The Doctor Who Christmas special will explore what it’s like to be in the Time Lord’s head when he’s “got no one to be the Doctor for”

What’s the Doctor without a companion? It’s a question, as writer Steven Moffat teases, will be addressed in upcoming Doctor Who Christmas special.

“The show isn’t really about the Doctor. It’s about whoever he meets. Doctor Who does not begin with him stealing the TARDIS and running away. It begins with the schoolteachers following Susan home, and encountering him,” Moffat tells SFX magazine in the new issue, which features Doctor Who’s Christmas special ‘Joy to the World’ on the cover and hits newsstands on December 3.

That core tenet even extends to the post-2005 era. As Moffat explains, “When it begins again [in 2005] it begins with Rose, trying to work out who he is. So you do experience him through the eyes of the companions. The moment there isn’t a companion in situ you’re sort of thinking, ‘There he is, alone in his TARDIS…'”

‘Joy to the World’, then, will explore more of what makes the Doctor tick. For a person who can go anywhere in time and space, what is the Doctor like when they’re truly alone?

“We do go into that a bit in this one, as to what actually goes on in that weird man’s head when he’s got no one to be the Doctor for,” Moffat teases.

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‘Joy to the World’, written by Steven Moffat, sees the Doctor “thrown together with a cheery yet lonely hotel guest with a connection to a mysterious briefcase.” The guest in question is Joy, played by Bridgerton’s Nicola Coughlan and the upcoming festive adventure is fraught with dangers and, yes, dinosaurs. Merry Christmas?

Dpctor Who’s Christmas special releases on BBC One and iPlayer in the UK and Disney Plus globally on Christmas Day. Read more in the latest issue of SFX magazine, which features Doctor Who’s Christmas special ‘Joy to the World’ on the cover and hits newsstands on Tuesday, December 3. Check out the fittingly festive cover below…

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