The Time Hotel

Story: Joy to the World
Written By: Steven Moffat

Length: 60 Minutes
Year: 2024

 

Oh boy...I'm late. It had been a while since the season ended, and I had fallen out of a Who mood, watching a lot of movies lately.  I've also had a change of jobs recently, and while I've spent the last 6 years on a normal 9-5/weekends off kind of schedule, I recently was laid off and ended up quickly bouncing back in local TV, but my schedule has me back to the old dark days of working nights and weekends again.  As such, I just didn't find time to watch this.  Today, after taking care of work I needed to do around the house, I discovered I had about an hour to kill before the kids got off the bus, and so instead of trying to cram in a shorter movie or something, I thought "oh jeez I should finally watch the Doctor who Christmas special!

It's okay.  I have never been the biggest fan of Moffat at Christmas.  Its funny because my brother was recently doing rewatch of the first RTD era and then the Moffat era (he had originally stopped watching around Capaldi), and he has a different view entirely to me, he seems to really like Moff's Christmas specials.  But I think this is the first time that the current showrunner hasn't written the Christmas special, as RTD decided that his original successor in the role should take the reins.  And Moff does an okay job here.  I think Moffat is a better writer for Doctor Who when RTD is also there to bounce off of (not to be too harsh on Moffat, as I am a fan of his era too), and so I think that helps this story a bit. But it has some of Moff's old standbys: wacky time travel hijinks and a mystery box for a villain.And for some Christmas feels thrown in, there is some emotional story stuff thrown in.  Also the ending with "Bethleham" I saw coming a mile away and it actually slightly annoyed me that it was taking so long for the reveal. I said to the screen, while watching alone: WE GET IT...ITS BABY JESUS.

I liked this, but part of me wonders if I am still not in the biggest mood for Doctor Who.  Or is it that the special is just perfectly fine and nothing more?  It is certainly not a bad adventure, but I think it might just be a perfectly middling Doctor Who story. Good but not anything excellent. 

 

NEXT TIME: TBA