A Christmas Carol (TV story): Difference between revisions

The Doctor enters Kazran Sardick's house via the chimney. Kazran is the unelected ruler of Sardicktown and is a heartless man. He runs a business in loansharking and uses the frozen bodies of family members as security. He also runs a sideline in controlling the clouds and fog, which have an unnaturally high proportion of water - this allows fish to swim amongst it. It is in this water-and-ice based cloud cover that the ship is caught. The first time we meet Karan, a family is pleading with him to allow one of these bodies to be thawed out to enjoy Christmas. He rejects this. Angrily the young son throws a chunk of coal at Sardick's head. Sardick goes to strike the boy but doesn't. The Doctor tries to persuade Kazran to open the skies by using his Isomorphic controls. Kazranturns him down, saying he doesn't care if they live or die and the Doctor is thrown out . He talks to Amy and sees some small Fog Fish around a lamp.

Kazran is asleep, dreaming of when he was twelve, making a video project of the Fog Fish. Kazran wakes to find that his video is being projected onto a wall; in the video Kazran's father comes in and strikes him as he has disobeyed him by researching the fish. The Doctor comes from behind adult Kazran and asks if he ever saw the fish, (at this point young Kazran is crying on the video). Kazran says that this day was the day when he first began to realise that there was no one that would ever help him and that he was on his own in the world. The Doctor says he can change the past. Kazran laughs this off as impossible the Doctor leaves the room promising Kazran that he will be back - "way back." The sound of the TARDIS is heard and young Kazran on the video looks around; the Doctor appears on the video. The Doctor jumps around the room explaining that he is Kazran's new babysitter. Adult Kazran protests to himself that this didn't happen, but suddenly remembers that it did.

The Doctor releases the shark, and notices a dial set at number 8. He asks Abigail how it relates to her, and she responds by asking if her is 'one of [her] doctors'. Before she can explain, the Doctor becomes distracted. Before sending Abigail back into the ice, Kazran tells Abigail that the Doctor promises to come every Christmas Eve, and the Doctor feels obliged to. Every time he visits, he takes the pair to new and distant places (including a sleigh ride with the previously rescued shark and a visit to the pyramids). On the sixth Christmas, Abigail requests they visit her family, and watches their preparations for Christmas through the window, crying. When Kazran asks why, she only says that she's watching the life she can never have. The family invite the trio in for Christmas dinner a day early, and Abigail's sister warns her that Kazran will turn out just like his father. Meanwhile, old Kazran reflects on his newfound memories.

The following Christmas, the group are at a 20th century Hollywood party. Kazran finds Abigail by a pool, and sees that she is crying. She says she will tell him the truth. A few minutes later, the Doctor finds the pair kissing passionately, and tells them that they need to go (he accidentally got engaged to Marylin Monroe). They ignore him and he leaves. Soon after they break apart, and are seen to be crying. Kazran asks Abigail what they can do, to which Abigail replies 'Nothing can be done'. The pair later bid a silent and emotional goodbye in the vault. When the Doctor tells Kazran he'll come back next year, Kazran says that he's outgrown Christmas and that times have changed. The Doctor only replies with 'Not as much as I'd've liked', and gives Kazran his half a screwdriver in case Kazran ever needs him; Kazran assures him he won't. Meanwhile, Abigail's dial has turned to 1.