An Autist Reviews: The Chimes Of Midnight (Doctor Who - The Monthly Adventures 29)

*This is a Golden Age Monthly Adventure (1-100), and as such likely contains more mature and uncomfortable themes than later Monthly Adventures.*

*All Reviews Are Spoiler-Free Aside From Any Spoiler Sections*

***Trigger/Content Warning: Suicide, Abuse, Degrading Speech, Brainwashing, Dehumanizing Speech, Mind Control, etc.***

The Doctor and his latest companion Charley arrive in a seemingly abandoned Edwardian house on Christmas Eve, but the house isn’t as abandoned as it seems. Time has been warped, it’s folding back in on itself, staff at the house are dying, and it’s up to amateur sleuths the Doctor and Charley Pollard to find the culprit. Death after death, revival after revival, life, death, and time are clearly broken, but why, and what does it have to do with Charley and, perhaps more importantly, the only consistent victim Edith Thompson. Oh well, it probably doesn’t matter anyway, it’s most likely suicide and even if it’s not, she was nothing. Nobody.

“We are nobody. Only in service do we derive any meaning or purpose. We serve. That is our function. Our only function. We are nobody.”

Okay, so, this is a very funny and also very eerie and horrific story. For every 3 witty lines, there is a gruesome death or an existentially terrifying idea put into play. This story has Charley at its core, and she holds most of the emotional tension of it as well. All the characters are purposeful caricatures and are therefore written to be very one-note while still having their own personalities, resulting in great use of repetition and an interesting feeling as everything begins to go wrong. This story’s biggest problems would be in its episode endings and its exposition. Episode 4 is almost entirely exposition and it generally does it fantastically, the story itself generally does, but for some reason small details like how the dust on a table moves or what the scene of Charley’s death would have been like get over exposited. The endings of each episode also tend to leave one wanting, though only in episode 3 is that really because of the writing. The pacing sometimes gets rather off, with episode 3 never seeming to end until suddenly the Doctor decides it’s time to run away with Charley without any tension or build-up whatsoever. The last big flaw in this story isn’t really a flaw so much as it is a personal issue I have with it. I’ve watched all of Torchwood. Except for the episode titles Adam. Adam and this story share a somewhat similar trope. Memory changing, mind alteration, brainwashing, etc. is a big issue for me, it literally makes me sick just thinking about it. I love this story, but Charley and the staff of the house go through so much mind alteration and brainwashing that it makes every scene Charley is alone in so much harder to appreciate because I’m trying to keep myself from pausing the story and never coming back to it. One other little issue is that there are one or two slight logical issues with the story, and some lines tend to get shoved in randomly or out of nowhere, disrupting the normally amazing dialogue. The themes of suicide and what life means are handled fantastically in this story, leaving their mark on the mind and the conscious as you realize that the Doctor has to try and get a man to kill himself to save the staff.

Charley, Charley, Charley… why oh why must your acting be so lackluster in a major story for you? Charley is who brings down the main characters’ acting rating so much. The Doctor is generally on point, but Charley is often rather plain or disjointed. Sure, she has tons of well-acted moments, but that doesn’t come close to making up for how often she drops the ball in this story that is centered on HER. The side characters, the staff, are utterly fantastic with the exception of Mary who, certainly at the beginning, tends to be very annoyingly acted. Somehow though, the side characters just keep getting better, the driver, the cook, Edith, Mary, the butler, they all get so much better as the story goes on, which is really a pleasant surprise since it’s usually the opposite. Edward Grove is the final person to talk about, and they are fantastic. Well, aside from the end of part 4 where they go full Darth Vader (in the ‘no’ scene) and have some other rather moments. Still, Edward’s terrifying voice and delivery more than makeup for any issues he has at the end.

Oh god, these effects are superb! The music is flawless, that’s all that can be said, really, it’s just flawless. Every second of music heightens a scene, it makes it funnier, happier, sadder, or far more terrifying with its mere presence, as it should. The voice effects are also just on point, only faltering a small bit at the very end of the TWO HOUR STORY. So, you know, a small issue. The transitions are also superb aside from a few rather wonky transitions once again near the end of the story. The action effects and I can guess you’re tired of hearing it, but too bad, are superb also. Almost every movement is detailed to near perfection. Sadly, throughout the story, there are moments where the effects get a little too quiet or just aren’t there at all. They’re rare, but they occur. The ending of part 3 is one of 2 moments I genuinely do not enjoy at all in this story, and a big part of that is because the entire TARDIS transforms into a damn scullery without ANY effects. How do you detail every step of the Doctor walking up stairs (admittedly the first time those effects were missed too) and then forget to make it so you hear the TARDIS being turned into an Edwardian house?! The background effects are the last up and, as with everything else, they’re superb, even if they do sour a little near the end. Throughout most of the story, every effect is well detailed and specifically picked, as with every absence of an effect.

The replay value is interesting here… you see, I haven’t listened to this story in a VERY long time. I can go off of what I remember, but I honestly forgot so much of this story that my replay value ratings are really more of a guess at how I would feel listening to this twice, back to back. Still, I enjoyed this so much more on a second listen. Perhaps it’s age, perhaps it’s from knowing how the story goes, who knows.

All in all, this story deserves its fame. It’s a little overrated to be sure, you won’t catch me calling it perfect, but it is phenomenal, funny, and terrifying. The emotion and horror throughout hold the story together with ease, the mystery dragging the listener along. The acting could certainly have been improved in Charley’s case, but much of the rest of the cast were phenomenal consistently. The effects are worthy of more praise than I can type out in this review, from the smallest details to the sci-fi-sounding, grander effects. All in all, Chimes surprised me pleasantly, even if the story, especially at the end, stops being pleasant. (As in, it’s great, but not really happy. Except at the VERY end.)

“There’s nothing petty about life, Doctor. Just to breathe, to feel, to exist. Edward Grove is alive. That’s enough for me.”

Original Guesstimate - 8

             P1 P2 P3 P4 All

Total - 9 / 9 / 9 / 9 / 10 (I fudged it because, admittedly, I really do love it and on a second listen it proved to be VERY good! I can’t help myself!)

Plot - 9 / 10 / 8 / 9 / 9
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Story - 9 / 10 / 10 / 9 / 10
Pacing - 10 / 10 / 8 / 9 / 9
Dialogue - 9 / 9 / 8 / 9 / 9
Narration - NR / NR / NR / NR / NR
Exposition - 7 / 9 / 8 / 9 / 8
Enjoyment - 9 / 10 / 9 / 9 / 10
Twist/s - NR / 10 / 9 / 10 / 10
Resolution/s - NR / NR / NR / 8 / 8
Ending - 8 / 10 / 7 / 8 / 8

Acting - 8 / 9 / 9 / 9 / 9
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MC/s - 8 / 8 / 8 / 9 / 8
SC/s - 8 / 9 / 10 / 10 / 9
BG/s - NR / NR / 10 / 8 / 9
Narrator/s - NR / NR / NR / NR / NR

Effects - 10 / 10 / 9 / 9 / 10
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Music - 10 / 10 / 10 / 10 / 10
Voices - 10 / 10 / 10 / 9 / 10
Actions - 9 / 10 / 8 / 9 / 9
Background - 10 / 10 / 8 / 9 / 9
Transitions - 10 / 10 / 10 / 9 / 10

Replay - 8 / 8 / 8 / 8 / 8
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Re-Enjoyment - 8 / 10 / 10 / 10 / 10
New Details - 7 / 6 / 6 / 5 / 6

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