Purity Unbound: The Corruptions

"My power will create perfection. "

Writer: Mark Wright 

Format: Audio

Released: August 2023

Series: Sixth Doctor Adventures 4.02

Featuring: Sixth Doctor, Mel, Hebe

Synopsis

Melanie Bush is a popular part of the Pease Pottage village community, and her best friend Hebe runs the local cafe where Elise the florist often drops by. Elsewhere, the Doctor is trapped in a nightmarish realm – Pease Pottage Services – unable to cross the boundary of the motorway where shadowy creatures drift amid the traffic. 

Purity is watching, and if the Doctor attempts to rescue his friends... they will cease to exist.

Verdict

The Corruptions was a decent story to continue my way through the Purity Unbound fourth series of Sixth Doctor Adventures! I thought this was a strong story but it did slightly peter out towards the end as I felt it dragged a little in the conclusion which in of itself was good but a little predictable. After the strong cliffhanger at the end of Girl in a Bubble I was hoping for a little more danger here, but it didn’t come immediately which just felt a little wrong in terms of tone and atmosphere. I seem a little contradictory in saying that as a whole though the atmosphere for the episode was good and quite eery. Exploring the worlds within the bubbles in which the Doctor, Mel and Hebe were stuck was decent but it did seem like we were just waiting around to get to the end. That was fine and I did like what was happening to set up the finale of the series, but it was so clear that the Doctor was going to be reunited with his companions by the end. I thought it was quite fun to have Mel encountering Hebe in the fictional timeline with the latter working at a cafe and the former lamenting the mundane routine that is life. She woke up, worked out, went to work and then went home. That sounded rather similar to my own life apart from the fact I work from home and my work out consists of a cycle or walk, but I could definitely understand where Mel was coming from. Except when it came to carrot juice of course. That wasn’t something I could ever get on board with! I thought the idea of the titular element of the story was good and the description of corrupter is certainly apt for the Doctor! Mel and Hebe getting little murmurs of memories of the Doctor when it came to seeing the multicoloured fish that represented his coat was fun, although again the predictability was always there of how things would end up. I really enjoy Purity as the villain but for the second episode in a row now we didn’t have any external threat other than her concept for the perfect world. I like exploring her attempts to assert this timeline as the dominant one, but I think it would be beneficial to have some other threat than just essentially playing the waiting game with the main characters just stuck in containment. It is nice to be hearing Hebe back in full flow as a companion now and she’s working to getting her life back because the one in Purity’s world is barely worth living. The Doctor having supreme confidence throughout the episode was annoying Purity and that was something I really liked. He was so certain that he’d stop her and her ideals. I was a little surprised though that he admitted feeling sorry for Patricia because she took a chance anyone would to build a world, but things had gone way too far and the Doctor wasn’t convinced she’d meant this. The moment the Doctor was reunited with Hebe and Mel was really nice and sets us up nicely for the finale, where I hope we do get an emphatic conclusion after a strong build over the last three series! But for now, this was a good listen despite the predictability. 

Rating: 7/10