Twenty-Four Doors in December (audio story)
Twenty-Four Doors in December was the first story in the audio anthology In the Bleak Midwinter, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by John Dorney and featured Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor, India Fisher as Charlotte Pollard and Jaye Griffiths as Lady Audacity Montague.
Publisher's summary
When the TARDIS lands in London on the first of December the Doctor decides to treat his companions to a proper Christmas holiday...even down to dragging out the Baker Street Advent Calendar.
But elsewhere in the city a department store Santa is starting to have a very unnerving month. He's on a collision course with the time travellers. Is it going to be a Happy Christmas?
Plot
The Doctor takes Charley and Audacity to 107 Baker Street on 1 December in 2003 or 2004 to celebrate Christmas and presents them with an Advent calendar he made several incarnations ago. Audacity, unfamiliar with Advent calendars, opens the first door. Over the coming days, the trio prepare for Christmas and plan a party for the patients at London's children's hospitals, for which Charley and Audacity visit a department store where they decide to drop by Santa Claus's grotto.
Al Norton, a Santa Claus struggling with alcoholism, inexplicably hears a girl singing Silent Night. When Isla is brought to his grotto by her father, he recognises her voice as that of the caroller, but she disappears before he can go after her and he takes an early lunch. When Charley and Audacity visit to hire a Santa, Isobel, an elf, directs them to inquire at Great Grottoes Ltd. The Doctor does so and meets Santa Nicholas, who books them in for 22 December.
After a sleepless night because of an apparent hallucination of a woman crying over a dead girl, Al gets drunk and is told by Santa Nicholas to stay home for two weeks when he tells a child that Father Christmas is not real. Isobel too is left without a job for two weeks as Santa Nicholas's wife takes her place, but they are assigned to the Baker Street party and visit to sort the preparations. Al runs away upon seeing Audacity, however, so Isobel sorts everything instead. The next day, the Doctor, Charley and Audacity go to his flat to check on him and have the door closed on them when he hears the caroller.
Al believes that he was able to tell what the Doctor, Charley and Audacity looked like before he met them and Isobel tells him that he should see a doctor. He waits for Charley and Audacity to leave Baker Street and visits the Doctor to talk about what is worrying him, meeting with him at a coffee shop the next day to tell his companions how he has been seeing the three of them in random places. He hears the sound of a car braking and sees Charley, Audacity and Isobel outside, overwhelming him and leading him to leave. The Doctor detects no unusual disturbances or alien influences around him.
By reading through some ghost stories, the Doctor comes to the conclusion that Al is seeing ghostly warnings of the future, which only strengthens Al's belief that he needs to keep away from Charley and Audacity. Al dreams of Isobel in an ambulance and resigns from Great Grottoes Ltd, telling Santa Nicholas that he refuses to do the Baker Street party and considering getting drunk at the Red Lion before the Doctor convinces him to do otherwise. The Doctor threatens to cancel the Baker Street party unless Al attends, so he gives in.
After the party, Charley and Audacity walk Al to the bus stop, near which are a group of carollers singing Silent Night. Isla recognises Al and walks in front of Isobel's moving car to go and speak to him, but he manages to get her out of the way and is hit himself. He wakes up in hospital the next day and the Doctor reunites him with his estranged daughter, Suzanne, whose wife took her away because of his alcoholism. On Christmas Eve, the Doctor admits to Charley and Audacity that he is not sure of why Al was having visions and guesses that time was attempting to repair itself as Isla would not have been in the road were it not for the time travellers' presence.
Cast
- The Doctor - Paul McGann
- Charley Pollard - India Fisher
- Lady Audacity Montague - Jaye Griffiths
- Al Norton - Jason Watkins
- Isobel / Neighbour - Natalie Gumede
- Santa Nicholas / Father - David Hall
- Isla / Suzanne - Eleanor Bennett
Worldbuilding
- The twenty-four doors are:
- 1 December: The first door of the Baker Street advent calendar.
- 2 December: The fire escape from the staff area of the department store.
- 3 December: The kitchen door in 107 Baker Street.
- 4 December: The back exit of a double decker bus.
- 5 December: The revolving door at the front of the department store.
- 6 December: The front entrance of Santa's grotto.
- 7 December: The Great Grottoes Ltd offices.
- 8 December: The door of Al Norton's bedroom.
- 9 December: The back exit of Santa's grotto.
- 10 December: The entrance to the staff room in the department store.
- 11 December: The front door of 107 Baker Street.
- 12 December: The front door of Al's flat.
- 13 December: Isobel's flat.
- 14 December: The living room in 107 Baker Street.
- 15 December: The entrance to a high street coffee shop.
- 16 December: The newsagent's across the road from Al's flat.
- 17 December: The library at 107 Baker Street.
- 18 December: The front door of Al's building.
- 19 December: The back door of an ambulance.
- 20 December: The front door of Santa Nicholas's home.
- 21 December: The saloon bar entrance to the Red Lion.
- 22 December: Isobel's Mini Metro.
- 23 December: The door to the side room of a hospital ward.
- 24 December: The TARDIS.
- Peter Rogers made thirty films based on double entendres.
- Advent calendars were first made several decades after 1812 by German Lutherans or German mothers looking for an excuse to give her children sweets.
- Charley makes a Christmas pudding.
- The Doctor asks Al if he is Ebenezer Scrooge.
- The Doctor mentions his 500 Year Diary.
- Charley and Audacity go ice skating.
- Audacity enjoys a cappuccino.
- The Doctor decides that he will take Audacity to Betelgeuse to drink coffee at Six-Legged Steve's.
- Al drinks tea. Charley makes some for herself, the Doctor and Audacity.
- Al was an actor.
- The Doctor buys a can of ginger pop.
- Charley mentions A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.
- The Doctor mentions The Signal-Man.
- M. R. James wrote ghost stories.
- Audacity has been to Norfolk.
- Al takes a bus.
- Al considers getting into pantomime.
Notes
to be added
Continuity
- The Doctor mentions that he bought 107 Baker Street a few regenerations ago in The Haunting of Thomas Brewster [+]Loading...["The Haunting of Thomas Brewster (audio story)"].
- Charley does not know why she has said that Christmas would not be Christmas without pudding. The Chimes of Midnight [+]Loading...["The Chimes of Midnight (audio story)"]
External links
- Official Twenty-Four Doors in December page at bigfinish.com
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