Physician Who’s Christmas Particular Has Its Cake and Eats It

Returning Physician Who showrunner Russell T. Davies might need pioneered trendy Doctor Who holiday specials—Christmassy monsters, excessive spectacle, an occasional quantity of Kylie Minogue—but it surely’s controversial that it was his successor, Steven Moffat, that basically nailed the balancing act of what a very good Physician Who Christmas story ought to be. The reply, paradoxically, isn’t actually an incredible sci-fi story all that a lot—or at the least, that’s not as vital as a swath of earnest, nearly cloying sentimentality concerning the romance of the season. This 12 months’s providing, Moffat’s first Christmas script since 2017’s Twelfth Physician ship off “Twice Upon a Time,” principally succeeds in that balancing act with an apparently time-twisting Physician Who journey festooned with festive allure—one that basically leans on the latter to assist make up for just a few missteps within the former.

“Pleasure to the World,” airing subsequent week on Christmas Day, has just a few parallels to Ncuti Gatwa’s full-fledged debut because the fifteenth Physician in last year’s holiday episode, “The Church on Ruby Highway,” in a lot that it depends on an array of charming performances to try to masks when its story doesn’t fairly cohesively come collectively. It trades the fantastical bent of creepy baby-snatching goblins for extra conventional sci-fi aesthetics because the Physician shacks up in a futuristic “Time Lodge” for the vacations, providing temporal gateways to Christmases throughout human historical past. It additionally leans heavy on that seasonal aesthetic too, with loads of snow, tinsel, and timber, feeling way more of the season somewhat than merely being any outdated episode that occurs to air close to the tip of December.

Intrigued by the thriller of an odd suitcase that appears to be fatally swapping between hosts on the resort, it’s on this festively timey-wimey scenario—and by way of the Time Lodge’s aforementioned gateways—that the Physician crosses paths with the lonely Joy (Nicola Coughlan), as she checks right into a run-down resort in London throughout Christmas 2024. The thriller of why Pleasure turns into so vital to the Physician’s newest journey is definitely put apart for a very good chunk of “Pleasure to the World” because it takes a sideways step into exploring the ramifications of the Time Motels’ gateways, and the temporal paradoxes that include them. It’s all completely Moffat-y, a mix of snickers, time-twisting story telling, and the just about obligatory melancholy that comes together with his finest outings as a author, because the Physician finds himself thrust into the lifetime of one other lonely girl alongside the way in which (Steph de Whalley’s Anita, maybe secretly the breakout star of “Pleasure to the World”). It’s a killer Physician Who story thought, one which additionally deftly touches on the Physician’s personal loneliness after parting ways with Ruby. It simply so occurs to be appropriately seasonally stuffed inside one other Physician Who episode that’s… nicely, not fairly given the time to breathe into one thing as fascinating.

“Pleasure to the World” makes up for these structural shortcomings with Pleasure’s storyline by actually permitting that aspect of the episode to be the place it goes all out on the sentimentality of the festive season, with a climactic narrative excessive on heart-tugging emotional drama to make up for the truth that it’s enjoying a bit quick and free with the logistical underpinnings, particularly contrasted with the plot-within-a-plot the primary half of the episode of is dedicated to. For essentially the most half it really works, because of stellar performances from Gatwa and Coughlan, and can notably strike a bittersweet chord for individuals going by means of Christmas with out family members. But when you end up notably proof against Physician Who‘s sentimental allure offensives right now of 12 months, you would possibly discover the end result of all of it a bit of wanting—and questioning simply how the episode might need been if it stayed with that preliminary plot-within-a-plot as its most important thought.

However even in case you don’t end up resonating with the emotion of all of it, there’s nonetheless on the very least a very good chunk of nice Physician Who to be present in “Pleasure to the World,” even when it’s not the final word focus of the episode. There’s sufficient right here to fulfill both anybody searching for an incredible Physician Who thought, or somebody who simply needs one thing large and Christmassy to swell their coronary heart with seasonal spirit as they sit down with over the festive interval—and at this level in Physician Who‘s lengthy historical past of vacation specials, that we will nonetheless get tales that handle to steadiness each is a welcome little reward beneath our collective timber.

Physician Who returns to Disney+ all over the world and on the BBC within the UK and Eire on Christmas Day, December 25.

Need extra io9 information? Take a look at when to count on the newest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s subsequent for the DC Universe on film and TV, and every part it is advisable find out about the way forward for Doctor Who.