Start to Finish: 8.02 - The Alchemists

Image (c) Big Finish Productions

We're going back to basics for the next Companion Chronicle, as the Doctor and his granddaughter pay a visit to Earth's history in The Alchemists.

The TARDIS puts down in 1930s Berlin as the Doctor searches for somewhere to hide the Hand of Omega, and the Doctor is immediately distracted by his desire to visit one of the struggling city's famous colloquia and speak to the great scientific minds of the day (even if he does know their theories are bunk.) Unfortunately, his appearance carrying a bag of gold from his travels draws the wrong kinds of attention, and soon Susan is on her own, trying to trace her kidnapped grandfather in a city where she had no friends.

Framed as a letter from Susan to Barbara to explain why she wants someone there to look after the Doctor if she ever leaves, The Alchemists is a fairly simple story, which ends with Susan pointing a gun at someone, which is pretty left field. It's also another pure historical, resisting the urge to drop aliens into the setting of Secret Hitler, instead choosing to use spies as the enemy and a real-world scientific cul-de-sac in place of alien tech.

Don't worry; next time we'll have weirdness, in the First Doctor story - and I believe this is the first time we've had the same Doctor twice in a row, although I could be wrong - Upstairs.