timey-wimey 2024 special, “Joy to the World,” seems to firmly fall into that latter category. We’re likely not going to see the Time Hotel, Joy (Nicola Coughlan), Trent (Joel Fry), or Anita (Steph de Whalley) ever again. But then again, in the 2006 10th Doctor Christmas special, “The Runaway Bride,” Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) seemed like a one-off companion, but then of course, became quite literally, the most important woman in all of creation by 2008. And, it’s possible, that something similar could be happening with “Joy to the World.”
According to a recently resurfaced 2024 Radio Times interview with writer Steven Moffat, he was given details about the season finale of the next season of Doctor Who, which most contemporary fans will think of as Season 15 even if it’s being called “Season 2.” Moffat said that he was given this script while working on the most recent season of Who “for reasons that will become apparent.”
To be clear, Moffat was apparently not referring to anything in the most recent season finale tying into his 2024 episode “Boom,” which is why some outlets, like ScreenRant, have started theorizing that Moffat can only be referring to events from “Joy to the World,” which has led to some hypothetical notion that Anita from “Joy to the World” could return in the next season.
But what if it was something else? “Joy to the World” introduced quite a bit of new continuity, including the idea that Joy herself became the literal Christmas star from antiquity and that the evil corporation Villengard was creating technology so massive that it could wipe out entire solar systems. The episode also introduced the Time Hotel, which suggests that at some point in the Who timeline, total amateurs could become time travelers, which surely will require some professional time travelers (like the Doctor) to do some clean-up.
Varada Sethu returns to the TARDIS in 2025.
That said, it’s possible that Steven Moffat saw the next big Who finale for another reason. And that reason could relate to the fact that his episode “Boom” featured the early appearance of Varada Sethu as Mundy, an Anglican marine. Previously, Sethu had been announced as the next companion for the Ncuti Gatwa’s 15th Doctor, making her early appearance in the 2024 season a surprise. But in Season 2 (or 15), Sethu will be playing a new character named Belinda Chandra, meaning the series, will (or won’t) explain why the same actress appeared as a different person earlier.
Current showrunner Russell T Davies and past showrunner Steven Moffat have, of course, done this kind of thing before. Freema Agyeman appeared as a different character in Season 2 before becoming a regular in Season 3 as Martha Jones. Peter Capaldi appeared as two different characters in the Whoniverse — Caecilius in Season 4, and John Frobisher in Torchwood. And, of course, Jenna Coleman showed up as Oswin in Season 7, before she appeared as Clara.
So, did Moffat need to know about the 2025 finale because of Varada Sethu in “Boom” or something secret that’s been planted in “Joy to the World?” In terms of timey-wimey twists, it’s pretty much even money on which of these predictions could end up mattering in the new season. But, it’s also just as likely that whatever connections Moffat is teasing is something that we’ll never see coming.
