It’s Christmas Everywhere All At Once In 'Doctor Who' Special Trailer
The world is yoth again on Christmas Day
Have yourself a merry little Christmas indeed! The trailer for the Doctor Who Christmas special “Joy to the World” has been released on both the show’s and Disney+’s YouTube channels. The episode premieres Christmas Day with its confirmed 12:10 PM Eastern/9:10 AM Pacific/5:10 PM GMT timeslot on BBC One and Disney+ everywhere else.
Joy, whose last name has since been revealed to be Almondo, literally making her “Joy Totheworld”, still has her arrival and the Doctor’s ham and cheese toastie and pumpkin latte delivery across time that we’ve seen since San Diego Comic-Con. The trailer adds the Doctor’s arrival at the hotel, a beautiful look at the lobby, while Trev, played by Joel Fry, tells about the “Christmas everywhere all at once” shebang they’re doing. The Doctor even finds himself, though we’ll find out why. It adds an emotional core that hammers in on his spirals when he’s without a companion, while also admonishing for having to stay mysterious, causing them to leave him all alone. The Villengard aspect is completely unacknowledged here, but there is a futuristic London shot.
Joy is of course played by Bridgerton star and Ncuti Gatwa’s Barbie costar Nicola Coughlan. The official synopsis describes that she accidentally “opens a secret doorway to the Time Hotel — discovering danger, dinosaurs and the Doctor.” A “deadly plan is unfolding across the Earth, just in time for Christmas. What is going on in Joy’s hotel room? An old enemy of the Doctor’s is lurking in the wings and all of human history hangs in the balance. Can the Doctor save Christmas, everywhere, all at once?” The synopsis is most certainly alluding to Villengard but allows those who haven’t checked out the Children in Need clip to stay in the dark. Written by former showrunner Steven Moffat, the episode also features Steph de Whalley as Anita, Jonathan Aris as Melnak, Peter Benedict as Basil, Julia Watson as Hilda and Niamh Marie Smith as Sylvia. It is directed Alex Sanjiv Pillai, who has directed Bridgerton and Riverdale. Russell T Davies serves as showrunner and executive producer. Joel Collins, Phil Collinson, Julie Gardner and Jane Tranter also executive produce.
In the newest issue of Doctor Who Magazine, which released Thursday, Moffat discussed Coughlan’s role “Nicola is wonderful. I had seen her in Derry Girls, but she seems to have become an even bigger name since we made this episode, which was over a year ago. She was already a big guest star for us to land, but even more so a year later. There’s a reference in the script to Joy’s ‘tremendous, charming smile, but underneath it she’s very sad’. The Doctor says, ‘Your smile is like a lid on a boiling pot’, and I think Nicola is great for that. Joy’s first entry into the story – as you’ll know from the pre-titles scene that was released a while back – is when she steps out of the taxi into a close-up, and it’s such a star entrance! That was kind of a ‘nothing’ moment in the script, but when you see it on screen, you think, ‘Whoah! The star has arrived!’”
A trailer for next season, where the Doctor will welcome back last season’s companion, Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson), and bring aboard Belinda Chandra played by Varada Sethu, is expected to be released after “Joy to the World”. The season premiere’s next year on the show’s aforementioned homes. It was also revealed Thursday morning that Gatwa was nominated for a Critics Choice Award for Best Actor in a Drama Series for playing the Doctor. He’s competing against Jeff Bridges for The Old Man on FX, Eddie Redmayne for The Day of the Jackal on Peacock, Hiroyuki Sanada for Shōgun on FX and Hulu, Rufus Sewell for The Diplomat on Netflix, and Antony Starr for The Boys on Prime Video.
Sources: Variety, Doctor Who, The Hollywood Reporter