Doctor Who: The Chimes of Midnight - Atop the Fourth Wall

Welcome to Atop the Fourth Wall, where bad comics burn. In this episode, Linkara concludes his celebration of Doctor Who's 60th anniversary with a Christmassy audio drama!

Originally released December 20th, 2023

ORIGINAL DESCRIPTION: The chimes of plum pudding.

#at4w #doctorwho

[thethwallkid]

If Edward Grove is so hungry, why not give him some Plum pudding

[fireyay]

I really crack when Linkara does that silent grin after a goofy pun.

Scullery Skullduggery indeed.

[benwasserman]

Let's be real, audio dramas are what saved Paul McGann's Doctor for a lot of people. The TV movie wasn't the worst, but he really gained a larger audience thanks to Big Picture-inspired stories.

[dragon-]

Speaking of solving problems with Yu-Gi-Oh, I did that in D&D once.

Having been sent to retrieve an item, we found it being argued over by a bunch of Beholder-kin. My character, a rogue, snuck up on them, but a poor roll meant that she got caught. After a failed attempt to convince them that she was a door-to-door Hell Spider salesperson, and "admitting" to her attempted scam them, she proposed a fair way to decide which of the arguing factions got the item.

See, I had made a joke about Yu-Gi-Oh being only comprehensible to eldritch beings, which the DM ruled canon.

My character, having been raised by her demon grandfather, just so happened to know what Duel Monsters was (and Warhammer, but that's neither here nor there). So she suggested a best of 5 Duel, which she could provide refreshments for. The Beholder-kin immediately agreed and pulled out their decks.

As this character was ALSO an established drug dealer, she spiked the refreshments, and she and our other rogue stole the item. Our bard also stole the most strategically important cards from each deck.

It's very in keeping with the rest of the campaign, which features such things as said "Hadozee" Bard, who might just be an orangutan from the real world and who has, CANONICALLY, seen every Twitch stream.

[docdave]

A few personal notes about this audio:
1. It's my personal favorite
2. As an amateur baker, I've been wanting to try and make a plum pudding
3. Before I looked up the cast, I thought Shaughnessy was played by James Nesbitt.
4. I met Robert Sherman, the writer, at a convention a few years and I told him this was one of my favorite Doctor Who things ever. He was shocked by this. Not because he thought it was bad but because it was made so long ago that he thought people would have forgotten about it.

[wstine]

"Ah, I see you redecorated Linkara Spaceship. I don't like it!"

[DrakeyC]

I'm guessing the reason the paradox occurred when they landed in 1906 is because Edith now knew Charlie was alive in the future. Like when someone's memories rewrite themselves to fit a changed history. Edith now had these memories of meeting Charlie in 1906 even if she didn't know her then, but as the time of Charlie's death approached maybe she began putting the pieces together and realized Charlie didn't die but became a time traveler somehow. Or to be more vague, it could be that the memories were repressed by timey-wimey goop until the time of Charlie's apparent death and then she suddenly realized "wait, if she just died, how did I meet her 15 years ago before she was born?"

You could technobabble (timebabble?) a lot of more precise explanations for HOW it could make sense that would be feasible, so I'm fine with this explanation as-is.

[akasquirrel]

To bring back a joke from an earlier review, "Oh my God, she ate too much pudding!"

[MalWave]

Paul McGann really deserves every bit of popularity he gets. The man can ACT. I adore his doctor <3

[MattwosRandomNonContent]

55:32 Mrs. Baddeley: "Chrismas isn't chrismas without my plum pudding!"
Dalek: "Yes, we know!"

[myriadmediamusings]

I love how the 8th Doctor has been more than vindicated by Big Finish, and how the show followed up on that with Night of the Doctor and Power of the Doctor.

The Big Finish 8th Doctor theme is honestly one of my favorite renditions of it, its just so otherworldly and different, and in retrospect is quite an omen for whats to come for him in Big Finish and his eventual end.

[Dr.WaluigiReviews]

A battle between linkara and abridged seto kaiba with a children's card game? ... you had my curiosity now you have my attention.

[EyeoftheU]

Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without the Chimes of Midnight.

[leephillips]

I liked the concept of the Thirteenth Doctor New Years specials because historically the BBC's mandate for a Christmas special every year meant when it was time for the Doctor to regenerate they always had to either shoehorn a regeneration into a Christmas story or shoehorn Christmas into a regeneration story. But having the Doctor regenerate in a New Years story would work great, the themes of those two concepts would go together really well. Ironically I didn't end up watching the Thirteenth Doctors last episode and I'm not sure if it came out on New Years or not.

[DarkfireTaimatsu]

A Doctor Who audio drama with a really interesting premise, *and* a storyline update? Truly, this is a gift for Christmas~

[andywellsglobaldomination]

The movie was a thing in and of itself. But it had a lot of firsts, including the dark themed TARDIS interior and the orchestral arrangement of the theme.

[captainmarvelous]

A great review as usual Linkara, and I'm excited to see the long awaited finale of the Contest of Champions.

[sirjedisentinel]

God, Rob Shearman is such a demented genius! All bangers too. This, The Holy Terror, Scherzo, Jubilee, Deadline (my favorite of his stories)

[ОлегЕршов-мс]

Oh my god, a plot segment?! I honestly thought Linkara was not doing them anymore, even the Halloween went without anything creepy happening. That's a nice surprise!

[markberghel]

Knowing who plays the Bandit Chief, the nature of this finale is just too fitting. Looking forward to it! :D