Disney Plus has dropped a new and very festive trailer for the upcoming Doctor Who 2024 Christmas special ‘Joy to the World’ – and one moment in particular has us very intrigued.
You can watch the teaser here:
Set to some Christmassy music, we see Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor meet Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan’s Joy at the Time Hotel, an establishment which allows its guests to visit moments in history. As the pair band together for a top secret mission, we see them encounter dinosaurs to Elizabethans as they travel throughout time.
However, the part that has our eyebrows raised is the Doctor bumping into what seems to be a future version of himself. Asking what on Earth is happening, this future Doctor avoids all these questions, which leads a very frustrated Doctor to exclaim: “Why do you have to be mysterious all the time? That’s why everyone leaves you, that is why you are always alone.”
As these words are uttered, we cut to a scene of Millie Gibson’s companion Ruby Sunday hugging the Doctor in the TARDIS. Now, as you may recall Ruby said farewell to the Doctor in last season’s emotional finale, ‘Empire of Death‘. And if you really have a good memory, you’ll recognize this footage as being from that very episode, meaning it is not new for this trailer and is being reused to help emphasize that the Doctor is now truly alone.
But this is Doctor Who and they do love to tease us, so maybe this glimpse of Ruby is teasing that she will have a cameo in the upcoming special. We do already know that Gibson’s companion will appear in episodes of Doctor Who season 2 and therefore an appearance in this special is not off the cards. In fact, it would be a shame if she doesn’t appear, given how beloved the character is.
If she does appear it is sure to be an emotional reunion for the pair but hey – what even is Christmas Day without shedding some tears over Doctor Who.
The Doctor Who Christmas special ‘Joy to the World’ airs on Christmas Day on BBC One in the UK and streams via Disney Plus in all other territories. In the meantime, here’s the best shows on Disney Plus you can watch right now.