Starring Carole Ann Ford & Wayne Forester
Written by Ian Potter
Directed by Lisa Bowerman
The TARDIS lands in Berlin in the 1930's, 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...
The Alchemists is a tale of two halfs. The more successful part of the story is a spy thriller in 1930's Berlin, while the less successful part is certainly the historical elements of the story. While in one hand, the spy parts of the story add tension and interest to the story, the history lesson drags the story down as a whole. It also moves at a terribly slow place, causing whole sections to feel completely unnessary. Therefore this story is very much a tale of two halfs, and sadly it doesn't quite come together.
Potter's main plot is certainly a good one. The idea that underneath the surface of Berlin is a net of conspiracy and crime. Certainly, it's intresting that everyone that Susan meets could be a spy and her trying experiences at the hands of Pollitt are certainly of interest to those who like strong character development. However, these 30's spy film influences are massively contrasted by the textbook level amount of information in this story, and this just brings the whole thing down. If Potter had managed to integrate this as an effective part of his narrative, then it proberbly would have worked a lot better. But then, I suppose it could have interfered with the spy/thriller plot. But in a way, it's more likely to be more interesting than what we did actually have, as it certainly just feels like the plot crawls to a holt. However, a hell of a lot of it is dragged up by the characters, who are a diverse bunch. Certainly characters like Strickmatter or Rudy the young boy are an intresting listen. However, the SA members that appear in the second half of the story come across as little more than facist cliches.
Certainly Carole Ann Ford is the original definition of 'screaming girl' if you like, but here, she turns on the 'screaming hysterics on at moments of tension' in this story, certainly during the torture scenes. And while it's a natural reaction (of sorts), it undermines all the menace that Wayne Forester is trying to bring into the story. His performance is brilliant, especially since he plays a good deal more characters than is regular for a Companion Chronicle. He manages to differentiate each one better than Ford, who's German accent is pretty similar for each character she's playing. It proberbly explains why the SA officers in episode 2 sound like a classic Nazi stereotype. And frankly, her William Hartnell impression isn't much to talk about. I can clearly see Hartnell saying the lines, but it's not a patch on either Peter Purves or William Russell's impressions. Let's hope that with the Early Adventures they use the two male actors to read in The first Doctor's lines. It certainly worked in the later Lost Stories featuring his Doctor. Lisa Bowerman's direction is strong, especially her cross fades between speakers to indicate passage of time during the interrogation scene and the weird nature of the drugging sequence in episode 1. These aren't particulary imaginative, but work in the context of the story. The last point is the music for this release, but sadly it isn't particulary memorable and distinctly uninvolving.
In the end, The Alchemists has some really strong good points, I won't deny that. But it's inconstant plot which can't decide if it's a spy movie or a history lecture, some very odd choices of plotting, a rather more hysterics driven performance from Carole Ann Ford and unmemorable music and sound design mean that this really just become at times a lot of background noise, admitly intresting, but not particularly gripping or dynamic.
TARDIS Rating - 6/10
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