The Fifteenth Doctor is still recovering Doctor Who
but the Christmas special helps highlight what is still wrong. With each regeneration, there is a transition period where the audience and the Doctor need to encounter the Doctor within the new face. Sometimes this change can happen quickly, and the new Doctor can slip into his role as a time-traveling hero without missing a beat, but at other times, the series struggles to truly transition the Doctor into his new identity.
While Ncuti Gatwa's performance as the Doctor has steadily improved throughout season 14 and even into his appearance in the 2024 Christmas special, there are times when it feels like something is missing. The Doctor changes, but there are certain Key features that remain in each new iteration. However, the Fifteenth Doctor continues to fight to save the day and truly become the heroic Time Lord that has made the show such a success for the past 60 years.
'Joy To The World' Continues To Portray The Fifteenth Doctor As A Failed Hero
The doctor stuck around while others saved the day
In "Joy to the World", the Doctor arrives at the Time Hotel and quickly realizes there is a problem, although at first he has difficulty identifying it. Regardless, he rushes in to save the day and uses his incredible deduction and intuition skills to figure out where the problem lies and how he can solve it. However, the The doctor doesn't actually solve much in the episode. Due to his haste, the hotel manager he asks for help ends up dead, and another young woman on Earth in 2024 is trapped with the suitcase.
So he trusts a future version of himself to discover the access code to disarm the case, which is never explained further, and ends up locked up for a year in the small hotel. This leads to some sweet and heartfelt moments, but even when he leaves and manages to free Joy from the suitcase leaving her emotional, it doesn't take long to she sacrifices herself to save the day. It's not the Doctor, but Joy, who saves the day, along with the help of the recently deceased hotel manager.
No doctor should be infallible, but they also need to be symbols of heroism
The doctor should be the star of the show
The Doctor isn't perfect and he isn't a god, but he was made to be a hero. The same person who has saved the universe countless times and fought formidable enemies with nothing more than his voice and a sonic screwdriver. However, in Doctor Who in season 14, he stepped on a mine, ran over the circle of fairies, lost to Sutekh when they took over the universe, ran away scared from Maestro, failed to save the racists in Finetime, and lost Rogue. Now, with his lack of heroism in "Joy to the World", this only adds to the idea that the The doctor is fighting to save someone or actually be a hero.
In most of these situations, the Doctor comes away with an important lesson and things work out, but he's also not the hero in most of the stories. Instead, he feels like a supporter, encouraging others to do heroic and courageous things. Whether it's Ruby facing Sutekh and overcoming the strange curse, or the soldier who saves the day in "Boom", the Doctor takes a backseat in adventures. And while it's nice to let other characters shine, it doesn't make sense for the Doctor to fade into the background.
Doctor Who Season 15 Needs to Make the Doctor a Competent Hero Again
The Doctor Needs a Shining Hero Moment
When David Tennant made his first appearance as the Tenth Doctor, he stopped the Sycorax from destroying a third of all human life on Earth. Matt Smith's Eleventh Doctor sends the Atraxi running away in fright as he announces his identity as the Doctor, and Peter Capaldi's Twelfth Doctor solves a challenging mystery when a dinosaur ends up in the Thames in Victorian London. Each subsequent adventure built on his identity as a true herobut Ncuti Gatwa feels he has not yet had the chance to truly shine.
Hopefully Russell T Davies will rectify this in season 15 and have the Doctor face real danger where he can come out the other side as the hero rather than simply being a spectator in his own show. There have been glimpses of that peak, but the show has yet to fully commit to Ncuti's strength as the Doctor and prove that he is truly worthy of the name. However, Doctor Who There's still plenty of time with Ncuti's Fifteenth Doctor to make an impact.