James Bond is canon in ‘Doctor Who’ now

Doctor Who hair returned with the tender but tear-jerking holiday special “Joy to the World.” And amid a rollicking adventure through time involving dinosaurs, holograms, game nights and rogue capitalism, returning writer Steven Moffat also dropped something exciting new into the canon: James Bond and Doctor Who exist in the same world.

The connection 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 the 1962s Dr. No and the 1963s From Russia with love. It is especially 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 and pops into 1940 Manchester, 1953 Everest and 1962 Italy. The last of these is where he meets a seductive brunette in a coral petticoat rocking 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 credits identify her as Sylvia Trench (played here by Niamh Marie Smith, who teased the performance on Instagram on 4 October). This detail connects our lovely traveler with James Bond and gives greater context to her scenes in the episode, as well as her life after Bond.

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

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

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

He then went on to share his love for the overlooked Bond girl. “She’s the reason James Bond presents himself the way he does,” Moffat explained. “He says to her, ‘I admire your luck, miss…?’ And she says, ‘Sylvia Trench.’ (And he replies,) ‘Bond James Bond.’ That’s why for the rest of the time James Bond walks around inexplicably announcing his surname before his surname.”

IN Dr. Nothe pair meet over a card table in a posh casino. The lines of dialogue are slightly different than Moffat remembers. (Watch the video below to see.) But he’s right about Sean Connery’s Bond pulling his iconic catchphrase from Sylvia Trench’s lips.

Moffat felt that Sylvia deserved better than she’s been getting from pop culture. “Sylvia Trench remains James Bond’s girlfriend in the first two films. He has a permanent girlfriend at home in the first two films!” Moffat emphasized: “But while she was doing all that, she was also has an affair with the woman and travels with the Orient Express. I thought, ‘It’s inevitable.’ I felt like I did her justice, you know? Because she’s the most cheated woman in the history of fiction, right? Because she made the mistake of going 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 looks at the love letter she’s carrying and quips, “You’re better off without him. His sentence structure is appalling.”

This is clearly a reference to Bond, the beau who always leaves Sylvia for his next adventure (or hookup). The joke about his sentence structure alludes to “The name is Bond, James Bond.” But as Moffatt points out, it was actually Trench’s sentence structure, foreshadowing her excited 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 replies sharply: “To her!“And as quickly as the Doctor steps out of her train compartment, Moffatt has reimagined Sylvia Trench.

She is no longer a tragic Bond girl waiting for her spy boy to return. She is off on her own adventure, traveling across Italy in the Orient Express, where she writes a letter (however poorly structured) to her Sapphic lover. A new bee icon (or bicon) is born!

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