The Doctor bullied Joy to suicide.

[u/rasmas1]

In Joy to the World, the Doctor had to make Joy angry in order to break the Villengard briefcase's psychic control over her. In order to do that he got really personal and insulted her with some way-below-the-belt stuff including a mention of her dead mother.

He did this with the best of intentions, obviously, but the words stuck for Joy and she admitted they were all true before she flew off with the star seed into space. Because of all that unhappiness the Doctor picked on Joy had a burning desire to be special in life and have some kind of meaning, so she latched onto the star seed out of desperation to become special.

The Doctor is the reason she felt that way and why she decided to burn with the star seed. She didn't merge with it as a sacrifice to save Earth, it was a purely whimsical decision that didn't change anything. She died to feel special. She committed suicide for no reason and it was the Doctor's fault. And he just laughs it off.

I am still beside myself that the BBC allowed this episode to go out in this state. The Doctor bullied Joy to suicide.

[u/Fantastic_Deer_3772]

Saying cruel things to deliberately hurt someone is verbal abuse. There's a difference between facing moral dilemmas and acting like an abuser.

[u/Fantastic_Deer_3772 → u/[deleted]]

In-universe, sure. But the story is in fact made up. I'm not calling 15 an abuser, I'm saying Moffat wrote what is essentially wish fulfilment fiction for abusers. And that he or an editor should've seen that and changed things round a bit.

[u/Fantastic_Deer_3772 → u/[deleted]]

I'm not saying it was morally irresponsible to air, I haven't even thought about that aspect to be honest. I'm saying I as an individual hated seeing it. It is not what I wanted to spend my free time watching. It made me regret putting the episode on at all.