WARNING: SPOILERS for the Doctor Who 2024 Christmas Special: “Joy to the World”.Steven Moffat and Russell T. Davies get into all the spoilers for Doctor Who 2024 Christmas special and what's next for the beloved BBC drama. Following the introduction of Ncuti Gatwa as the 15th Doctor in 2023, the journey of Doctor Who season 14 earlier this year, 2024 is wrapping up with its final Christmas special. After its end in Doctor Who In season 14, the 15th Doctor faces one of his most complex adventures yet.
2024 Doctor Who Christmas special, titled "Joy to the World", introduced the character Joy, played by Bridgerton Nicola Coughlan, who ends up staying in a hotel in London to get away from the end of year festivities. However, when Joy discovers the Time Hotel, she is thrown into the time travel madness. This is how the Doctor and Joy join forces, as they now need to solve a new mystery, with time running faster than they expected.
Ahead of this year Doctor Who Christmas Special, TelaRant spoke to Moffat and Davies, who have been involved with the BBC revival since the beginning, to go over the events of “Joy to the World” as they explore how this story came to be. THE Doctor Who duo opened up about how they approach each Christmas Special before putting things into action, as well as recruiting Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan. Davies and Moffat also teased how the episode sets up the Doctor's next season, including a very familiar face at the end of the issue.
Russell T. Davies and Steven Moffat review the Doctor Who 2024 Christmas special
ScreenRant: When you guys are thinking about developing the next Christmas Specials, do you go back and look at some of the previous ones just to see, 'How can we raise the stakes from what has happened before?'
Russell T. Davies: We actually have them in our heads, 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 go back more easily to the old Doctor Who than to our Doctor Who - I'm less good at that! [laughs]
Russell T. Davies: We know what was done, we know that.
Steven Moffat: We know what needs to be done and what kind of episode it should be. I think it's very good [that] Doctor Who feels like a Christmas show anyway. You don't have [to do] a lot, you need to put some snow there. I think there should be a law that says there has to be snow. This should be the case with all Christmas Specials. There should be snow on them and they should be placed at Christmas. None of this going on vacation in the middle of summer, that's all bullshit, I hate it [it.] But no, just figure out what you're going to do. I love the Christmas Specials, absolutely love them. My favorite things to write have always been the Christmas Special. So I was really pleased to get another one.
Russell. Davies and Steven Moffat book 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 the Bridgerton schedule.”
I love seeing Nicola Coughlan joining the Doctor Who universe. So I wanted to know, was this a role that you created for her or was it something where you wrote the role and then the auditions happened?
Steven Moffat: Well, I wrote it without anyone in particular in mind, and who suggested Nicola. Was it you? [looks at Russell]
Russell T. Davies: Andy Pryor, our casting director, [said] directly, 'You don't audition Nicola!' [It was] just an offer. I mean, certainly certain actors audition, certain actors of stature are offered. I send them a script and say, 'Please come do this. These are the days to give. And I'm sure there is no other name in play, no doubt it 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 integrate her into and out of the Bridgerton schedule. She was doing Big Mood too, with Lydia West, she's generating her own work now. The Big Mood was written by a friend of hers. So, she is very difficult to get. And that's where you, the casting director, are going to make it work and thank God it worked!
Just for fun, while we're on the subject, are there any other busy stars in the world? Bridgerton world you would like to try to enter Doctor Who universe, if you could?
Russell T. Davies: We had a lot of conversations with Adjoa Andoh. We met Golda Rosheuvel the other day at the theater. Jonathan Bailey was in it. I would bring Jonathan Bailey back any day. So we use it a lot, but yeah, anyone who was on that show is good news, really, so yeah.
Steven Moffat explains Joy's star ending in Doctor Who 2024 Christmas special
"She actually becomes Christmas instead of hiding in a hotel away from Christmas."
I thought it was really cool how Joy truly became the star of Bethlehem, linking everything to this legendary story that we've known for millennia. What it was like to get to that point of outreach is something we hear about in religion, but now you've given us a really good way of tying it all together, where there's a special, lovely woman who becomes that star.
Steven Moffat: It wasn't our original plan. The Doctor would take the suitcase into space and throw it through the doors of the TARDIS, and it would explode over Bethlehem, and that would be the clever twist. But it became irresistible to me that this warm-hearted woman who had been hiding from Christmas and hiding all her love, would reverse all of that and reverse all of that, and explode everywhere and shine everywhere and bring joy to everyone, and released every Christmas after that.
She actually becomes Christmas instead of hiding in a hotel away from Christmas. She becomes Christmas and even saves her mother. This is a Christmas story that is because of the time hotel and the Doctor, and because she understands that there is more to a star than just burning, which the Doctor probably won't 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 isn't always his strong point. How long does it take for him to actually carry her words into the next season?
Russell T. Davies: Oh, basically, he fails completely and is left alone for the rest of eternity! [laughs] Not really, it's a really beautiful passage that Steven wrote for us because, of course, at the same time as you're writing a show, the audience is equally aware of your publicity. You know that Varada Sethu will come in as Belinda Chandra at the start of the new series, and all the stories that will come there.
She's absolutely beautiful and gives an incredible performance, so she's clearly giving it her all. It's a slightly different introduction. We'll talk about this again when the series arrives in a few months, but you realize that the Doctor followed Joy's advice, and also [that] someone else also set it in motion. So yeah, he's definitely actively looking for a new friend.
Steven Moffat: I have no idea what he's talking about, I don't know what's next!
Steven Moffat and Russell T. Davis in that Ruby Cameo in Doctor Who's 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 Ruby cameo, so what can you expand on that? Because we know her story isn't over, obviously.
Steven Moffat: I didn't know I was going to do it at first, but we talked about why the Doctor didn't get in touch with Ruby while he was stuck in London for a year, or get in touch with the many, many friends he has there. He has a damn office there, for God's sake, and we've come to the conclusion that he doesn't do that. He's just not that guy. He doesn't seek help. It allows people to get on with their lives and the potters alone.
But I thought about Ruby, and then I thought that when the star shines at the end, she should see it too. If you look at how it all ended, their relationship didn't really end at the end of the previous episode. It doesn't end like a relationship. Sometimes, like in The Angels take Manhattan, this is the end for him, Amy Pond, and Rory. But that wasn't the end; That was goodbye for now, so she's out there.
Russell T. Davies: Let's face it, Steven, if we could, we would have tied all 63 housemates! [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 door to the Time Hotel – discovering danger, dinosaurs and the Doctor. But a deadly plan is unfolding across the Earth, just in time for Christmas.