A Christmas Carol

When you're alone, silence is all you know...

A Christmas Carol is the first of the Eleventh Doctor Christmas specials and set the mode for what the Christmas special would be during his tenure. It would continue in the RTD tradition of being a one-off romp but Moffat seemed to put a greater emphasis on both Christmas and comedy, something to which the Eleventh Doctor was well suited. Expectations were mixed as the appearance of Michael Gambon (known especially for playing Dumbledore) excited people but the inclusion of operatic singer Katherine Jenkins (and the knowledge that she would be singing) caused consternation as fears of a Kylie Minogue style stunt cast rippled through fandom. In the end, it paid off with the fans as this is generally considered the best of the Eleventh Doctor Christmas specials and some argue the best of all the Christmas specials.

Plot Summary

Amy and Rory are spending their honeymoon on a space luxury liner that is suffering mechanical failure and crashing through the ice cloud layer of a colonized planet. Amy sends a distress signal and the Doctor lands on the planet to help them.

Control of the cloud layer is done through a machine owned by an old man named Kazran Sardick. As the Doctor leaps out of the fireplace, he is dismissing a family that had asked for the wife's sister, Abigail, to be released for Christmas as she had frozen herself as a deposit against a debt the family had taken out. Kazran declines to stop the machine, indifferent to the potential deaths of the 4,000 people aboard the liner. As the Doctor and the family are shoved out, the young son hits Kazran with a piece of charcoal. Kazran moves to strike the boy but can't bring himself to do it. They are then taken out.

The Doctor notes Kazran's restraint and puts together quickly that Kazran's hatred of Christmas and indifference to people are by-products of his upbringing and hatred of his father. That he could not strike the boy was evidence that he was not his father and not beyond hope. He calls Amy to update her on the situation but having failed to turn off the isomorphic controls is now working on a different plan. He gets an idea by using the Christmas Carol story to change Kazran's mind and salvage his soul.

The Doctor salvages a recording Kazran made one Christmas Eve where he had hoped to see a fish flying in the fog, a natural occurrence on that planet. His father berates him when he discovers him and closes the window. The Doctor dips back into Kazran's past and begins to change things, changing Kazran's memories as he does, also allowing him to watch the recording of the past as it follows the Doctor.

The Doctor arrives outside Kazran's window and after telling him he is his new babysitter, they set a lure for a fish using the Doctor's sonic screwdriver. The lure brings in a small fish which nips at it but it also brings in a shark which eats the smaller fish and the sonic screwdriver before turning to attack the Doctor. It tries to break through the closet door but the Doctor is able to trigger the sonic screwdriver inside to stun the large fish.

Kazran is sad that the fish is dying and wants to try and save it. To do so, they would need a mobile freezing chamber like the Doctor saw earlier. Kazran takes the Doctor to the vault in the basement where the freezer chambers are kept and after getting the passcode from the old Kazran, they enter the chamber. Kazran picks the unit with Abigail in it, knowing that she wouldn't mind as her recorded message included the fact that she is fond of the fish.

The Doctor notices his sonic activating, trying to repair itself as Kazran opens Abigail's chamber. They notice the shark has woken and followed the sonic down. As they hide, Abigail steps out and begins to sing, calming the shark into a docile state. That allows them to get it into the chamber and into the TARDIS where they release it into the clouds.

The Doctor takes them back where Kazran tells Abigail that she has been released for Christmas and they will do it again next year. The Doctor jumps forward another year where he and Kazran release Abail for further adventures including seeing sights on Earth and hooking a carriage to the shark and having it pull them through the clouds. Every year that they release Abigail, the counter on her chamber ticks down by one.

One Christmas, when Kazran is a late teenager, Abigail a more feminine interest in him. She asks that they visit her family, the same one that asked for her release at the Doctor's first arrival. Abigail only watches at first with Kazran standing stoically with her until the Doctor barges in. They have Christmas dinner and celebrate. That night, before going back into her chamber, Abigail kisses Kazran.

The following year, the Doctor takes them to 1950's Hollywood where Abigail discloses her illness to Kazran. Her chamber counter has dropped to 1, indicating that when she goes back in, the next time she is released, she will die. Kazran embraces her as the Doctor tries to get out of marrying Marilyn Monroe. Upon sealing her back in, Kazran informs the Doctor that he is too old for Christmas now and that he should not come back. Puzzled, the Doctor give Kazran the broken half of the sonic screwdriver and tells him to summon him when he needs him. Kazran puts in a drawer, pulling it out only once when his father is about to give him control of the sky machinery. The Doctor appears outside the window but Kazran closes the curtain.

Modern Kazran reflects on these changed memories. The portrait of his father had briefly changed to Abigail before she had told him of her illness but it had changed back to his father. He raged at the Doctor for giving him hope only to see it dashed. As he rages, a hologram of Amy appears acting as the Ghost of Christmas Present. She indicates for him to head to the vault where the passengers of the liner are singing Christmas carols.

Kazran dismisses them and tells Amy how Abigail will die the next time she is let out. It's not fair to him and he feels no obligation to give fairness to anyone else. Amy then tells Rory to expand the hologram field, bringing Kazran's field of view from the vault to the bridge of the ship as it is crashing through the cloud layer. They tell Kazran that the passengers are singing, hoping to manipulate things as Abigail did but it not enough yet. Kazran is still indifferent and Amy signals the Doctor.

The hologram cuts out and Kazran finds himself back in the vault with the Doctor who now invokes the Ghost of Christmas Future. Kazran angrily rebuffs him, railing about how he doesn't care while the Doctor stays silent. When Kazran asks what future he could possibly show him, he steps aside to reveal Kazran's child self watching him, stunned. He whispers his father and the older Kazran moves to strike him in a rage but breaks down crying. He hugs his younger self and apologizes.

The older Kazran moves to deactivate the cloud controls but finds himself locked out. The Doctor changed him too much and his father never gave him access in this form. Kazran offers the half of the sonic screwdriver to help. The Doctor gets and idea to signal the other half of the sonic in the shark which would echo throughout the clouds but he needs the perfect vibration to make it happen. Ruefully, Kazran opens Abigail's chamber once again.

Abigail gently chides Kazran for hoarding her last Christmas like a miser but embraces him nonetheless. The group heads outside where the Doctor connects his sonic to the PA system and has Abigail sing into it. The sharks is attracted by the singing and it resonates throughout the clouds, overriding the cloud controls. A path opens up and luxury liner is able to land safely. It also causes the clouds to break apart and snow falls to the ground.

Rory and Amy meet with the Doctor and enter the TARDIS while the Doctor says goodbye to Kazran and Abigail. The TARDIS vanishes leaving the old carriage with the shark hookup behind. The TARDIS flies through the atmosphere and the Doctor spies Kazran and Abigail flying through the clouds, pulled by the shark.

Analysis

Despite the changes to a personal past being a bit confusing at times, this is a damn fine story. It is well acted, well paced and poignant all at the same time. It is also very hard not to be moved by Abigail's song no matter what your opinion of it is in the context of the story at the time. It's just a story that works well on so many levels.

This story gets the Eleventh Doctor at probably his best point. He is zany, manic and funny. But there is also a slight edge to him, a darkness that will be embraced from time to time. That dark edge is only really seen in the Ghost of Christmas Future scene where the Doctor has an "I've tried to be nice" look to him and then unleashes the killing stroke of letting him see that he has become the man he despised. But for the most part, he's fun and a good guide through the romp. He even gets chided when trying to give exposition that is to be used later but disrupts the mood by the biting fish and that is quite amusing. It's just a fun performance.

Amy and Rory don't do much other than be objects of rescue and provide a touch of comic relief here and there, especially with the callback costumes that they were evidently using for some role play. But they are true to character and their comedic timing is quite enjoyable.

The true companions of this story are obviously Kazran and Abigail. Michael Gambon is as excellent as you would expect with a familiar but still subtly different take on Scrooge. He mixes indifference to others with a bitterness that fleshes out the true source of his refusal to help: he has been brought pain by life so why alleviate that pain for others. I also found it interesting that the Doctor nearly succeeds in replacing the bitterness of the fish experiment night with love of another only to have that bitterness returned and hardened by the knowledge that the development of the love between Kazran and Abigail also contributed to her being taken away from him. Unlike the steady softening of Scrooge throughout the story, Kazran is initially redeemed by the past only to have his old character reinforced. It's just such an enjoyable and compelling arc to watch.

Abigail is also an interesting performance as it could have easily gone so wrong so easily. She is pure and joyful to a point that oversaturation could easily make her annoying. It was very important to have that scene of melancholy, her looking wistfully over her sister's family and seeing something she could never have. It humanized her and gave her joy in the face of sorrow more poignancy. That poignancy comes through so well in her signing, especially the last song which is so swelling and (to me) extraordinarily moving. It is very hard to not well up just slightly whenever I hear that song.

The direction effects were also pretty good in this. Yes it's obvious that the fish are CGI but you go in expecting that. It's only painfully obvious when looking at the schools in the clouds. The individual fish work rather well in my opinion. I also like the constant dark atmosphere of the piece. There is a coldness that reflects Kazran very well as well also hiding some limitations in the production values I'm sure. But it all just flows together and meshes nearly perfectly.

About the only negative bits I can come up with are the lack of detail in the effects of changing the past. The Doctor's initial change of the past had a singular effect that was still alterable. But how will doubling up on it change things further? Boy Kazran now knows that his and the Doctor's adventures will accelerate Abigail's death so will be more resistant and try to change that? Will he remember still having the later adventures with the Doctor and Abigail under that changed condition? Does he remember additional beatings from his father as he refused to become the hard man his father wanted and thus was not given control over the machine controlling the clouds? It's all such a swirl of odd logic that you ignore at the time because you are wrapped in the emotional arc of the story but can come back and niggle at you when you think about it.

Fanboys will also grouse about how the old and young Kazrans are able to hug and fix each other without setting off a massive discharge due to the Blinovitch Limitation effect. But that's something you throw out the window because it doesn't help the arc of the story at all.

So I would highly recommend this one. It's definitely the best of the 11th Doctor specials and probably the best of any that are of the romp-y variety. It's just a fun story that you can go back to without any problem time and again. It's also nice to see just a different take on the Scrooge story when most versions are just window dressing on the same body. This is at least a new view. Watch this one both at Christmas and anytime you're in the mood for a solid, entertaining story.

Overall personal score: 5 out of 5