It's been a bit of a wait since Ncuti Gatwa's Doctor Who went on break in June, but we'll have more adventures to stream with a Disney+ subscription pretty soon. Months after the rumors that Steven Moffat was returning yet again to the franchise to pen the Christmas special, he's now giving some details on what this holiday episode will be about. he also shared how he ended up writing this adventure in the first place, and I can't stop cackling at the story behind it.
Unfortunately, Moffat didn't tell Radio Times whether I should have some tissues ready before this episode. That said, we did get some minor plot details that will paint a picture of what to expect with this special, which is set to stream on Disney+ stateside on Christmas Day.
Steven Moffat Explained More Of What Doctor Who's Upcoming Christmas Special Is About
Doctor Who has remained tight-lipped until now about what this Christmas episode is all about, though we do have some details. We knew that Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan would be guest-starring, and a clip was released at San Diego Comic-Con of her character Joy arriving at a hotel and witnessing an alien and The Doctor in her room. Now, thanks to the latest tease from Moffat, that scene makes a little more sense:
I can tease something about the Christmas special. Imagine in the far, far future, imagine that a hotel chain got hold of the idea of time travel. What's the first thing a hotel chain would do if they had time travel? They'd realise they had an opportunity to sell all the unsold nights in their own hotels in history.
That small crumb of context really puts the scene into perspective. A hotel discovered how to use time travel and is using vacant rooms in the past to book guests from the future. It's an interesting premise, though we've all seen what time travel used improperly can result in. It leads to chaos, which might explain that t-shirt leak that could tease an upcoming villain for Doctor Who.
Why Steven Moffat Ended Up Writing The Doctor Who Christmas Special
This will be Steven Moffat's latest return to the new era of Doctor Who, which factored into my new era praises. I figured the former showrunner wanted to pen the Christmas special because he had a great time writing for Ncuti Gatwa's Doctor, but it wasn't that. It turns out Moffat returned partly because he loves the holiday but also because Russell T. Davies requested his help:
The truth is – I absolutely love doing Doctor Who Christmas because I'm a big fan of Christmas, I absolutely adore Christmas. Then the email came through saying, 'Steven, I need to get onto series two, I'm never going to finish this Christmas script – could you come in and write one?' Not complete his [Russell T Davies's] script, just come in and do another one from scratch.
I have to say that I'm glad that Moffat stressed he didn't rework Russell T. Davies's script and started from scratch with his own story. I mean no disrespect, as Moffat and Davies are responsible for some of my favorite Doctor Who episodes. That said, I've gotten a lot of Davies episodes this season, and after seeing how great "Boom" was, I'd love to see more of that for this Christmas episode.
While I still don't know if this will be a happy or sad Doctor Who Christmas special (they can go either way), I can't help but stress how excited I am to see it back on the holiday. There's nothing better for me than hunkering down after all the fun of the day to enjoy the episode with my daughter, so I do hope she enjoys this one as much as last year's.
We shall find out when Doctor Who returns to Disney+ on Christmas day. I'm optimistic we'll also get some information on when the next season will premiere and maybe a trailer to let us know what to look forward to.
