James Bond is canon in Doctor Who now

Did you catch Steven Moffat’s sly spy reference in “Joy to the World”?

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Ncuti Gatwa as the Doctor enters a door in “Doctor Who: Joy to the World.”

Credit: Disney+

Doctor Who has returned with the tender yet tear-jerking holiday special “Joy to the World.” And amid a rollicking adventure across time involving dinosaurs, holograms, game night hangouts, and villainous capitalism, returning writer Steven Moffat also dropped some exciting new lore into the canon: James Bond and Doctor Who exist in the same world. 

The link between these epic British heroes (and their franchises) is a bombshell named Sylvia Trench. In an interview with Mashable, Doctor Who executive producer and “Joy to the World” writer Steven Moffat revealed the details of her Whoniverse appearance and what it means.

Who is Sylvia Trench?

Eunice Gayson and Sean Connery as Sylvia Trench and James Bond in “Dr. No.”
Credit: Danjaq / Eon / Ua / Kobal / Shutterstock.com

Sylvia Trench was the first Bond girl. The late British actress Eunice Gayson played the sultry spy’s love interest in 1962’s Dr. No and 1963’s From Russia with Love. Notably, it’s in 1962 that this stylish character crosses paths with the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa).

In “Joy to the World,” the two-hearted time traveler zips through several Time Hotel doors, popping into 1940 Manchester, 1953 Everest, and 1962 Italy. The last of these is where he meets a beguiling brunette in a coral-colored skirt suit, cradling a copy of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express — along with a handwritten love letter.

The woman never reveals her name, but the episode’s end credits identify her as Sylvia Trench (played here by Niamh Marie Smith, who teased the appearance on Instagram on Oct. 4). This detail connects our lovely traveler to James Bond, and gives greater context to her scenes in the episode, as well as her life beyond Bond.

Steven Moffat reveals the secret life of Sylvia Trench on Doctor Who.

Niamh Marie Smith plays Sylvia Trench in “Doctor Who: Joy to the World.”
Credit: screenshot: Youtube

In our interview, Moffat confirmed this Sylvia Trench is intended to be the same chic stunner from Dr. No with a simple “Yes, yes.”

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Then he went on to share his affection for the overlooked Bond girl. “She’s the reason that James Bond introduces himself the way he does,” Moffat explained. “He says to her, ‘I admire your luck, miss…?’ And she says, ‘Trench. Sylvia Trench. Mister…?’ [And he replies,] ‘Bond. James Bond.’ That’s why, for the rest of time, James Bond goes around inexplicably announcing his surname before his Christian name.”

In Dr. No, the pair meet over a card table at a posh casino. The lines of dialogue are a bit different than Moffat remembers. (Watch the video below to see.) But he’s right that Sean Connery’s Bond pulls his iconic catchphrase from Sylvia Trench’s lips.

Moffat felt Sylvia deserved better than she’s gotten from pop culture. “Sylvia Trench remains James Bond’s girlfriend for the first two films. He has a regular girlfriend back home in the first two films!” Moffat emphasized, “But while she was doing all that, she was also having an affair with the woman and traveling on the Orient Express. I thought, ‘That’s inevitable.’ I felt I was doing her justice, you know? Because she’s the most cheated-on woman in the history of fiction, right? Because she made the mistake to go out with James Bond.”

Sylvia Trench, from Bond girl to queer icon.

Sylvia’s letter in “Joy to the World.”
Credit: screenshot: Youtube

In “Joy to the World,” Moffat gives her a surprising new spin. When the Doctor comes back to Sylvia during the climax, he takes a look at the love letter she carries and scoffs, “You are better off without him. His sentence structure is appalling.”

This is clearly a reference to Bond, the beau who’s always leaving Sylvia behind for his next adventure (or hook-up). The joke about his sentence structure alludes to “The name is Bond, James Bond.” However, as Moffatt points out, that was actually Trench’s sentence structure, foreshadowing her huffy response to the Doctor: “I wrote this letter!” It’s also a clever way to make Sylvia more active than passive in her love life.

The Doctor tries to recover with a smile and by saying, “Great letter! You should send it to him.” To which she retorts tartly, “To her!” And as fast as the Doctor skedaddles out of her train compartment, Moffatt has re-imagined Sylvia Trench.

No longer is she a tragic Bond girl left waiting for her globe-trekking spy boy to come back. She’s off on her own adventure, racing across Italy in the Orient Express, penning a letter (however poorly structured) to her Sapphic lover. A new bi icon (or bicon) is born!

How to watch: Doctor Who is now streaming on Disney+.

Kristy Puchko is the Film Editor at Mashable. Based in New York City, she’s an established film critic and entertainment reporter, who has traveled the world on assignment, covered a variety of film festivals, co-hosted movie-focused podcasts, interviewed a wide array of performers and filmmakers, and had her work published on RogerEbert.com, Vanity Fair, and The Guardian. A member of the Critics Choice Association and GALECA as well as a Top Critic on Rotten Tomatoes, Kristy’s primary focus is movies. However, she’s also been known to gush over television, podcasts, and board games. You can follow her on Twitter.

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