The Doctor Who Christmas Special 2024 is set to light up our screens over the festive season as the Doctor and a new friend go on a mission to save the world.
Last year's festive special, "The Church On Ruby Road", was the first full-length adventure for Ncuti Gatwa's Fifteenth Doctor, and also introduced us to companion Ruby Sunday, played by Millie Gibson.
When we last saw the Doctor, he was heading off in the Tardis to continue traveling on his own after Ruby elected to spend some time getting to know her birth parents — but what will his next adventure involve?
Here's everything we know about the festive edition...
Doctor Who Christmas Special 2024 release date
The airdate for the Doctor Who Christmas Special in 2024 has not yet been confirmed by the BBC, but we can assume it will be at some point during the festive fortnight. Last year's special aired on Christmas Day itself, and that would seem to be a fairly safe bet. The Christmas schedules will be confirmed in early December, so check back then for an update!
We also don't have a release date yet for when it will be released on Disney Plus in the US.
Doctor Who Christmas Special 2024 plot and title
The Doctor Who Christmas Special this year is called "Joy To The World", and has been written by former showrunner Steven Moffat.
The story will introduce us to Joy, who checks into a London hotel in 2024 for what she thinks will be a very quiet stay — and she's very wrong about that! When Joy opens a secret door to the Time Hotel, she encounters danger, dinosaurs — and the Doctor. But there's a deadly plan being put into action, in time for Christmas. With an old enemy of the Doctor lurking in the wings, and the whole of human history at stake, can the Doctor and Joy save Christmas everywhere, all at once?
Cast
Ncuti Gatwa will of course be returning as The Doctor, and Derry Girls and Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan is playing Joy. Other cast members in the special include Red Eye's Jonathan Aris as Melnak, Our Flag Means Death's Joel Fry as Trev, Casualty's Julia Watson as Hilda, Steph de Whalley as Anita, Peter Benedict as Basil and Niamh Marie Smith as Sylvia.
Is there a trailer for the Doctor Who Christmas Special 2024?
There is! You can watch it below:
The trailer shows us various places across history including The Queen's Hotel in war-torn Manchester in 1940, the Orient Express crossing Italy in 1962 and Base Camp at Everest in 1953, each of which sees unsuspecting travelers being surprised by the arrival of the Doctor brandishing a ham and cheese toastie and a pumpkin latte, only to realize that he's got the wrong room.
Finally, at the Sandringham Hotel in London in 2024 at Christmas, Joy checks into a very pink room. She is caught off guard when an internal door opens and a Silurian in a business suit walks through it, and she points the hotel hairdryer at him in panic. Then the Doctor arrives once again with his ham and cheese toastie and pumpkin latte and smiles at Joy.
There is also a preview clip that was unveiled during this year's Children in Need telethon:
The preview clip shows the Doctor using his sonic screwdriver to reveal a logo on a briefcase belonging to Villengard Conflict Solutions [as featured in the 2024 episode 'Boom'] - the biggest arms manufacturer in history and very old enemies of the Doctor. Joy wonders why a weapons manufacturer would want to create a star, which triggers a Q&A mode explaining that Villengard is involved in the creation of a "functionally infinite" customisable energy source, and Joy recognises the voice as that of the Silurian that was in her room.
The Doctor explains to the Silurian that if a star seed explodes on Earth at any point in history, it will burn every living thing — and adds that they've miscalculated, and they would need to. have started approximately 65 million years ago to allow the star time to grow. The room begins to shake with what seem to be giant approaching footsteps, as Joy tries to get the Doctor's attention — and a giant dinosaur suddenly appears, crashing into the floor of the tree hut that the Doctor and Joy are in. The dinosaur eats the briefcase and its eyes start to glow. The Doctor exclaims "oh, fridge!" as the floor begins to give way and he and Joy slide towards the dinosaur's open mouth...
