Series 6 (2011)
Episode title: A Christmas CarolFeaturing: Eleventh Doctor
Companions: Amy Pond, Rory Williams
First shown: 25th December 2010
Guide: The episode starts with Amy and Rory on a space liner, enjoying their honeymoon following their wedding at the end of Series 5 (Series 5 : Episode 13), that is crashing onto a planet after flying through cloud cover that affected the ships controls. Amy and Rory send a distress call to the Doctor, who arrives to try and help them but is unable to use the TARDIS to rescue them. Instead he lands on top of a house beneath the cloud, that has an antenna attached that appears to be controlling the cloud. The house is owned by Kazran Sardick, a bitter and old man, who is the wealthiest and most powerful man on the planet. Kazran can control the clouds which could allow the ship to passage a safe landing, but when the Doctor tries to get him to do so (as the controls to the machine are isomorhpically locked to Kazran), he refuses. The Doctor notices that Kazran’s father has had a large impact on who Kazran is now, so the Doctor decides to travel into the past to interfere with Kazran’s past, to make him compassionate about other people, instead of viewing them as cattle as his father did, which will also make him control the clouds to allow the ship a safe landing.
The Doctor goes back in time and visits a younger Kazran, who was hit by his father for wanting to experiment with the fish that swim in the foggy air. The Doctor realises that there is ice in the clouds which contain a weak electrical charge which enable the fish to swim, but is also the thing that is tampering with the ships controls in the present day. The Doctor and Kazran experiment with the fish anyway, until a shark attacks them and swallows the Doctor’s sonic screwdriver. Although he is able to retrieve half of the sonic, he accidently harms the shark to do so. Kazran is upset by this, but the shark cannot return to the clouds on its own. The Doctor suggests using a life support system to take the shark back into the clouds and Kazran takes him to the storage facility where his father has cryonic chambers for freezing people as a security against those he has lent money. The Doctor and Kazran free Abigail, who sings to the shark and resonates the ice crystals in the clouds to which calms it, enabling them to transport it back to the clouds safely.
Before placing Abigail back into her storage chamber, Kazran promises that they (him and the Doctor) will return to release her every Christmas Eve for an adventure. The Doctor keeps this promise as well, and watches as Kazran and Abigail develop a romance as he grows up. After several Christmas Eve’s, Abigail confides something to Kazran which prompts him to stop the tradition and leave Abigail in her storage chamber indefinitely. In the present day, Kazran enjoys his new memories with Abigail, but still refuses to change the clouds to allow the ship a safe passage to land. Amy appears as a hologram to Kazran to show him how the ships passengers are all singing to keep the ship stabile, but that it isn’t working and the ship will still crash. However, he still refuses to allow the ship to land, and vents his anger at Abigail’s days being numbered, as she was dying before she was frozen, and will only live for one more day outside of her storage chamber. The Doctor sees this as he tries to show Kazran his future, by bringing his younger self into the present to see how he turns out. The younger Kazran is shocked by seeing his older self, and this change is then seen in the older Kazran, who agrees to release the spire controls. However, when they get to the controls they find they no longer work for Kazran, as his father never programmed it for a compassionate Kazran, so the machine does not recognise him.
The Doctor is not defeated however, and devises a new plan that involves Abigail and the broken half of his sonic inside the shark. The Doctor unfreezes Abigail, aware that it will be her last day and Kazran is very upset, but Abigail consoles him, saying that they had so many Christmas Eves together, that it’s time for them to have a Christmas Day. Abigail then sings into the Doctor’s half of the sonic screwdriver, amplified through the spire, which resonates the ice crystals and disrupts the clouds enough to allow the ship to land safely. As the Doctor, Amy and Rory meet up together again, Kazran and Abigail enjoy a shark-drawn carriage ride across the sky together.