22 Edward Grove was an Edwardian house given sentience by a temporal paradox created by the Eighth Doctor, Charley Pollard, and Edith Thompson.
Biography[[edit] | [edit source]]
Early life[[edit] | [edit source]]
Scullery maid Edith Thompson would go on to work for the Pollard family in the 1930s, but she would commit suicide after Charley Pollard's apparent death in the R101 crash, only for Charley's arrival in the TARDIS with the Eighth Doctor on 24 December, 1906, to essentially remove Edith's reason for killing herself. This created a temporal paradox in 22 Edward Grove, the house in which Edith was working at the time, and Edith's death and life became the focus of a two hour time loop "inhabited" by the residents of the house.
Each of them were trapped in a loop where some of them would die at the moment that the clock struck the hour. At midnight, the people came to life again, and the loop started again. The traumatic events, such as the murders, gave sentience to the house, which became a cold and cruel entity desperate to survive and continue to exist, despite not wishing to do anything with its life than merely exist. (AUDIO: The Chimes of Midnight)
Facing the Doctor[[edit] | [edit source]]
As the Doctor and Charley investigated the murders around the house, their presence gave more power to the temporal paradox. As Edward Grove grew stronger and stronger, it faced the Doctor by speaking through its butler, Shaughnessy, and attempted to convince him to join the cycle and perpetuate his existence. The Doctor instead tried convincing Edward to end the loop and die to free its residents, but when Edward refused, the Doctor and Charley convinced Edith that her life had meaning. Thus, the paradox and time loop were broken, and Edward Grove was deprived of sentience and became an old house once again. (AUDIO: The Chimes of Midnight)