Doctor Who’s Christmas special will solve the ‘oldest mystery’

“Doctor Who is just very Christmassy,” he explains now, ahead of Lord Ncuti Gatwa’s second festive adventure. “It feels like a family, it feels fun. It has comedy and tragedy.”

“It’s absolutely Christmassy,” agrees Moffat, who was asked by Davies to write this year’s special. “Doctor Who occupies the same place in a child’s mind as Santa Claus. You know, he’s grumpy with adults but loves kids. The Doctor and Santa have always belonged together.”

Davies has written six Who Christmas specials to date; Moffat’s number, including this new episode, stands at nine. However, that doesn’t mean he’s become any less ambitious in his marquee scripts.

“This year the Doctor will give you the answer to the question you have asked since you were a small child,” Moffat announces. “Solving the longest-standing mystery not just in the Doctor Who universe, but in the entire universe. Watch it on Christmas Day!”

Exactly what this secret is remains, well, a mystery. However, we do know that this episode, titled “Joy to the World,” takes place in a “time hotel” that allows the Doctor to visit Everest Base Camp in the 1950s, the Orient Express, World War II, the year 4202 and the distant future to visit past. And as always, he won’t be conducting the investigation alone.

After Millie Gibson’s Ruby Sunday was canceled earlier this year, Bridgerton actress (and Gatwa’s Barbie co-star) Nicola Coughlan enters Christmas as the eponymous Joy, before a new full-time companion arrives next year.

In RT’s exclusive preview image, we see the duo in a dingy B&B, confronted by a menacing briefcase strapped to Joy’s wrist – the very item the Doctor is chasing throughout the story. “I thought it was set in a hotel, so the villain must be there!” laughs Moffat.

“You have Ncuti’s doctor figuring out who he is without a companion,” adds Davies. “He’s on a whole new search for himself…It’s amazing, really heartbreaking and funny. And there is a dinosaur. What more do you want?”

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Doctor Who will return to BBC One and BBC iPlayer this Christmas. Previous seasons can be streamed on BBC iPlayer.

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