When does the 2024 Doctor Who Christmas Special Come Out?
For UK viewers, the 2024 Christmas Special “Joy to the World” airs at 5.10pm GMT on BBC One and BBC iPlayer on Wednesday December 25.
Where available around the world, non-UK viewers can stream the episode on Disney+ on the same day and at the same time, which is 12:10 pm EST / 9:10 am PST in the US.
Series 14 Recap: Where’s Ruby Sunday?
As is (mostly) traditional, the Doctor is without his regular companion in this year’s Christmas special and is instead joined by guest stars Nicola Coughlan (Bridgerton, Derry Girls), Joel Fry (Plebs) and actor-director Stephanie de Whalley – as Joy, Trev and Anita respectively – who are all part of his adventure at the Time Hotel.
In the series 14 finale “Empire of Death”, the Doctor and Ruby (Millie Gibson) defeated classic-era villain Sutekh, who’d been hitching a ride on the TARDIS through the Time Vortex ever since 1975 serial Pyramids of Mars. Sutekh brought his empire of death to the universe, bringing destruction to all life, until the Doctor reversed it all and resurrected everyone and everything.
Ruby also solved the mystery of her birth mother’s identity in the finale, and discovered that she wasn’t part-alien or a scion of some fantasy creature’s family, but all human. Ruby’s mother had simply been a young girl who found herself pregnant and who was forced to give up her baby to protect her from an unsafe home.
Reuniting with her birth mother, Ruby chose to say goodbye to the Doctor and leave the TARDIS so that she could spend more time with her family. She and her adoptive mum Carla (Michelle Greenidge) and grandmother Cherry (Angela Wynter) are still around, living their lives on Earth, just without the Doctor.