DOCTOR WHO: A CHRISTMAS CAROL (TV)
Summary
One in a series of fantasy/science fiction programs about the Doctor, a mysterious man who travels through time in a device shaped like an English police call box.
Amy and Rory, now newlyweds, are aboard a space cruise liner for their honeymoon when the ship malfunctions and plummets towards a planet with a thick cloudy atmosphere which interferes with their controls. Amy sends a distress signal which is soon intercepted by the Doctor. Meanwhile, on the planet's surface the human inhabitants are celebrating their version of Christmas. However, the mogul Kazran Sardick detests the celebrations and thinks of it as a waste of time. He refuses to allow a woman out of a cryogenic chamber on behalf of her family; he is keeping the young woman as "security" in exchange for a loan they took out. The Doctor emerges from Sardick's chimney and attempts to activate a machine in Sardick's possession which can control the planet's cloud cover, thus allowing the space liner to safely land. However, Sardick explains that the machine is isomorphic and will respond to no one's brainwaves except his own. Even the Doctor's sonic screwdriver proves ineffective against the machine. The Doctor asks Sardick to use the machine to save the space liner and its 4,000 passengers, but Sardick refuses.
As the Doctor and the family visiting Sardick are lent away, the family's child lobs a bit of coal at him. Sardick moves to strike the child but cannot bring himself to do so. The Doctor perceives that there may be some good in Sardick, and also observes via visual clues about the room that he has emotional issues concerning his long-dead father. The Doctor leaves and discovers that there are flying fish living in the thick clouds, and can sometimes come down to the surface by swimming through fog. He reports on his lack of progress to Amy; the space liner has about an hour before it crashes into the planet's surface. Suddenly the Doctor is struck with inspiration: using the Charles Dickens story "A Christmas Carol," he hopes to use his TARDIS to help Sardick become a better person, and thus willing to help him save the space liner.
First the Doctor finds a film that Sardick made of himself when he was twelve on Christmas Eve in an attempt to film the flying fish. The Doctor plays it for Sardick, and he witnesses his father enter and berate and physically attack his younger self. Sardick recalls crying all night without anyone coming to comfort him. The Doctor endeavors to change that: he uses the TARDIS to travel back in time to that moment, all caught on film. He informs the elder Sardick via the film that his past and his memories are about to change, and that he is serving as a "ghost of Christmas past." As he says this, the elder Sardick suddenly realizes that his memories are changing, just as the Doctor said. In the past, the Doctor helps the young Sardick rig up his sonic screwdriver to use as bait for the fish; the young Sardick has never seen the fish before and very much desires to. However, trouble strikes when a gigantic flying shark bursts through the window and traps the Doctor and the young Sardick in his closet. The Doctor is only able to recover half of his sonic screwdriver, and the shark begins dying without access to the clouds. The Doctor does not think he can save the shark, as it would not survive the trip back to the sky in the TARDIS.
The Doctor and the young Sardick devise a plan to save the shark: they venture down into a vault where a number of people are kept in cryogenic stasis. Sardick's father keeps them in here as "securities" for his loans. He decides to release the young woman who the Doctor saw in Sardick's office, named Abigail, from her stasis, as he says she likes the fish. The sonic screwdriver signals its other half, which eventually attracts the shark, revived by the cold environment of the vault. It chases Sardick and the Doctor around, but stops when Abigail sings to it, calming it. The Doctor explains that the singing generates vibrations in the ice particles which make up the planet's cloud cover, which in turn sends out delta waves affecting the brains of the fish. The young Sardick is moved by Abigail's singing. The three of them release the shark back into the sky. The Doctor does not notice as a number on Abigail's cryogenic pod reduces from 8 to 7.
They take Abigail back to the vault and prepare to put Abigail back in stasis. The Doctor decides to come back every Christmas Eve to let Abigail out and spend the day with her and Sardick. The first time they use the sonic screwdriver's half to re-attract the shark and hitch it to a carriage, using it to fly through the air. In the present, the elder Sardick is touched by his "new" memories. With every year that the Doctor lets Abigail out for Christmas, the number on her stasis pod reduces. Eventually Sardick has grown to a young man and starts to develop feelings for Abigail. On this Christmas they go to visit Abigail's family; she is sad because she believes she'll never experience the joy of having a family of her own. The Doctor joins them as well, and they all have Christmas dinner together. Abigail's sister warns her that Sardick will grow up to be just like his father, but Abigail disagrees. Meanwhile, the present-day Sardick looks over photographs his past self took of his trips throughout time and space with Abigail and the Doctor. In the past, a nervous Sardick and Abigail share their first kiss.
On the next Christmas Eve, at a 1952 party at Frank Sinatra's house, Abigail is saddened, and tells Sardick a secret. The pair are interrupted by the Doctor, who is sporting a rumpled tuxedo, mussed hair, and a red lipstick kiss mark on his cheek. He claims to be on the run from his fiancee -- Marilyn Monroe. After Abigail is put back in stasis, Sardick requests that the Doctor stop coming every Christmas, but won't tell him why. The Doctor gives him his half of the sonic screwdriver and tells him to activate it if he needs him. Sardick takes it and leaves the vault in tears. The dial on Abigail's stasis pod reads "1" now. The next Christmas Eve, Sardick's father completes the sky-controlling machine, wishing to use it to control the populace of the planet. Sardick contemplates activating the sonic screwdriver. The Doctor appears before he can, but Sardick does not let him in and hides away the sonic screwdriver again.
In the present, Sardick still refuses to save the space liner. Amy appears to him via hologram, calling herself the "ghost of Christmas present." She shows him holograms of the people on the liner, wanting him to see who he will be killing via his inaction. He says he regrets that the Doctor ever introduced him to Abigail. When Amy presses him he reveals the truth: when Abigail was frozen she had a terminal illness and only had a small amount of time remaining before she would die. She revealed to him that she used up most of that remaining time by spending all those Christmas Eves with him and the Doctor, and if he were to release her she would have only one day left to live. Amy shows Sardick the interior of the space liner via hologram to give him an idea of what things are like up there. He still refuses, stating that "everyone has to die" sometime.
Sardick is brought back to the vault, where the Doctor is waiting for him. Sardick is furious at the Doctor for interfering with his life and breaking his heart. The Doctor claims he is there to show him the future, but Sardick says he knows he will die alone and afraid, and that showing him the future would be pointless. However, the Doctor presents him with a twist: instead of showing the elder Sardick his future, he has brought the twelve year-old Sardick into the present with him to show him his future. The elder Sardick becomes furious when his younger self mistakes him for his father. He moves to strike his child self but realizes he has become heartless and cruel like his father and both of them break down crying. Upon this revelation, Sardick agrees to help save the space liner, which has only five minutes left before it crashes.
However, Sardick can no longer operate the machine which controls the sky; the isomorphic controls no longer recognize him as the same person since the Doctor changed his personality too much. The Doctor plans to use the two halves of the sonic screwdriver to send a signal into the sky to resonate with the ice crystals and provide an opening for the ship to land. However, in order to do this he must send a specific sort of signal: Abigail's singing, which means they have to unfreeze her. Sardick is highly reluctant to do this, but realizes that he must do it sometime and so revives her. Sardick is heartbroken at this development, but Abigail says she can think of no better day to spend as her last than spending Christmas with him. The Doctor sends Abigail's song into the sky, creating an opening in the clouds and saving the space liner at the last moment. As a side effect of the atmospheric disturbance, it starts snowing on the planet for the first time in many years. The Doctor returns the young Sardick to his proper time as the elder Sardick and Abigail spend their last moments together. The episode ends as the Doctor reunites with Amy and Rory and departs with them in the TARDIS as Sardick and Abigail fly overhead on a shark-pulled carriage.
Details
- NETWORK: BBC (United Kingdom)
- DATE: December 25, 2010
- RUNNING TIME: 1:01:48
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: 109635
- GENRE: Drama, fantasy/science fiction
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, fantasy/science fiction; Time travel
- SERIES RUN: BBC - TV series, 1963-1989, 2005-
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Piers Wenger … Executive Producer
- Beth Willis … Executive Producer
- Steven Moffat … Executive Producer, Writer
- Sanne Wohlenberg … Producer
- Diana Barton … Line Producer
- Toby Barnes … Director
- Murray Gold … Music by
- Ben Foster … Conductor
- Ron Grainer … Theme Music by
- BBC National Orchestra of Wales, The … Symphony Orchestra
- Matt Smith … Cast, The Doctor
- Karen Gillan … Cast, Amy Pond
- Arthur Darvill … Cast, Rory Williams
- Michael Gambon … Cast, Kazran Sardick, Elliot Sardick
- Katherine Jenkins … Cast, Abigail
- Laurence Belcher … Cast, Young Kazran
- Danny Horn … Cast, Adult Kazran
- Leo Bill … Cast, Pilot
- Pooky Quesnel … Cast, Captain
- Micah Balfour … Cast, Co-Pilot
- Steve North … Cast, Old Benjamin
- Bailey Pepper … Cast, Boy, Benjamin
- Tim Plester … Cast, Servant
- Nick Malinowski … Cast, Eric
- Laura Rogers … Cast, Isabella
- Meg Wynn-Owen … Cast, Old Isabella
- Marilyn Monroe
- Frank Sinatra