'Dr. Who: A Christmas Carol' review: classic redo

You may have heard of an old story that seems to make the rounds every year at this time, about a coldhearted old miser who rediscovers his own humanity, with the help of a bit of time travel arranged by three spirited travel agents.

Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" has been the subject of countless feature films, animated versions, TV specials and more than a few episodes of TV shows. Despite the fact that we know the story by heart, even the cheesiest version seems to have some kind of appeal. Vanessa Williams as a lady Scrooge? An animated Scrooge McDuck as Ebenezer? Oh, why not? 'Tis, as they say, the season.

But just when you think there's nothing new to do with Dickens' 1843 story, along come Steven Moffat and the BBC's "Doctor Who" with a pretty original take on old Scrooge.

Airing on the BBC America channel on Christmas Day, "Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol" manages to be true to the concept of the original story, while portraying the Scrooge-like Kazran Sardick (Michael Gambon) as someone who pinches not only pence, but time as well.

Of course, over its many decades and with 11 actors in the lead role, "Doctor Who" (Matt Smith as the Time Lord of the title these days) has been all about the fluidity of time, especially as the good doctor pops in and out of other worlds in other periods through the courtesy of his own private TARDIS, a flying police call box.

In this expanded episode, the Doctor's friends Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) and Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill) are on their honeymoon aboard a spaceship that is plummeting out of control toward Sardicktown, not only ruled, but megalomaniacally controlled, by the evil Kazran. All will be well if only Dr. Who can melt Kazran's crusty heart enough for him to allow the spaceship to land safely.

Sounds straightforward enough, but if you know "Doctor Who," you know things are more complicated than that. In visiting Kazran's past, we encounter the usual Dickensian elements, including Kazran's youthful infatuation with Abigail Pettigrew (the Welsh singer Katherine Jenkins), a lovely young woman who, in the present day, is frozen in Kazran's basement and only "warms up" once a year on Christmas Eve.

The trouble is that Abigail has only a single Christmas Eve left on her meter and Kazran has denied himself the pleasure of spending that remaining day with her for years, simply because he knows it will be his last with her. Kazran has managed to make time stand still, in a way, but in doing so, has imprisoned his own humanity and evolved into the lonely, angry man he is when the Doctor first encounters him.

Things may turn out as they always do in "Christmas Carol" adaptations, but very few versions get to that old happy ending with quite this much imagination.

Dr. Who: A Christmas Carol: 9 p.m. Sat. BBC America.