DOCTOR WHO
"THE ALCHEMISTS OF FEAR"
The Daleks understand the Doctor's mind...
Starring the Sixth Doctor, Peri Brown and Frobisher
Starring the Sixth Doctor, Peri Brown and Frobisher
"All who come into contact with the case will die. That is the easement of inferior lifeforms..."
Mandusus, 8187. Exploring the zipways, the Doctor, Peri and Frobisher clash with the slowship's past. Artefacts taken out of Time and removed to the present. With malicious intent. One of which has been extinct for thousands of years. Traced by operatives of Virtuosity Astrotech, the Doctor begins to understand that there is far more at stake than lost property. His deadliest of enemies, the Daleks, are at large somewhere on Mandusus. Already, they have set to work on Operation: Mindnet, a project with hideous implications for the slowship's future. The Doctor believes he can stop them. But can he? Led by the Red Dalek and propelled by the telepathic powers of the Psyche Dalek, they understand the Time Lord's mind. This time, the Daleks are ready for him... Celebrating 40 Years of the Sixth Doctor! Episodic Version:
Full Version:
WHO'S WHO? (SPOILER-FREE)
This novel can be read with no prior knowledge of this Doctor or his companions.
< Previous "The Ghosts of Peladon" | "TBA" Next > |
Author Commentary:
Author CommentarY for "THE ALCHEMISTS OF FEAR" (*Spoilers) by alan camlann
Alan Camlann
Below are several choice morsels of interesting trivia concerning the development of Doctor Who - The Alchemists of Fear:
Below are several choice morsels of interesting trivia concerning the development of Doctor Who - The Alchemists of Fear:
- During its initial conception in 2017, the working title for The Alchemists of Fear was Matters of Death.
- For tyrants so singularly obsessed with uniformity as the Daleks, they do have quite a number of colour schemes at their disposal. The Daleks of Mandususforce, as featured in this novel, are modelled on silver-black variants depicted in a number of non-televised merchandise from the late-'70s and early-'80s. More specifically, those in Andrew Skilleter's Target-commissioned artwork for Dalek Omnibus and Doctor Who and the Destiny of the Daleks, and Jim Halloway's FASA-commissioned artwork for The Doctor Who Roleplaying Game's The Daleks supplement.
- In publishing order, Mandusus was mentioned by Peri in Emperor of the Daleks, a fabulous comic written by Paul Cornell and John Freeman. The Psyche Dalek, a prominent foe in this story, also originated from there. Its main purpose among the Daleks, however, has been heavily expanded by the author for The Alchemists of Fear. This arch-puppeteer is a Dalek we've never quite seen before. Sinister even for a Dalek.
- The toy skimjet in Gigan owes something of its design to the technical wizardry of Gerry Anderson's Supermarionation series.
- Any resemblance between the Virtuosity-brand cargosuits and Ellen Ripley's power loader from Aliens is purely intentional.
- The Dalek word zeg comes from a unique Dalek inventor who, through a catastrophic accident, developed a reinforced version of dalekanium. He challenged the Dalek Emperor's authority on Skaro in a tale from The Dalek Chronicles fittingly called, Duel of the Daleks.
- Aboard the TARDIS, the Doctor and Frobisher discuss zeiton crystals and vortex crystals, respectively. Malcolm Hulke's 1979 novelisation, Doctor Who and the War Games, describes a "green-coloured crystal" necessary for a TARDIS's time control unit. Philip Martin's Vengeance on Varos wouldn't broadcast until 1985, but it's easy to believe that the much valued Zeiton-7 element is one and the same. Vortex crystals come, fittingly, from the 1986 FASA gamebook, Doctor Who and the Vortex Crystal. A broader name, the author theorises, for the Kontron crystal we see the Doctor use as a defensive weapon in Timelash.
- The Alchemists of Fear once again taps into the zeitgeist of its characters' home time period. Whereas Eden By Annihilation explored the Cold War tensions of the 1980s, The Alchemists of Fear was written with a mind towards corporations run amok. An era where commercial entities with zero accountability held the same power as national governments. While intended as a throwback, the themes have become unnervingly current in 2024. History certainly enjoys a rerun.
- Peri's fleshed-out knowledge of Baltimore in the 1970s comes from first-hand accounts of a lovely fellow writer who lived there. Many of the little touches, here and there, are from that conversation.
- A similar conversation with a different and equally-lovely author, gave insight into New York. Peri's relation to the Culpers, a spy ring working for George Washington during the American Civil War, came from a story that sadly never got off the ground for this author. Ho-hum.
- As with any homage, it's important to remember to tip the hat. Steve Parkhouse, the author who brought us Frobisher, possessed a powerful lyrical mysticism in how he wrote his Sixth Doctor tales. Not too far removed from the bizarre dream-like worlds of stories like The Mind Robber, Warrior's Gate or Enlightenment. More broadly, his prose feels almost like Richard Carpenter's hypnotic mythologising for Robin of Sherwood. One of Doctor Who's televised rivals when the Sixth Doctor was airing. Fittingly, the poem used in the attack on the Doctor is a pastiche of the English nursery rhyme, Who Killed Cock Robin?
- The Daicon Robotics Firm. Named after a pair of Japanese anime OVAs that prefigured the creation of Studio Gainax or a winter radish? Reader, you get to decide. Incidentally, there are many nods and winks to 1980s anime series. Can you spot them?
- The author will give you one for free, as it's a bit of a stretch following subsequent manuscript revisions. Remy Tezuhyr deliberately has the red boots (or "boots") and cowlick hair of Atom from Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy.
- Madame Kontron is a creation of this novel, but is a natural enough extension of temporal scientists we've seen or heard mentioned throughout Doctor Who's history. Including Aaron Blinovitch, Chun Sen, Stattenheim, Joinson Dastari, and others. Kontron's study was in the field of chronocrystallography and states of Time. Vital science for time-travel.
- Some of the video games at the arcade may be familiar. Elite belongs to the BBC Micro. The same operating system that was used to run the TARDIS console's VDUs during the '80s. Power Pharaoh is a faux video game created by animator Paul Johnson, a prime mover on the animated reconstructions of The Reign of Terror and The Moonbase for Doctor Who on DVD.
- Peri's reference to Dale Arden could absolutely be a nod to Brian Blessed's Prince Vultan in the 1980 film, Flash Gordon. A role that closely twins that of King Yrcarnos in Mindwarp. (As a side-note, the author sees Mindwarp's tone as an emulation of several films in the then-current zeitgeist. The serial could be described as Ridley Scott's Flash Gordon and the Temple of Doom. With a bit of Gaslight for the trial scenes.)
- An underwater fight scene with a Dalek isn't something that's ever been attempted on television (circa 2024). Likely for safety reasons. Both to safeguard the actors and the Dalek operators. However, given we see a drone surface from the London Thames as early as The Dalek Invasion of Earth... Such a confrontation feels more than a little inevitable.
- Dalek-047's serial identifier is a deliberate echo of another prominent assassin, Agent 47, from the Hitman series.
- There is an interesting fan theory that the unnamed parasite seen in The Mind of Evil may have been a modified Dalek mutant. While the author is inclined to believe otherwise, it was nevertheless an interesting starting point to further develop the Psyche Dalek. Dalek telepaths feel like a very natural addition to their monomaniacal infantry.
- The Vortis Zarbi-trap is mentioned as part of a litany of TARDIS-based botanical curios in Mike Collins's Profits of Doom. The detail of the plant itself is, once again, down to the author. It's based on the biology of a handful of real world plants native to Earth. Albeit not quite on the scale as we see with the Zarbi-trap.
- Could the Doctor be "Running Up That Hill" in the mind-bound segments of this story's climax? While not a deliberate choice, there's a good chance in retrospect, dear reader...
- Regarding the locks on Peri's door in the TARDIS: The author kept it deliberately vague when precisely Peri began to leave the door unlocked again. They wanted to leave that up to the reader. For their money, Peri made that decision likely after Vengeance on Varos or The Mark of the Rani.
- Many of the names and species of the Dalek-occupied worlds controlled by the Accordance were sourced from The Doctor Who Roleplaying Game's The Daleks supplement.
- Mention of the Skeletoids, the Elohim and the Cyber-Controller were nods to the original Doctor Who Magazine comics (via Stories), Big Finish's Lost Stories (via Point of Entry), and the televised Sixth Doctor adventures (via Attack of the Cybermen). All contributing elements to the characterisation of our three main characters, the Doctor, Peri and Frobisher. The Sixth Doctor's lifetime has been enriched in the telling by expanded media.
- The Alchemists of Fear was, in part, an exercise in exploring what a Dalek tale written by Chris Boucher might have looked like. Boucher contributed a number of tales to Doctor Who, including The Face of Evil and The Robots of Death. However, he also contributed prominently to the development of series such as Blake's 7 and Bergerac. Boucher's work is often lauded for the discussion of complex themes, deep moral quandaries and often ending in a bloodbath. The end of our story hopefully reflects that notion quite keenly.
Art:
Soundbite: