The First Doctor #18

'The Alchemists' (2013) from The Companion Chronicles.

Very nice to have another Pure Historical, and another Doctor-lite story. Really enjoying Carole Ann Ford's narration in these Companion Chronicles stories - she seems to be having a lot of fun with it. The Berlin setting is nice and the morals of time travel and war coming up are interesting, especially to see the First Doctor's opinions on it and compare that with how his opinion seems to have, not necessarily changed, but become more compassionate in incarnations like Ten down the line. Wraps up a little too quickly which I think has been the main issue with all of these stories so far, but a fun twisty-turny story overall.

This story is told in a letter format too a future companion Barbara, meant to be read if Susan leaves or dies its interesting to think that she had that on her mind during s1. The story takes place before Unearthly Child with the Doctor n Susan looking for a place to stay commenting how funny it is that the Tardis keeps coming back to Earth. The Tardis lands in Berlin, the Doctors as giddy as a school boy. Love the idea of the Doctor still looking through that first contact disk from The Beginning and learning about earth history though that explaining how he knows historical figures from the time.

The pair go to an exchange shop to exchange some old gold coins to modern currency, meeting the man behind the till who agrees to help the doctor go to the National Socialist party where earth greatest minds gather, Einstein and Heisenberg to name a few. When arriving the Doctor tries to pay the doorman to get in which is kind of funny and some how works, with a passing of a letter. When they get in Susan is kind of swarmed by these business men to talk about science, but of course Susan is smarter then them and slowly manages to get away. She meets a man called Pollitt they both end up talking about art and how Berlin treated the Jewish religion horribly, Susan starts to feel disorientated and tries to leave and find the doctor but this leads to her and the Doctor being separated. I find that happens a lot in these stories set before s1.

Susan decides to stay and work out what to do leaving Pollitt, a young boy named Rudi suggests Susan should ask the brown shirts (the SA) for help. This extremely interesting listen so far because it being set just before world war two Germany with everything being on the horizon, its so unnerving as we know where history is leading. Rudi leads Susan too his brother in the SA to help reality set in that hes just a boy, anyway this leads too Susan getting help from the SA via her money.  Brief detour I don't know what music plays in this story but its extremely nostalgic to me like old Youtube nostalgia music. Anyway this leads Susan to meeting Pollitt again, they go to a dingy nightclub, I love the soundscape of this story you really can hear the scene changes. Anyway its revealed Pollitt drugged Susan and does it again with a rag of chloroform. When Susan wakes up Pollitt has put her in an interrogation room. I loved this part of the audio it feels like hours go by the in the matter of seconds, this leads to Susans best moment yet of her escaping Pollitt with some mind games and a rope.

We also had a bit of Tardis lore as well with the key also changing shape when the Tardis does, its something I've never thought about but find it genius. Susan goes back to the exchange shop leading to all of this story being about the money the Doctor n Susan exchanged its revealed the man behind the till and Pollitt where working together and have the Doctor captive.

The Doctor has to talk his way around saving Susan from Pollitts gun which is very 1st Doctor this leads to Susan throwing chemical jars while there distracted, also using Pollitts lack of chemistry knowledge to his advantage to get away. When they get away Susan makes a good point in the letter to Barbara about changing history. Its quite a sweet story really and honestly has some really good moments for Susan n the Doctor, Susan has her best moments in the whole franchise this far too.

This story is a prequel written in the form of a letter to Barbara. It refers to a time before 1963, and tells a story of the Doctor and Susan landing in pre-WWII Germany.

As with the last story, the setting is the strongest part. It shows poverty, distrust and the beginnings of unreasonable hate. But it also feels kind of shallow. It feels like it takes very carefully chosen snippets to expand, like the science fair, a café, a street with beggars and 3 nazi soldiers, but it fails to make it a cohesively presented whole. It is all there, but it doesn’t feel as impactful as it should.

Maybe part of that is the portrayal of fewer characters than usual. We have a team of 2, but the doctor gets kidnapped after a little bit, so that leaves us with Susan. Since we have a single character and just an hour of story, perhaps perspective has to give way for a more personal tale. Still a bit of a shame, but it’s okay if the personal tale works.

Putting aside that the kidnapping of a character feels almost routine at this point, Susan’s journey alone feels disjointed and aimless. We eventually solve the mystery of the kidnapper by accidentally meeting up with him and Susan getting kidnapped as well. It isn’t really a earned resolution and makes Susan look weak. She’s in some perilous situations and knows how to escape, but we know she’s smart as well! So show that in the tale. Instead, it’s wandering around in an unfulfilled setting, then getting kidnapped, then the Doctor saving the day.

The real big gaping problem in this story, however, are the really botched morals. We basically get a “War is good for the growth of the people, so not all conflict should be prevented” message from the doctor, and Susan agrees.

That’s just f**ked up! I know this is an early doctor, and this message isn’t even out of place for him. According to him, you can’t change history.

The problem is that the story agrees with him. This statement isn’t questioned, reflected upon or challenged in any way. It’s just a fact. A fact that was apparently so important, that Susan put it down in a letter for next generations to learn. That’s just vile!

Look at how this kind of situation is handled in other stories. Last of the Romanovs, Farewell Great Macedon. They have similar situations where history is cruel. But this always makes the characters reflect! There’s always time to discuss this, because this is important! Changing history always needs to be handled with care, logic and respect. By both the characters and the writer. Here it isn’t.

This story is a mess. The morals already drop it down the rating list, but it really has nothing else. Setting is flimsy and non-cohesive. The actual story would not even require Susan, but she’s our main character. There’s even little things I haven’t discussed, like the terrible accents and the retroactive softening of the first doctor.

I can forgive most of these though. But I can’t forgive these morals. This is forever the story where the Doctor and Susan tell us that 50,000,000 people deserved to die, so that our science and world could grow. And that is unacceptable. Don’t listen to this.