'Doctor Who's 2024 Christmas Episode Sneak Peek Coming in November

The tradition of families gathering around the telly at Christmas in the U.K. to watch Christmas specials from their favorite series has been going on since the early 1980s; however, it wasn't until the 2005 reboot of Doctor Who that it gained enough cultural cache to earn one. Almost 20 years on, Doctor Who Holiday episodes have practically become an institution unto themselves, having only skipped out on the seasonal special once, in 2022; even in years when there's been no season (2009, 2013, 2016), there has at least been a Christmas Day (or New Year's Day) installment, (which is how Peter Capaldi wound up doing two Christmas themed episodes in a row during his Twelfth Doctor tenure).

When Russell T. Davies rebooted Doctor Who the first time in 2005, the holiday editions weren't necessarily holiday-themed. Sure, the Tenth Doctor Regeneration episode introducing David Tennant was called "The Christmas Invasion," and "The Runaway Bride" had exploding Santas. But fans were just as likely to get Kylie Minogue on the Spaceship Titanic or the return of the Time Lords. It wasn't until Steven Moffat took over as Showrunner in 2010 that Christmas Episodes became Christmas-centric, even if it was something as dumb as Matt Smith regenerating in a town called Christmas. It was notable that when Chris Chibnall took over from Moffat, he tried to un-Christmas these specials to make them more universal to viewers who aren't Christian or from the Western traditions, to the point that he even had them air on New Year's Day.

Since Davies' re-reboot brought back David Tennant as the Fourteenth Doctor, the Christmas specials have returned to December 25th; "The Church on Ruby Road" returned to his old habits of setting adventures at Christmas time, even if the plot centered around non-holiday stories, like a bunch of Rock'n'Roll Goblins living their best musical life on a flying pirate ship. But for the show's upcoming 2024 edition, featuring Ncuti Gatwa as the Fifteenth Doctor, Davies has called upon Moffat to do the honors, making this our first Very Christmas Episode since 2018.

Like most of Moffat's too-clever-by-half episodes, the 2024 special is titled "Joy to the World." However, it's not a reference to the song but to the main character, whose name is, naturally, Joy.

Here's the Christmas Specials' synopsis:

Hopeful and optimistic, Joy is visiting London for Christmas. Travelling alone, she has a single hotel room for the week. A room with ‘one of those doors.’ The type of hotel room door to nowhere that’s permanently locked. But it’s definitely just a connecting door to the next room for when groups have booked both. Well, probably. Maybe.

Meanwhile, across Earth history, the Doctor is on a quest. A mission to deliver a ham and cheese toastie and a pumpkin latte. It’s a journey that brings him through many of ‘those doors,’ until finally he finds himself in London in 2024 facing Joy… and a Silurian?

Some of the eras "those doors" will take him to include 1940 Manchester, 1953 Nepal, and 1962 Italy. How these tie into Joy's adventure in 2024 London has not been revealed as yet.

One of Davies' standards in his holiday specials was that they were opportunities to give the Doctor a one-off companion. Whether it was Minogue, David Morrissey (Sherwood) as a Fake Out Next Doctor, or Catherine Tate as Donna Noble (later brought back as a full-time companion due to her and Tennant's chemistry), these were opportunities to shake things up from the standard cast. The same is true for "Joy to the World." Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) exited the TARDIS to spend time with her mum at the end of the season, leaving the Fifteenth Doctor at loose ends. To fill the hole left by her departure, the series has brought aboard guest star Nicola Coughlan (Bridgerton), who stars as the titular Joy and will find herself face-to-face with the Doctor and the TARDIS, at least for one night.

Coulghan is joined by several other guest stars, including Jonathan Aris (Sherlock), who fans probably won't recognize as he's under a wealth of prosthetics playing Melnak the Silurian. Other guest stars for the forthcoming special include Peter Benedict (Dark), Julia Watson (The Yellow Wallpaper), Steph de Whalley (Midnight Taxi), and newcomer Niamh Marie Smith. Also, Phil Baxter (Seize Them!) is listed as playing Edmund Hillary, and newcomer Samuel Sherpa-Moore as Tenzing Norgay, the team who were the first to scale Mount Everest in 1953, which at least gives fans an idea of who the Doctor will meet from history. (This is surprisingly timely, as Apple TV+ recently scooped up the biopic Tenzing, starring Tom Hiddleston as Hillary.)

So far, the primary source of information for the Christmas special has been San Diego Comic-Con, where the trailer was first released. The annual Children in Need Telethon, which airs on BBC One on Friday, November 15, 2024, will bring the first sneak peek of the holiday adventure, a tradition that's held since the show first returned in 2005.

The Doctor Who 2024 Christmas Special will also play on the big screen in select theaters in December for hardcore fans before the holiday. That means there will be people who see it early, and there will almost certainly be spoilers, so tread carefully. The episode will arrive for all viewers on both sides of the pond on Christmas Day, Wednesday, December 25, 2024, on BBC One, BBC iPlayer, and Disney+. Doctor Who's next season (whether you call it Season 2, Season 15, or Season 41) will bring back Gibson and introduce a new companion, played by Varada Sethu, in 2025. Gatwa has confirmed that a further season (Season 3/16/42) will begin filming in 2025 for a 2026 release. You can bank on both including holiday specials as well.

Doctor Who's classic episodes from the 1960s-1980s are streaming on BritBox; the first Doctor Who reboot seasons (2005-2022) are streaming on Max; the current iteration's specials and first full season are streaming on Disney+.