Kazran Sardick

Kazran Sardick was the son of Elliot Sardick. He controlled the skies of Sardicktown in the 44th century. Once an aspiring child with pleasant ambitions to look forward to, he was undermined by his austere father for many years and descended into the mentality of a cold and extremely detached miserly fellow. However, his fateful encounter with the Doctor changed him when the Time Lord had the obstinate man re-experience his past on a better path, which gradually defrosted him back to a compassionate soul with a soft spot for romance.

Early life
He first met the Eleventh Doctor on Christmas Eve when he was twelve years old. His father had struck him on the face on learning Kazran was trying to find out about the fish which roamed Sardicktown when the fog came. Kazran told the Doctor of his wish to "meet" a fish as everyone else had.

The Doctor and Kazran lured a small sky fish to Kazran's bedroom. The Doctor entered to inspect it when a sky shark came, ate the fish and half the Doctor's sonic screwdriver. It chased and trapped the Doctor and Kazran in Kazran's wardrobe. Luckily the shark fell unconscious; it was suffering as a result of eating the sonic screwdriver.

Unhappy to see the creature dying, Kazran wished to save it and the Doctor agreed to help. Kazran led the Doctor to the basement, where his father kept his debtors' relatives in cryogenic suspension as "security". Kazran removed a young woman named Abigail Pettigrew from a cold chamber. When the other half of the Doctor's sonic screwdriver bleeped, the Doctor and Kazran realised the shark was awake again and the halves of the screwdriver were trying to find each other; half was in the Doctor's possession, but the other half was inside the shark. Kazran and the Doctor hid from the shark until they heard a voice singing the Christmas hymn In the Bleak Mid Winter.

They realised it was Abigail singing and she was soothing the shark. They put the shark in the Cryonic chamber and took Abigail with them in the TARDIS. They returned the shark to the clouds and then Abigail to her chamber. Kazran had begun to take a liking to Abigail.

Christmas Eve travels
Before her chamber closed Kazran announced that the Doctor would visit every Christmas eve. Kazran went on a adventure every Christmas Eve with the Doctor and Abigail. They went to many places on Earth. Kazran began to develop a relationship with Abigail, and one night they kissed. Abigail returned to her chamber every midnight.

Finally, Abigail revealed that being frozen was keeping her alive. Were she taken out again, she would have only one day to live, Kazran put a stop to their Christmas Eves together without telling the Doctor the reason.

Realising something was wrong, the Doctor left Kazran the remnants of his screwdriver to call him when he needed him. Kazran bluntly told him that he would never need him.

Later life
Heartbroken over his loss of Abigail, Kazran eventually fell under his father's influence. He grew bitter and cared little for others. He controlled the cloud bank with a machine his father and he had developed. One night, the Doctor returned, asking him to use his machine so that a spaceliner carrying Amy and Rory could land or they would crash. Kazran refused.

He sent the Doctor away and sat down but suddenly a projector began to play, projecting a video of a younger Kazran recording a diary on a laptop. The video showed Kazran's father, Elliot Sardick, hitting him after he had talked about the fish. The older Kazran, remembering this, began to cry. The Doctor walked in and told him to let the liner land. Kazran refused and the Doctor warned him that, whatever happened that night, he had brought it upon himself. The Doctor returned to the TARDIS and suddenly appeared in the background of the video still being projected onto the wall of the room.

In the video, the younger Kazran met the Doctor and they started their adventures together. After watching the video, the elder Kazran walked over to a chest and opened it, revealing pictures of the Doctor, himself and Abigail on their adventures. Kazran went down to the basement to see Abigail in her cryonic state, but encountered a hologram of people singing Christmas carols. A hologram of Amy Pond introduced herself as the Ghost of Christmas Present and told him these were the people on the spaceliner. He refused to change his mind. He was transported to the crashing spaceliner and saw the terror. He returned to the basement, but the Doctor was there saying that he was now the Ghost of Christmas Future. Kazran turned to see his younger self standing there. His younger self thought that older Kazran was his father, and Kazran, enraged at the comparison to his father, stormed over to his younger self and prepared to hit the boy, who burst into tears. Older Kazran, realising what he had done, hugged his younger self. They both wept.

Kazran agreed to save the people on the space liner but the isomorphic controls did not respond. The Doctor realised that this was because he had changed Kazran's lifeline too much. The controls had been made for the cold, bitter and cruel person that Kazran had been. They remembered that Abigail's singing would cause a delta wave pattern vibration of the ice crystals in the air.

Kazran was unwilling to release her, unable to choose what day should be their last together. She was released and told him "Christmas day". Outside, Abigail sang into the other half on the Sonic Screwdriver and the fog cleared. The cloud bank opened in snowfall. The ship landed successfully and the passengers — including Amy and Rory - were saved. The Doctor and younger Kazran left in the TARDIS, revealing the sleigh that they harnessed up to the shark many years ago in one of their adventures. Older Kazran and Abigail flew off into the distance in the sleigh being pulled by the shark. (TV: A Christmas Carol)

Personality
As a young boy, Kazran was intimidated by his father and was sometimes violently abused by him. He was originally a kind hearted and optimistic person despite his abusive father. As a child he was fascinated by the sky fish and was compassionate enough to want to save a sky shark, even though it had tried to eat him and the Doctor. During the Doctor's Christmas visits, Kazran fell deeply in love with Abigail Pettigrew and was heartbroken when he discovered that she was dying. He kept her in cryogenic suspension for many years, unwilling to let her out because he knew that the next time he saw her would be the last time.

Later in his life, Kazran grew into a bitter and heartless old man who was even willing to allow people to die on a descending spaceship telling the Doctor that he didn't get anything out of it but he just didn't care. Kazran was cruel but despite this he couldn't bring himself to strike a child, having remembered the times his father had struck him in his own childhood. He had a short temper and often lost control of his emotions, having fits of anger and sometimes succumbed to tears when he was reminded of his past. All his bitterness and anger came from the fact that Abigail was dying and he was afraid of bringing her out of cryogenic suspension. Kazran stated that he despised Christmas and thinking of Abigail still hurt him even when he was an old man, showing that he still loved her very deeply. With the Doctor's help, Kazran finally managed to find the courage to let Abigail out of the frozen chamber, knowing full well that it would be the last time he'd ever see her. Kazran did his best to enjoy his last night with his love and was seen laughing as he rode in a sleigh pulled by a shark alongside Abigail. The Doctor and Abigail had reminded Kazran of the person he had once been, and Kazran finally changed into a kinder and more warm-hearted man.

Other references
During a visit to 2368 of a parallel universe, Rory referred to Sardick as a "character." He and Amy reminded the Doctor of the incident with Sardick when he claimed that he would not allow Jean-Luc Picard and William Riker to cross their own timelines. (COMIC: Assimilation²)

Behind the scenes

 * Unlike other one-off characters appearing in recent specials, Kazran was never promoted by the BBC as being a "companion" of the Doctor. However, he and Abigail are in fact the first "one-offs" since Donna Noble in The Runaway Bride to travel through time and space in the TARDIS, fulfilling a generally accepted criteria for being a companion.

External link
Kazran Sardick