The Chimes of Midnight (audio story)
.
The Chimes of Midnight was the twenty-ninth story in Big Finish's monthly range. It was written by Robert Shearman and featured Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor and India Fisher as Charlotte Pollard.
It was the second in a series of 6 audio stories featuring the Eighth Doctor.
Publisher's summary
'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house not a creature was stirring...
But something must be stirring. Something hidden in the shadows. Something which kills the servants of an old Edwardian mansion in the most brutal and macabre manner possible. Exactly on the chiming of the hour, every hour, as the grandfather clock ticks on towards midnight.
Trapped and afraid, the Doctor and Charley are forced to play detective to murders with no motive, where the victims don't stay dead. Time is running out.
And time itself might well be the killer...
Plot
Part 1
The Doctor is supposed to be taking Charley to Singapore 1930, but for some reason the TARDIS seems unwilling to complete the journey. Instead, it materialises somewhere in pitch darkness, and doesn’t provide any data on its location. Eagerly anticipating a good mystery, the Doctor sends Charley out to learn what she can about their surroundings, while he fetches torches from inside the TARDIS; however, while exploring she inadvertently knocks over something made of glass, shattering it. The Doctor emerges with a torch to find that the wall next to Charley is now dripping with what seems to be blood... but upon closer examination, he’s relieved to find that rather than severing an artery, she’s just knocked over a jar of raspberry jam. They soon determine that they’re in the rather well-stocked larder of an Edwardian family manor, and set off to explore further.
Elsewhere, scullery maid Edith Thompson scrubs the pots and pans, and sings Hark the Herald Angels Sing, humming the bits she can’t remember. The butler, Mr Shaughnessy, interrupts her caterwauling and angrily points out the dust which has built up on the table due to her neglect. To prove his point, he writes her name in the dust; to little avail, as she can’t read. Subdued, she returns to work quietly, reminded as always that she is nothing and nobody -- a sentiment shared by the household cook, Mrs Baddeley. Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without Mrs Baddeley’s famous plum puddings, but she also has to prepare the turkey, and she thus summons Edith from the scullery to help. She’s irritated when Edith protests that she’s been told to work on the scullery, and contemptuous when Edith further demonstrates her general clumsiness and idiocy by burning her hands while trying to pick up the plum pudding. Edith only makes things worse when she wonders aloud why the servants’ plum pudding is smaller than the one for upstairs, even though there are more servants than there are gentry. The butler and the cook are aghast; they are nothing and nobody, and Edith will never fulfill her dreams of becoming a cook if she carries on like that. Shaughnessy leaves to attend to his duties, but Frederick the chauffeur then arrives to speak with Mrs Baddeley. Mrs Baddeley thus sends Edith away; what she and Frederick have to discuss is between them alone...
The Doctor and Charley emerge from the larder into a darkened scullery, which Charley compares to her the one from her own house in 1930. This scullery is larger, but the washing equipment is less advanced, suggesting that this is an earlier time period. The Doctor finds and lights some candles, and returns his anachronistic torches to the TARDIS while Charley remains in the scullery. The washing-up has been abandoned, as indeed the whole house seems to have been -- but when the Doctor returns, he and Charley find that the water in the sink is still warm. The name “Edith Thompson” is written in the dust on the table, but as Charley idly writes her own name beside it, recalling the Edith who once worked for her family, the dust closes up around Charleys name, erasing it. The Doctor then informs her that the broken jar in the larder has reassembled itself, and Charley realises that her dress is no longer stained. Intrigued, the Doctor and Charley proceed to the kitchen, which also appears dark and abandoned -- and yet contains a turkey and two plum puddings, all prepared for Christmas. Charley has never liked plum pudding that much, as her own cook always made too much of it and Charley once broke a tooth on a thruppeny piece hidden inside. But as Charley idly recalls Christmases past, she hears someone singing Hark the Herald Angels Sing, very faintly, in the background. The Doctor can hear nothing -- and he’s starting to become unnerved.
Frederick the chauffeur arrives in the kitchen to speak with Mrs Baddeley. Mrs Baddeley thus sends Edith away; what she and Frederick have to discuss is between them alone. For a moment, however, Edith pauses, hearing two faint and unfamiliar voices in the kitchen with her... As soon as Edith has gone, Mrs Baddeley lets Frederick know, in no uncertain terms, that she’s disgusted by what he’s been doing with the lady’s maid, Mary. If Mrs Baddeley tells the lady of the house what she’s seen, then Frederick and Mary will be expelled from the house in shame. Frederick tries to offer the cook a bribe, and then tries threatening her; she’s left him with nothing to lose. Mrs Baddeley, furious, kicks him out of her kitchen. Frederick returns to the servants’ common room, where Mary is waiting with a sprig of mistletoe; however, Frederick breaks it off with her, claiming that their past trysts were a mistake. For a moment, Mary suspects that Frederick prefers Edith, but that’s silly -- nobody could possibly love a girl like her. Frederick insists that they have no right to love; they are nothing, and nobody. But Mary won’t let anyone stand in her way -- not Mrs Baddeley, and not even Frederick himself.
The Doctor and Charley enter the servants’ common room, where the fire in the grate is frozen in a moment of Time. They try pulling a Christmas cracker, which snaps back together moments later; it’s as though they can’t affect anything in this frozen moment. To test this theory, the Doctor pulls the cracker again and this time grabs the paper hat from inside before the cracker can reassemble itself. He and Charley can influence the frozen world after all -- and if they’re not careful, it can influence them. Even more disturbing is the joke from within the cracker -- the old chestnut “When is a door not a door” is answered “When it’s a raspberry jam jar.” Time is being manipulated by some intelligent force, which is deliberately mocking the Doctor and Charley...
The Doctor tries tossing his paper hat into the fire, which unfreezes just long enough to burn the hat. Charley then hears the distant caroling again, and when the Doctor burns the cracker and then the tablecloth, the sound gets louder. Only Charley can hear it, and when she follows it to the scullery and tries to communicate with the singer, she hears the sound of a ticking clock -- and is overwhelmed by angry and contemputous voices, shouting the putdowns and rage which Edith has had to suffer through all her life. Charley suddenly finds herself standing next to Edith, who’s surprised, cowed and delighted to find herself speaking with a lady from upstairs. Honoured that Charley is treating her kindly, Edith proudly shows Charley her name in the dust -- but as they watch, Charley’s name appears there as well, where she tried and failed to write it earlier. It’s as though Charley is now a part of Edith’s world -- and Edith suddenly becomes cold and distant, telling Charley that soon she, Edith, will die. Everyone will then forget she ever existed -- but Charley must remember.
Edith returns to normal, but then Charley finds herself back in the darkness with the Doctor. There is no sign of Edith, and when Charley tells the Doctor about her disturbing experience, the Doctor realises that he too can hear a grandfather clock ticking. He decides that enough is enough, and that this mystery must remain unsolved -- but as he and Charley turn back to the TARDIS, the clock begins to chime and a woman’s scream rings out. It’s too late for them to leave -- the Doctor and Charley are about to be let into the house after all..
Cast
- The Doctor - Paul McGann
- Charley Pollard - India Fisher
- Edith - Louise Rolfe
- Mr Shaughnessy - Lennox Greaves
- Mrs Baddeley - Sue Wallace
- Frederick - Robert Curbishley
- Mary - Juliet Warner
References
Real World
- Agatha Christie is mentioned for her detective mysteries.
Books
- The Doctor mentions that Charley helped him find a first edition of Oliver Twist at Charing Cross Road.
Objects
- Charley's diary was found in the wreckage of the airship R101 after it crashed in France on 5 October 1930.
Time travel
- The Doctor and Charley experience several time loops.
- The Doctor mentions travelling for centuries.
Individuals
- Plum pudding has always been Charley's favourite. The Doctor also seems fond of it.
Notes
- The Chimes of Midnight was the first time that a companion created specifically for the audio range had featured on the cover.
- In 2016, this story was re-released on vinyl in a limited run of 500 copies. Tom Webster designed a new cover, and a new behind-the-scenes documentary was recorded.
- The cook, Mrs Baddeley, is named after actress Angela Baddeley, who played Mrs Bridges in the ITV television series Upstairs, Downstairs which is also set in a large Edwardian house. Shaughnessy is named after the show's script editor, Alfred Shaughnessy.
- This audio drama was recorded on 17 and 18 January 2001.
- After AUDIO: Invaders from Mars, this is the second consecutive story in which the Doctor impersonates a detective.
Cover gallery
Original cover
Cover for limited vinyl edition
Continuity
- Edith references some of the events of AUDIO: Storm Warning.
- The Doctor mentions the events of AUDIO: The Stones of Venice and AUDIO: Minuet in Hell.
- The Celestial Toymaker would later refer to Edith Thompson in a riddle while Charley was playing his games in the Celestial Toyroom. (AUDIO: Solitaire)
- Edith was the only person who knew that Charley intended to stowaway aboard the R101 and helped her prepare for the adventure. (AUDIO: The Fall of the House of Pollard)
- Charley's mother Lady Louisa Pollard discovered Edith's body. (AUDIO: The Fall of the House of Pollard)
- The Doctor is still trying to get Charley to Singapore. (AUDIO: Invaders from Mars)
- The Eighth Doctor seems to like custard much like the Eleventh Doctor. (TV: The Eleventh Hour et al)
- The Doctor previously solved the riddle "When is a door not a door?" during his second incarnation. (TV: The Mind Robber)
External links
- Official The Chimes of Midnight page at bigfinish.com; note that it is out of print and is available as download only.
- The Chimes of Midnight at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
- DisContinuity for The Chimes of Midnight at Tetrapyriarbus - The DisContinuity Guide
