Doctor Who Christmas special 2024: Nicola Coughlan, multiverse madness and two Doctors
Dinosaurs, fireworks and very serious questions such as, “What’s the biggest mystery in our universe?” The Doctor Who Christmas special is promising it all in its multiversal adventure.
The intrepid time traveller is back for the time-honoured tradition and this time, he’s brought Nicola Coughlan along for this psychedelic ride. The trailer dropped today.
Fittingly, the episode is called “Joy to the World”, which is both a reference to the holiday and the name of Coughlan’s character, Joy.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.Ncuti Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor is at the helm of the TARDIS as he encounters Joy, a woman who discovers a secret doorway to a “Time Hotel” in 2024. That’s when the dinosaurs and the Doctor enter her story.
There’s also a “deadly plan” unfolding that is sure to disrupt Christmas and “history hangs in the balance”. Throw in an old enemy of the Doctor’s and it promises to be merry mayhem.
Amid that chaos is two Doctors, with the trailer revealing that Gatwa will be in a scene opposite himself.
The split-screen face-off is always fun, even though of them seems a little mean as he says to the other, “You have to be mysterious all the time, that’s why everyone leaves you, that is why you are always alone”.
The Doctor’s most recent companion, Ruby, left him at the end of the most recent season.
While Ruby was introduced in a previous Christmas special, this one is unlikely to serve as the same for Coughlan’s character. The Bridgerton and Derry Girls star is surely far too busy to be tied down.
It will be an onscreen reunion between Gatwa and Coughlan who both played versions of Barbie and Ken in Greta Gerwig’s Barbie.
Other guest stars for the episode include Joel Fry, Steph de Whalley, Jonathan Aris, Peter Benedict, Julia Watson and Niamh Marie Smith.
The special is written by Steven Moffat, who was the showrunner from the fifth to the 10th season of the revival series, and wrote the third episode of the most recent season.
It will be on Disney+ on Christmas Day.
