Location: Sardicktown
Date: 44th Century
Enemies: Kazran Sardick
Amy and Rory are trapped aboard a space liner crashing on a distant planet. The only way the Doctor can save them is to alter the timeline of a lonely old miser, the only one who can control the skies and allow them to land safely. But the Doctor may go too far in changing a man's life...
Full Recap
A passenger spaceship liner plummets toward a cloud-covered planet, and the captain and pilots desperately try to regain control. They detect a distress signal coming from the honeymoon suite, and try to determine who is there. Amy and Rory enter the bridge and tell the captain that they've sent a signal to a friend who can help them. As a small capsule approaches the liner, the Doctor sends a signal to Amy to prepare for rescue.
On the planet in the town of Sardicktown, Kazran Sardick is in his vast tower from which he controls the town. A poor family, the Pettigrews, have come to see him. The wife, Isabella, asks for the release of her sister Abigail for just one day to celebrate Christmas. Kazran has Abigail's cryogenic "ice box" brought in and tells them that she's being held as an asset against his loan to them. Their meeting is interrupted when the planet's president calls to ask Kazran to use his control of the clouds to let the liner land safely. He refuses, unconcerned about the death of the four thousand and three passengers and crew.
There's an unearthly noise from the roof, and then the Doctor drops down the chimney. He admits that he couldn't resist on Christmas Eve, insists that he's a close personal friend of Father Christmas. He notices Abigail inside the freezer unit, and then goes to the control console. He's unable to get it to work, and Kazran explains that the controls are isomorphic, one-to-one, and only he can use them. Once he confirms that Kazran is telling the truth, the Doctor asks him to help the passengers, but Kazran refuses, insisting that there are too many people on the planet already. The Doctor warns him that he'll do whatever it takes to save the people aboard the liner, and that whatever happens to Kazran is on his own head. Kazran has his guards escort the Pettigrews out, and the young boy throws a coal, hitting Kazran in the head. He lunges at the boy and prepares to slap him, but hesitates at the last moment. The Doctor notices the exchange and looks around the room. When he sees a portrait of Kazran's father Elliot, standing in front of a Christmas tree and looking down on an empty seat, the Doctor realizes that Kazran hates his father and congratulates him. He points out that Kazran didn't hit the boy, meaning he isn't his father, and that he's already halfway out of the dark. The Doctor then strides out past the guards.
Once he's out on the street, the Doctor calls Amy and tells her that he has a plan to deal with Kazran. Eric Pettigrew, the family father, thanks the Doctor for standing up to Kazran and then warns that they have to get inside before the fish come out. The Doctor wonders what he's talking about, and Amy warns him that the liner only has an hour left before they crash. However, he takes an interest in a school of fish swimming through the fog and circling a nearby streetlamp. As the Doctor reassure Amy that he's working on a plan, the loudspeakers start playing a Christmas carol, and the Doctor gets an idea.
Kazran dozes off in his chair, but comes awake to see a recording he made of himself as a 12-year-old boy. He watches as his father, Elliot, interrupts his younger self's project to summon the fish from the cloud banks using recorded singing. Elliot tells the younger Kazran to obey him and slaps the boy when he resists. The Doctor emerges from the shadows and explains that he found the recording on an old drive, and he's sent the servants away. Kazran watches the recording, which shows Young Kazran crying as Elliot leaves. The Doctor asks if the fish ever came, and Kazran tells him that he learned then and there that nobody ever comes. He tells the Doctor to get out and the Doctor agrees, but warns that he'll be back... way back.
Seconds later, Kazran watches the recording and sees the Doctor arrive at the window of his younger self's bedroom. The Doctor says he's the boy's new babysitter and then talks to Kazran directly via the recording, warning him that he's going to change the old man's past. Startled, Kazran realizes that his memories are changing to accommodate the Doctor visiting him in the past.
In the past, the Doctor tells Young Kazran that he's the new babysitter, and the boy explains that his father invented a machine that tamed the sky. The fish only come down when Elliot lets them, and the Doctor offers to bring a fish now. He rigs is sonic screwdriver as a lure and then hides in the cupboard with Elliot. As they wait, Young Kazran explains that he was sick on the day that the control device failed, and all of his mates have stories of when the fish came. The Doctor continues to record everything that happens so that Kazran can see it in the future and watch it along with his changing memories.
A fish finally arrives and the Doctor goes out to investigate. He realizes it has a small electrical charge, and wonders if there are larger fish. A shark suddenly swims in through the window and eats the fish and the sonic screwdriver. The Doctor leaps into the cupboard and bars the door shut, and tells Young Kazran that he has an idea about how to save the liner in the future. The shark slams partway through the cupboard door, its snapping jaws inches away from the Doctor and Young Kazran. Seeing a green glow inside its throat, the Doctor gets an idea and reaches inside, activating the sonic screwdriver.
The shark is stunned, and the Doctor realizes that it's dying now that it's outside the cloud belt for an extended period. Young Kazran cries over the dying fish, and the Doctor warns that it wouldn't survive the trip back to the upper atmosphere. They need a life support unit to protect the shark during transport, and Young Kazran gets an idea. He leads the Doctor to the tower's basement, where hundreds of people are frozen in cryogenic units, "ice boxes." They can't get in without the combination, and Young Kazran says that Elliot won't tell him the combination until he's older.
In the future, Kazran is swept up in the moment. He yells out the combination and the Doctor arrives via the TARDIS, having traveled back to see Kazran and get it. The Doctor then goes back to the past and uses the combination to open the storage area, which is built on a cloud bank that is used to power the freezing units.
Once inside, the Doctor sees Abigail, who he recognizes from the future. Young Kazran plays a recording she made saying that she's thankful for Elliot's philanthropic gesture in freezing her. The boy explains that his father loans money and then takes family members and keeps them in cold storage as collateral. The Doctor's half of the sonic screwdriver starts beeping, and he realizes that it's repairing itself... along with the half in the shark's stomach. The beeping gets louder as the shark tracks the signal to the basement. It tries to attack them and Young Kazran takes refuge between the storage units. He hears a woman singing and emerges to discover that Abigail has emerged from her unit when they activated it, and her singing has calmed the shark. The Doctor realizes that her singing causes a resonance of the ice crystals that make up the cloud banks, and that Elliot uses sonic waves to calm the storms and control them.
In the future, Kazran turns to look at the portrait of his father, and discovers that it has changed into a portrait of Abigail.
In the past, the Doctor puts the shark into Abigail's ice box and then takes the TARDIS up into the cloud banks, with Abigail and Young Kazran accompanying him. They release the shark and Young Kazran takes a photo of Abigail.
In the future, Kazran looks through his old mementos and finds the photo of Abigail.
As they watch the shark swim out into the clouds, the Doctor notices a counter marked 8 on Abigail's ice box. When he asks her about it, she asks if he's one of her doctors. Before he can pursue the matter, an alarm goes off. The Doctor takes the TARDIS back to the basement and puts Abigail into another ice box. As they close her in, Young Kazran promises that they'll be there for her in a year on Christmas Eve.
One year later, a second's passage for Abigail, the Doctor and Young Kazran release her again. They take her out to celebrate Christmas Eve, unaware that the counter on her container has decreased to 7. Outside, the Doctor uses his half of the sonic screwdriver to summon the shark, and then use it to tow a sleigh. They ride across the town, celebrating. When they're done, they promise Abigail that they'll be back in another year for an even better Christmas Eve.
In the future, Kazran looks at the souvenirs and photos of his and the Doctor's trips through time with Abigail on each Christmas Eve. One year, a now-adult Kazran and the Doctor release Abigail, and she asks them to stay on the planet in this time. They agree and she goes to see the Pettigrews. She watches from outside the house, crying, and Kazran finally comes over and asks why she's unhappy. Abigail admits that she can't be with them, but the Doctor quickly gets them all invited into the house. Isabella is uncertain about Adult Kazran, warning Abigail that he's just like his father. Abigail stands by her friend, but says that she can't stay for Christmas Day. When she hears that, Isabella moves the Christmas Day dinner up to Christmas Eve, and invite Adult Kazran and the Doctor to join them. As they celebrate, Adult Kazran and Abigail secretly hold hands beneath the table.
Afterward, the Doctor and Adult Kazran take Abigail back to her freezer unit. She asks the Doctor to leave them alone for a minute, but Adult Kazran realizes that she plans to kiss him and asks the Doctor for advice. The Doctor tells him to take the chance, and the happy couple kiss.
In the future, Kazran finds a photo of the three of them in California in 1952. He remembers finding Abigail alone by the pool, and asking what's wrong. She tells him, and the Doctor finds them kissing a few minutes later. He is ready to go, discovering that he's somehow become engaged to Marilyn Monroe and she is insisting they get married right away. When they ignore him, he goes to get married. Adult Kazran then asks Abigail what they're going to do, and she admits that there's nothing they can do.
Back on the planet, they place Abigail back in her freezer unit. Adult Kazran then tells the Doctor that he's done with their Christmas Eve tradition, and he has work to do for his father. Hurt at the abrupt dismissal, the Doctor asks if he's bored, and then wonders what he's hiding. Adult Kazran refuses to answer. When the Doctor asks him about Abigail, Adult Kazran says that he knows where to find her. As he goes, the Doctor gives him his half of the sonic screwdriver and says that Adult Kazran can use it to contact him if he never needs him. As the Doctor leaves, the counter on Abigail's box goes to zero.
In the future, Kazran looks at the portrait, which once more shows his father.
The next year, Elliot presents the completed control system to Adult Kazran and says that with it, they can control the planet, and control the population by controlling the fish and using them as a weapon of terror. Adult Kazran walks away, angry, and goes to his desk. As he contemplates the sonic screwdriver, the Doctor taps on the window. Adult Kazran looks angrily at him and closes the drapes, and then puts the sonic screwdriver in a drawer with the other discarded mementos of their Christmas Eves together.
In the future, Kazran finds the sonic screwdriver in the drawer. The President calls him to once more ask for his help. An embittered Kazran says that as an old friend took a very long time to teach him, life isn't fair. As he hangs up, a hologram of Amy appears. She says that she's the Ghost of Christmas Present, and Christmas singing fills the tower. Kazran follows it to the basement and sees holograms of people singing inside of the freezer area. Amy explains that they're holograms of the passengers, the people that will die because of him. They're singing in the hopes that Kazran will change his mind, but Kazran tells Amy that people can't change. He stalks through them to Abigail's ice box, and tells Amy that if it hadn't been for the Doctor, he never would have known Abigail. When she wonders why Kazran doesn't release Abigail, he explains that Abigail was dying when she went into suspended animation. Each time they released her for a Christmas Eve, it used up a little more of her remaining time. Now she has only a single day left to live, if he chooses to release her. Angry, he asks Amy how he can choose which day will be Abigail's last.
A desperate Amy reverses the transmission, letting Kazran see what's going on the liner. The passengers are still singing, and Rory explains that the Doctor hoped he could use the resonance of the singing to calm the ice crystals, stabilizing the clouds. It's not working, but the captain hasn't told the passengers that, knowing it would destroy their last hope.
Kazran still refuses to save the liner. Amy cuts the transmission, and the Doctor is in the basement with Kazran. The Doctor apologizes for not realizing what they were doing for Abigail, and what she meant to Kazran. Kazran tells the Doctor that he was better off when he didn't know Abigail, and thanks to the Doctor's meddling he has a broken heart where before he had none. When the Doctor tells Kazran that he must now see the future, Kazran insists that he knows the future, and he'll die alone and bitter like everyone else. The Doctor refuses to accept that he believes that, and explains that he's already shown Kazran his future: he's brought Young Kazran from the past. The boy stares in horror at what he's become, and Kazran lunges at the boy and prepares to hit him. He stops, his hand raised, as he remembers everything that has happened, including Elliot beating him. He then embraces his younger self, sobbing and apologizing.
With only five minutes left, the Doctor calls the liner and tells them to lock onto his signal. Kazran goes to the controls to let the ship land, but discovers they won't respond to him. The Doctor realizes that when he changed Kazran's life, he turned him into a man that Elliot would never turn over control of the system. The only thing they have left is Kazran's sonic screwdriver half, and the Doctor gets an idea. He realizes that he can use the resonance between that and the sonic screwdriver half still in the shark's stomach to transmit a signal into the cloudbanks. However, there is only one sound that they know has the proper resonance: Abigail's voice. Kazran has no choice but to release her. She's shocked to see that he's waited so long to release her, and is now so old. Kazran warns her that if she stays out of the unit, this will be the day that she dies. Abigail, realizing the cost, says that it's finally time for her to have a Christmas Day.
The liner runs out of time and plummets through the cloud banks... and stabilizes. They can hear Abigail singing from the planet. On the planet, the Doctor, Kazran, and his younger self watch as Abigail sings on the street. The Doctor tells them that when the two halves of the sonic screwdriver resonate on the same frequency, it will unlock the clouds for the first time in a very long while. It begins to slow, and the people come out to celebrate. The Doctor takes Young Kazran into the TARDIS to return him to his proper time, and Abigail and Kazran wave goodbye.
Later, Amy and Rory find the Doctor making snowmen. As they go to the TARDIS, Amy notices that the Doctor is pensive and asks if he's all right. He admits that it will be the last day that Abigail and Kazran have together, but everything must end so that everything can be started. As they prepare to depart, she asks where Kazran and Abigail are, and the Doctor tells her that they are taking one last trip with an old friend.
In the sky, the shark tows an exultant Abigail and Kazran through the clouds in a sled.
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