Doctor Who fans are getting an extra special treat under the Christmas tree today with the arrival of Joy to the World, this years special holiday episode. But theyre getting an even better present wrappedwithin it: because beyond the broad festive wrappings of the episode, this bigger-on-the-inside adventure has a side story that could stand alone as a fantastic episode ofWho in its own rights. About a third of the way into its run time Joy to the World takes a sideways step. After setting up the Time Hotel the Doctor is staying ata business of myriad gateways currently set to send guests to every Christmas in historywere quickly whisked through a bunch of those doorways as he follows a strange suitcase hopping between handcuffed, seemingly vacant hosts. The Doctor and the briefcases current host, a Silurian manager at the hotel, find themselves going through a door into Christmas 2024 in London, where they both meet a young woman named Joy in her run-down hotel room. Some chaos later, the Doctor discovers the suitcase is somehow disintegrating hosts after it hops to a new one: the Silurian dies and Joy is latched onto as the briefcases latest carrier, making her chant ominous warnings about a star seed blooming. Before the Doctor can get a real grasp of whats going on with the suitcase the Doctor walks through the door. This Doctor, from some point in the future, brushes off his predecessors annoyance at him not providing any information about how to solve the mystery of the briefcase, as he begins to whisk Joy out of the room and leave our Doctor, forced to figure things out the long way around. The door slams shut, and we stay on the perspective of our Doctor, who realizes that hes now stuck in 2024 with no TARDIS and no way back for a whole year.What follows is an extended sequence that is brimming with the potential to be a killer episode of Doctor Who in its own right. With no money or place to stay, the Doctor has to offer his services to the manager of the hotel, Anita (Steph de Whalley, in a genuinely fantastic supporting turn), doing odd jobs, renting out whatwas Joys room. The Doctor is working on trying to figure out the suitcase in his downtime, sure, but hes still forced to sit moment to moment, in one place, and actually live out a life he usually doesnt have to experience. This is not an ideaDoctor Who is entirely unfamiliar with, of course. The first half of much of the Third Doctors entire existence was built on the premise that the Doctor was exiled on contemporary Earth and forced to make do for himself, but he was still regularly going on adventures in his capacities as UNITs scientific adviser. The Fourteenth Doctors arc concludes with him being granted the grace to exist and live out a life with Donna and her family, freed from the need to be the Doctor. Steven Moffat in particular, who wrote Joy to the World, was fascinated with the idea throughout his tenure as showrunner; episodes like The Lodger, The Power of Three, and even a prior holiday special, The Husbands of River Song, all tackle the idea of the Doctor, either through choice or circumstance, momentarily giving up his life as a wanderer in the fourth dimension to live normally.But in contrast to this sequence in Joy to the World, those past episodes only really examine them in abstract, the fact that the Doctor is spending a disproportionate amount of time in one place, in one moment, largely in the background against the actual reason for it. And that is, honestly, because Doctor Who is a show we all watch to see the Doctor traveling through time and space, fighting monsters, and saving worlds from calamitous destruction. Making him live a normal human life is a rarity because, as the Doctor initially bristles himself here, its just kind of a bit boring for a sci-fi action adventure show. And yet, for a good third of the episodeand arguably the episode at its bestwe are asked to sit with the Doctor as he lives out this year, getting to know Anita better, getting to know what its like to live like this, better, to the point that when the time comes that his year is up and he has to say good bye to his new friend, its almost as heartbreaking as losing a companion. There is no grand threat or mystery, the Doctor isnt even particularly counting down the clock, even if he knows he has Joys room at the hotel booked for just a year, instead the whole sequence becomes about exploring the potential of this different lens into the Doctors life and sense of being.Crucially too, its a necessary period of healing for this particular Doctor, to make a friend and then part ways with them in this way. Not simply because the last season of Doctor Who really struggled with its domestic element to make the Doctor and Ruby feel like the friends the series constantly told us they were, but because its not with Joy, the de facto companion of the special that the Fifteenth Doctor processes his loneliness after parting ways with Ruby. Its only with Anita, and its her connection and inspiration that pushes him to move forward in the wake of losing his first friend, one of the first people he imprinted on in this incarnation. Again, this is something past holiday specials have touched on tooThe Runaway Bride and the Tenth Doctors feelings over Rose, and Voyage of the Damned and the, uh, Tenth Doctors feelings over Marthabut their ultimate conclusion are reminders that the Doctor needs someone to share adventures with. For a moment, and at is brightest, Joy to the World asks us and the Doctor alike if life itself is the adventure he needs to share with someone, rather than Time and Space.You can now watch Doctor Whos Joy to the World on Disney+ around the world, and on the BBC in the UK and Ireland. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, whats next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.