Doctor Who Just Did Its Own Version Of A 2010s Sci-Fi Show Canceled After 4 Seasons

Published Dec 30, 2024

Followed

Steven Moffat's last Doctor Who episode, after being responsible for some of the show's best moments. The Doctor Who Christmas specials are now a tradition for the rebooted series and the episode also featured Bridgerton star, Nicola Coughlan, as the titular Joy.

"Joy to the World" sees the Fifteenth Doctor investigating the rooms at the Time Hotel, where guests have been seen acting strangely while handcuffed to a strange briefcase with dangerous contents. Although each Doctor has a Companion, the Fifteenth Doctor is used to traveling alone, and the episode addresses the concept of being alone at Christmas. The ending of the 2024 Doctor Who Christmas special is bittersweet but hopeful, with Joy becoming the star that the Wise Men follow in the first Christmas. However, this was not the twist that many Westworld viewers might have expected.

Doctor Who's Time Hotel Shares The Same Basic Premise As Westworld

The Time Hotel's Guests Behave Like Automatons But For A Different Reason

The plot of Westworld is about the human guests and robotic inhabitants of amusement parks. These parks allow high-paying guests to fulfill their extreme fantasies, while they cannot be harmed due to the robots' programming. Westworld is mostly set in a Wild West park, and Doctor Who's Time Hotel could resemble a plausible addition to Westworld's theme park range. It operated similarly, allowing guests to visit different points in human history by staying in the hotel's rooms, and also appeared to contain automatons. That said, the reason for the guests' strange behavior was very different to Westworld.

Doctor Who is well known for its innovative and unusual villains, whether humanoid, alien or something else entirely.

Many of the guests in Doctor Who's Time Hotel are seen handcuffed to a briefcase, which appears to change their mental state, as the guests' eyes flicker, and they repeat, "The star seed will bloom, and the flesh will rise.” This repetition is similar to certain scenes in Westworld, where the automatons are controlled using the guests' verbal commands, and use the same repeated phrases as programmable characters. As the 2024 Doctor Who Christmas special shared a similar concept to Westworld, many viewers might have attempted to guess the episode's villain, but they would likely have been wrong.

After Watching Westworld, I'm Amazed Doctor Who's Time Hotel Wasn't The Villain

Doctor Who Has Been Set In The Wild West Before (& A Later Westworld Easter Egg Is Not Impossible)

Ncuti Gatwa as The Doctor in the 2024 Christmas Special

Doctor Who is well known for its innovative and unusual villains, whether humanoid, alien or something else entirely. As some of Doctor Who's best villain reveals have been shocking and unexpected, it would not have been too far a stretch for the episode's villain to be the hotel itself. Having watched Westworld, I was convinced that this Doctor Who episode's villain would be the Time Hotel, rather than a Villengardian Star Seed. Still, even the Star Seed is not a villain in its own right, and the theme of the episode suggests that the real antagonist is loneliness.

Ncuti Gatwa as The Doctor examining the briefcase handcuffed to Joy's (Nicola Coughlan) hand in Doctor Who Christmas Special

Doctor Who 2024 Christmas Episode's Villengard Reference Addressed By Steven Moffat

Steven Moffat addresses the return of Villengard in Doctor Who's 2024 Christmas special, and what it could mean for the villainous group's future.

Posts

While the Doctor Who Christmas Special is based on a TV show, it is not based on Westworld. That said, Doctor Who has been set in the Wild West before. "The Gunfighters" saw the First Doctor visiting the Wild West in search of a dentist, and as the show often references earlier episodes, "The Gunfighters" may be ed in the future. Doctor Who also includes TV and movie Easter eggs, so if the show were to return to the Wild West, then a Westworld Easter egg would not just be possible for Doctor Who, but likely.