A tale of two Christmas specials. One is a 4.5, which is the Doctor hanging out with Anita and lot of the beginning. Then it's surrounded by a lot of 3.5, which all averages itself out to a four. Who would've guessed that with Joy as the title character she gets upstaged halfway through. Still, the part about covid and her mother dying while the government partied was delivered with conviction. We also got Trev this story!

The most important thing though is that Ncuti Gatwa desperately needed this episode and begot it, we spent so much more time with his Doctor than it felt like we really had before and he's absolutely clicking for me. Ready for 2025!

Predictable but very VERY enjoyable

moffat genio asentando a 15 como Doctor Who, mientras hace un especial agradable que lleva a las lágrimas. ¿Qué más que decir? Se nota una diferencia abismal con el especial del año pasado 🐐

After the season 1 finale and last year's Christmas special, my expectations for this were not too high, but after seeing the concept and that it was a Moffat episode, I was cautiously optimistic. I'm happy to say that that optimism was warranted, this was probably one of my favourite Christmas specials of all time, I loved the idea, the execution (for the most part), and the character work, the year the Doctor spent on earth (reminiscent of The Power Of Three) being the highlight for me. As someone who loves to see the Doctor's complex relationship with time in this manner, I really thought that this was one of the best character moments of the Gatwa era so far, and I'm really hoping that the rest of the era follows suit stylistically. There were some parts of the episode that didn't quite land for me, like the slightly ropey CGI of Joy at the end and some of the ways the plot moved forwards, but overall I would say that this is a great, festive, timey wimey story.

Good, but too sentimental for me towards the end. I did love Ncuti throughout the story, but I felt that Anita came across as a more developed character than Joy and she had a stronger chemistry with the Doctor which unbalanced the relationships aspect.

Lots of fun Moffat touches and observations which I enjoyed. I'll probably watch this again soon as, overall, it was fun.

Steven Moffats second story of the RTD2 era is a banger, it may not be his best Christmas special let alone story but it sure is a hell of a good one to go out on, there are issues with this but Moffat nails 15s characterization , you can also tell that Ncuti is really in his stride here , like damn he’s good, he really feels like the doctor (not that he didn’t before) it really felt that Moffat was going for a mix of 7 and 12 here (more 7) and I really liked that, the use of a bootstrap paradox to show a year of the doctors life passing, joy becoming a star, one made of the hearts of life to bring joy and peace to earth, was absolutely beautiful, it’s a banging start for Season 2 of this era and with that fantastic trailer, I can only look forward for what’s more to come!

I felt that this episode was enjoyable and largely very funny, good qualities for a stand-alone Christmas special to have. I felt that the plot was really interesting and nicely done. It was clever and interesting yet simple enough to follow.

However, while I love the amount of time given over to the timey-wimey plot, I feel that the episode may have benefited from spending some more time on Joy. I feel that, as is, some of the emotional elements were a little shallow and that some more time to develop the character may have really helped this to stand out a bit more. The issue is that I think the time given to the plot was perfect, so I'm ultimately not really sure how I would concretely change anything to improve this aspect for me.

In other areas, the music was nice but nothing really stood out to me as particularly memorable. The set design, costumes, prosthetics and CGI were as great as they've always been this era.

In summary, I found this to be an enjoyable one-off episode that gave me some good laughs.

I liked that! But I didn't love it!

The opening sequence feels incredibly Moffat quips and all, but I appreciate that these somewhat died down once we got into the meat of the story after the opening sequence.

Performances round the board were amazing, but Gatwa puts in one of his best yet! I really love his take on The Doctor, and I really love how Moffat writes for him specifically. The scene where he acts like an awful person to manipulate Joy was amazing. I love when Doctors have a mean, manipulative edge to them.

Joy herself was good but I think a little underdeveloped. I wish we had gotten more time with her, and because we didn't, I didn't feel as attached as the story wanted when she sacrificed herself.

The long way round scene was perfect.... Or would have been if it didn't leave me feeling like Anita was more developed than Joy.

Still, I absolutely adore seeing other sides to this Doctor that we haven't seen before in Season 40.

The setting of a time hotel rules, and I really love how the story utilised its internal logic and rules. Moffat has always excelled at this within episodes!

The ending itself... I have mixed feelings. As I said, the sacrifice didn't feel earned emotionally to me really. And the Bethlehem reveal genuinely made me laugh at how earnest it was. Just felt silly to me.

Still, what a fun episode overall! Definitely in the upper middle of Christmas specials for me.

Fun as hell. Emotional, gripping, great acting (Ncuti is so great!). Loved the bootstrap paradox. Anita and The Doctor had great chemistry (Big Finish you know what to do). Even got a little teary eyed at the end. Top 3 christmas episode (along side A Christmas Carol and the Husbands of River Song).

and incidentally, a happy christmas to all of you at home!

‘has it always been that christian’ - my mum