• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Spoilers Joy to the World grade and discussion thread

How do you rate Joy to the World?


  • Total voters
    46
This episode didn't work for me in the same way babies and "love" blowing up Cybermen didn't work for me.

Anita though, that story should have been the whole episode.
 
I'd say that this was good, but not great. The Doctor was really good in the story, and I liked the overall plot, but Joy was uninteresting and section with The Doctor waiting a year on Earth felt like it was done just to add time to the special. I did realize that I enjoyed The Doctor a lot more without Ruby around, that doesn't bode well for the upcoming season :vulcan:

One thing I especially liked about The Doctor in this is that he was a lot sassier then in his earlier episodes, having him not being mean but getting in some verbal jabs really helps his personality be more then just super happy guy or crying at the drop of a hat guy.

Overall I'd say this is a mid tier Doctor Who X-Mas episode, and probably the best episode with this Doctor yet.
 
Anita was a bit too swooney over the Doctor to be a companion for me. But I would have enjoyed it, if their relationship got a bit deeper than it did for the Doctor.
Then again, the Doctor is a Time Lord and a date with him can last a single night of 24 years. A one year relationship is a coffee break for him.
 
The only thing that bugs me is why Joy wasn't disintegrated when she disconnected from the briefcase?
Her heightened emotional state protected her or something. Reminded me of the Monk trilogy from Capaldi's final season, where Bill's love for her own mother protected her from being killed by the Monks. Like I said, Moffat's gonna Moffat.

Pointedly ignoring the fact that Moffat didn't write that particular Capaldi episode. ;)
The long way round, Anita bit was wonderful (is there a bring back Anita poll anywhere yet?).
I too would love for Anita to come back. Though I've seen a joke already comparing Anita to Sally Sparrow, wondering if the one who played Anita is going to have her career explode within the next five years or so.
 
I thought it was okay. The best moments were with the Doctor in the hotel for a year.

The Time Hotel felt like a rip-off of the old Spanish TV show: Ministry of Time. I have only seen the first three seasons, but if you have even seen only a couple of episodes, you know what I mean.


I found the ending pretty depressing.

Overall, it was probably middle of the road as far as Doctor Who Christmas specials goes. It's not the worse, but there have been far better.
 
This was fine. Lightweight fluff for the most part. Nicola Coughlan was completely wasted here, save for the one scene where the Doctor breaks her out of the control from the briefcase. Honestly the best stuff was the Doctor dealing with his loneliness and his year at the hotel.

Easily Moffat's weakest contribution to Who yet. And an unusually downer ending for a Christmas episode. Everyone dies! Yay? Not sure what they were going for there, but it didn't work well.

The only thing that bugs me is why Joy wasn't disintegrated when she disconnected from the briefcase?
I think it's because the briefcase hadn't found a new "host" yet. Though once it grabbed the T-Rex she probably should have been a goner.
I wondered about that, too. I just figured someone from the Time Hotel created the observational hut in order to have a portal there.
Silurians, maybe? We know at least one found their way to the hotel, makes sense the hotel would have used their civilization for destinations as well.
 
I thought it was fine. I gave up Who during the Moffatt years and there's still some of his Christmas specials I haven't seen, this I quite enjoyed but doesn't make me regret the ones I've missed.

4.11m and 6th for the night. The BBC swept the top 10 rating shows this year. Gavin & Stacey and Wallace & Gromit pulled in big numbers.
 
DenOfGeek thinks "you just pay on the blue diamond" was a reference to the new Who logo, but it also plays well if Moff knew Wallace & Gromit were on straight after... ;)

Apparently the lady on the Orient Express is named as Sylvia Trench in the credits? After the Bond girl or meant to be the same character? The two actresses same a resemblance.

Bilbo's door is one of those in the hotel.

Hotel restaurant is called DeTamble's which is the surname of the titular Time Traveller and Wife.

Aforementioned headlines in TheTimey-Wimey.

Not mentioned, but I wonder if the Doctor's line about the TARDIS having a sensor that homes in on fresh milk is a callback to Rose's line in The Empty Child where she suggests the TARDIS takes them back to Earth every time they are out of milk?
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top