Abigail Pettigrew Abigail Pettigrew was one of the people taken by Elliot Sardick as " security " . She developed a romantic attachment to his son , Kazran , due to alterations made to the timeline by the Eleventh Doctor . Biography . Frozen . Abigail was cryogenically frozen by Elliot Sardick against a loan of 4 , 500 gideon s to her family . This sort of " security " allowed him power over those who owed him money . Abigail suffered from a fatal disease ; the freezing prevented her death but when she awoke her condition deteriorated again . A counter placed on the outside of her freezing chamber kept count of the time she had left to live if unfrozen . ( TV : " A Christmas Carol " ) Original timeline . In the original timeline , Abigail remained locked in her ice box without ever being released . When her sister was elderly , she and her family approached Kazran Sardick to release Abigail to just spend Christmas with them . However , Kazran cruelly rejected the family ' s pleas as they could not pay any of the debt that Abigail was collateral for . When the Eleventh Doctor arrived to get Kazran ' s help in saving a crashing spaceship , he spotted Abigail whom Kazran dismissed as being no one important . As Abigail was taken away , the Doctor commented that in all of his long life , he ' d never met a single person who was unimportant . ( TV : " A Christmas Carol " ) After Kazran ' s timeline was changed . When the Eleventh Doctor went back in time to alter the course of Kazran ' s entire timeline , Kazran and Abigail first met after Abigail was awoken by a twelve - year - old Kazran and the Doctor . She was able to calm a sky shark hunting them by singing to it . She went with them in the TARDIS to return the shark to the cloud belt . Abigail then returned to her case . Just before she froze , Kazran promised they would visit each year . Kazran and the Doctor woke her every Christmas Eve and took her places . Over the years as he grew older , she and Kazran fell in love . In the changed timeline , Abigail was allowed out so she could have an early Christmas dinner with her family on one Christmas Eve . She went on trips in time and space with the Doctor and Kazran for as long as she could , but when she only had one day left to live unfrozen , she told only Kazran of her illness . She returned to her case . A thoroughly heartbroken Kazran told the Doctor only that he did not want him to return next year as the annual outings had gotten " old " . Many years passed and Abigail remained frozen . A spacecraft was damaged in the cloud belt on Christmas Day , and was about to crash . The Doctor needed Abigail to sing , which would break up the cloud and allow a landing . Kazran was reluctant ; he had been unable to choose what day should be their last together . Having awoken and heard the question , Abigail exited the stasis pod and told him " Christmas Day . " She sang into the Doctor ' s sonic screwdriver . This was transmitted to its other half in the shark . The cloud opened and the ship survived . Kazran and Abigail spent her last day together , using the shark to fly across the sky in a carriage as they had in one of their first adventures with the Doctor . ( TV : " A Christmas Carol " ) Personality . Abigail had a sweet , affectionate and kind - hearted personality . A holographic recording on her ice chamber pictured her thanking Elliot Sardick for his generosity . She was an extremely good singer and was able to easily calm even the sky sharks . Abigail became increasingly attached to Kazran , particularly as he got older , to the point of romance . When he woke her on the last day , she affectionately teased him about waiting so long to release her and chose to spend her last day with him . ( TV : " A Christmas Carol " ) Behind the scenes . Unlike other one - off characters appearing in recent specials , Abigail was never promoted by the BBC as being a " companion " of the Doctor . Ironically , however , she and Kazran 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 criterion for being a companion .