Tug-3

After several years of ponderously serious episodes, The Church at Ruby Road returns to the bouncy fun of RTD's earlier era, with a silly threat, a fairy-tale setup, and even a musical number!

Ncuti Gatwa has such charm that his every scene is delightful. Judging from his interactions with other characters, the Fifteenth Doctor will be more empathetic than previous generations. He has a youthful joi de vivre and seems to take pleasure from interacting with everyone he meets.

Thin plot aside, this is festive fun of the sort we haven't seen since Eleven's era. Maybe I feel so much goodwill toward this episode because it's the first Christmas special in six years.

Just want to say how much I admire Ken Jeong for taking such a principled stand for our nation when he walked off the set for two or three minutes that time. That took real guts! Only a cruel cynic would suggest that it was a prearranged publicity stunt that enabled the show to simultaneously celebrate Rudy Giuliani, the nation's leading proponent of election fraud conspiracy theory, while also seeming to denounce him. Yes, you'd have to be a real grump to accuse them of having their cake and eating it too! Anyway, I sure am glad Ken was back right away so he could earn that paycheck and continue to entertain us! I'm sure the producers felt duly chastised and learned a valuable lesson! Way to go, Ken! We salute you!