A ‘Bridgerton’ Star Crashes This Year’s ‘Doctor Who’ Christmas Special

The most delightful human on TV, Nicola Coughlan, has made her way to Doctor Who for this year’s Christmas Special, which will air on Disney + on Dec. 25, playing an aptly named character named Joy. Netflix’s Bridgerton darling meets another Netflix and Barbie alum, Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor, and the two pair up to solve a holiday mystery. As is tradition, in the end, they learn the meaning of Christmas through their adventures.

Without giving too much away, I will say this special was, more than anything, cute. This year, we take a holiday to the Time Hotel, a clever concept that posits that all of time is accessible though that one strange door that seems to be in every hotel room. Once in the Time Hotel, if you have access, you can visit any number of “historical” locales, including ancient Rome, the Cretacious period, and, unless my eyes deceived me, a Hobbit’s hole in The Shire. Whether or not these places actually exist as they appear in the Whoniverse is immaterial—like all of Doctor Who, going along for the fantastical ride is part of the fun.

The special is bright, not too scary, and just serious enough for my tastes. Due to Coughlan’s styling and mannerisms, it’s also quite twee. She’s sporting bangs and some fantastic plaid, along with a sunny disposition—most of the time, at least. There’s the intriguing MacGuffin in the form of a Pulp Fiction-esque briefcase full of something shining mysteriously golden. And, as is the fashion lately with Who, the episode speaks to timely events with emotion and leaves us with a somewhat heavy-handed “Christmas Joy” moment. Yes, I cried.

We’ve had Ncuti Gatwa as the Doctor for 10 measly episodes, beginning with his bi-generation out of David Tennant and his debut Christmas Special, after which we had to wait for Gatwa’s first full season to start in May 2024. From there, it was a short eight-episode jaunt to the end of the season, which included top notch guest stars like Jinkx Monsoon and Jonathan Groff.

Episodes that worked well included “Boom,” a ticking time bomb episode, the eerie “73 Yards,” and the Bridgerton-inspired “Rogue” (in which Gatwa and Groff fall in love and so did I). However, we also had the cheesy space babies and several breadcrumbs leading up to a backstory reveal of Gatwa’s Doctor’s new companion, Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) that lacked satisfying payoff. The season ended with Ruby Sunday leaving her post alongside the Doctor.

What works in the “Rogue” episode works well in this year’s Christmas special: in the span of less than an hour, we fall in love with side characters we will likely never see again because of the strength of the storytelling and the charisma oozing from every one of Gatwa’s pores. Not only does Coughlan’s winning Joy charm us, but so do the Time and regular hotel workers that populate the episode.

However, a twee Christmas Special to bookend the season is not enough for me. When the show was first rebooted in 2005, the first Doctor (actually the ninth), Christopher Ecclesten, stuck around for one season, but that was 13 episodes. David Tennant’s first turn as the tenth Doctor had 13 episodes before losing his first companion, Rose Tyler (Billie Piper), who’d been around for 28 episodes. Hence, her exit felt significant.

Gatwa and Gibson were a team for a mere nine episodes and, while the show repeatedly referred to them as “best friends,” they didn’t really earn it, despite their chemistry.

Each episode since the Disney + merger has been beautiful, full of impressive CGI, but I miss the nearly-20-year-old BBC episodes. The greatest moments from that version were not the most technically stunning. “Blink,” often considered one of the greatest episodes of Doctor Who and the first episode featuring the “Weeping Angels” was very low tech (and introduced the world to Carey Mulligan). “Midnight,” arguably the scariest episode, had a fully invisible (and therefore free) antagonist. The biggest bad the Doctor faces, the Daleks, are hilariously low tech, with literal plungers on their bodies.

In this year’s special, there are dinosaurs which looked like they were borrowed from the latest Jurassic franchise movie, a train sequence that I thought was unnecessarily showy, and lots of effects within scenes, including what’s in the glowing suitcase. I always say yes to a dinosaur, but overall, the special effects didn’t help move the story along—they merely made the show look expensive.

Instead of sparing no expense, I’d have taken an extra five episodes during the preceding season, episodes which could show off these top-notch actors’ ranges, build their bonds, and do what Who does best: tell clever, fast-paced and mostly stand-alone stories that, while they star an alien traveling the universe, more than anything are about the potential for human interpersonal connection.