Doctor Alice Harvey
Portrayed by: Belinda McClory
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Alice first appears as the new pathology registrar in Episode 2.03, The Food of Love, and appears in every episode thereafter. Alice has an offbeat personality, is socially awkward, and as Matthew says to Lucien “she takes some getting used to.” She has replaced Gus, the previous morgue assistant who turned out to be a murderer. When she first appears, Lucien assumes she is a nurse, but is quickly corrected by Alice. “That’s Doctor Harvey.” Lucien immediately apologizes and the tone of their relationship is set. She’s not shy about speaking up, and Lucien respects her. Lucien treats her as an equal, soliciting her opinion and listening to her observations. Although Lucien is always a little surprised by her quirkiness, they quickly develop a collegial relationship.
In Episode 2.05, Mortal Coil, we get our first insight into the reason for Alice’s unusual personality. Lucien briefly touches her hands to thank her for diagnosing his illness, and Alice lowers her head and takes a breath. With this single, subtle movement, we realize that Alice has been abused in some way. This is confirmed in Episode 3.06, Women and Children, where Alice says she hasn’t needed protecting since she was twelve years old. Probably because she’d been devalued as a child, Alice is an introvert. She is socially awkward and struggles to connect with people.
Because of her past abuse, Alice has built up walls and hidden her feelings to protect herself. Lucien with kindness and respect gradually puts cracks in those walls, allowing her to open up to him and to feel more comfortable expressing her feelings. Lucien seems to instinctively collect people in need of friendship and nurture them. Over the course of the series, Lucien and Alice’s relationship becomes easy and relaxed. Alice eventually feels comfortable enough to occasionally chastise Lucien and even to tease him about annoying people being a family trait (Episode 2.08, The Ties of the Past).
In Episode 3.06, Women and Children, Chief Superintendent Munro uses Alice’s vulnerabilities to get to Lucien. Alice confides in Lucien about the unwanted advances she suffered at the hospital and the failure of the administrators to support her. Rather than see Alice lose her job, Lucien resigns.
At the beginning of the telemovie, Lucien is not the police surgeon. His replacement, Jack Wallace, calls Alice “Miss” Harvey and even physically pushes her. Alice, of course, corrects him: “That’s Doctor Harvey.” Her intolerance for Wallace’s incompetence is barely contained. Wallace, like the hospital administrators, tries to make Alice the scape goat for his mistake. However, Matthew will have none of it, sees right
through Wallace, and comes to Alice’s defense. We can’t help but think that Alice must be delighted when Lucien is reinstated and back working as her morgue buddy.
Alice’s first time in the Blake house is at the most awkward dinner party ever when Lucien’s wife has made an unexpected appearance. By series 5 and the telemovie, Alice has become a full-fledged member of the Ballarat Murder Club and a welcome guest at the Blake dinner table. In the telemovie, when Lucien’s friend dies and is in the morgue, Alice reaches out to console him, touching him on the shoulder. Her character has developed from one that flinched at a touch on the hand to one that can offer comfort to her friend and colleague and can interact socially.
In addition to being a vehicle for expanding on the recurring theme of child abuse in The Doctor Blake Mysteries, Alice introduces a bit of lightness and humor into this serious crime drama. In Episode 3.01, King of the Lake, Alice spends a little too much time admiring the physique of a dead rower. She blames her interest in the fact that she studied classics in school. Lucien looks bit skeptical. In Episode 3.02, My Brother’s Keeper, Alice and Lucien are not allowed to examine the body until it has been identified. These two science geeks are burning with curiosity when finally Alice lifts the sheet, and they both wheel their chairs around the morgue table – looking but not touching. In Episode 5.03, The Call of the Void, Alice is excited by the prospect of dealing with a frozen corpse, life in stasis, and later tells Lucien that she sat and watched the bruises on the body develop as it thawed.
Alice’s Relationship with Matthew
The show producers have hinted at a relationship between Matthew and Alice. Throughout the series, the sometimes crusty Matthew has shown his softer side to child abuse victims, from the abuse victims in Episode 2.07, The Silence, to those in Episode 5.05, Measure Twice. In that episode, he also reveals that his father was a gambling addict who abused his wife and children. To his credit, rather than continuing that behavior, Matthew sides with the victims, comforting them and helping where he can. When he was in school, Matthew was also the victim of bullying by an older boy.
In some ways, Matthew is the perfect partner for Alice. He suffered enough abuse in his own childhood to understand her behavior. We can expect him to react with sympathy and understanding to Alice as he did with other abuse victims. Fans are rooting for Malice in Series 6. We know the writers like to develop a character slowly, but with a two-year + jump in the timeline, where will Matthew and Alice be in their relationship?
Alice’s Job as Forensic Pathologist/Registrar
(With thanks to Corinne Rockliffe, Facebook group member and resident expert on Australian police practices, for her expertise)
As pathologist Alice deals with any sudden deaths whether criminal or not. Any deaths signed off with a doctor's certificate do not come under her jurisdiction unless the police decree otherwise. Her job is to carry out post-mortems (opening up the body, weighing the organs, looking for signs of disease, etc.) to determine cause of death. She sends off tissue and evidence samples to the laboratory. The fact that she is the pathology registrar means all bodies go through her– she is in charge of all the paperwork. The "forensic" part of it means that she deals with anything that will be part of a court inquiry, for example, presenting evidence in court.
Memorable Lines
Episode 2.05, Crossing the Line:
Alice: What kind of a job is a projectionist?
Lucien: Projectionist? Well, he looks after the machinery that projects the images, screen the pictures at the cinema.
Alice: I’ve never been.
Lucien: To the Rex. Oh, you should go. It’s a beautiful building.
Alice: I mean to the cinema.
Episode 2.06, Mortal Coil:
Alice: Did your housekeeper burn your toast this morning?
Episode 3.04, By the Southern Cross
Alice: I was joking. Can’t you tell when I’m joking?
Episode 3.06, Women and Children
Alice: I thought when I grew up, I’d be safe. I’m going to lose my job aren’t I?
Lucien: Not if I can help it.
Alice: I’ve never been what they consider pretty, but I’m a good doctor. I don’t deserve this.
Alice: I haven’t needed protecting since I was twelve years old.
Episode 5.01, A Lethal Combination
Alice: I’m attempting to do more things that scare me. Embracing change.
Lucien: Haircuts scare you?
Alice: No, hairdressers. All that unsolicited touching.
Episode 5.02, Sorrow Songs
Lucien: You didn’t have anything planned for tonight, did you?
Alice: A dance class.
Lucien: Really?
Alice: No!
Episode 5.03, The Call of the Void
Alice: Life in stasis. Frozen. He’s thawing in slow motion.
Alice (pleased): I literally sat here and watched the bruising develop as the body thawed.
Episode 5.04, All She Leaves Behind
Alice: I have a sister.
Lucien: Really? Where is she?
Alice: I don’t know.
Episode 5.05, Measure Twice
Alice: Lucien, I have to ask. You knew you suffered a tension pneumothorax, but you relieved the pressure on your heart using your own pen like a chest tube drain! Lucien: I had to improvise, Alice.
Alice: Well, I have a lot of questions.
Jean glares.
Alice: Which can wait. Feel better.
Alice: Good morning.
Matthew: Is it?
Alice: I have the autopsy results!
Alice looking at the autopsy photos, pleased with herself: I used the darkroom at The Courier.
Jean: Oh.
Episode 5.06, First Dance
Alice: Self-loathing. Finding an escape through pain, believing hurt and damage is all she deserves.
Episode 5.08, Hear the Angels Sing
Alice: There’s no need to watch if you find this distressing to you, Chief Superintendent.
Matthew: I’m not squeamish.
Telemovie: A Family Portrait
Alice: I think I understand all this a little better now, the big wedding, all these people celebrating together.
Matthew: How about we go outside and get some air?
Alice: Oh God, yes.
Additional Bio
Dr. Alice Harvey joined the cast of The Doctor Blake Mysteries in Season 2, Episode 3. Lucien walked into the morgue and called her “sister” thinking she was a nurse. She corrected him and told him she was the new Pathology Registrar.
Right from the start we could see that Alice would be a force to be reckoned with and it was clear that she knew what she was doing. She corrected Lucien’s use of a scalpel saying that there were now disposable scalpels that were better to use based on a report in The American Journal of Pathology. She told him “it pays to keep up” and Lucien was taken aback because clearly no one had ever talked to him like that during an autopsy. He even made a comment about it to the dead body.
Alice has a quirky personality and a dry sense of humor. When she first met Lucien in the morgue she said that she thought he would be younger. Lucien said “I used to be” to which Alice responded, “nobody told me you had a sense of humor” but she said it with a
straight face. Lucien wasn’t quite sure what to make of her. When he talked to Matthew about the autopsy, Matthew asked Lucien
what he thought of the new Pathology Registrar. Matthew said “I hear she takes some getting used to”.
Alice is kind of a mysterious figure and not much is known about her past. In Season 3, Episode 6, when she was in danger of losing her job at the hospital, she said to Lucien “I thought when I grew up I would be safe” and this leads us to believe that she might have had a traumatic childhood. Hopefully we will learn more about Alice in the upcoming seasons.
Alice has evolved into a fan favorite. She and Lucien have developed a friendship based on mutual respect and she has bonded with Jean, too. There are even some indications that she and Matthew might develop a romantic relationship. Many fans would love to see the sparks fly between these two quirky characters.
In Episode 2.05, Mortal Coil, we get our first insight into the reason for Alice’s unusual personality. Lucien briefly touches her hands to thank her for diagnosing his illness, and Alice lowers her head and takes a breath. With this single, subtle movement, we realize that Alice has been abused in some way. This is confirmed in Episode 3.06, Women and Children, where Alice says she hasn’t needed protecting since she was twelve years old. Probably because she’d been devalued as a child, Alice is an introvert. She is socially awkward and struggles to connect with people.
Because of her past abuse, Alice has built up walls and hidden her feelings to protect herself. Lucien with kindness and respect gradually puts cracks in those walls, allowing her to open up to him and to feel more comfortable expressing her feelings. Lucien seems to instinctively collect people in need of friendship and nurture them. Over the course of the series, Lucien and Alice’s relationship becomes easy and relaxed. Alice eventually feels comfortable enough to occasionally chastise Lucien and even to tease him about annoying people being a family trait (Episode 2.08, The Ties of the Past).
In Episode 3.06, Women and Children, Chief Superintendent Munro uses Alice’s vulnerabilities to get to Lucien. Alice confides in Lucien about the unwanted advances she suffered at the hospital and the failure of the administrators to support her. Rather than see Alice lose her job, Lucien resigns.
At the beginning of the telemovie, Lucien is not the police surgeon. His replacement, Jack Wallace, calls Alice “Miss” Harvey and even physically pushes her. Alice, of course, corrects him: “That’s Doctor Harvey.” Her intolerance for Wallace’s incompetence is barely contained. Wallace, like the hospital administrators, tries to make Alice the scape goat for his mistake. However, Matthew will have none of it, sees right
through Wallace, and comes to Alice’s defense. We can’t help but think that Alice must be delighted when Lucien is reinstated and back working as her morgue buddy.
Alice’s first time in the Blake house is at the most awkward dinner party ever when Lucien’s wife has made an unexpected appearance. By series 5 and the telemovie, Alice has become a full-fledged member of the Ballarat Murder Club and a welcome guest at the Blake dinner table. In the telemovie, when Lucien’s friend dies and is in the morgue, Alice reaches out to console him, touching him on the shoulder. Her character has developed from one that flinched at a touch on the hand to one that can offer comfort to her friend and colleague and can interact socially.
In addition to being a vehicle for expanding on the recurring theme of child abuse in The Doctor Blake Mysteries, Alice introduces a bit of lightness and humor into this serious crime drama. In Episode 3.01, King of the Lake, Alice spends a little too much time admiring the physique of a dead rower. She blames her interest in the fact that she studied classics in school. Lucien looks bit skeptical. In Episode 3.02, My Brother’s Keeper, Alice and Lucien are not allowed to examine the body until it has been identified. These two science geeks are burning with curiosity when finally Alice lifts the sheet, and they both wheel their chairs around the morgue table – looking but not touching. In Episode 5.03, The Call of the Void, Alice is excited by the prospect of dealing with a frozen corpse, life in stasis, and later tells Lucien that she sat and watched the bruises on the body develop as it thawed.
Alice’s Relationship with Matthew
The show producers have hinted at a relationship between Matthew and Alice. Throughout the series, the sometimes crusty Matthew has shown his softer side to child abuse victims, from the abuse victims in Episode 2.07, The Silence, to those in Episode 5.05, Measure Twice. In that episode, he also reveals that his father was a gambling addict who abused his wife and children. To his credit, rather than continuing that behavior, Matthew sides with the victims, comforting them and helping where he can. When he was in school, Matthew was also the victim of bullying by an older boy.
In some ways, Matthew is the perfect partner for Alice. He suffered enough abuse in his own childhood to understand her behavior. We can expect him to react with sympathy and understanding to Alice as he did with other abuse victims. Fans are rooting for Malice in Series 6. We know the writers like to develop a character slowly, but with a two-year + jump in the timeline, where will Matthew and Alice be in their relationship?
Alice’s Job as Forensic Pathologist/Registrar
(With thanks to Corinne Rockliffe, Facebook group member and resident expert on Australian police practices, for her expertise)
As pathologist Alice deals with any sudden deaths whether criminal or not. Any deaths signed off with a doctor's certificate do not come under her jurisdiction unless the police decree otherwise. Her job is to carry out post-mortems (opening up the body, weighing the organs, looking for signs of disease, etc.) to determine cause of death. She sends off tissue and evidence samples to the laboratory. The fact that she is the pathology registrar means all bodies go through her– she is in charge of all the paperwork. The "forensic" part of it means that she deals with anything that will be part of a court inquiry, for example, presenting evidence in court.
Memorable Lines
Episode 2.05, Crossing the Line:
Alice: What kind of a job is a projectionist?
Lucien: Projectionist? Well, he looks after the machinery that projects the images, screen the pictures at the cinema.
Alice: I’ve never been.
Lucien: To the Rex. Oh, you should go. It’s a beautiful building.
Alice: I mean to the cinema.
Episode 2.06, Mortal Coil:
Alice: Did your housekeeper burn your toast this morning?
Episode 3.04, By the Southern Cross
Alice: I was joking. Can’t you tell when I’m joking?
Episode 3.06, Women and Children
Alice: I thought when I grew up, I’d be safe. I’m going to lose my job aren’t I?
Lucien: Not if I can help it.
Alice: I’ve never been what they consider pretty, but I’m a good doctor. I don’t deserve this.
Alice: I haven’t needed protecting since I was twelve years old.
Episode 5.01, A Lethal Combination
Alice: I’m attempting to do more things that scare me. Embracing change.
Lucien: Haircuts scare you?
Alice: No, hairdressers. All that unsolicited touching.
Episode 5.02, Sorrow Songs
Lucien: You didn’t have anything planned for tonight, did you?
Alice: A dance class.
Lucien: Really?
Alice: No!
Episode 5.03, The Call of the Void
Alice: Life in stasis. Frozen. He’s thawing in slow motion.
Alice (pleased): I literally sat here and watched the bruising develop as the body thawed.
Episode 5.04, All She Leaves Behind
Alice: I have a sister.
Lucien: Really? Where is she?
Alice: I don’t know.
Episode 5.05, Measure Twice
Alice: Lucien, I have to ask. You knew you suffered a tension pneumothorax, but you relieved the pressure on your heart using your own pen like a chest tube drain! Lucien: I had to improvise, Alice.
Alice: Well, I have a lot of questions.
Jean glares.
Alice: Which can wait. Feel better.
Alice: Good morning.
Matthew: Is it?
Alice: I have the autopsy results!
Alice looking at the autopsy photos, pleased with herself: I used the darkroom at The Courier.
Jean: Oh.
Episode 5.06, First Dance
Alice: Self-loathing. Finding an escape through pain, believing hurt and damage is all she deserves.
Episode 5.08, Hear the Angels Sing
Alice: There’s no need to watch if you find this distressing to you, Chief Superintendent.
Matthew: I’m not squeamish.
Telemovie: A Family Portrait
Alice: I think I understand all this a little better now, the big wedding, all these people celebrating together.
Matthew: How about we go outside and get some air?
Alice: Oh God, yes.
Additional Bio
Dr. Alice Harvey joined the cast of The Doctor Blake Mysteries in Season 2, Episode 3. Lucien walked into the morgue and called her “sister” thinking she was a nurse. She corrected him and told him she was the new Pathology Registrar.
Right from the start we could see that Alice would be a force to be reckoned with and it was clear that she knew what she was doing. She corrected Lucien’s use of a scalpel saying that there were now disposable scalpels that were better to use based on a report in The American Journal of Pathology. She told him “it pays to keep up” and Lucien was taken aback because clearly no one had ever talked to him like that during an autopsy. He even made a comment about it to the dead body.
Alice has a quirky personality and a dry sense of humor. When she first met Lucien in the morgue she said that she thought he would be younger. Lucien said “I used to be” to which Alice responded, “nobody told me you had a sense of humor” but she said it with a
straight face. Lucien wasn’t quite sure what to make of her. When he talked to Matthew about the autopsy, Matthew asked Lucien
what he thought of the new Pathology Registrar. Matthew said “I hear she takes some getting used to”.
Alice is kind of a mysterious figure and not much is known about her past. In Season 3, Episode 6, when she was in danger of losing her job at the hospital, she said to Lucien “I thought when I grew up I would be safe” and this leads us to believe that she might have had a traumatic childhood. Hopefully we will learn more about Alice in the upcoming seasons.
Alice has evolved into a fan favorite. She and Lucien have developed a friendship based on mutual respect and she has bonded with Jean, too. There are even some indications that she and Matthew might develop a romantic relationship. Many fans would love to see the sparks fly between these two quirky characters.