What’s it about: The TARDIS lands in Berlin in the 1930s, where Hitler and his National Socialist party are in the ascendant. Some of the greatest scientific minds are gathering here: Einstein, Heisenberg, Planck, Schrödinger, Wigner. The people who will build the future of planet Earth. But the Doctor and Susan have brought something with them. Something apparently harmless, something quite common. Yet something that could threaten the course of history…
An Unearthly Child: Time (and Big Finish) have been kind to
Susan. She is no longer being written as the fourth most important character of
a four man ensemble or being highlighted as a snivelling child that needs a
jolly good smacked bottom. No, in the hands of some of Big Finish’s strongest
writers (Marc Platt being mostly responsible) she has matured into a more
appealing, intelligent young woman. Whilst she is still capable of making
mistakes (they are, after all, what add complications to a story), she is also
capable of ingratiating herself in many different settings, reasoning out
problems and coming up with some creative solutions. If this was the Susan that
appeared on television I would take far less issue with the character. As Susan
writers her journal she tells Barbara that the only reason she could be reading
it is because she has either died or left the TARDIS. At this stage she’s not
planning on doing either but you never know what will happen in this
unpredictable lifestyle of theirs. There was a time in the past when Susan was
tempted to change the past, when she had to learn the same lesson that Barbara
would go on to learn in The Aztecs. She makes the astute observation that there
is something a bit strange about how the TARDIS keeps coming back to Earth – if
the Doctor isn’t doing it on purpose then something must be drawing the
ship to the largely insignificant little planet. Susan thinks the early
thirties could potentially be during the war, which isn’t such an educational
faux pas when you think that she comes from another planet and that our damp
little world has a history littered with conflicts. Like me, Susan hates
haggling. She has seen enough of this planet not to be surprised that a
symposium of scientists would contain relatively few women in this time period.
We saw a couple of stinging examples of this in Doctor Who’s pilot episode,
Susan finds it hard not correct people when she knows them to be wrong. I like
the idea of the Doctor being kidnapped, leaving Susan alone and having to fend
for herself on the streets of Berlin. Now we can discover what she is really
made of. Susan compares the blond, beautiful members of the SA party to the
Thals.
Standout Performance: I’ve never been the greatest fan of
Carole Ann Ford’s generally hysterical performances as Susan (for reasons I
have gone into ad nauseum in the past – check out my reviews of her other Big
Finish adventures and those discussing her adventures in seasons one and two).
The Alchemists proves that it must be partly the writing that is at fault
because here Susan is written for in a very subtle manner and as a result
Ford’s performance is an extremely mature one. There’s only one moment when she
loses it and that is when her life is genuinely in great danger. I was rather
impressed.
Sparkling Dialogue: ‘An elegant formula doesn’t need to be
memorised, sir. Once known it becomes inevitable.’
‘Oh dear me! Undone by chemical ignorance!’
Audio Landscape: There’s a terrific, hypnotic sequence where
we experience Susan’s nausea first hand; her heart beating faster, voices
swimming in her head and the background ambience becoming a spellbinding blur
around her. Scribbling in a notebook, lovely nostalgic TARDIS hum, chugging
car, blaring the horn, children giggling, a ticking clock, flames crackling,
the gorgeous thronging atmosphere of the square, gunshots.
Isn’t it Odd: You know when a cat suddenly coughs up
a furball unexpectedly? That’s what the cliffhanger to this story feels like, a
sudden lurch out of the blue. Even though this story is billed as having a central
dilemma of whether Susan will change history or not that is not what it is
about at all. That issue is dealt with very briskly in about two minutes and
there is never any serious consideration given to the idea that she might defy
her grandfathers wishes.
Standout Scene: Suddenly the story becomes very serious when
it appears that Pollitt is willing to hurt, or possibly even rape, Susan to get
what he wants. Listening to her banging at the door as he advances on her is
quite, quite terrifying. Suddenly you realise that the Doctor and Ian (and
later, David Campbell) are vital parts of her life, keeping her safe from the
clutches of vile bullies like Pollitt.
Result: I’m not sure that The Alchemists is the greatest
story that Big Finish has ever released, but my word it has atmosphere. If you
idea of a good Doctor Who adventure is to be whisked away to another time and
place then this is the story for you because 1930s Berlin is conjured up with
no small amount of romance and atmosphere. It’s a tale the touches upon that
rarest of periods, the pre-Unearthly Child era where the Doctor and Susan were travelling
alone. With the Doctor kidnapped, Susan is forced to traverse history on her
own and has to stand on her own two feet and learn important (but familiar to
Doctor Who fans) lessons about not interfering in history. As a character study
of Susan, it is excellent, and Carole Ann Ford gives one of her best ever
performances in the role, geed on by the opportunities that the script gives
her. Potter touches upon politics, science and crime but doesn’t go into too
much detail into any of these subjects, instead choosing to keep the story on
the move. A shame because I think a more substantial story could have been told
had the pace slackened and we had been able to explore under the political
surface of a pre-war Berlin. Everybody in the economic guest cast has secrets
and they are revealed in the fullness of time and during the climax I got the
same feeling as I often do with the Bernice Summerfield adventures – that you
don’t need a full cast of characters to make a piece of drama work. With a
production as polished as this and, great performances from the actors and some
fine characterisation, I really don’t have that much to complain about and get
away with it. The Alchemists isn’t one of the finest companion chronicles, but
it is still extremely good and if this is an example of when the series perhaps
isn’t firing on all cylinders then it is indicative of how strong the range is
in general: 8/10
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