The Agency has published a new look at Joy to the world2024 doctor who Christmas Special and sports all the crazy sparkle we'd expect from The Doctor's (Ncuti Gatwa from Sex education) festive outings.
The new trailer gives us a much broader look at the 'Time Hotel', a secret place where guests can stay in rooms throughout the hotel's history, breaking the rules of time and space to spend a time or two. nights in the past. We also meet Nicola Coughlan (Derry Girls) Joy, a unique and mysterious companion at the hotel. Like Joel Fry (game of Thrones) as janitor Trev says, it's “Christmas, everywhere, at the same time.” There are also runaway trains, a hungry T-Rex, ancient tombs and the small matter of a second Doctor.
The special will air on Agency One and will be available to stream on Agency iPlayer on Christmas Day in the UK, with international viewers able to stream on Disney Plus. And it promises to be quite the present, as “the episode introduces Joy, who checks into a London hotel in 2024, only to discover that her quiet stay is anything but ordinary. When Joy opens a secret door to Hotel Time, she discovers danger, dinosaurs and the Doctor. But a deadly plan is unfolding across Earth, just in time for Christmas. Where has the Doctor been? What's going on in Joy's hotel room? An old enemy of the Doctor lurks behind the scenes and the entire history of humanity is at stake. Can the Doctor save Christmas?
While Russell T. Davies is now back as showrunner for this new era, the 2024 special is written by another former boss: Steven Moffat. Moffat led the show during the tenure of the eleventh (Matt Smith) and twelfth doctors (Peter Capaldi), producing what many fans would say are the best Christmas specials the show has ever aired. Add that to the fact that a Christmas Day visit from the Doctor only returned last year after a hiatus (although there were a few New Year's episodes during that time), and it's safe to say the excitement is out of this world.
SPECIAL CHRISTMAS TRAILER | Joy to the world | Doctor Who – YouTube
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The new special continues a reboot phase of sorts for the show, which was renamed season one when Ncuti Gatwa took the reins for its first full season earlier in the year. Davies' return as showrunner marked an attempt to recapture the heights of the David Tennant era, even going so far as to cast the actor again as the Fourteenth Doctor, a brief period between Jodie Whittaker's Thirteenth Doctor and the current incarnation that lasted until just the three 60th anniversary specials.
Gatwa took over after the bigeneration at the end of that mini-career and had his proper debut in last year's Christmas special, “The Church on Ruby Road.” But with a full season under his belt, it's now business as usual for Gatwa, who excelled in the role throughout the eight episodes, delivering one powerful performance after another. Christmas specials tend to be fluffier affairs than space racists and vengeful ancient gods, so this should be a chance for Gatwa to have some fun with the role. Although if the Fifteenth Doctor's adventures so far are anything to go by, while there may not be snow falling this Christmas, the tears certainly will.