‘Doctor Who’ Showrunner Russell T Davies and Writer Steven Moffat Tease Christmas Special
Just like Santa, BBC sci-fi behemoth Doctor Who is returning on Christmas Day to deliver a special gift: “Joy to the World.” The hour-long, annual Christmas special this year features Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan when it reteams the Fifteenth Doctor, played by Ncuti Gatwa, and writer Steven Moffat with showrunner Russell T Davies.
The Sherlock writer is back to pen his impressive ninth Christmas special for Doctor Who. “Joy to the World” is set within the Time Hotel — a hotel where every door is a portal that can transport you anywhere and anywhen. For Christmas, the Doctor (Gatwa) meets Joy (Coughlan) and discovers dinosaurs, dangers and a sack full of more (yule have to wait until the big day to find out what else). Meanwhile, a deadly plan is unfolding across the Earth, just in time for Christmas. The special releases Dec. 25 on Disney+.
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The Hollywood Reporter sat down with Who legends Davies (executive producer and showrunner) and Moffat ahead of the episode’s premiere. Don’t worry, no spoilers here. Come back on Christmas Day for part two of our interview, when we’ll delve into the story proper.
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The Time Hotel is such a great Doctor Who idea, whose was it?
RUSSELL T DAVIES You don’t have to give Steven ideas for Christ’s sake! (Laughs) My brief amounted to, “Christmas special, please!”
STEVEN MOFFAT That was it, yes. “I have no ideas, you have one!” (Both laugh) That’s not true, you did have an idea.
DAVIES Well, we did talk about farces, about doing a comedy.
MOFFAT Yeah. Because I threatened so many years ago to do a time travel farce on Doctor Who; a proper door flapping one. And I never ever got around to writing it, despite more than the normal number of opportunities. And this [“Joy to the World”] isn’t it either. I just didn’t think it was quite right to go. But there’s a ghost of it.
DAVIES There’s one marvelous scene when they’re all in the hotel room and the doors keep opening. There were three doors. There’s a bathroom door, there’s a hotel door…
MOFFAT That’s right and there’s two Doctors and there’s all that.
DAVIES You can see it there. You can see a farce there.
So, potentially, audiences could still be treated to a Doctor Who farce?
MOFFAT I think it’s not been done. But it would have to be sort of mid-season. I think if it was Christmas, people would be disappointed, as they’d expect a proper one.
DAVIES I don’t know. That’s enough to make me do it!
Maybe as a live stage show?
MOFFAT Yeah, yeah.
DAVIES You know what we should do? The Doctor Who That Went Wrong! Now you’re supposed to say, “You’ve done that!” (Laughs) It would be an easy thing to do. Oh my God, if you got Doctor Who trapped in the Play That Went Wrong [the theatrical comedy show that debuted in London in 2012]! There’s an idea. That’s the beginning of an idea.
DAVIES Unfortunately, within about a month, that beautiful foyer was turned into a futuristic hospital on a war-torn site. It’s gone!
MOFFAT And it was hardly used, was it? [In “Joy to the World”] It was about a day filming.
DAVIES I think just one day. Amazing.
MOFFAT It doesn’t feel that way, because you think it’s throughout the episode.
DAVIES Very clever, by our lovely designer who just won the RTS [Craft & Design] award, Phil Sims [Doctor Who‘s production designer]. Doctor Who winning the designer award is very rare, even though there have been very fine designers, in your time and mine. They just don’t tend to win, because people go, “Oh, that’s easy. They’ve got lots of money,” and it’s so rare. I’m so thrilled for them. Brilliant.
MOFFAT There are few shows that are as design-driven as Doctor Who. If you’re a designer, that’s the one to do it. It’s extraordinary.
DAVIES Juries don’t often get that, do they? They sit there and go, “Oh, yeah, that looks like Dickens’ London. That’s very good.” They don’t normally have the eyesight to see how brilliant the design is.
MOFFAT They’re just sitting there and saying, “That’s a posh show. It all must be good. It’s slow and dull, and someone’s having an emotion interminably while looking out of a window. [Said sarcastically] Well, that’s fucking drama.” (Laughs) Actually, that’s comedy now. Comedy with absolutely no jokes in it whatsoever, is given an award.
That’s a trend, isn’t it? They want comedies without gags.
MOFFAT Well, the audience doesn’t.
Was it difficult to get Nicola Coughlan for this Christmas episode guest role, given how stratospheric her career has gone recently? [Note: After finding fame in U.K. sitcom Derry Girls, the breakout star of Netflix’s Bridgerton recently played Diplomat Barbie in Greta Gerwig’s 2023 Mattel movie, also starring Gatwa.]
DAVIES She was free and she loved it! She’s an old friend’s of Ncuti’s. I kind of knew her to say hello to and, to be honest, she bit our hands off! It was a very simple offer and a very simple acceptance. What a delightful woman. She was lovely. Glorious set to be on with her there. She was very, very happy. Ncuti loved her; it was a really nice shoot. It was very kind of her to leave us and then become twice as famous afterwards. (Laughs) We really appreciated the effort she put into this publicity lark.
MOFFAT It was a year-long publicity tour for the Christmas special!
DAVIES In Paris and stuff like that… all in the name of Doctor Who, amazing!
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The Doctor Who Christmas Special “Joy to the World,” directed by Alex Sanjiv Pillai, debuts on Disney+ at 9:10 a.m. PT/12:10 p.m. ET on Dec. 25. THR will have more from Davies and Moffat in a spoiler-laden interview immediately after the special airs.
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