“Murder in the Time Hotel” is actually such a good idea. The Doctor loses the TARDIS, and has to use doors in the Time Hotel to go to the same place at slightly different times to figure out the mystery. Then at the end, after catching the killer, he still has to do the bootstrap paradox to save the world, maybe the star seed is an insurance policy of sorts. That way, we still get the segment with Anita, just later in the episode.
I liked her, too, esp with her just-roll-with-it attitude (still reacting to things, tho), but ppl would def complain that she had some romantic interest in him or stuff... If she did come back, personally, I would think she could be interesting and interestingly utilized with her by then additional knowledge about different eras due to her new job.
I wouldn’t be shocked if that’s the plan. RTD seems to be doing a lot of similar things to his first era. And a character from the 2nd Xmas special becoming companion in the current doctors 3rd season is something he’s done before
Do...people really not know what those locked hotel doors are for? They connect two rooms. Mostly for larger groups of guests that need two rooms. I always thought it was common knowledge.
"party room" doors is how I knew them. Turn 2 rooms into 1 if people are on a hen party/stag do Or families book 2 rooms so parents can have some "afternoon nap" time kids, then lock the door for 15 minutes from their side
There's a spanish show with a similar concept, El Ministerio del Tiempo, the idea is that there is a ministry in Madrid that opens doors to different times in spanish history. The main characters (a knight from the 15th century, a scholar from the 19th century and a nurse from the present) have to travel in time to make sure that an enemy organisation doesn’t change the timeline. It’s really entertaining!
Honestly I found it very odd that after spending a year developing a friendship with Anita, the Doctor didn't even consider asking her to join him? I mean even with after Joy encouraging him to not be alone that would have been a natural push for him to go back to Anita.
@Comicbroe405 well I'm ok with her getting a the new job but I'm just saying that it would have been a nice opportunity for the Doctor to ask her to travel with him for a bit
I think Anita not being invited onboard the TARDIS may have been a good thing. There's a pattern of one-episode characters not making it beyond the end of the episode if they receive an invite. Whereas, she's now safe and got a much better job, it would be nice if she had a cameo in the future.
@@VidelxSpopovich Sorry to hear your dropped out. I thought series 8 and 9 were the absolute peak of Doctor Who. If you haven't already, I would recommend checking out the episodes: Listen, Flatline, Heaven Sent (legitimately the greatest 60 minutes of television I've ever seen), Extremis and World Enough and Time.
@@VidelxSpopovich Series 10 is really good. I dropped out during series 8. but have recently discovered the joy of series 10 and the Capaldi specials. worth a watch.
Saw a theory online (I think reddit) that Villengard created the Star of Bethlehem as a means of creating Christianity, and the religion would eventually become their no. 1 customer in a few thousand years.
It's not a good theory because it completely negates the real-world reason for the existence of religion, evolving as a means to necessitate civilisation's survival through history (mediating that social cohesion and a shared set of cultural expectations through periods of scarcity of resources). It is treating war and suffering as a corruption by some evil future corporation, rather than an essential feature of the dialectic of the human condition bestowed by the realities of natural selection. This theory would seem to propel a religious instinct in our evolutionary tendency to make sense of the world and existence, rather than be a legitimate rational exploration of the phenomenon of religious instinct. Dips a bit too far into the escapism of fantasy with the psychic properties of the star (literally astrology) to be well-functioning sci-fi.
The star of Bethlehem is largely irrelevant in the story of Christ and Christianity as a whole and is only relevant to the three wise men. Everything else would still happen without it
This might be the most offensive thing DW has done. Like I get it. I am not cucoo about the Anglican churvh but would Moffat have done this with ANY other faith?
I really do think that Anita is going to be a future companion. Don't get me wrong, I liked Ruby but for me, the connection between Anita and 15 felt less rushed than Ruby and 15m beside Ruby having a whole season to establish herself. Would make sense to me since they did something similar with Donna.
@@MentalAUthat’s because Davies has this annoying habit of trying to make the companion as interesting as the Doctor instead of just having them be a normal person.
This rushed relationship between The Doctor and Ruby your taking about was miles better and explain much better than any Doctor companion in Chris era of the show. Seriously people like you cannot be please anymore. For god sake.
The Doctor and Ruby friendship was great and explained well. Give them a reason why they became friends so quickly because they are both adopted and The Doctor felt so open with her because she was the same as him. I felt I know Ruby right from day 1 than I spent 3 series with Yaz from Chris era of the show. Seriously people are hard to please nowadays
I'd like to point out that there was a point to the briefcase initially moving up the ladder. It needed someone with a key card to access all the rooms till it found the earliest one. When Joy snatched the case, she took the manager's key card so had the same access he had.
I found the episode fun on a first watch. It certainly kept my attention. It's also just wild to me that following the 60th anniversary this is the first time it really felt like the focus of the story was the Doctor's character and more importantly who they are in their latest Incarnation. It's not like it was spectacular in that aspect either, but as someone who felt like they were missing the Doctor in 15's debut season/series, it was nice to slow down and spend time with the Doctor. Just getting to know this Doctor. That said in a lot of ways this Christmas Special felt like a Moffat first draft. It had all the usual Moffat problems on full blast. I wonder if it was because it was written at the last minute, but it's unfortunate because Doctor Who desperately needed a really solid win after season one and this just was not it 😅. 9:20: YES! So glad you also think this is the best part. You'd think it'd be too "slow" or "plot derailing", but for me it was by far the most interesting Who content I've seen in a long while. That moment when things slow down and we're forced to confront 15 as a character (and 15 is forced to confront themself as a character). It was just lovely and really embodied what I've come to view the Christmas special as being about (more of a character focused (and often Doctor focused) story than a narrative driven one; "Twice Upon a Time" being a prime example). And God do I need more Anita in future Who episodes.
I thick Ncuti's prior commitments hampered their ability to do very doctor focused episodes in the previous season, I'm hopeful that with Ncuti's prior commitments finished we'll get more focused episodes this upcoming season. It feels like the whole production process has been slightly chaotic, perhaps if they held off another year before the doing Ncuti's debut season then it could have been better, both with cast commitments but also getting the whole production pipeline standardized as it got completely redone with Bad Wolf productions taking over after Chibnall's departure, maybe its pressures from the Disney contract stating when seasons have to be released or maybe its internal pressures from Bad Wolf and the BBC or even just over confidence but I think an extra year of production could have helped.
I had very mixed feelings about this special. Better than most stuff we’ve gotten since Chibnail’s era started… but not as great as most the stuff we’ve gotten before then
i feel like the conclusion makes sense at least, it was one big old capitalistic bootstrap, they made the star to inspire those who were go on to be what caused the creation of the church who would go on to become their biggest customer
I am sure there is an earlier draft of the script in which Joy and Anita are the same character. Anita feels so much better realised and Joy feels like a spare part. If you take away the real world context of Covid/Parties then Joy has nothing to endear her to audiences at all. Anita’s ending is hardly a happy one either she still works in a hotel. And I’m surprised the Doctor was happy for the Hotel to continue. It just feels like the two characters should have been one. And then Joy/Anita would have meant more to us and the Doctor.
Honestly, I was hoping it would be a bit more that it turns out right at the end the receptionist was actually the first owner of the Time Hotel, back when it was a regular hotel, or something like that.
apparently anita was supposed to be a super small role but then they saw how much chemistry they had and decided to write her a bigger part. imagine how much worse the ep would have been with less anita!!
@@aznicknacwell if true that proves my point, that the story hadnt been fully worked out. Anita is the heart of the episode and the learning point for the doctor. Anita and the Doctor both grow. Joy on the other hand doesnt really change - besides becoming a star - her arc and presence as a whole feels very incomplete.
I ended up getting really invested in the relationship he had with Anita to the point where I wished Moffat took over the next series and had her be the companion instead. That being said I don't know if she fell for him. It entered my mind as a possibility of Moffat once again writing about doomed love. But she didn't do the "do you have a girlfriend or boyfriend?" She went straight to boyfriend, which leads me to believe that she knew he was gay. That of course doesn't automatically mean she couldn't fall for him, people fall in love with people they can't have for all sorts of reasons all the time. The vibe she gave me was more this is a woman who has been alone for quite some time, and was grateful to have found herself getting to experience this sort of friendship again. Being old and mature enough to not get angry or feel betrayed once their time was over.
It’s wild that not only are Ncuti and Nicola real life friends, but also Anita’s character originally only had 10 lines in the script until they liked her so much they had to expand her part. I hadn’t realized until you commented on it, but the Doctor and Joy really did have no chemistry whatsoever. He’s just so chipper, and she’s just so sad. The Doctor had chemistry with Ruby because they had the same chipper energy. I do think it could be a good dynamic to have the excited, chipper Doctor with a tired, serious companion, but excited and chipper mixed with deeply depressed just don’t complement each other in any way.
@@crunchysalmons The Doctor: Never be cruel. Never be coward. And if you are, try to compensate. Doctor Who fans when someone has a different opinion then them: this dude must’ve spent christmas alone. got no wonder left in his soul Not sure if that's the type of fan the show tries to captivate.
We thought Moffat couldn't get even more insane but he proved us wrong again and I wouldn't have it any other way - sure the logic behind the Time Hotel makes no sense if you think about it for more than a minute but I really don't care All the supporting cast was very well characterized and really felt for them when they died. I wasn't there for my dad when he died but it was after Covid so I had the chance but I was just too afraid, so I really sympathizes with Joy - something I thought about the 15th saying she will burn and she will die but Joy saying she is just changing can be seen as a commentary about different Doctor's views on regeneration. I'm so exited for more Doctor Who and wish you all happy holidays
It's just we knew she was going to die and everything was too quick to really get involved. When characters serve the narrative and then they leave.... Anita was the one who I liked most and I hope to see her as a companion. Great acting! I connected with her character in so little time!
I thought Mofffat took the idea for the hotel from Craig Hinton's "Missing Adventures" book, the Crystal Bucephalus, which had a restuarant that could project customers back in time to any other restaurant at any time. At least now the Time Lords have been excised from the show this Doctor didn't have to shut it down!
i havent watched the video so i dont know if you come to this conclusion but i saw someone say that the plan the whole time was what happened in the end, to create the star and inspire the group that would eventually become the biggest customer of vilengard, aka the church
Oh My God! The Time Hotel is a perfect setting where you can do a Doctor Who Spin Off!! 😮That's a solid point Harbo! Plenty of story opportunities to have fun with that idea.
I thought the episode was alright but I really enjoyed Ncuti's performance as the Doctor in this one. He seems to have settled really well into the role.
I feel like Ncuti's other commitments during the production of the previous season hampered him really getting into the role of the doctor. I think if we had a break year to let both Ncuti finish other commitments but also let the production team and writing team fully get back into the grove of everything then the previous season would have been a bit more fleshed out, they can still have their specials, they could even double dip and do both a Christmas and new years special but just giving more time for the crew. Perhaps it was the fact that the last full series was back in 2021 so they couldn't push a full series off another year or Disney requiring a full season but it definitely felt like just the amount of time they had ended up being a problem.
The writeing for the most part in this episode felt like he who shall not be named writeing and it was just abit of a slog BUT I will say when the docter had to spend a year being "normal"at the hotel that whole part i did really enjoy and really make me want a whole season again of the docter being stuck on earth and trying to figure out why the tardis left him
That's the part that made this episode really good for me. It feels like Who for a while has missed those human moments. It feels like that could have been a Christmas episode on its own honestly... That he set the TARDIS to go forward in time a year for whatever reason, maybe even something as simple as wanting to surprise Ruby with a visit for Christmas 2025? Could have even finished it with "To be continued... Next Christmas"
I know you mean Chibs but I can't help but think what Voldemort's DW would look like. It can't be worse than what we have now even if it's 95% anti-muggle propaganda
You missed the closed example of an earlier episode: the Tardis materializing inside itself with Amy, Rory and 11. Where the Doctor tells himself it's the 'wibbly lever' they need to pull to get out of the mess.
I thought this one was ok. There was the potential for something really great in there, but I think it sacrificed having an effective ending for the sake of having a unique structure. It’s definitely a unique writing choice to basically stop the plot of an episode cold and have a heartwarming little short film in place of a second act, but what that ends up meaning is there’s barely any time to actually get invested in Joy. There’s a lot of Tell, Don’t Show with her character, and relying on Coughlan’s charisma to get us invested in her when she’s just not written strongly enough for me to care too much about the resolution with her. That, and I’m sick of Christmas Specials retreading the same “Oh I’m sad cause a companion left and need to learn to open myself up again” ground for the Doctor. This is like the 4th time we’ve done that exact arc.
I am genuinly hoping for Anita to become a full companion and i think having her take a job at the time hotel can be an amazing segway for her to join the doctor. perhaps she runs into him next year and while she is loving her new life in the future/time hotel she has now had a taste of the timey whimy shenanigans that the doctor can offer, afterall working at the hotel would let her see alot of history but she would not be able to fully explore all of these new places like she could with the doctor. like how working in a bakery lets you see all of these amazingly tasty foods, but you cant eat any of them.
Can we stop the whole Doctor crying thing? He’s too old for that. I mean even 10 would tell him to grow a pair, and that guy was whining about Rose for most of his short time
I think that I would like this episode so much better if the Joy storyline was cut, and the plot was just the bit of The Doctor going "the long way round" to defeat the evil suitcase thing and save the staff at the time hotel.
Other missed Dr Who companion Ops: - Badass Martha & her husband Mickey. - Victorian Clara - Madam Vastra, Jenny and Strax. Wilf will just always be missed🫶 R.I.P
I agree with your points, I feel like I’m the only other person who doesn’t like this ep lol, non of the emotion landed for me personally. Because I felt like I had no reason to care about the characters
the doctor living with Anita for a year was genuinely really sweet. she should have been the focus. the doctor just gets stuck there for a year and genuinely becomes her friend and thats the entire episode
I never have big expectations when it comes to the christmas specials but in this one Anita really got to me. Both the character and the performance was amazing IMO. It was both beautiful and kinda sad.
This was such a mean spirited episode. It has tourists visiting wars and assassinations, and ends with a murder-suicide, but tries to make it seem all quirky and saccharine.
Honestly, I think Moffat keeps reusing Villengard as the underlying villain because each time he's written these stories, he's thought they would be his final penned episode for the show and wants to have that connection back to his first episode.
I work in a hotel and I've never found a door that was mysterious or didn't have any purpose. In fact I've actually installed extra doors to create purposes for certain crevices and spaces that were just their randomly that now are closets and supply areas. So I have no idea what this premise is.
“I’ve worked in hotels and I’ve never seen a purposeless door” you’ve also never seen a time traveling space alien either…it’s sci-fi, what’s your point?
@GarrellWoods You used quotation Mark's around a statement I did not make. That means you claimed I said something when I did not. That is either a lie or a strawman. Next time, if you wish to snark at least get it right. I said "I work in a hotel and I've never found a door that was mysterious or didn't have any purpose." I followed up with saying I installed extra doors to create purpose for certain crevices and spaces. You should have come off with the response that implied I was installing the doors. You have no evidence I am not a time traveler, just that I'm adding doors and denying that they are anything but new closets where there weren't any before.
@GarrellWoods when one paraphrases, one is saying you are not actually quoting another person. We get that . But if you're paraphrasing me and I am being precise in my language, that means you are rewriting what I'm saying to mean something else. In fallacy that would be straw man. You would say I'm saying something other than what I am saying. Again.... my point is I was saying I'm creating the doors, and I'm the one hiding the mysterious time travel activity. It's called a subtle joke. However if you wanted to be something else, that's you not me.
@ Sweetie these are UA-cam comments and your not my professor. You know damn well, despite me paraphrasing that your statement boiled down to you saying you’ve never seen a door without a purpose in a hotel and my point is this is all sci-fi and Doctor Who has never in its history tried to “make sense” in the strictest definition. So you can whine about exact quotes all you want my point still stands.
@ haha I only thought of it because I was relistening to it to fall asleep the other night, couldn’t pass up the opportunity, The reference was too perfect
I will give you one thing though. It made me chuckle when you said "Clara Oswold" was a well written character and it was the historical one, the one that was in one episode and was really well written 🤣🤣
Agreed with everything you say. Plus I'd add: 1) The directing of this episode (and actually a lot of the episodes) feels like a stage play. I'm very aware I'm watching actors playing characters. Ncuti even often play a scene brilliantly and then he somehow does this thing where it seems like he finished acting before the scene was completely over. Or where he acts as if he knows how the script continues even though he's not supposed to know yet (for example when Trev says "4 and a half millenia" and the Doctor asks "Do you want to run those numbers again?" it's as if he knew it was wrong, but then when Trev corrects himself, the Doctor is surprised) 2) Despite the year-long montage being the best part of the episode, it felt very out of place. If really felt like it was a completely different episode. Plus, what are the chances that in a hotel featuring all the best bits of history, there are two doors leading to the same uninteresting hotel just one year apart? 3) Vilengard being featured again makes it seem like it's building up to something. But it's not, so it feels empty. It's just Moffat writing yet another "last" episode where he revisits his past ideas. 4) Are we sure that making the Betlehem star a creation of the largest weapons manufacturer in the known history is as wholesome as the episode is trying to present it as? AND the idea that "a religion" (heavily implied Christianity) was started by the suitcase's psychic field? Damn, that's bold :D 5) We had four good-byes with characters we barely knew, treated as if it was some big thing. Bonus) RTD said that the reason why the TARDIS crashes into the walls of the time vortex in the titles is because of Sutekh. Sutekh is now gone, so... why are the titles the same?
My main canon is that Joy is transformed into a soul-eating "sun god" similar to the one in The Rings of Akhaten who will oppress some random alien species for millennia, and eventually we'll get an episode about Dr realising he's messed up big time here.
Nicola Coughlan is a good actress, but I think the fact her character wasn't there for half the ep and had some weird character quirks and dialogue which really impacted on the potential chemistry
Honestly when they started building up the relationship with Anita I had an overwhelming urge to notify her next of kin. Kinda glad she didn't snuff her out. I thought the episode was fine, felt like a mid tier regular episode of Doctor Who rather than a festive special
I loved the episode. I liked the emotional vibes it was going for. I think the episode was more about character than story...About how everyone is special deep down & everyone needs somebody to be there for them to give them joy..No pun intended... Even the Doctor. I also think this is the episode were the layers of this incarnation of the Doctors character are clearest... He's more human than he's ever been , more overtly empathetic, but still laser focused, observant, and cunning, Able to go to the dark places but still Being amazed at humans. Moffat just gets the Doctor and Ncuti did an amazing job.
The Star Seed broke free of Villengard because it absorbed the consciousnesses of everyone the briefcase had killed. It basically because sentient and decided to send itself far from Earth to keep it safe.
The bit where you said at least they didn’t have the Inn as part of the hotel, I now would love even as a throwaway line if it turned out the Doctor was the one who got the last room so Jesus had to be born in the stable instead 😅
You're so right with everything. I couldn't care less about Joy. And I don't think it was the actress, I saw her in Derry Girls and loved her character, I think it was the writing. Anita had ideed better chemistry with the Doctor. I want her as a companion. I hope she returns.
honestly its been a long time i haven't cried in front of a doctor who episode but that one really surprised me, i was bawling my eyes out at the end it really felt new, we only ever really see the doctor's regrets but rarely the others it really felt like all characters had an actual life and didn't just pop in existence because the doctor is here the deaths in this episode really had weight to them, the silurian had a story, just like any of us have and it feels so unfair for him and all the others to have it end because of villengard even trev who doesn't have big uptime! when he's introduced "oh shit he's so cute and polite and he doesn't want to disappoint!!!", then he falls in a trap and what is legit more terrifying than dying without anyone else knowing, they don't even let their bodies behind for them to find later no they disintegrate, right after promising something to someone too and anita ohhhhhhh anita i better see you again in the show (finally i could totally see myself speak to a fly ironically if i were all alone on christmas eve too, its not that weird tbh) for me it was a really good, poignant episode, the characters just felt real, relatable
Joy didn't die. She (and everyone else who carried the briefcase) left Earth in order to save it. Villengard may have started the process of creating a star but, again, Joy states that "they" are beyond Villengard now. Joy also said that they'll see the doctor again. It was weird that Joy took a backseat until the end of the show. I do like Anita, but more focus should have been put on Joy. We really didn't need to see the Doctor spend a year waiting around.
The real companion in this episode was Anita, the whole fandom agrees, we love her, the fandom took a shine to her quicker than we have ever taken a shine to any other companion ever... We don't often demand things but I speak for us all when I say we demand Anita as the next companion, we've never loved anybody so quickly
Moffat can be so brilliant when he is creating characters like Anita, Sally Sparrow, Nancy and so on. When he lets the story land and take time with actual people.
The trouble with this episode, as Harbo pointed out, is that there wasn't as much hype after the reputation Season One/Series 14 left on the show earlier this year. And much like in 2008, the real focus of Christmas entertainment on BBC One has been dominated by Wallace & Gromit, along with Gavin and Stacey, so Doctor Who felt brushed aside in terms of general interest. Not to mention Sonic the Hedgehog 3 in the cinemas has been doing great over the holiday season. But I absolutely agree that the year the Doctor spent with Anita was so much more entertaining than the actual episode plot itself.
For a show about time travel, they should get history right. According to the Gosspel of Matthew, Jewsus was born during the reign of Herod the Great. Herod died in 4 BC. BC. Five years before 1 AD.
Why didn't The Doctor go to Tennant and ask to be taken back to the time hotel in the TARDIS instead of waiting a year? And why don't the bad guys just use one of the millions of existing stars for a power source instead of making their own one?
I honestly feel Anita is the best companion of the last 4 series of Doctor Who. Which is sad. They just tried so hard with Ruby but she felt so boring to me. No interesting personality traits. Whereas Anita shined because she felt more natural and grown up. This is oddly specific but I knew I wasnt going to like Ruby based on her reaction to the Goblin things when she tries to be all sassy about one of them hissing at her, a nirmal person would not react that way, theyd be too spooked and freaked out. Her lines felt so try-hard and just unnatural for someone whos just met an alien for the first time and that continued with a lot of the dialogue she was given. Just shoving wierd unnatural dialogue in our faces to try and make us like this character. Sometimes less is more with a companion.
This special was fine. As a Christian I didn't find the ending to be particularly offensive, given you could still read it as a sort of right-time and right-place circumstantial miracle commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, but I do completely understand if others of the same faith were more annoyed by it. Definitely agree that the stuff with Anita was the best part of the episode, but it did definitely feel out of place and give the episode some clunky pacing. I really liked the sweet, wholesome vibe to the whole episode, even if a lot of the writing kind of felt Chibnall-tier
The ending wasn't that weird, the doctor mentions the star can mind control people and that's why the shrine got built, she doesn't decide to kill herself she was possessed to do it and personally I thought Nicola Coughlan's performance was pretty good
But they play it off like it's a good thing? If they'd really leaned into how horrifying that actually is, it could have been a pretty great/terrifying ending.
I just think it was trying to be two stories at once and the companion we should have cared about (Joy) got hardly any time to flesh her character out, and I think the majority of us ended up caring about Anita more.
It might be more of a Red Nose special, but I'm now imagining this Dr visiting the Derry Girls (all 5) at Christmas. Either only Orla figures him out (and just doesn't mention it) or James does , tries to tell everyone, and no one listens 😂
I disagree Harbo, Joy may not be as strong a one-off companion as Sally and Adelaide, but those are literally the cream of the crop. I definitely put her above, say, Kylie Minogue or effing Christina from that bus episode
I hope any child 5-10 years old is enchanted by this. But this is Steven Moffat's very own tropes and typical story ideas in full swing that he used plenty of times in his era from 2010-2017, and unfortunately that's how I felt watching it. The 15th Doctor gets trapped in one time period for a prolonged amount of time! The plot comes to a screeching halt to do this and it's not new territory and it eats into the time we SHOULD be getting to know the big GUEST STAR! The Doctor has been forced to live in one place without escape and without the TARDIS many times so I couldn't quite believe it when Moffat wrote the line "I'm not used to experiencing time in the right order". 3rd Doctor was exiled to Earth and worked for U.N.I.T so must have had a lot of experience staying put. The 10th Doctor as John Smith spent months as a human on Earth in 1913, even though he had no Time Lord memories I think it counts. The 11th Doctor spent 900 years, right up to the end of that life in one place on Trenzalore (MOFFAT WROTE THIS ONE) The 12th Doctor spent billions of years trapped in a time dial (THIS ONE TOO) The 12th Doctor spent apparently decades working at a university (YEP. THIS TOO). The 13th Doctor has to spend years in a high security prison! And the 14th is currently having tea and biscuits with Donna Noble! None of that special was original! Steven Moffat has done ALL OF IT. BEFORE.
I think I agree with everything you said, and I also described this episode as really mediocre after watching it. The Long Way Round sequence was great, and Anita is the most interesting and probably my favourite character of the entire 15th Doctor run so far, and I think it's a shame she won't be the new companion, even more so because I really can forsee the next series using the companion as another "Impossible Girl" storyarc, with how much this era has relied on reused ideas. The Sonic The Hedgehog series went through what fans call the "Meta Era" where stories revolved around nostalgia, writing was weak and disappointing, and characters were bland. This came about due to the terrible reception the series faced prior to 2010, largely thanks to Sonic 06. Unfortunately, I think Doctor Who is in a similar state. I was so excited for RTD to come back and bring the show back to its 2005-2010 days of glory, but all we get is mediocre episodes that rehash ideas from said glory days. It really is a shame. I hope I'm wrong and Series 15 brings some great new ideas that really bring the show back, but I'm not holding my breath, especially since the Next Time trailer didn't give us much at all. Also, I find it so weird that you gave this episode a D and also gave Voyage of the Damned a D. I personally loved Voyage and was really surprised to see you rank it so low, but I know which Christmas Special I enjoyed watching more this Christmas...
I hate that rn in the fandom you can't either criticize or enjoy an episode because you're going to face angry people on both sides. The fandom is divided to people who will either call everything woke garbage or people who will swallow and love everything without thinking. I'm glad people like you actually take time to criticize Doctor Who coming from a place of love. I really liked Season 1 but Joy to the World isn't my cup of tea at all, i think it was a horrible mess ://
Okay I'm getting that people think that the adjoining doors between two rooms, the one that locks on one side and then the other store that locks on the other side so you can't break into other people's rooms, is this mysterious door phenomenon. And okay I get it because there is something in fantasy where you open the door and there's another door and you open that second door and there's a third door and so on and so forth, see Willy Wonka or Alice in wonderland. And I also get the idea of you open a door and there's a blank wall and then you close the open again there's a portal to open and closing again now it just goes outside and other wacky things. I have not seen this episode so I don't know which thing they use, but the way it sounds from the comments they really miss the Target on this.
I feel like the biggest problem these shows have is whatever Disney provided or demanded. Everything visially bad looks Disney bad, everything character bad feels Disney bad...
I really wish they'd give us a moratorium on companions from present-day Earth. The Tom Baker era did it for several years in a row. We had Leela, Romana, Adric, and Nyssa, before ending the moratorium by picking up Tegan in Logopolis. That was a span of 1977 to 1981. More than half of Tom Baker's tenure as The Doctor. However, if we DO have to have another one from present-day Earth, I wouldn't object to bringing back Anita for the role.
Last video of the year! (Unless you're on Patreon...)
www.patreon.com/harbowholmes
You are in the distant future going to speak about torchwood children of earth and miracle day!?,and in the near future the Chris chibnall era!?
@@selatidosyes enjoy a few months rest Mr Wholmes and do those two!
Please bro don’t quit. Honestly u saying u might be done with this is actually really sad.
Seriously, give Anita the Donna Noble treatment and bring her back as 15's third companion.
To be honest, I feel like she’s actually better than Ruby. Bring back Anita RTD!!!
I didn't care for her.
@MonkeyboyST1 There gonna be the thin possibility that she'll be 15' version of Donna..First appearing in a special, than appearing a season later.
“Murder in the Time Hotel” is actually such a good idea. The Doctor loses the TARDIS, and has to use doors in the Time Hotel to go to the same place at slightly different times to figure out the mystery.
Then at the end, after catching the killer, he still has to do the bootstrap paradox to save the world, maybe the star seed is an insurance policy of sorts. That way, we still get the segment with Anita, just later in the episode.
I want the receptionist to be the next companion, such a fun part of the episode compared to the weird hotel stuff
I liked her, too, esp with her just-roll-with-it attitude (still reacting to things, tho), but ppl would def complain that she had some romantic interest in him or stuff...
If she did come back, personally, I would think she could be interesting and interestingly utilized with her by then additional knowledge about different eras due to her new job.
@@thekuekenDavies needs to stop trying to give the Doctor a romantic interest, and trying to make him human in general
I wouldn’t be shocked if that’s the plan. RTD seems to be doing a lot of similar things to his first era.
And a character from the 2nd Xmas special becoming companion in the current doctors 3rd season is something he’s done before
That was also "weird hotel stuff"
I really liked Anita. She spent a whole year with The Doctor day after normal day. That must count for something.
Do...people really not know what those locked hotel doors are for? They connect two rooms. Mostly for larger groups of guests that need two rooms.
I always thought it was common knowledge.
I didn't even know that locked hotel doors existed
I always had a connecting doors on holidays I assumed it was normal but I kinda get not knowing cause u have to ask for it I believe
"party room" doors is how I knew them. Turn 2 rooms into 1 if people are on a hen party/stag do
Or families book 2 rooms so parents can have some "afternoon nap" time kids, then lock the door for 15 minutes from their side
I think it’s mostly Moffat playing with these concepts
@@TTRPGSarvis I knew, but honestly, found it funny. Because when I was a kid I did wonder what the door was for
I will say your suggestion of a Time Hotel spinoff is MILES BETTER than a freaking Sea Devils spinoff!!!
There's a spanish show with a similar concept, El Ministerio del Tiempo, the idea is that there is a ministry in Madrid that opens doors to different times in spanish history. The main characters (a knight from the 15th century, a scholar from the 19th century and a nurse from the present) have to travel in time to make sure that an enemy organisation doesn’t change the timeline. It’s really entertaining!
Honestly I found it very odd that after spending a year developing a friendship with Anita, the Doctor didn't even consider asking her to join him? I mean even with after Joy encouraging him to not be alone that would have been a natural push for him to go back to Anita.
Man I'd rather her have a good life & a better job at the Time Hotel.
@Comicbroe405 well I'm ok with her getting a the new job but I'm just saying that it would have been a nice opportunity for the Doctor to ask her to travel with him for a bit
@@joshryan155 Fs. Maybe they'll see the fan reception & do that.
you have to have a young super model without flaws as your companion, a normal human being with emotions is cringe now.
@@Badbufon don't forget to add contemporary too lol 😂 I really wish DW would embrace having companions from different timelines
I think Anita not being invited onboard the TARDIS may have been a good thing. There's a pattern of one-episode characters not making it beyond the end of the episode if they receive an invite. Whereas, she's now safe and got a much better job, it would be nice if she had a cameo in the future.
It would have been nice if maybe he'd asked her, and she had turned it down for now
"I expected nothing, and i was still let down" is modern Who in an absolute nut shell.
I stopped watching after they broke up Rory and Amy. It’s only gotten worse every episode since. They killed my favorite show.
@@VidelxSpopovich Sorry to hear your dropped out. I thought series 8 and 9 were the absolute peak of Doctor Who. If you haven't already, I would recommend checking out the episodes: Listen, Flatline, Heaven Sent (legitimately the greatest 60 minutes of television I've ever seen), Extremis and World Enough and Time.
@@VidelxSpopovich Series 10 is really good. I dropped out during series 8. but have recently discovered the joy of series 10 and the Capaldi specials. worth a watch.
Saw a theory online (I think reddit) that Villengard created the Star of Bethlehem as a means of creating Christianity, and the religion would eventually become their no. 1 customer in a few thousand years.
Creating their own Anglican soldiers, Church, etc. There was the Doctor's bootstrap paradox, but the episode's premise itself is a bootstrap paradox 👀
It's not a good theory because it completely negates the real-world reason for the existence of religion, evolving as a means to necessitate civilisation's survival through history (mediating that social cohesion and a shared set of cultural expectations through periods of scarcity of resources). It is treating war and suffering as a corruption by some evil future corporation, rather than an essential feature of the dialectic of the human condition bestowed by the realities of natural selection.
This theory would seem to propel a religious instinct in our evolutionary tendency to make sense of the world and existence, rather than be a legitimate rational exploration of the phenomenon of religious instinct. Dips a bit too far into the escapism of fantasy with the psychic properties of the star (literally astrology) to be well-functioning sci-fi.
That's silly considering that the Church began on pentecost, after the ressurection
The star of Bethlehem is largely irrelevant in the story of Christ and Christianity as a whole and is only relevant to the three wise men. Everything else would still happen without it
This might be the most offensive thing DW has done. Like I get it. I am not cucoo about the Anglican churvh but would Moffat have done this with ANY other faith?
I really do think that Anita is going to be a future companion. Don't get me wrong, I liked Ruby but for me, the connection between Anita and 15 felt less rushed than Ruby and 15m beside Ruby having a whole season to establish herself. Would make sense to me since they did something similar with Donna.
Its pretty insane how 20 minutes with Anita felt like a better natural connection and friendship than a whole season with Ruby.
@@MentalAUthat’s because Davies has this annoying habit of trying to make the companion as interesting as the Doctor instead of just having them be a normal person.
@@tgiacin435 Really? I would have said his companions were more like normal people.
This rushed relationship between The Doctor and Ruby your taking about was miles better and explain much better than any Doctor companion in Chris era of the show. Seriously people like you cannot be please anymore. For god sake.
The Doctor and Ruby friendship was great and explained well. Give them a reason why they became friends so quickly because they are both adopted and The Doctor felt so open with her because she was the same as him. I felt I know Ruby right from day 1 than I spent 3 series with Yaz from Chris era of the show. Seriously people are hard to please nowadays
So happy to see this. I didn't expect a return so soon given how you ended the last video.
NO FR
I'd like to point out that there was a point to the briefcase initially moving up the ladder. It needed someone with a key card to access all the rooms till it found the earliest one. When Joy snatched the case, she took the manager's key card so had the same access he had.
I found the episode fun on a first watch. It certainly kept my attention. It's also just wild to me that following the 60th anniversary this is the first time it really felt like the focus of the story was the Doctor's character and more importantly who they are in their latest Incarnation. It's not like it was spectacular in that aspect either, but as someone who felt like they were missing the Doctor in 15's debut season/series, it was nice to slow down and spend time with the Doctor. Just getting to know this Doctor. That said in a lot of ways this Christmas Special felt like a Moffat first draft. It had all the usual Moffat problems on full blast. I wonder if it was because it was written at the last minute, but it's unfortunate because Doctor Who desperately needed a really solid win after season one and this just was not it 😅.
9:20: YES! So glad you also think this is the best part. You'd think it'd be too "slow" or "plot derailing", but for me it was by far the most interesting Who content I've seen in a long while. That moment when things slow down and we're forced to confront 15 as a character (and 15 is forced to confront themself as a character). It was just lovely and really embodied what I've come to view the Christmas special as being about (more of a character focused (and often Doctor focused) story than a narrative driven one; "Twice Upon a Time" being a prime example). And God do I need more Anita in future Who episodes.
I thick Ncuti's prior commitments hampered their ability to do very doctor focused episodes in the previous season, I'm hopeful that with Ncuti's prior commitments finished we'll get more focused episodes this upcoming season. It feels like the whole production process has been slightly chaotic, perhaps if they held off another year before the doing Ncuti's debut season then it could have been better, both with cast commitments but also getting the whole production pipeline standardized as it got completely redone with Bad Wolf productions taking over after Chibnall's departure, maybe its pressures from the Disney contract stating when seasons have to be released or maybe its internal pressures from Bad Wolf and the BBC or even just over confidence but I think an extra year of production could have helped.
The Time Hotel is a cool concept and as always these days it was utilised quite badly.
Also it's weird and kinda sad that we saw more companion-relationship-development with Anita than we did with Ruby or any of the Chibnall companions.
This description applies to almost every Moffat story.
If nothing else, Ncuti feels like he's found his footing as the Doctor
I had very mixed feelings about this special. Better than most stuff we’ve gotten since Chibnail’s era started… but not as great as most the stuff we’ve gotten before then
The episode started off really good. Funny, intriguing and heart warming. Then it nose dived off a cliff in the last twenty minutes.
i feel like the conclusion makes sense at least, it was one big old capitalistic bootstrap, they made the star to inspire those who were go on to be what caused the creation of the church who would go on to become their biggest customer
I am sure there is an earlier draft of the script in which Joy and Anita are the same character. Anita feels so much better realised and Joy feels like a spare part. If you take away the real world context of Covid/Parties then Joy has nothing to endear her to audiences at all. Anita’s ending is hardly a happy one either she still works in a hotel. And I’m surprised the Doctor was happy for the Hotel to continue. It just feels like the two characters should have been one. And then Joy/Anita would have meant more to us and the Doctor.
Honestly, I was hoping it would be a bit more that it turns out right at the end the receptionist was actually the first owner of the Time Hotel, back when it was a regular hotel, or something like that.
apparently anita was supposed to be a super small role but then they saw how much chemistry they had and decided to write her a bigger part. imagine how much worse the ep would have been with less anita!!
@@aznicknacwell if true that proves my point, that the story hadnt been fully worked out. Anita is the heart of the episode and the learning point for the doctor. Anita and the Doctor both grow. Joy on the other hand doesnt really change - besides becoming a star - her arc and presence as a whole feels very incomplete.
Great to see this still going. Hope you stay I love this series.
I ended up getting really invested in the relationship he had with Anita to the point where I wished Moffat took over the next series and had her be the companion instead.
That being said I don't know if she fell for him. It entered my mind as a possibility of Moffat once again writing about doomed love. But she didn't do the "do you have a girlfriend or boyfriend?" She went straight to boyfriend, which leads me to believe that she knew he was gay. That of course doesn't automatically mean she couldn't fall for him, people fall in love with people they can't have for all sorts of reasons all the time. The vibe she gave me was more this is a woman who has been alone for quite some time, and was grateful to have found herself getting to experience this sort of friendship again. Being old and mature enough to not get angry or feel betrayed once their time was over.
It’s wild that not only are Ncuti and Nicola real life friends, but also Anita’s character originally only had 10 lines in the script until they liked her so much they had to expand her part.
I hadn’t realized until you commented on it, but the Doctor and Joy really did have no chemistry whatsoever. He’s just so chipper, and she’s just so sad. The Doctor had chemistry with Ruby because they had the same chipper energy. I do think it could be a good dynamic to have the excited, chipper Doctor with a tired, serious companion, but excited and chipper mixed with deeply depressed just don’t complement each other in any way.
I don’t agree because Donna was chipper in her first episode and the Doctor was the most depressed he had ever been
What a joyful title
this dude must’ve spent christmas alone. got no wonder left in his soul
Oswin-I see what you did there.
@@crunchysalmons The Doctor: Never be cruel. Never be coward. And if you are, try to compensate.
Doctor Who fans when someone has a different opinion then them: this dude must’ve spent christmas alone. got no wonder left in his soul
Not sure if that's the type of fan the show tries to captivate.
@@mareiramvMost DW fans in general seem to learn nothing from the Doctor's attitudes.
Just ain't a good episode unfortunately @@crunchysalmons
We thought Moffat couldn't get even more insane but he proved us wrong again and I wouldn't have it any other way - sure the logic behind the Time Hotel makes no sense if you think about it for more than a minute but I really don't care All the supporting cast was very well characterized and really felt for them when they died. I wasn't there for my dad when he died but it was after Covid so I had the chance but I was just too afraid, so I really sympathizes with Joy - something I thought about the 15th saying she will burn and she will die but Joy saying she is just changing can be seen as a commentary about different Doctor's views on regeneration. I'm so exited for more Doctor Who and wish you all happy holidays
Oh, I didn't even clock the regeneration connection. Makes the timing really good as the channel just reviewed "Twice Upon a Time".
@@vullord666 I didn't think about it myself either I saw some others write about it
It's just we knew she was going to die and everything was too quick to really get involved. When characters serve the narrative and then they leave....
Anita was the one who I liked most and I hope to see her as a companion. Great acting! I connected with her character in so little time!
It's not a good thing to make a story as more nonsensical as possible just because you don't care about it..
@@vullord666 I did I thought that’s what it meant
I thought Mofffat took the idea for the hotel from Craig Hinton's "Missing Adventures" book, the Crystal Bucephalus, which had a restuarant that could project customers back in time to any other restaurant at any time. At least now the Time Lords have been excised from the show this Doctor didn't have to shut it down!
i havent watched the video so i dont know if you come to this conclusion but i saw someone say that the plan the whole time was what happened in the end, to create the star and inspire the group that would eventually become the biggest customer of vilengard, aka the church
That's a great fan theory 😅
@ it makes sense, and I mean I doubt these points will ever come up again so all we can do is theorize
@@elitusyeetus2032Nar this is perfect dude. U made canon for me at least
So glad to see that at least you're continuing to review the Series 14+ Doctor Who. Can't wait for your Series 15 reviews if you do those.
Oh My God! The Time Hotel is a perfect setting where you can do a Doctor Who Spin Off!! 😮That's a solid point Harbo! Plenty of story opportunities to have fun with that idea.
Or at least it really should show up again in an episode.
I can’t lie I loved this episode and thought it was one of the strongest one in years and I cried at the ending of joy and her mum
Agreed, I was surprised since I didn't like the season but this special was pretty good
I thought the episode was alright but I really enjoyed Ncuti's performance as the Doctor in this one. He seems to have settled really well into the role.
I feel like Ncuti's other commitments during the production of the previous season hampered him really getting into the role of the doctor. I think if we had a break year to let both Ncuti finish other commitments but also let the production team and writing team fully get back into the grove of everything then the previous season would have been a bit more fleshed out, they can still have their specials, they could even double dip and do both a Christmas and new years special but just giving more time for the crew. Perhaps it was the fact that the last full series was back in 2021 so they couldn't push a full series off another year or Disney requiring a full season but it definitely felt like just the amount of time they had ended up being a problem.
It dosen't fit the role as the Doctor.
@Starsteam1 How does he not fit?
@@Comicbroe405 Dosen't act like the Doctor
@Starsteam1 He's a bit different but has the major characteristics there.
The best Doctor Who this Christmas was 'The War Games In Colour'. It trampled all over the Moffat fiasco.
You had me worried at the beginning and end of your series 10 reviews. But here we are, and I'm joyful about it.
The writeing for the most part in this episode felt like he who shall not be named writeing and it was just abit of a slog
BUT
I will say when the docter had to spend a year being "normal"at the hotel that whole part i did really enjoy and really make me want a whole season again of the docter being stuck on earth and trying to figure out why the tardis left him
That's the part that made this episode really good for me. It feels like Who for a while has missed those human moments. It feels like that could have been a Christmas episode on its own honestly... That he set the TARDIS to go forward in time a year for whatever reason, maybe even something as simple as wanting to surprise Ruby with a visit for Christmas 2025? Could have even finished it with "To be continued... Next Christmas"
I know you mean Chibs but I can't help but think what Voldemort's DW would look like. It can't be worse than what we have now even if it's 95% anti-muggle propaganda
You missed the closed example of an earlier episode: the Tardis materializing inside itself with Amy, Rory and 11. Where the Doctor tells himself it's the 'wibbly lever' they need to pull to get out of the mess.
I thought this one was ok.
There was the potential for something really great in there, but I think it sacrificed having an effective ending for the sake of having a unique structure.
It’s definitely a unique writing choice to basically stop the plot of an episode cold and have a heartwarming little short film in place of a second act, but what that ends up meaning is there’s barely any time to actually get invested in Joy.
There’s a lot of Tell, Don’t Show with her character, and relying on Coughlan’s charisma to get us invested in her when she’s just not written strongly enough for me to care too much about the resolution with her.
That, and I’m sick of Christmas Specials retreading the same “Oh I’m sad cause a companion left and need to learn to open myself up again” ground for the Doctor. This is like the 4th time we’ve done that exact arc.
I am genuinly hoping for Anita to become a full companion and i think having her take a job at the time hotel can be an amazing segway for her to join the doctor.
perhaps she runs into him next year and while she is loving her new life in the future/time hotel she has now had a taste of the timey whimy shenanigans that the doctor can offer, afterall working at the hotel would let her see alot of history but she would not be able to fully explore all of these new places like she could with the doctor. like how working in a bakery lets you see all of these amazingly tasty foods, but you cant eat any of them.
...he cried. Three. Times.
Gotta be a new record?
The plunger-bit was hilarious, tho ;)
The bits in which he did were fine so I don't think it's that big a deal this time.
Can we stop the whole Doctor crying thing? He’s too old for that. I mean even 10 would tell him to grow a pair, and that guy was whining about Rose for most of his short time
@@tgiacin435 That would just be really hypocritical of 10 lol.
@@Comicbroe405 true, this was the guy that gave people fates worse than death cause he couldn’t let someone die.
@@tgiacin435 Yeah true. Also I think they both have quite a lot of similarities.
It was like SM had dusted off an unused 10th Doctor story, it just had that feel to it, like it had been written for David.
I think that I would like this episode so much better if the Joy storyline was cut, and the plot was just the bit of The Doctor going "the long way round" to defeat the evil suitcase thing and save the staff at the time hotel.
My favorite part is where the Star Ship Titanic almost blew up the earth and Kylie Minogue turned into star dust..... wait, what year is this?
Other missed Dr Who companion Ops:
- Badass Martha & her husband Mickey.
- Victorian Clara
- Madam Vastra, Jenny and Strax.
Wilf will just always be missed🫶 R.I.P
As a christian the star of Bethlehem at the end kinda annoys me but at this point it's just par the course
I don't think this show should be taking a stand on religions one way or the other, so, yes.
@@HuntingViolets it sucks but I don't think it's gonna go away anytime soon. Moffat makes it very clear what he thinks of faith.
The Sandringham hotel is an actual family run hotel in the centre of Cardiff.
I agree with your points, I feel like I’m the only other person who doesn’t like this ep lol, non of the emotion landed for me personally. Because I felt like I had no reason to care about the characters
the doctor living with Anita for a year was genuinely really sweet. she should have been the focus. the doctor just gets stuck there for a year and genuinely becomes her friend and thats the entire episode
I never have big expectations when it comes to the christmas specials but in this one Anita really got to me.
Both the character and the performance was amazing IMO. It was both beautiful and kinda sad.
This was such a mean spirited episode. It has tourists visiting wars and assassinations, and ends with a murder-suicide, but tries to make it seem all quirky and saccharine.
Honestly, I think Moffat keeps reusing Villengard as the underlying villain because each time he's written these stories, he's thought they would be his final penned episode for the show and wants to have that connection back to his first episode.
I work in a hotel and I've never found a door that was mysterious or didn't have any purpose. In fact I've actually installed extra doors to create purposes for certain crevices and spaces that were just their randomly that now are closets and supply areas. So I have no idea what this premise is.
“I’ve worked in hotels and I’ve never seen a purposeless door” you’ve also never seen a time traveling space alien either…it’s sci-fi, what’s your point?
@GarrellWoods You used quotation Mark's around a statement I did not make. That means you claimed I said something when I did not. That is either a lie or a strawman.
Next time, if you wish to snark at least get it right.
I said "I work in a hotel and I've never found a door that was mysterious or didn't have any purpose."
I followed up with saying I installed extra doors to create purpose for certain crevices and spaces.
You should have come off with the response that implied I was installing the doors. You have no evidence I am not a time traveler, just that I'm adding doors and denying that they are anything but new closets where there weren't any before.
@@bsabruzzo I can read what you said but clearly I need to expose you to the apparent mysteries of paraphrasing 😂😂😂
@GarrellWoods when one paraphrases, one is saying you are not actually quoting another person. We get that . But if you're paraphrasing me and I am being precise in my language, that means you are rewriting what I'm saying to mean something else. In fallacy that would be straw man. You would say I'm saying something other than what I am saying.
Again.... my point is I was saying I'm creating the doors, and I'm the one hiding the mysterious time travel activity. It's called a subtle joke. However if you wanted to be something else, that's you not me.
@ Sweetie these are UA-cam comments and your not my professor. You know damn well, despite me paraphrasing that your statement boiled down to you saying you’ve never seen a door without a purpose in a hotel and my point is this is all sci-fi and Doctor Who has never in its history tried to “make sense” in the strictest definition. So you can whine about exact quotes all you want my point still stands.
0:18 no, Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without Mrs. Baddeley’s plum pudding
Underrated comment. Chimes of midnight is amazing.
@ haha I only thought of it because I was relistening to it to fall asleep the other night, couldn’t pass up the opportunity,
The reference was too perfect
It just wouldn't be Christmas u.u
Scullery maid > joy
I know this episode isn’t amazing but I think it is better than the last few Christmas/new year specials we have had in the last few years
Last years was better.
I will give you one thing though. It made me chuckle when you said "Clara Oswold" was a well written character and it was the historical one, the one that was in one episode and was really well written 🤣🤣
I loved Victorian Clara. What a companion she would have been.
please dont leave doctor who i hope season 3 doesnt get cancelled
It can't be cancelled, because it's not even been commissioned yet.
it'll be worse than cancellation, it'll be in that endless limbo of not being renewed.
Agreed with everything you say. Plus I'd add:
1) The directing of this episode (and actually a lot of the episodes) feels like a stage play. I'm very aware I'm watching actors playing characters. Ncuti even often play a scene brilliantly and then he somehow does this thing where it seems like he finished acting before the scene was completely over. Or where he acts as if he knows how the script continues even though he's not supposed to know yet (for example when Trev says "4 and a half millenia" and the Doctor asks "Do you want to run those numbers again?" it's as if he knew it was wrong, but then when Trev corrects himself, the Doctor is surprised)
2) Despite the year-long montage being the best part of the episode, it felt very out of place. If really felt like it was a completely different episode. Plus, what are the chances that in a hotel featuring all the best bits of history, there are two doors leading to the same uninteresting hotel just one year apart?
3) Vilengard being featured again makes it seem like it's building up to something. But it's not, so it feels empty. It's just Moffat writing yet another "last" episode where he revisits his past ideas.
4) Are we sure that making the Betlehem star a creation of the largest weapons manufacturer in the known history is as wholesome as the episode is trying to present it as? AND the idea that "a religion" (heavily implied Christianity) was started by the suitcase's psychic field? Damn, that's bold :D
5) We had four good-byes with characters we barely knew, treated as if it was some big thing.
Bonus) RTD said that the reason why the TARDIS crashes into the walls of the time vortex in the titles is because of Sutekh. Sutekh is now gone, so... why are the titles the same?
Miffat couldnt alter dr who canon so he changed the bible instead lol
Dr who has got to the point ill watch 6 gours of reviews arguing about rather than the episode itself because the reviews are far more entertaining
I wouldn't really call this episode Joyless. I liked it.
Happy holidays Harbo, thanks for all the effort you put into every review. Also, love the christmas outfit lol
My main canon is that Joy is transformed into a soul-eating "sun god" similar to the one in The Rings of Akhaten who will oppress some random alien species for millennia, and eventually we'll get an episode about Dr realising he's messed up big time here.
Nicola Coughlan is a good actress, but I think the fact her character wasn't there for half the ep and had some weird character quirks and dialogue which really impacted on the potential chemistry
Honestly when they started building up the relationship with Anita I had an overwhelming urge to notify her next of kin. Kinda glad she didn't snuff her out. I thought the episode was fine, felt like a mid tier regular episode of Doctor Who rather than a festive special
I loved the episode. I liked the emotional vibes it was going for. I think the episode was more about character than story...About how everyone is special deep down & everyone needs somebody to be there for them to give them joy..No pun intended... Even the Doctor. I also think this is the episode were the layers of this incarnation of the Doctors character are clearest... He's more human than he's ever been , more overtly empathetic, but still laser focused, observant, and cunning, Able to go to the dark places but still Being amazed at humans. Moffat just gets the Doctor and Ncuti did an amazing job.
How come no one mentions the literal Hobbit door?
I'll be honest, it went right over my head, Doctor Who and LOTR are quite separate in my head, but my sister did point it out
New Zealand, obviously
The Star Seed broke free of Villengard because it absorbed the consciousnesses of everyone the briefcase had killed. It basically because sentient and decided to send itself far from Earth to keep it safe.
The bit where you said at least they didn’t have the Inn as part of the hotel, I now would love even as a throwaway line if it turned out the Doctor was the one who got the last room so Jesus had to be born in the stable instead 😅
I couldn’t believe it. Pumpkin latte didn’t have cheese
You're so right with everything. I couldn't care less about Joy. And I don't think it was the actress, I saw her in Derry Girls and loved her character, I think it was the writing.
Anita had ideed better chemistry with the Doctor. I want her as a companion. I hope she returns.
I feel like if the episode stuck with the anita's plot throughout, it could be one of the best episodes in the current era
honestly its been a long time i haven't cried in front of a doctor who episode but that one really surprised me, i was bawling my eyes out at the end
it really felt new, we only ever really see the doctor's regrets but rarely the others
it really felt like all characters had an actual life and didn't just pop in existence because the doctor is here
the deaths in this episode really had weight to them, the silurian had a story, just like any of us have and it feels so unfair for him and all the others to have it end because of villengard
even trev who doesn't have big uptime! when he's introduced "oh shit he's so cute and polite and he doesn't want to disappoint!!!", then he falls in a trap and what is legit more terrifying than dying without anyone else knowing, they don't even let their bodies behind for them to find later no they disintegrate, right after promising something to someone too
and anita ohhhhhhh anita i better see you again in the show
(finally i could totally see myself speak to a fly ironically if i were all alone on christmas eve too, its not that weird tbh)
for me it was a really good, poignant episode, the characters just felt real, relatable
pretty weird
"Because Christmas killed my grandma!"
Joy didn't die. She (and everyone else who carried the briefcase) left Earth in order to save it. Villengard may have started the process of creating a star but, again, Joy states that "they" are beyond Villengard now. Joy also said that they'll see the doctor again. It was weird that Joy took a backseat until the end of the show. I do like Anita, but more focus should have been put on Joy. We really didn't need to see the Doctor spend a year waiting around.
Also isn't the ending basically exactly what happened to Kylie minogue's character ?
The real companion in this episode was Anita, the whole fandom agrees, we love her, the fandom took a shine to her quicker than we have ever taken a shine to any other companion ever... We don't often demand things but I speak for us all when I say we demand Anita as the next companion, we've never loved anybody so quickly
Moffat can be so brilliant when he is creating characters like Anita, Sally Sparrow, Nancy and so on. When he lets the story land and take time with actual people.
It's so interesting to me but also really validating that a lot of people had similar issues with this special, that I did.
The trouble with this episode, as Harbo pointed out, is that there wasn't as much hype after the reputation Season One/Series 14 left on the show earlier this year.
And much like in 2008, the real focus of Christmas entertainment on BBC One has been dominated by Wallace & Gromit, along with Gavin and Stacey, so Doctor Who felt brushed aside in terms of general interest. Not to mention Sonic the Hedgehog 3 in the cinemas has been doing great over the holiday season.
But I absolutely agree that the year the Doctor spent with Anita was so much more entertaining than the actual episode plot itself.
For a show about time travel, they should get history right. According to the Gosspel of Matthew, Jewsus was born during the reign of Herod the Great. Herod died in 4 BC. BC. Five years before 1 AD.
It just says in the days of Herod the king, could have been Antipas
I prefer Anita more than Ruby Sunday in her entire run as companion
It was a fine special,nowhere near his best but not his worst by a landslide
Why didn't The Doctor go to Tennant and ask to be taken back to the time hotel in the TARDIS instead of waiting a year? And why don't the bad guys just use one of the millions of existing stars for a power source instead of making their own one?
I honestly feel Anita is the best companion of the last 4 series of Doctor Who. Which is sad. They just tried so hard with Ruby but she felt so boring to me. No interesting personality traits. Whereas Anita shined because she felt more natural and grown up. This is oddly specific but I knew I wasnt going to like Ruby based on her reaction to the Goblin things when she tries to be all sassy about one of them hissing at her, a nirmal person would not react that way, theyd be too spooked and freaked out. Her lines felt so try-hard and just unnatural for someone whos just met an alien for the first time and that continued with a lot of the dialogue she was given. Just shoving wierd unnatural dialogue in our faces to try and make us like this character. Sometimes less is more with a companion.
I think Ruby Sunday is the best Gen-Z companion.
People today is not scared, they take selfies.
Maybe this Christmas special is Moffat's way of showing he hates Bridgerton
Love you pronouncing Ncuti correctly :)
It feels like they wrote a 15 minute long piece of sad music for the ending but only needed 1 minute of sad scenes
The time hotel was a great concept. I'd like to see a spin off. Merry Christmas Harbo 🎅
This special was fine. As a Christian I didn't find the ending to be particularly offensive, given you could still read it as a sort of right-time and right-place circumstantial miracle commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, but I do completely understand if others of the same faith were more annoyed by it.
Definitely agree that the stuff with Anita was the best part of the episode, but it did definitely feel out of place and give the episode some clunky pacing. I really liked the sweet, wholesome vibe to the whole episode, even if a lot of the writing kind of felt Chibnall-tier
They really need to stop trying to make the Christmas episodes religious.
@ChrissieBear I don't personally mind so long as it's done respectfully, I think Church on Ruby Road was a positive example of this
The ending wasn't that weird, the doctor mentions the star can mind control people and that's why the shrine got built, she doesn't decide to kill herself she was possessed to do it and personally I thought Nicola Coughlan's performance was pretty good
If she was possessed to do it, why does the Doctor accept it and not do something to actually stop her?
@HuntingViolets maybe because this doctor rarely does anything 😂
But they play it off like it's a good thing? If they'd really leaned into how horrifying that actually is, it could have been a pretty great/terrifying ending.
I just think it was trying to be two stories at once and the companion we should have cared about (Joy) got hardly any time to flesh her character out, and I think the majority of us ended up caring about Anita more.
Can’t say I agree, I loved this episode
It might be more of a Red Nose special, but I'm now imagining this Dr visiting the Derry Girls (all 5) at Christmas. Either only Orla figures him out (and just doesn't mention it) or James does , tries to tell everyone, and no one listens 😂
I disagree Harbo, Joy may not be as strong a one-off companion as Sally and Adelaide, but those are literally the cream of the crop. I definitely put her above, say, Kylie Minogue or effing Christina from that bus episode
I don’t know, I feel that the Narnia episode was my favorite Christmas special so far, it feels Christmasy.
lots of great one liners but the best joke has to be the Everest "why are. you taking our equipment? "
"because it was there"
When I watched this episode, I wanted him to revisit the receptionist at the end. Correction I was expecting him to revisit the receptionist AGAIN
I hope any child 5-10 years old is enchanted by this. But this is Steven Moffat's very own tropes and typical story ideas in full swing that he used plenty of times in his era from 2010-2017, and unfortunately that's how I felt watching it.
The 15th Doctor gets trapped in one time period for a prolonged amount of time! The plot comes to a screeching halt to do this and it's not new territory and it eats into the time we SHOULD be getting to know the big GUEST STAR! The Doctor has been forced to live in one place without escape and without the TARDIS many times so I couldn't quite believe it when Moffat wrote the line "I'm not used to experiencing time in the right order".
3rd Doctor was exiled to Earth and worked for U.N.I.T so must have had a lot of experience staying put.
The 10th Doctor as John Smith spent months as a human on Earth in 1913, even though he had no Time Lord memories I think it counts.
The 11th Doctor spent 900 years, right up to the end of that life in one place on Trenzalore (MOFFAT WROTE THIS ONE)
The 12th Doctor spent billions of years trapped in a time dial (THIS ONE TOO)
The 12th Doctor spent apparently decades working at a university (YEP. THIS TOO).
The 13th Doctor has to spend years in a high security prison!
And the 14th is currently having tea and biscuits with Donna Noble!
None of that special was original! Steven Moffat has done ALL OF IT. BEFORE.
I think I agree with everything you said, and I also described this episode as really mediocre after watching it. The Long Way Round sequence was great, and Anita is the most interesting and probably my favourite character of the entire 15th Doctor run so far, and I think it's a shame she won't be the new companion, even more so because I really can forsee the next series using the companion as another "Impossible Girl" storyarc, with how much this era has relied on reused ideas. The Sonic The Hedgehog series went through what fans call the "Meta Era" where stories revolved around nostalgia, writing was weak and disappointing, and characters were bland. This came about due to the terrible reception the series faced prior to 2010, largely thanks to Sonic 06. Unfortunately, I think Doctor Who is in a similar state. I was so excited for RTD to come back and bring the show back to its 2005-2010 days of glory, but all we get is mediocre episodes that rehash ideas from said glory days. It really is a shame. I hope I'm wrong and Series 15 brings some great new ideas that really bring the show back, but I'm not holding my breath, especially since the Next Time trailer didn't give us much at all.
Also, I find it so weird that you gave this episode a D and also gave Voyage of the Damned a D. I personally loved Voyage and was really surprised to see you rank it so low, but I know which Christmas Special I enjoyed watching more this Christmas...
I hate that rn in the fandom you can't either criticize or enjoy an episode because you're going to face angry people on both sides.
The fandom is divided to people who will either call everything woke garbage or people who will swallow and love everything without thinking.
I'm glad people like you actually take time to criticize Doctor Who coming from a place of love.
I really liked Season 1 but Joy to the World isn't my cup of tea at all, i think it was a horrible mess ://
The 60th specials were anything but a return to form
Okay I'm getting that people think that the adjoining doors between two rooms, the one that locks on one side and then the other store that locks on the other side so you can't break into other people's rooms, is this mysterious door phenomenon. And okay I get it because there is something in fantasy where you open the door and there's another door and you open that second door and there's a third door and so on and so forth, see Willy Wonka or Alice in wonderland. And I also get the idea of you open a door and there's a blank wall and then you close the open again there's a portal to open and closing again now it just goes outside and other wacky things. I have not seen this episode so I don't know which thing they use, but the way it sounds from the comments they really miss the Target on this.
I feel like the biggest problem these shows have is whatever Disney provided or demanded. Everything visially bad looks Disney bad, everything character bad feels Disney bad...
I really wish they'd give us a moratorium on companions from present-day Earth. The Tom Baker era did it for several years in a row. We had Leela, Romana, Adric, and Nyssa, before ending the moratorium by picking up Tegan in Logopolis. That was a span of 1977 to 1981. More than half of Tom Baker's tenure as The Doctor.
However, if we DO have to have another one from present-day Earth, I wouldn't object to bringing back Anita for the role.