It's nice that, once again, Christmas means we get a Doctor Who special. "Joy to the World", this year's special, was written by Steven Moffat and felt a little like a Moffat greatest hits medley. There was the dinosaur like the one in "Deep Breath", there was the Doctor coming "the long way around" like in "Heaven Sent". There was a very subtle reference to Madame Vastra ("The Snowmen" remains my favourite Doctor Who Christmas special, by the way).
My favourite moment in "Joy to the World" was the bookends of the "long way around" bit, when the Doctor meets himself from the future. Future Doctor won't explain to Past Doctor how to get the code for the dangerous suitcase and Past Doctor is enraged by how mysterious Future Doctor is. He ought to have known Future Doctor is holding his peace for good reason. I think I liked the scene because it felt like a rebuke to the idea that the Doctor needs to be less mysterious. The Doctor's not just being compulsively mysterious; he has reasons.
Maybe the most noteworthy thing about the episode is that it ends with an explicit reference to Jesus Christ as someone who existed. I don't recall the show ever doing that in the past 70 years but maybe I've forgotten something. Is this a capitulation in the culture war? Maybe. It's kind of sad that art can't avoid politics without looking like it's losing ground. Doctor Who should be for everyone; art should be for everyone. But that requires everyone having their heads out of their asses.
I'm not sure the end of the episode had its intended effect on me. If Joy turning into a star was supposed to be an unambiguously happy moment, it didn't work. In fact, her speech to the Doctor felt a lot like someone happily explaining why she was about to drink Jim Jones' Kool-Aid. Otherwise, I thought Nicola Coughlan was good, though I was surprised by how small her part was. I thought it was interesting she couldn't specifically mention COVID when she talked about the rules preventing her from being in the same room as her dying mother. Now and then, I wish I knew exactly what fetters Doctor Who writers have to operate with.
"Joy to the World" is available on the BBC iPlayer in the UK and on Disney+ around the world.
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