History Recap / DoctorWho2010CSAChristmasCarol

'''Original air date:''' December 25, 2010

'''Production code:''' 2.X

The 2010 ChristmasSpecial, written by Creator/StevenMoffat. Based in part on Moffat's first ''Series/DoctorWho'' story, "Literature/ContinuityErrors".

* PromotionToOpeningTitles: Arthur Darvill as Rory.

** As in "[[Recap/DoctorWho2007CSVoyageOfTheDamned Voyage of the Damned]]", a giant space liner is crashing onto a planet, and the Doctor must save the day. Also there is a pretty blonde girl who is played by a famous singer, and a wealthy misanthrope obstructing the Doctor.

'''Kazran Sardick:''' Well, you tell the Doctor. Tell him from ''me''. People ''can't''.

JustForFun/TheOneWith [[YetAnotherChristmasCarol Ebenezer]] [[Creator/MichaelGambon Dumbledore.]]

----

* {{Foreshadowing}}: When the Doctor first notices some tiny fish flying around a street light, he questions why people would be afraid of them as they fly away - as the camera turns away from the fish you can just make out the silhouette of the shark behind the Doctor.

The one with [[YetAnotherChristmasCarol Ebenezer]] [[Creator/MichaelGambon Dumbledore.]]

The Doctor cannot get the shark back to the skies alive without some sort of freezing pod. Fortunately, Kazran's father has lots of them downstairs. All of them, however, are full of people who have been kept frozen by old Mr. Elliot Sardick as 'security' against the loans of their families, not to be freed until those loans are repaid. Still, they can certainly borrow one for their purposes, and young Kazran is particularly intent on freeing Abigail (Music/KatherineJenkins), an attractive young blonde. He doesn't know the security code, but old Kazran Sardick, still watching with tears in his eyes, is repeating it in his present day room. The Doctor pops in to hear it, then back to young Kazran to enter it. Old Kazran Sardick keeps finding old photographs that never existed before: of Abigail, of him and the Doctor, of strange journeys that he ''knows'' he couldn't remember before today.

According to her built-in pod holograph, Abigail is very grateful to be among the fish that float happily among the fog in the pod chamber, feeling an affinity for them. The Doctor's screwdriver indicates that its other half is nearby, which means that the shark has woken up. And has followed them down. The pod is opened, and Abigail is freed -- and she has an incredible singing voice, one capable of lulling the shark into a calm state. The Doctor realizes that her singing can directly cause the ice crystals in the clouds to resonate. Kazran insists that it's just magic. With Abigail free, a pod is available, and soon Mrs. Shark is safely locked up and ready for transport.

* SelfPlagiarism: The idea of the Doctor travelling back in time to alter a person's perception of him is taken from Creator/StevenMoffat's short story "Literature/ContinuityErrors".

* GirlInABox: Abigail, for years on end.

* EverythingsEvenWorseWithSharks: Subverted: the shark is not evil, but simply hungry, and becomes more tamed after it swallows half the sonic screwdriver.

* GoneHorriblyWrong[=/=]GoneHorriblyRight: First the Doctor's plan goes horribly wrong when, in trying to make Kazran a better, more caring person he succeeds... and ends up getting the boy's heart broken and turning him into an even worse bitter, angry old man. Then it turns around and works even better and... now Kazran's father never left him in control, so he can't save the people on the ship like he wanted to.

* AccidentalPervert: Old Kazran is believed to be a pervert by Rory.

* AerithAndBob: Kazran Sardick. The special is set on an Earth colony, and he's the ''only'' character with a name like that; the other named residents of Sardickstown are Abigail Pettigrew; her family Isabella, Eric and Benjamin; and Kazran's father, Elliot.
* AndroclesLion: Kazran's and the Doctor's relationship with the shark.

* BaitAndSwitch: We all knew that sooner or later, someone was going to be "The Ghost of Christmas Future" in an attempt to change Kazran -- but the iconic scene where the ghost shows the old man his own grave stone doesn't show up, and the old man isn't the one the "ghost" talks to. He ''is'' the ghost.

** One of Kazran's photos is of the Doctor excitedly pointing to [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E4DaleksInManhattan the Empire State Building.]] You can practically hear him saying, "...And there were Daleks ''in the basement!'' With ''pig soldiers!''"

** The Doctor's line when opening the TARDIS doors, "I keep ''amazing''...out here," evokes a similar line said to Amy in the first of the "Meanwhile, in the TARDIS" bonus scenes on Series 5's box set: "You know what I keep in here? Absolutely...everything."

'''The Doctor:''' Good. Because that comparison would have been ''rubbish''.
* DistractedByTheSexy:
** Abigail starts each Christmas adventure looking solely at the Doctor...until she sees the grown-up Kazran.
** Later, Kazran finds himself distracted by Amy's policewoman outfit when she's playing the Ghost of Christmas Present, prompting Rory to shout, "Hey! Eyes off the skirt!"
* DoingInTheWizard: The Doctor ''attempts'' to scientifically rationalize Abigail's singing calming the fish, but the fish disagree.

* EverybodyLives: The first ''Doctor Who'' Christmas Special ever where no-one dies on-screen! (OK, there was that one little fish, but we'll let that go.) And Abigail only does so due to leaving on her one remaining day.
* EverythingsEvenWorseWithSharks: Subverted: the shark is not evil, but simply hungry, and becomes almost nice and cuddly at the end.

** In the second, after the Doctor's intervention, he appears to be developing more of a moral conscience when his heart is broken by the fact that the woman he loves turns out to be dying, and thanks in part to him and the Doctor only has one day of life left before she dies.

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* GoneHorriblyWrong[=/=]GoneHorriblyRight: First the Doctor's plan goes horribly wrong when, in trying to make Kazran a better, more caring person he succeeds...and ends up getting the boy's heart broken and turning him into an even worse bitter, angry old man. Then it turns around and works even better and...now Kazran's father never left him in control so he ''can't'' save the people on the ship like he wants to.

* InformedDeformity: Well, Informed Illness -- Abigail Pettigrew, who shows no symptoms of any sort of illness throughout the entire episode. Although she's allegedly got less than 24 hours to live, she is still capable of full movement and still has a very strong singing voice. Really makes you wonder whether she is really going to die in the morning.

* KickTheDog: Both subverted and played straight. Early on, Kazran is about to strike a small boy, but can't bring himself to do it. It's Kazran's failure to Kick that particular Dog which convinces the Doctor that [[HeelFaceTurn Kazran's redeemable.]] Kazran's father, however, [[AbusiveParents has no hesitation]] in ''hitting his own son'' because [[DisproportionateRetribution he was interested in an inch-long flying fish, and left the window open about six inches]].
* KinkyRolePlaying: Implied when Amy and Rory emerge out of the Honeymoon suite wearing their police officer and Roman Centurion costumes respectively. When the Doctor asks why, they explain that they were having "fun" in the suite.

* LiteraryAllusionTitle: Well, it ''is'' a WholePlotReference to the novel.
* LivingOnBorrowedTime: Again, Abigail, with an emphasis on the 'living'. It cannot be too strongly emphasized that Abigail is ''fine'' with spending her few remaining days having fantastic Christmas adventures with the Doctor and Kazran.

* NeverTheSelvesShallMeet: Averted. No Blinovitch Limitation Effect here. Arguably justified, as the timestream is changing so much that technically they're not quite the ''same'' Kazran anymore, which becomes a plot point. If his father's machine is any indication, he's not even the same person in his own present.

* RuleOfCool:
** The Doctor riding a carriage pulled by a flying shark, wearing a Santa hat.
** And the mental image (even if not seen on screen) of the Doctor singing a duet with Frank Sinatra and romancing Marilyn Monroe.

* SanDimasTime: Kazran's memories change as though the Doctor were chatting up a younger Kazran concurrently.

* SchizoTech: Barring the cryogenics and the weather-control machine constantly blasting purple light into the sky, almost everything about this planet's technology, socioeconomic makeup, architecture et al appears to be identical to Victorian England.

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: The ''psychic paper'' essentially does this when the Doctor tries to pass himself off as a responsible adult.

* SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong: The Doctor's plan to make Kazran a better person by giving him a proper childhood. The Doctor ''himself'' knows exactly what it is like to have a lonely childhood.

** Parodied. The Doctor's valiant attempts to explain ''why'' the fish seem to respond to people singing only serve to get him bitten by irritated fish.

** Present: Rory and Amy;

* YouMeanXmas: Discussed. Kazran mentions in narration that the first colonists on his planet called Christmas "The Crystal Feast".

The 2010 Christmas Special, written by Creator/StevenMoffat. Based in part on Moffat's first ''Series/DoctorWho'' story, "Literature/ContinuityErrors".