Review by Jacob Licklider

*** Warning: Spoilers Ahead ****

Let’s cut to the chase, Purity Undreamed is a set with a very weird starting point as an audio drama. Following on from Water Worlds and continuing on the development of Hebe Harrison it sets out to introduce several side characters who are attempting to recur, a new villain for the series, and end by setting up next year’s box sets for the Sixth Doctor and Mel (or at least that’s the assumption since they have not been formally announced yet to feature Mel). It’s a three-hour box set that is almost entirely setup from three different writers: Paul Magrs, Jonathan Morris, and Robert Valentine. Valentine is also serving as script editor with producer Jacqueline Rayner, both contributing as guides for the overarching story arcs. The biggest issue with Purity Undreamed comes from something that happens in the third story, setting up the villain which will be spoiled in this review, if you want non-spoiler thoughts then listen to this if you enjoyed Water Worlds as it maintains a lot of what went really well with that set although is a bit inconsistent. The behind the scenes for the second story, Reverse Engineering, reveals that Jonathan Morris had less time to complete the story, implying that another story may have fallen through. Because of this there is a disconnect between how the character of Patricia McBride, played by Imogen Stubbs, is characterised. This is not an issue of action, but of the character’s beliefs as the third story, Robert Valentine’s Chronomancer is a character piece meant to reveal that Patricia McBride is a woman harbouring bigotry going so far as to advocating for eugenics so the future is “better” and without disability.The issue here lies with Morris’s Reckless Engineering being all about a mad scientist attempting to use eugenics to make the perfect human, something that disgusts Patricia, meaning that there is a dissonance in the characterisation here (This also plays on a personal pet peeve in writers characterising evolution having an end goal and direction when it really doesn’t). This dissonance is something that really gets in the way of Purity Undreamed, especially as the set ends with McBride declaring herself as Purity, with a special suit from the future that has time travel capabilities and the cliffhanger being Hebe Harrison being written out of time. There is also the general structural issue of the set once again being three one-hour two-part stories, which while all three are good (a testament to the talent of Magrs, Morris, and Valentine), the first two especially feel like they would have worked better if there were at least a third episode for each of the stories.

Chronomancer is perhaps the most interesting, being a very character driven story of the Doctor, Mel, and Hebe taking Patricia to the far future before being flung back to the 21st century and having to help a Chronomancer, played by Joseph Kloska, along with the many characters introduced in The Mindless Ones as a home base so the Doctor now has a circle of friends surrounding Hebe. This is where Patricia’s bigotry comes into the light, something that Stubbs and Baker play wonderfully. Ruth Madeley also is clearly bringing some of the real-life bigotry she has faced as a disabled woman into her performance which makes it feel real, even with the dissonance of the previous story causing some of it not to click as well as the script and actors are selling it to be. There’s also some wonderful comedy with a cameo from Toby Hadoke as Ron, Patricia’s ex-husband and current husband to Cherylee Houston’s Elise, and a real sense of family. This does mean, however, due to the length issues that while Colin Baker and Bonnie Langford are both great in their roles as the Doctor and Mel, as characters they stay largely static. Mel especially blends into the background at points, not really having much to do in terms of character, though all three authors do capture how her relationship with Hebe has changed and how she has evolved. Valentine especially plays into her optimism which is a nice touch.

The opening story from Paul Magrs goes a long way to establish all of the supporting characters as a family. Outside of individual family members of Hex (with his mother Cassie) and Evelyn (her husband Rossiter), Big Finish really has never given a family such a fleshed out life, nor allowing them to have their own lives outside of the Doctor. Giving that to Hebe Harrison is also a choice that continues to ensure the representation of the character is the best that she can be. Magrs’ story is also a very angry but completely insane exploration of how capitalism makes people believe their worth only comes from consumption and work and not other pursuits, dealing with a corporation brainwashing people to work for them complacently. Yes, it’s a bit on the nose, but with Magrs’ quirky style and signature flair for doing these types of stories you get something great. While there was discussion of the issues with Reckless Engineering, it should also be noted that Morris did not write a bad story. Geneticist Killian Holm, played by Stephen Riddle, is a charismatic man whose ideas are essentially trying to create a race of superior humans by bringing back the Neanderthals which leads to a wacky espionage style plot of the Doctor and company going into the scientific research centre to uncover and put a stop to it. It’s very fun stuff, despite causing issues with the final story of the set.

Overall, Purity Undreamed is a set whose title doesn’t really come into focus until the final story reveals just what the two sets have been working towards. While not as consistent as Water Worlds, it manages to set up what may become one of the great story arcs from Big Finish with an interesting villain at the heart of it. 8/10.

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Review: The Sixth Doctor Adventures – Water Worlds

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