A Ghost of Alchemy

The Eighth of March #3.1

Released: 8 March 2023

Listened: 5/6/23

This story is from the third "Eighth of March" collection, and it plays a little bit with the formula. It’s a full-length story, which is unusual for these sets. It’s also written by Louise Jameson, who is multi-dimensional in the Big Finish realm. It has Leela, but also the Fourth Doctor. The Eighth of March stories tend to minimize the Doctor to accentuate the women in the story, but this one doesn’t. Maybe Louise didn’t think it was necessary, because the big historical guest of this story is one Madame Curie, pioneer of radioactivity research. Of course, that same research also killed her, and the story never lets you forget it, with Marie’s continual cough, exhausted manner, and terrible stage-fright. The story takes place in America in 1920, when Marie had a national tour. Unfortunately, a scientist named Browman believes that Curie is a fraud riding on her husband’s success, and is determined to discredit her. He also believes that he should have access to the radium that Curie is being gifted with. He’s sexist, which makes sense in an Eighth of March story, but he’s so remarkably foolish and evil that he might as well be twirling his mustache. His henchman in Curie’s party is also pathetic and weak-willed. On top of which, President Harding is presented as rather foolish as well, delegating most responsibility to his wife Florence. This isn’t out of line with Doctor Who’s treatment of American presidents, or even with historians’ assessment of Harding, although I don’t recall hearing that he was dominated by his wife. Leela, as you might expect, does reasonably well for herself, and the Doctor expresses quite a lot of confidence in her. However, she does end up captured and drugged at one point, which is fairly unusual for her. On the whole, it’s kind of a runaround, not too different from most stories, except for the fairly low stakes and caricatured presentation of the men.