this post was submitted on 25 Dec 2024
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See, what I always liked the best about Doctor Who christmas episodes is when they manage to use the holiday traditions as a background for science fiction, which in itself is just a big idea way of talking about the human condition. When these specials really play well, they loop back and produce secular little narratives that join the speculative science and the human need for connection that can be at its most precarious during midwinter.
Spoilers for the episode ahead
Joy to the world(s?) had a lot of that between poor lonely Joy herself, the Doctor aching for companionship, the Time Hotel connecting people across time eras, and that cosmic nuclear football that seems to threaten it all.
Moffat can really pull at your heart strings when he wants, even with characters you've only known for minutes. Joy speaking forlornly to a fly in her depressing hotel room; eager to please concierge Trev, wanting so much to not let people down too much; and Anita from reception — in particular her bottle year with the Doctor was a significant parenthetical before he caught up with the main rush of narrative.
The Scooby-Doo conceit of running from door to unconnected door down a corridor holds up even under pressure of a holiday related trauma and time travel. The star seed, in all its Pulp fiction-y MacGuffin glory, isn't nearly as clever as the prefab conflict Villengard whipped up in Boom, but it's vaguely threatening enough to drive the story.
The climax is where they lost me, though. I was fully on board with Joy's loss of her mother, Trev infiltrating the star over the course of aeons, and the Doctor using the Orient Express to force a door open (a more convincing use of rope than Empire of death). And all of it coming together in Joy's ascension made perfect sense — until that reveal of the location.
I realise that this era of Who is more fantasy- and fairytale-prone than previous ones, but tying the ending into the actual f—king biblical nativity isn't cute, or topical, or even relevant. It's just pandering, and lower than I'd expect from a hardnosed atheist like Moffat. My entire family groaned.
All in all a very good special, bookending a beautiful sabbatical vignette in the midst of the convoluted action — all let down by tacked-on religious bullshit in the final minutes.
True. But let me share an experience that may make it more palatable.
I was raised in a faith, and occasional pandering by excellent science fiction authors made a tremendous difference in my life.
Moments of connection from scifi to concepts of faith, and respect from scifi toward the faith I was raised in - made science fiction accessible to me at a time when it might not otherwise have been, and my life is so much better for it.
For me, a few such bits of pandering were exactly the little steps I needed here and there to introduce me to a more inclusive, better, approach to the world.
My favorite atheists have found ways to share their perspective - as a gift - with the religious. As a recipient of that gift - to me, it is amazing and beautiful.
I wouldn't be who I am - and I'm frankly delightful - without the loving and clever choices by some loving and clever atheists - in how they shared their world view with people raised as I was.
Thanks for that perspective! I needed the reminder that as much as religion v science is a conflict, there is also the chance of changing minds on either side.
I still think the scene in question is a sharp turn for Who, which I see as largely secular, but I may rewatch it more kindly after your reply.
With kind regards to the generous atheists who helped shape you — stay delightful!
You know, you're not wrong about any of this...but I honestly didn't look at it as an overtly religious thing. I guess in a show that's visited Atlantis multiple times, and established that the moon is a space dragon egg (except when it isn't), I just looked at it as a big ol' slice of holiday cheese.
It probably helps that it was a wide shot without any real details.
On a completely different note, I wanted to give more attention to the segment of the Doctor's "lost year" in the hotel with Anita. They did a lot with a little in that sequence, and I thought it was pretty special.
Also, the Doctor bootstrapping up the combination was hilarious, and I hope they don't do something like it again for a long, long time.
I may be reading too much into the religious bit, it just jarred so much with the show's history of (granted, loosely) science based storylines and resolutions. Just yesterday I watched The daemons where the Third Doctor berates Jo for her new age-y superstitions:
But I guess I'll have to ignore the biblical setting in JttW as a rare lapse, unless of course it is revealed to lead into the opening scene of Life of Brian...
The more I think about this special episode, the more I love the Doctor's year with Anita. The way it was compressed and showed their bond growing made me think of the first minutes of Pixar's Up. Just the gentle, fragmented sketching of a shared life, leading up to an inevitable but still devastating loss — and the significance of armchairs!
Finally, re "bootstrapping" — Moffat has form in this area. Yes, obligatory nod to Before the flood, but the way it was handled this episode really reminded me more of an earlier example. Only a few days ago I watched the Red Nose Day shorts Space and Time, and it's basically the same situation:
At some point you just have to trust the process and hope you don't create a new "mavity" situation, I guess 🙂
You actually just made me think of the other recent Moffat episode, "Boom," in which the Doctor berates faith (and, more broadly, religion) throughout the episode, and then ends the episode admitting to having a kind of "faith" of his own.
Yeah, Moff is going soft in his old age 😄