The Clock Ticks Down to This Year's Doctor Who Christmas Special

The Clock Ticks Down to This Year's Doctor Who Christmas Special
Courtesy of Diamond Comics

While children around the world are counting down the days to Christmas Day on the 25th, Doctor Who fans on both sides of the Atlantic are also counting down the days to the 25th and the premier of Doctor Who's "A Christmas Carol" on BBC-1 and BBC-America.

It's the deepest part of winter, the exact midpoint, Christmas Eve – halfway out of the dark. Amy and Rory are trapped on a stricken space liner that's plummeting through banks of thick icy fog to the surface of the planet below.

Only one man has the power to save them; only one man is in possession of a machine that can clear the fog and let them land safely.

That man is Kazran Sardick, a rich but lonely old miser who rules Sardicktown with a sky-mast of iron.

The Doctor's only chance of rescuing the ship's four thousand passengers is to save Kazran's soul and show him that life is worth living. For this he needs to go back, way back, to when Kazran was a boy with a life full of promise.

But can the Doctor put a song in Kazran's heart and love in his life, in time for Christmas? Can he bring him out of the dark?

Starring Matt Smith (the eleventh Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), and Arthur Darvill (Rory Williams), "A Christmas Carol" guest-stars Harry Potter's Michael Gambon and Welsh opera star Katherine Jenkins in her acting debut. Inspired by the work of Charles Dickens, "A Christmas Carol" is penned by Hugo Award-winning showrunner and executive producer Steven Moffat and premieres on Christmas Day, Saturday the 25th of December at 9:00 p.m. EST.