#54 I, Davros: Purity

On the cusp of a Dalek attack, my Randomoid Selectortron flees the scene to bring me to...

I, Davros: Corruption

I've selected an out-of-order I, Davros episode again, so I'm backing up the Selectortron slightly to park where I'm up to in the series...

I, Davros: Purity

Starring: Terry Molloy as Davros
Format: One full-cast CD (or download) with no episode breaks
Silly? No.
Standalone? No. Prior awareness of the events of Innocence is required.
Recommended? Yes, after Innocence.

My reactions to this story contain spoilers for itself and I, Davros: Innocence, and possibly for related stories such as Dalek Empire and Davros.

Before listening

Innocence ended with child Davros just having horribly mutilated his science teacher in a radiation chamber, sparking a life-long love of science and/or betrayal and/or horribly mutilating people. Judging by the Big Finish website description of Purity, there's a substantial time jump and this episode is about an adult Davros on a mission in the war against the Thals. I was enjoying young Davros (played by Rory Jennings, not Terry Molloy as I had originally written in my writeup of Innocence) and I'm disappointed that this story appears not to use him.

The title of Innocence had a double meaning to it, as one would normally expect it to refer to the innocence of childhood, but there really wasn't much innocence there in the first place and there was a plot thread involving the trial and execution of an innocent man. I'm expecting Purity to also have a double meaning, given the Daleks' obsession with genetic purity and the thematic relation to the title Innocence.

Despite the apparent absence of Rory Jennings as young Davros, I am expecting this to be a good listen.

After listening

I enjoyed this story. Davros in his late twenties is a continuation of child prodigy Davros, arrogant and frustrated by a job where he can't apply his skills. His arrogance makes him easy to manipulate, and the Kaled military gets him to be the scientific advisor on a potential suicide mission to investigate a Thal weapons facility. The battle against the Thals isn't the main focus; rather, much of Purity is spent on Davros's interaction with the military unit he's been attached to. He makes no attempt to hide that he thinks he is smarter than the commanding officer, and before long he is giving the orders. The Thal superweapon is a straightforward military action plot, but things get more complex on the way back from the mission, with Davros's mutated former science teacher making an appearance.
The fact that Kaleds and Thals coexisted peacefully in the past is brought up. Initially Davros thinks it is just a lie being spread by peace protestors, but when confronted with archeological evidence he decides it is evidence of a past civilization's decadance, proving that it deserved to die out. Davros is oblivious to his own inconsistencies, in this and other cases.
The frame tale does not quite line up with the presentation of what we are hearing: as in Innocence, there are scenes Davros wasn't personally there to witness and that don't support Davros's own central thesis. I found it interesting that there is a scene in Purity in which Davros narrates his recent experiences into an audio recorder, within the timeframe of the story; the fact that this happened instead of a cut back to the trial on Skaro suggests to me that the main action might have been written before the frame tale was added.
Davros's mother plays a prominent role in Purity. She is less talented than Davros but equally ruthless, and in this story she seems determined to see her son succeed at any cost. Her character arc presumably continues forward and I look forward to hearing more of it. Davros's own character arc seems like it could be a straight line from here to Genesis of the Daleks, but there's probably at least one more twist.
So far, I, Davros is easily recommendable, even if you're not particularly a Dalek fan or interested Big Finish's bleaker output.