Things associated with a British Christmas: charred pigs in their charred blankets, blue flames licking round an inedible pudding, crackers dispensing choking hazards, mountains of balled up wrapping paper, and a time-travelling alien cracking wise on the telly. Yes, Doctor Who has become a Christmas tradition to stand along presents, dinner and political arguments. And this year it returns to BBC One with “Joy to the World”, a festive special about loneliness and its cures.
Let me try and wrap my noggin around the set-up. Joy (Nicola Coughlan, guest starring) checks into what I think is supposed to be a rather drab London hotel (but in reality would cost £300 a night) for Christmas. “Welcome to my room,” she tells a cohabiting fly. “And I thought I was going to be lonely!” Meanwhile, the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) is staying at the Time Hotel, in the distant future. It’s there that he witnesses something strange: a bloke handcuffed to a briefcase, acting as though he’s under mind control. A naturally inquisitive fellow, the Doctor starts sniffing at a conspiracy, and finds himself bursting through the locked door of Joy’s hotel suite, kicking off an adventure that will take the pair from Hillary’s ascent of Everest to the dinosaurs, by way of V-2s raining over Manchester and lovesick lesbians on the Orient Express.
