Almost unbearable cringe; it's hard to take any of this seriously when every single line so acutely reminds you that this is a man in his 60s trying so desperately hard to seem "cool" and "hip", it just comes across as so embarrassing and awkward. This is hardly the first time Doctor Who has tried doing this, but it's definitely one of the most egregious and they just need to stop - if anything, it will only work to horrifically date the episode in future.

It doesn't really help that it also all looks so damn cheap, isn't this supposed to have Disney money behind it? They might as well just break off the arrangement if this is the kind of visual quality they're getting from it, there's clearly no purpose for it anymore. The Time Hotel concept is a great one, so it's pretty sad (and predictable) that it only ends up being completely wasted; it's just set dressing whilst we get the same old, played out drama where Dr Who goes "uh uh I am so alone and I am so mysterious" and people tell him "uh uh Dr Who, you need friends". Yep, seen that all before, thanks.

Isn't this new era meant to be bold and new? It's done nothing but retreads!

Oh and I will never find the solution to "oh no I need the code for this" being "aha my future self told me but it is a bootstrap paradox" as anything but lazy. The Doctor working in the hotel for a year is a great idea in theory, but it only ultimately ends up meaning nothing. Nothing happens for the first 40 minutes and the Doctor didn't even learn to open up to new friends (for the 100th time) from it, it's just Joy doing that at the end. Anita was actually pretty cool, so why did we even get Joy?

At this rate, the show is just kinda lying if it wants to keep up the pretence that Gatwa is from Tennant's future and not just a separate entity created at the bigeneration (which is the biggest LOL ever and just so, so bad) - what even was the point of the Doctor "settling down" if the show just later wants to treat it as if it never happened? The Giggle isn't canon, the Doctor has never stayed in one place for that long, so true!

The Star of Bethlehem, oof, what the f**k; who thought was a good idea? Ah yes Christians, that was not God leading people to the recently born Jesus - no no, it was a weapons manufacturer exploding a star for energy, yeah, that's what started your religion now, that; that's canon! Merry Christmas!

Modern Doctor Who is just nothing but supremely tired and the problem is that it's been the same people since the revival started. They need to go and we need a new face to run it. Either that or simply cancel it, but something has to give and something has to change.

It's an alright/okay story, and that's also how I'd sum up ALL of Season 1.

I'm just gonna list two things about the story:

1. I liked that whole sequence when the Doctor gets stuck in the hotel and bonds with Anita (the hotel manager), really wanna see her back as a companion.
2. The ending felt... ehhh. That bit with Joy floating over the Doctor just looked really goofy, but not in the typical Doctor Who camp way, just modern MCU campy.

So... yeah. Just an ok story.

Overall it was a great special! I really loved how the Christmas setting was very clear and comfy, Anita was a great character! The only that that I wish we could've got more was moments with Joy, such a incredible actress and with so little screentime, maybe if the special had 30 minutes more, it would be perfect!

Okay, so I guess, I'll start with what I liked. I liked the idea of the time hotel and I absolutely adored the set and how they made it look (even though I think it would have been cute to hand out dos and don'ts to the guests on how to avoid paradoxes or how to avoid changing history?). Hobbit Door! Thank you Disney for the budget, also for the cool dinosaur. I liked Anita and I liked Trev. I liked what I guess was the idea behind the story.

Now to the things I didn't like and boy, there were quite a few, so I will only go into my main issues here. I think this was one of the weakest, if not the weakest episode Moffat has ever written. The whole story felt kinda incomplete and all over the place. As if they tried to cram 2hrs of story into barely an hour of screen time and some things just didn't make any sense. The whole scene with the Doctor coming down at Joy to jerk her out of the trance was..... painful to watch. Too close to the reality of many people who are getting abused, mistreated and discriminated by family, friends and strangers, just to be said "oh I was just joking" especially as half the arguments the Doctor used were simply lies (Joy didn't pick the room and barely spent five minutes in it before the manager stepped through the door).

The Doctor suddenly and out of nowhere screaming at his future self about how he is hated, he is alone and nobody likes him. While it would have made sense for 10, 11 and 12 - 15 was supposed to be the Doctor who let his emotional baggage behind with 14, started a new life, fresh and light - so where was that sudden outburst of self hate coming from? It was so badly out of character that it completely threw me out of the story.

Joy - while I liked her, we didn't get to know her. We got to know her pain about losing her mother, but nothing else. And the fact that she sacrificed herself in the end with words that were more fitting to the teachings of a sect than the words of a woman who looked as if she definitely had a life outside of her pain on Christmas including friends and a job. It loses even more of its impact knowing the original idea was that the Doctor would throw the star out of the Tardis. But I guess it isn't Moffat if he somehow can't make a woman suffer or sacrifice herself for the greater good.

We lost Trev and the manager too quickly. Would have loved if we'd get to know him better so their deaths would have actually left an emotional impact.

And last - the religion stuff. Did they really just confirm the whole Jesus birth story as fact in the Whoniverse?? JFC. I absolutely utterly HATE that. Yes, it's a Christmas story, but this is taking a side and it's a terrible one. They better confirm all the other religions as real now.

All in all, the Christmas special I liked least. I watched it twice and I will definitely never watch it again.

It was alright. A bit all over the place, but I enjoyed it. Weird that they put so much importance on Joy though, when ultimately she really didn't spend that much time with the Doctor. I would've enjoyed a full episode about the Doctor and Anita living together. Would be fun. I really liked the future time hotel. Overall, decent story.