Suspended animation Suspended animation , or cryogenic stasis , was the temporary cessation of a life form ' s vital functions , often used to transport individuals from one time period to another without ageing . In 6087 , human s placed themselves in suspended animation on the Nerva Beacon in order to survive the solar flare s that devastated Earth . ( TV : " The Ark in Space " ) Millions of years later , much of humanity was miniaturised and placed in suspended animation on the Ark to survive the long voyage to Refusis II . ( TV : " The Ark " ) Davros was sentenced to be placed in suspended animation as punishment for his crimes . ( TV : " Resurrection of the Daleks " ) Tranquil Repose placed dying millionaires and politicians in suspended animation until cures for their conditions could be found . ( TV : " Revelation of the Daleks " ) In 1901 , Torchwood Three placed Jack Harkness ( who had been buried alive since 27 A . D . ) in cryogenic suspension so he could return to 2009 without crossing his own time stream . ( TV : " Exit Wounds " ) In 1918 , they placed Tommy Brockless in cryogenic suspension so that he could one day close a fracture in the Cardiff Space - Time Rift . ( TV : " To the Last Man " ) In 2009 , Jack placed his brother Gray in cryogenic suspension after chloroforming him when he threatened Cardiff and fatally wounded Jack ' s teammate , Toshiko Sato . He planned to keep Gray frozen indefinitely until he could find a way to sort out the anger his brother harboured towards him . ( TV : " Exit Wounds " ) However , the Torchwood Hub was destroyed when a bomb implanted inside Jack detonated . It is unknown if the cyrogenic chambers of the Hub survived the explosion . ( TV : " ) " The Seventh Doctor once spent unspecified millions of years in a coma , frozen within a block of ice . Though his clothing had mostly rotted away over the years , his body survived and he recovered fully . ( AUDIO : " Frozen Time " ) Abigail Pettigrew was cryogenically frozen by Elliot Sardick against a loan of 4 , 500 gideon s to her family . She suffered from a fatal disease that would soon claim her life unless she remained frozen . Her family kept her in this state , hoping a cure would be found for her condition . She remained frozen past Elliot ' s ownership and was passed down to his son , Kazran Sardick . The Eleventh Doctor woke her to calm a sky shark hunting himself and a younger Kazran by singing to it . The Doctor went back in time to alter Kazran ' s past when he refused to let a passenger ship in peril land in Sardicktown . He continued to visit Kazran every year at Christmas Eve , waking up Abigail each time . Abigail ' s life expectancy was limited to a very small number of days estimated by a counter on her stasis pod , which fell by one each time she was removed from cryogenic freeze . Though Kazran and Abigail fell in love with each other , her counter ran down to one final day , which he withheld until he became an old man for a last outing with her on Christmas Eve . ( TV : " A Christmas Carol " ) In 1893 , Winifred Gillyflower used diluted red leech venom to create a chemical form of suspended animation to preserve her followers at Sweetville . ( TV : " The Crimson Horror " ) In 2119 , the pilot of the ship picked up by the Drum was thought to be suspended in a suspended animation chamber . ( TV : " Under the Lake " ) Vassarian suspended himself in the Eternity Cage to the point when he began to regenerate . He was badly injured and decide to use the Cage to hold himself in stasis until help arrived . ( AUDIO : " The Eternity Cage " )