Series 15 of Doctor Who won’t begin until next year, but fans of the series got an early present this year, as BBC has shared the first official Doctor Who Christmas Special clip, previewing the upcoming annual event.
What happens in the Doctor Who Christmas Special clip?
The clip was presented by Ncuti Gatwa, who has played The Doctor since 2023. In it, the Doctor and Joy (played by Nicola Coughlan) find a briefcase from Villengard, an arms manufacturer that has a long history with the Doctor. After discussing Villengard’s plan, the Doctor quickly realizes that the duo are not alone, and are surprised by a T-Rex.
The special, titled “Joy to the World,” is set to premiere on Christmas Day, December 25, 2024.
Check out the new clip of the Doctor Who Christmas Special below:
Doctor Who is no stranger to holiday specials, as the series has had a yearly Christmas episode produced beginning in 2005 and going all the way through 2017. From 2019-22, the series instead aired New Year’s Day specials, but reverted back to Christmas specials last year.
This year’s special will see Gatwa’s Doctor partner up with Coughlan’s Joy, who acts as a guest companion for the special. The episode is also special in its own way, as it will be written by longtime Doctor Who writer Steven Moffat, who returns to the series for just the second time following his departure from the show in 2017.
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Not too much is known about the upcoming Christmas Special, but Moffat did tease his original idea for the episode in a recent interview with the BBC. “Imagine in the far far future… a hotel chain got hold of the idea of time travel. What’s the first thing a hotel chain would do if they had time travel? They’d realize they had an opportunity to sell all the unsold nights in their hotels in history.”