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Joy to the World
It seems customary in my Internet bubble to preface reviews of Christmas Specials with a general disclaimer apologising for the genre as a whole. I quite like them, though there was a point where I wearied of Victorian Christmas planet.
Joy to the World is an odd one within the genre. The first not to be written by the current show-runner, slightly off-kilter pacing, sudden biblical references... No Victorian Christmas planet though - so that's a plus!
I enjoyed it. It does what is needed from a Christmas special, but like many people, I particularly enjoyed the segment in the middle where the Doctor spends a year in a hotel and then wondered why the high profile guest star was getting so short-changed. I gather this was a mixture of budgetary constraints and then liking the performance of Steph de Walley so much that the hotel segment was expanded, but it does feel like the whole plot grinds to a halt for a bit and then doesn't have enough time once it resumes.
I liked the dinosaur, thought the Star of Bethlehem bit was a bit naff (once I caught on to it, which was I think about 2 minutes later than the rest of the family), and enjoyed the concept of the Time Hotel in a don't-think-about-this-too-hard sort of a way. I cried generically over the Covid-19 references. I'm glad they were there but would have liked it underscored that ultimately Joy did the right but hard thing.
There are at least three Christmas specials I would rate below this and at least three I think are easily better than this. So middling?
Joy to the World is an odd one within the genre. The first not to be written by the current show-runner, slightly off-kilter pacing, sudden biblical references... No Victorian Christmas planet though - so that's a plus!
I enjoyed it. It does what is needed from a Christmas special, but like many people, I particularly enjoyed the segment in the middle where the Doctor spends a year in a hotel and then wondered why the high profile guest star was getting so short-changed. I gather this was a mixture of budgetary constraints and then liking the performance of Steph de Walley so much that the hotel segment was expanded, but it does feel like the whole plot grinds to a halt for a bit and then doesn't have enough time once it resumes.
I liked the dinosaur, thought the Star of Bethlehem bit was a bit naff (once I caught on to it, which was I think about 2 minutes later than the rest of the family), and enjoyed the concept of the Time Hotel in a don't-think-about-this-too-hard sort of a way. I cried generically over the Covid-19 references. I'm glad they were there but would have liked it underscored that ultimately Joy did the right but hard thing.
There are at least three Christmas specials I would rate below this and at least three I think are easily better than this. So middling?