6DA Purity Unbound Out Now Spoilers OK

Girl in a Bubble by Jacqueline Rayner

A pretty solid opening to the final set in the Purity arc. The cliffhanger from last set is followed up in an interesting manner, and I really appreciated the further nods to Evelyn, who it goes without saying is a quintessential companion and Maggie Stables is very sorely missed. I also thought that even with an extended run time that the plotting was still relatively tightly paced.

The Corruptions by Mark Wright

This was enjoyable enough, though it definitely felt like a bit of a run-around before the actual finale. There are some really great character moments, but nothing ever feels like it happens. The sound design was quite interesting for the different “worlds” however, and the music here was well-done as well.

The Wrong Side of History by Robert Valentine

Much like the episode before it, while enjoyable enough, The Wrong Side of History doesn’t feel like it justifies its runtime. And perhaps that says more about this run in general. I feel like the four set run really should have been a two set run, trimming the excess and repetitiveness of some of the stories. Especially since both Water Worlds and Purity Unleashed feel mostly disconnected from the ongoing arc anyways and truly could have had an episode or two trimmed.

Finally got round to this after putting it off for a while. Blimey, what a mess. Lots of talking, shouting and convoluted plot to try and disguise that the set, and the whole run of stories, is doing or has achieved very little. There's just so much repetition throughout this entire run that I think we only really got three or four unique stories out of the 12. Add to the fact that our villain is never explored in any detail, except for a few minutes in The Wrong Side of History, which just come across as the crew realising they better actually do something. Patricia is neither challenged in her views or three dimensional in her character; the Doctor expressing some regret at the end falls completely flat and listens as though it's trying to make amends for not covering ground in the preceding 12 hours.

Hebe ends up being a bit of an irritating non-entity overall. I'm not sure they ever developed anything beyond getting some headlines by announcing Ruth Madeley a couple of years back. She certainly seems completely isolated to everyone else. With Ruth transitioning to TV Who and Mel due to make her return next year, I wouldn't be surprised if this iteration of the TARDIS team are quietly phased out, nor would I have any issues with that.

The Evelyn stuff doesn't really work for me. I think these things have to be delicately done, and I think Big Finish achieve that, but well executed too; this all feels a bit too convenient and "off screen". Appreciate that there's obvious reasons for the latter, but it's for production to overcome that. And I am fed up of this range being blighted with such forced cliffhanger builds up teasing the future set.

So we've had a 12 episode run, where sets 1 and 2 told two particular types of stories, set 3 touched similar ground for its latter two stories and set 4 tries to counter all the time wasting by throwing the kitchen sink in and not really achieving anything. Throw in an undeveloped new companion who's barely in the series, a Mel who doesn't always feel well served and a very passive Doctor who comes in and out of events as he sees fit. And then add in a villain who's motives are never really clear and who's views are never really challenged? It's an unsatisfying mess for me, I'm afraid. It's no coincidence that the best story by far was the Broadway one completely removed from events of Purity.

Fair play to those that enjoyed it.