'Joy to the World' (Story Code 14.0X) by Steven Moffat

“Ham-and-cheese toastie and a pumpkin latte?” - The Doctor

The Doctor attempts to deliver a ham-and-cheese toastie and a pumpkin latte to people at various points in history. Unfortunately, the guests at the Queens Hotel in Manchester in 1940, a passenger on the Orient Express in Italy 1962, nor Edmund Hillary at his Mount Everest base camp in 1953 have ordered them. Meanwhile, in 2024, a young woman named Joy checks in at the Sandringham Hotel in London, ready to spend Christmas alone. Inspecting her room, Joy is surprised when a locked connecting door suddenly opens, and a Silurian in a business suit walks in. Then the Doctor appears, bearing his snack and beverage. TO BE CONTINUED...

BBC Synopsis: The Time Hotel is the destination of choice for guests in the 41st century. The luxury establishment allows its patrons to visit notable moments in history. The Doctor investigates, time-hopping through history via several of the Time Hotel's portals — offering room service. Joy checks into a London hotel in 2024, only to discover that her quiet stay is anything but ordinary. The adjoining door to her room turns out to be a secret portal to the Time Hotel, from which a Silurian enters, carrying a briefcase handcuffed to his wrist containing a Star Seed. The Doctor follows soon after offering a ham and cheese toastie and a pumpkin latte. An old enemy of the Doctor is lurking in the wings, and Joy is in terrible danger. The sinister arms manufacturer Villengard wants to activate the Star Seed as an unlimited energy source but activating it is potentially catastrophic to everyone at every time on Earth. All of human history hangs in the balance. Destinations, danger, dinosaurs, and a deadly plan unfold. Can the Doctor and Joy save Christmas everywhere, all at once?


Ncuti Gatwa (The Doctor), Nicola Coughlan (Joy Almondo), Steph de Walley (Anita Benn), Joel Fry (Trev Simpkins), Peter Benedict (Basil Flockhart), Julia Watson (Hilda Flockhart), Niamh Marie Smith (Sylvia Trench), Phil Baxter (Edmund Hillary), Samual Sherpa-Moore (Tenzing Norgay), Joshua Leese (Mr Single), Fiona Marr (Angela Grace), Jonathan Aris (Hotel Manager [Melnak])

Directed by Alex Pillai

Produced by Chris May
Executive Producers Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter, Joel Collins and Phil Collinson
A Bad Wolf / BBC Wales production

TX (BBC 1 & BBC 1 HD):
25th December 2024 @ 5.10 pm


Notes:
*Featuring the Fifteenth Doctor, and introducing Joy

*This episode is sixty minutes long

*It premiered in the UK on the BBC's iPlayer in Ultra-High Definition (UHD) at midnight on 25th December 2024, and simultaneously streamed on Disney+ outside the UK and Ireland

*The first few minutes of this episode were released as a preview teaser at San Diego Comic Con, and then online; a clip was later shown on BBC 1's 'Children in Need' special, on Friday 15th November 2024

*Working titles: 'Christmas, Everywhere All At Once' and 'The Time Hotel'