The Doctor: Ncuti Gatwa
Companion: Nicola Coughlan – Joy Almondo
Others
Millie Gibson – Ruby Sunday
Joel Fry – Trev Simpkins
Steph de Whalley – Anita Benn
Jonathan Aris – Hotel Manager
Peter Benedict – Basil Flockhart
Julia Watson – Hilda Flockhart
Niamh Marie Smith – Sylvia Trench
Phil Baxter – Edmund Hillary
Samuel Sherpa-Moore – Tenzing Norgay
Ruchi Rai – Receptionist
Joshua Leese – Mr Single
Ell Potter – Server
Liam Prince-Donnelly – Barman
Fiona Marr – Angela Grace
Production
Directed by Alex Sanjiv Pillai
Written by Steven Moffat
Script editor David Cheung
Produced by Alison Sterling
Executive producer(s): Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter, Joel Collins, Phil Collinson, Steven Moffat
Music by Murray Gold
Running time: 54 minutes
First broadcast 25 December 2024
The Doctor arrives at the Time Hotel, an establishment in the year 4202 that allows people to take vacations at various different points in human history. The Doctor gains the aid of Trev, a hotel worker, and begins to investigate a mysterious man holding a briefcase. Trev is tricked into holding the briefcase, which takes control of his mind, and then takes control of Trev's Silurian manager. Trev disintegrates due to the briefcase. The Silurian arrives in Joy Almondo's hotel room in 2024, with the Doctor following behind him.
The briefcase takes control of Joy, causing the Silurian to disintegrate, but the Doctor is able to open the briefcase, finding a strange object inside. The briefcase threatens to kill Joy if the Doctor doesn't give a security code. A Doctor from the future arrives and gives the past Doctor the code. The future Doctor seals the way back to the Time Hotel, leaving the past Doctor stranded in 2024. The Doctor takes up a job at the hotel Joy was staying at, befriending the manager, Anita, while waiting until a path to the Time Hotel opens in 2025.
The Doctor re-enters the Time Hotel via a hotel in New York City, and gives his past self the code, departing with Joy. The Doctor insults her, saying that no self-respecting person would stay alone at a hotel on Christmas Day. This goads Joy into lashing out, explaining that her mother died in hospital on Christmas, with Joy only able to say goodbye through a screen due to COVID-19 regulations. This anger allows Joy to break the mind control. The briefcase disconnects from Joy, and reveals itself to be of Villengard origin. Villengard plans to detonate a "star seed" to use as an energy source, using time travel to leave it in the past to grow.
The briefcase is eaten by a Tyrannosaurus Rex, and the Doctor and Joy flee. Trev, who connected psychically to Villengard's system before he died, contacts the Doctor through his sonic screwdriver. Trev reveals the briefcase's location, and the Doctor finds it sealed in a shrine. The Doctor is able to open it, but Joy takes the briefcase outside, revealing she has let the seed enter her. Joy and the other people killed by the seed pilot it into space, where it detonates safely. As the Doctor returns to the Time Hotel, it is revealed that the star created by the seed was the Star of Bethlehem.
Joy to the World