Joy To The World - Further Thoughts

The internet is back on, so here's some belated afterthoughts about Joy to the World...

I understand that a lot of people did like the episode - generally talking about the "heart" of the episode, tears in the eyes etc.

That's all very well, and we have come to expect this emotional manipulation since the series came back in 2005, but I do expect a lot more. For me, Doctor Who is an action / adventure series, and any plucking of the heartstrings has to emerge from the drama. Above all, an episode should be exciting - more so the festive special.

The only element of this special that was remotely exciting was the dinosaur segment, which we had already seen as a CiN preview clip.

Otherwise, the episode was devoid of jeopardy or threat. The whole business of the star seed potentially blowing up the Earth went absolutely nowhere. There wasn't even a threat to Joy in the end, as she simply absorbed the sun into herself and became part of it. This, of course, made no sense whatsoever. How can a person, even if they've been mentally conditioned, absorb a sun?

How could she disintegrate her dear old mum and make her part of this sun? And if she knew she did this back in 2020 how can she not have known about it in 2024?

There was zero logic behind the plot. It simply wasn't thought through. Criticise the classic series all you want, but the writers between 1963 and 1989 at least spent some time thinking about story logic. They might not always have got it right (see my regular "What's Wrong With... posts for starters), but at least they tried.

Moffat claimed his starting point was the mysterious door in your hotel room which is always locked. Clearly he has the money to stay in very large apartments on holiday which might have a connecting door (that's probably all it is) but I've never come across such a thing. 

The whole plot involves Villengard making use of the Time Hotel to send the star seed back 65 million years so that there will be power source for them to exploit in the future.

Last time I checked, there were billions of stars already kicking about the universe, so what was the point of going to those lengths to make another one? Why not just use an existing one?

If time travel is so common in the future that a hotel can use it for holidays, then why does big capitalist arms manufacturer Villengard not have access to time technology of its own?

Why resort to hypnotised people to act as couriers, when you can simply get one of your own loyal employees to check-in and deposit the seed in the room that links to 65 million years ago?

Why kill the couriers, only to have their consciousness uploaded into the case? Isn't having someone you've just murdered become part of the security system a bit of an accident waiting to happen?

And why is Villengard even a problem when we know from The Doctor Dances that the Doctor blew it up and it became a banana plantation, and the only time we've ever actually seen it it was a wasteland overrun with Daleks, with "Rusty" in residence.

If you want to bring something back from your era which you left unresolved, Mr Moffat, then why not GUS?

The Doctor claims that the Time Hotel is paradox-proof, yet we see him involved in a bootstrap paradox. Why is he not even remotely bothered about a commercial organisation which permits tourists to travel to any point in history they wish, including key moments in history such as the assassination of Julius Caesar?

And why would the hotel have a room in which its occupants can so easily be eaten by dinosaurs?

I've already mentioned the stupidity of him remaining for a year in the Sandringham when he has UNIT to call upon, or any one of his 21st Century companions. He works in the hotel because he needs to earn some money. But in a previous Christmas Special we saw how he could access cash machines with his sonic. Illegal, but he's done it before.

And why could he not summon the TARDIS with his sonic - or have his other self send the TARDIS back to him? It's that paradox which the hotel isn't suppose to have again.

Going back to some of those positive reviews, if the highlight was a few seconds glimpse of the old companion then there's something seriously wrong, both with the episode and your take on it.

As I said, a little heartstring-pulling is only to be expected at Christmas, but when you have an episode that's nothing but, then I've a problem with it. 

At least Chibnall gave us Daleks.