‘Tis the season for Physician Who to return with a vacation particular that mixes motion, journey, mirth, thriller, and heartache. Even earlier than you get to the plotline of “Joy to the World,” there are causes to thrill over this new episode sight unseen. Not solely does it see the return of Ncuti Gatwa’s debonair and canonically queer Fifteenth Physician, not solely does it function Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan within the title function, but additionally this explicit Christmas particular is penned and government produced by former sequence showrunner Steven Moffat.
Between Moffat and present EP and showrunner Russell T Davies, this epic sequence has delivered a few of its largest moments in vacation specials like “The Runaway Bride,“ “Voyage of the Damned,” and “The Husbands of River Song.” So, what may their mixed forces carry to this Christmas? A rousing celebration of the vacation, its embrace of affection and loss, and a time-wimey mission to save lots of the Earth in addition!
Whether or not you are a longtime Whovian or new to the sequence, you will relish the weirdness and marvel of “Joy to the World.”
What’s “Joy to the World” about?
Credit score: Disney+
Having returned his final companion, Ruby Sunday, again to her time and place, the Physician (Gatwa) is as soon as extra on his personal, however hankering for firm. The chilly open exhibits him confoundingly popping in on strangers throughout time: Manchester 1940, Italy 1962, Everest Base Camp 1953. However his vacation spot is a humble (really, borderline dingy) lodge in 2024 London. There, he meets Pleasure (Coughlan), a younger girl with a radiant smile, a festive sense of favor, and a vacation alone deliberate for herself.
Nevertheless, as soon as the Physician barges in, Pleasure is swiftly entangled in a thriller involving a weird briefcase that will not let her go, however will make her say, “The star seed will bloom, and the flesh will rise.”
What does it imply? That is as much as the Physician to search out out. To take action, he’ll must traverse eras by the Time Lodge, a cheeky resort the place guests can keep in lodge rooms throughout all human existence on Earth — and even earlier. (Look out for dinosaurs!) However that is not all. The Physician may even must take a while to himself, whether or not he likes it or not!
Mashable Prime Tales
Physician Who offers voice to those that really feel lonely on Christmas.
Ncuti Gatwa and Ncuti Gatwa in “Joy to the World.”
Credit score: Disney+
Loneliness is a serious factor of “Joy to the World,” revealing that regardless of two hearts and all of time and house at his fingertips, the Physician’s similar to us. In a shifting scene the place the Fifteenth Physician briefly encounters his future self, he’s stuffed with an uncharacteristic fury. “Do you see?” he screams in self-loathing. “This is why nobody likes you! You have to be mysterious all the time. That’s why everyone leaves you. That’s why you are always alone.”
That is categorically unfaithful. The Physician has been adored and embraced by a cavalcade of companions, allies, and frenemies ( you, Missy) over eons. However this scene displays how all-too-human anxiousness can deceive us, as a result of statements like these can really feel true. You see your self not as you’re, however as you concern you might be. And whereas the Physician is thought for working, he cannot run from this. He cannot run from himself.
Over the “long way ’round” ’til subsequent Christmas, he’s compelled to go outdoors his consolation zone, staying put in a single place. There is a particular sweetness in his blooming friendship with the desk clerk, Anita Benn (Steph De Whalley). She does not know him because the legendary time-traveler who can sweep her away in his huge blue police field. She is aware of him as an eccentric with wild tales and a love of puzzle video games, and she or he loves him for that. By the point the Physician is able to face himself once more, he hears these phrases of damnation from his previous self, and he understands they arrive from a spot of concern, not reality. And with that, he’s in a position not solely to make a brand new good friend in Pleasure, but additionally assist her overcome her concern and self-imposed loneliness as nicely.
Nicola Coughlan and Ncuti Gatwa shine in “Joy to the World.”
Credit score: Disney+
Admittedly, the entire ensemble of this Christmas particular is as cracking because the social gathering crackers which can be a UK custom. Nevertheless, few on Physician Who — or the entire of tv actually — can sustain with the relentless charisma of Gatwa. Coughlan can and should, as their heroes spend a lot of the episode at odds. When he “mansplains” to her about time journey’s wobbly guidelines, she bickers again righteously. When he explodes with panic about impending annihilation, she should be his comically calm foil. “You do like to talk, don’t ya?” she chides with a wilting however smiling reply. And when he cries out towards the cruelty of a galaxy that’s endlessly ravenous, she is gloriously resigned to an ending that will not be joyful by People’ requirements, however is about as shut as a Physician Who Christmas particular will get.
Collectively, they push and pull one another by this journey, popping out the opposite aspect modified. And yeah, it is an ending that may in all probability make you cry. I did. However there is a dependable consolation in Physician Who vacation specials, due to how intensely they embrace the pleasure and ache of the vacation season.
Coughlan brings her personal radiance to Pleasure, her lovely spherical face and brilliant blue eyes shimmering with tears, her hair a halo of gold, framed by a brilliant crimson beret and matching jacket. Visually and emotionally, she is a shining image of the season, its heat, craving, and heartache. And ultimately, she is the star this episode demanded.
Find out how to watch: Physician Who is now streaming on Disney+.
