As a show about time travel, Doctor Who has never been unafraid to incorporate contemporary moments into its stories. But this week’s holiday special “Joy to the World” made a particularly pointed and emotional pull from recent memory part of its whole emotional arc–one that writer Steven Moffat felt was impossible to ignore.
Part of “Joy to the World” sees Nicola Coughlan’s guest ‘companion’, the titular Joy, become the host of a mysterious, weaponized briefcase the Doctor has been tracking–a process they both discover is deadly for whoever the briefcase latches on to. Trying to puzzle out just how to free Joy from the briefcase without killing her, the Doctor suddenly turns on his new friend: angrily mocking her for putting up a fake front to other people, hiding her misery and sadness on Christmas of all days. The Doctor keeps pushing and poking at Joy until suddenly she lashes out back at him: the reason she whisked herself away to a dingy hotel on Christmas was to avoid other people, and avoid confronting the anger she felt at watching her own mother die in hospital on Christmas Day during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“She died on Christmas day. On Christmas day, and I said goodbye on an iPad because of the rules” she yells at him. “She died alone! And those awful people with their wine fridges, and their dancing, and their parties, and I listened to them–and I let my mother die alone.”
“I think it was something else in the very first draft, I can’t remember what. And then I was sitting there thinking, “Why would you be angry on Christmas Day?’,” Moffat recently told the Hollywood Reporter about the story beat. “And I thought, ‘Well, oh my God, that’s it!” Once you’ve thought of that one, you’re not going to leave it behind. That’s why you would be angry on Christmas Day.”
It’s a particularly pointed reference not just to the pandemic itself, but the anger felt in the UK at the time after a series of reports exposed that several members of the Conservative government at the time, including then-Prime-Minister Boris Johnson, flaunted new rules and laws against gatherings of multiple people during lockdowns throughout 2020, hosting parties at government offices–one of several scandals that ultimately lead to Johnson’s eventual resignation in 2022. But for Moffat, incorporating that anger, and incorporating the pandemic specifically, felt natural.
“I think a certain amount of outrage was on the minds of very, very many people. But it’s not something you want to make a huge point about. It was just looking for a reason that means something about why someone’s sad on Christmas Day,” the writer continued. “I’ve heard that version of that story so many times. So many times. I don’t think there’s anyone who doesn’t know someone who has that story, or who has that story themselves. It’s a piece of our history now. Our very recent history; it’s defined us. So, if someone’s going to be angry on Christmas Day, why not that? That was a good reason.”
It’s certainly far from the first time–and definitely won’t be the last–we see Doctor Who have a less-than-amicable view of contemporary British politics. But perhaps not the cheeriest thing for a Christmas day adventure to dig into.
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