Purity Undreamed: Reverse Engineering

"They really do turn back the clock."

Writer: Jonathan Morris

Format: Audio

Released: August 2022

Series: Sixth Doctor Adventures 2.02

Featuring: Sixth Doctor, Mel, Hebe

Synopsis

When Patricia is invited to a secretive Swedish clinic by an old colleague, she tips off the Doctor, Mel and Hebe, who go undercover to investigate. Charismatic geneticist Killian Holm offers to restore youth to his wealthy patients, but the truth of his work is far more radical – and far more dangerous!

As an ancient horror reforms beneath the clinic, the Doctor must race to save humanity from an unspeakable temporal disaster.

Verdict

Reverse Engineering was another brilliant story to continue the Purity Undreamed second series of Sixth Doctor Adventures! I thought this was another terrific tale for the new TARDIS trio of the Sixth Doctor, Mel and Hebe with good continuity to The Mindless Ones with Patricia once again featuring. I must admit, that's a little earlier than I anticipated her return but it was nice to acknowledge that it had been three months since the encounter with the Mindless which provided some room for further unheard stories or even a place for The Dream Nexus to fit in. Having Patricia calling for the Doctor and Hebe was good although I do hope that is something that isn't overused moving forward. Mel actually being there before the TARDIS was even called was amusing and set up the time theme really well early on. Patricia seemed a lot more confident in this story and it was nice to actually have her travel in the TARDIS and not really bat an eyelid at the revelation that it was an actual time travelling machine. That was somewhat different to the device that Holm was using, but it was still one that worked very well. The idea of a machine that could manipulate time around it was exciting and the adventure had obvious vibes to The Lazarus Experiment with the idea of reversing human DNA and the search for a pure human. That was an intriguing concept and the inclusion of actual Neanderthals was fascinating. The suggestion that they were the dominant breed of human was intriguing and the only reason our current form was around was due to interbreeding. The Swedish setting of the clinic worked well and was a nice difference, and the comments about tax were enjoyable. I liked the mystery of the genetic engineering and the complications that came from the reversals taking place were excellent. The brain not being able to be reversed provided obvious issues so it would almost work as a factory reset. I am really enjoying Mel and her computer savvy nature with simple analogies like that doing a lot for her presentation as an intelligent companion, rather than one that just screamed during her television tenure. The Emit Institute, cleverly named with it being time spelled backwards, being built on top of a spaceship was fantastic and the imagery of that ship trying to repair itself and the pilot was disturbing with the likes of the skin returning to bone. That was gruesome. The cliffhanger was superb with Mel almost being aged to death and the deception of stating that Tarek was working with them all along was great stuff. I really enjoyed that. The references to Invasion of the Dinosaurs and City of Death when it came to Holm's inspiration for time travel experimentation was magnificent and he would've fitted in well with Whitaker and Kerensky. He was a strong villain with a demented view on what pure homo-sapiens were! The beastly result we got worked better than the Lazarus unlocking of beastly DNA. I liked the excitement of the conclusion which had a pretty tidy resolution in that the device just overpowered and the Doctor fed the reversal back to reverse the reversal. That was some fun time terminology! Patricia was excited by the use of time travel and technology, and if she was having a lift back home in the TARDIS then she wanted to travel in time herself! To the future! That sets us up nicely for the boxset's conclusion and I wonder if she'll end up sticking around for long. Overall, an excellent audio! 

Rating: 9/10