The Great Big Finish Review Part One: The Beginning & The Alchemists

Now, I’ve got a lot of Big Finish, like an unhealthy amount (if there is such a thing) and while I’ve listened to pretty much everything I own, I’ve never done anything interesting with it, despite the collection eventually growing so big that it has had to go in the loft for its safety. I think now the time has come to begin exploring those audios again, but this time in Chronological order, starting with the First Doctor and making my way through to the Thirteenth Doctor releases.

It’s going to take years probably but it’ll be fun nonetheless and it’ll fill some gaps in my collection along the way too! So let’s go back to the very beginning with the First Doctor and Susan fleeing Gallifrey in The Beginning and then onto The Alchemists which sees the duo arrive in 1930s Germany on the eve of the Second World War…

The Beginning

Written by: Marc Platt

Originally released in 2013 as part of Big Finish’s celebrations of the fiftieth anniversary, The Beginning began a trilogy of adventures that featured the character of Quadrigger Stoyn as the Doctor and Susan quickly discover they aren’t as alone in the TARDIS as they originally thought.

And the first ten/fifteen minutes of this story are pure fan heaven. Finally getting to see the Doctor’s final moments on Gallifrey before he decides to run away are brilliant with nods and references to Remembrance of the Daleks, Lungbarrow and even the exciting first minutes of The Name of the Doctor with the Doctor interacting with Clara. But after the TARDIS leaves, they soon discover it was in the process of being repaired by a Quadrigger called Stoyn who isn’t very happy at having been kidnapped in the Doctor’s haste.

Terry Molloy does a brilliant job as Stoyn, though it is weird not hearing him voice Davros, and he is definitely the best part of this story, and while you feel sorry for him, its not long before you discover why the Doctor and Susan don’t and Terry Molloy does a very good job of making you feel incredibly sorry for him as the tale goes on in certain regards while repugnant in others.

However, outside of Molloy’s tremendous performance, the story doesn’t quite live up to expectations. While claiming to be the first Doctor Who story, it feels like any other outing in the first series, where the Doctor and his companions get separated from the TARDIS and in the process of getting back to it, manage to do some good. On its own merits, it’s a decent outing but claiming to be the “first” Doctor Who story feels a little bit of a stretch. Marc Platt does his usual good job and there are motifs to his storytelling that are on full view here, but for a “first” adventure, there doesn’t seem to be much exploration of why the Doctor finally decides to break the Time Lord’s non-intervention policy.

Back in 2013, it was an anniversary treat to get a story like this, full of references to important stories in Doctor Who lore and narrated by Carole Ann Ford. However, looking back on it now, it feels like a fine story but nowhere near as revelatory as it should have been.

The Alchemists

Written by: Ian Potter

Originally due to be released in 2012, there was a bit of reshuffle of the schedules and The Alchemists was released in August 2013 just before the celebrations kicked of for the fiftieth anniversary. It does work in that regard as a little precursor to the type of stories we would get through the end of 2013 from Big Finish with the exploration of what the Doctor and Susan were up too before meeting Ian and Barbara.

The Alchemists kicks off with the Doctor trying to find somewhere on Earth to hide The Hand of Omega but when the TARDIS brings them to Berlin on the eve of the Second World War, the Doctor can’t pass up the opportunity to meet other scientific geniuses like Einstein, Heisenberg and Planck amongst others so the Doctor and Susan venture out into Berlin which was financially devastated at the time and a place where the only authority is violence and your willingness to use it.

The story very quickly splits the Doctor and Susan up and focuses on Susan’s journey, and it works to the story’s benefit. While she’s intelligent and resourceful, this is a time and place she is completely alien too and things get very harrowing with Potter not shying away from how grim and traumatising this period was. Some sequences are not for the faint of heart in this audio and would fit much better in a Virgin New Adventure novel. I don’t get squeamish, I love horror movies too much, but there were some sequences here that made me squirm uncomfortably.

The overall triumph of The Alchemists comes from Potter’s ability to evoke this era, and while like almost all of The Companion Chronicles‘ range the plot wraps a little too simply, it’s not all doom and gloom with some brilliant sequences with the Doctor and Susan being driven around by a deranged taxi driver! It’s just a shame that the darker aspects are very dark, some things happen in this story that wouldn’t be out of place in a Torchwood episode.

If there are any big shortcomings with this story its that its too big for its 50 minute runtime. There’s a lot of mention about a scientist Fritz Haber and the ending wants us to make our own conclusions on his motives but he isn’t a character in the piece so its hard for us to draw our conclusions to that.

However, if the biggest problem one has with The Alchemists is that its trying to be too ambitious, then its not really a problem at all.