‘THE LOST’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

In the Realm of the Lost with the Tenth Doctor and Anya

This is quite a character-driven episode in the ‘Dalek Universe’ season by Robert Valentine. It gets confusing, especially when the Doctor and Anya find themselves trapped in what seems to be a Void.

I did get lost at some point towards the episode’s conclusion before getting back on track again. Fortunately, David Tennant and Jane Slavin’s performances as the Doctor and Anya are pretty good.

‘The Lost’ is the fifth story in the ‘Dalek Universe’ season and the Doctor and Anya have recently lost Mark Seven, who got killed in ‘The Trojan Dalek’. The Doctor’s attempting to return to his own time.

Unfortunately, the time engine the Doctor acquired from the previous episode didn’t work as intended. Soon, the ship the Doctor and Anya are travelling in ends up crashing onto a strange world. 🙁

The world the Doctor and Anya are on is rather baffling, especially when the scenery keeps changing. It turns out they’re not alone. They happen to be in a realm that belongs to a being called the Lost. 😐

The Doctor speculates that the Lost might be an Eternal or one of the Endless. This would make sense, considering the Lost seems to know everything, especially about the Doctor and Anya here. 😐

In the opening teaser scene, the Lost is played by Leighton Pugh. I’m not sure if he appears in the closing scenes of this story, especially when the Lost keeps changing his appearances throughout this.

As well as taking on the forms of the Doctor and Ann Kelso (Anya’s alias and appearance from ‘The Syndicate Master Plan’ season), the Lost also takes on the form of Joe Sims as Mark Seven in this. 😐

He also takes on the form of Kevin McNally as Merrick Kingdom (who previously appeared in ‘The House of Kingdom’). The Lost does come across as cruel, especially with trying to get what he wants.

The Lost wants to leave his realm, but only one other person can go with him. He attempts to break the Doctor and Anya’s faith in each other. He wants one to go with him and the other to stay behind.

This episode is an interesting exploration into the Tenth Doctor and Anya’s relationship with each other. They also get to learn things about each other. Some things seem to be quite painful to them.

One of the things Anya learns in this story is that the Doctor played a part in the demise of her aunt and uncle: Sara Kingdom and Bret Vyon from ‘The Daleks’ Master Plan’. She regarded them highly. 😐

It comes as a shock to Anya that Sara Kingdom killed Bret Vyon during the events of ‘The Daleks’ Master Plan’. She’s also shocked that the Doctor never told her about this in their travels together. 🙁

The emphasis is made clear that the Doctor prefers Ann Kelso over Anya Kingdom. He doesn’t like it when the Lost is wearing Ann Kelso’s image when talking to him in order to break his faith in Anya. 😐

The Lost also reminds the Doctor of the people he’s lost in his travels over the years. As well as Sara Kingdom, the Lost mentions Katarina, Oliver Harper, Adric, Lucie Miller, Rose Tyler and Donna Noble.

As the episode draws to its conclusion, Anya ends up self-sacrificing herself in order for the Doctor to escape from the Void with the Lost. The Doctor is clearly upset and angry regarding the loss of Anya.

Thankfully, the Doctor comes up with a solution. Not sure how he did it (I would need to hear the episode again), but the Doctor manages to travel back in time to before his and Anya’s ship crashed.

A scene from before the crash is replayed, except this time, the future Doctor joins the past Doctor and past Anya. There are two Doctors, as the future Doctor helps past Doctor to correct a mistake. 🙂

Thus, the Doctor and Anya’s ship avoids crashing into the Realm of the Lost. I like how the Doctor and Anya talk about what they experienced, since some memories of that reality seem to remain. 😐

They hope to talk more about that and their relationship with each other. But they’re soon interrupted and get caught in the Dalek-Movellan War. Their ship also gets caught by one Dalek ship.

Nicholas Briggs as a Dalek speaks in the last scene of the episode, but the Dalek says…“Hello, sweetie!” Wait, what? Has River Song been turned into a Dalek? Hmm! That doesn’t sound good. 😀

BONUS DISC – BEHIND-THE SCENES

Disc 4 of the second ‘Dalek Universe’ box set is a behind-the-scenes making-of documentary looking into the three stories ‘Cycle of Destruction’, ‘The Trojan Dalek’ and ‘The Lost’. Like the first ‘Dalek Universe’ box set’s behind-the-scenes making-of documentary, this was pretty enjoyable to listen to.

There are behind-the-scenes cast and crew interviews to enjoy. We start with a look into the making of ‘Cycle of Destruction’, as we go straight into an interview with writer Roy Gill, who shares his experience of writing the episode. It was interesting to hear how he found writing for the Tenth Doctor.

There are also interviews with David Tennant, Jane Slavin and Joe Sims, who share the experience of working with each other whilst in lockdown and they talk about their characters. There are also interviews with John Banks and Avita Jay. It’s a shame Nina Toussaint-White didn’t get interviewed.

Or at least I can’t recall her being interviewed when hearing the documentary. We soon move with a look into the making of ‘The Trojan Dalek’. We have an interview with writer/script editor John Dorney, who talks about taking over the slot from the writer meant to write ‘The Trojan Dalek’ here.

There’s also an interview with Barnaby Edwards, who talks about voicing Daleks in ‘The Trojan Dalek’ compared to being a Dalek operator in the TV series. There are also interviews with Pippa Bennett-Warner and Blake Ritson. Blake Ritson shares what it’s like to work with David Tennant in the audios.

We then have a look into the making of ‘The Lost’. There are interviews with writer Robert Valentine and actor Leighton Pugh. A pity Kevin McNally and Nicholas Briggs aren’t interviewed. The cast and crew also share what it’s like to work during the 2020 lockdown. They also talk about Terry Nation. 🙂

The second ‘Dalek Universe’ box set of ‘Doctor Who’ with David Tennant was enjoyable to listen to. It was a shock that Joe Sims as Mark Seven got killed off at the end of ‘The Trojan Dalek’. It was also very interesting to explore the relationship between the Tenth Doctor and Anya during ‘The Lost’.

I’m looking forward to how the ‘Dalek Universe’ season of ‘Doctor Who’ will conclude in its third box set, especially with the Doctor and Anya meeting up with River Song somehow as well as a confrontation with Davros and the Daleks. I wonder how everything will culminate in the last set of stories.

‘The Lost’ rating – 8/10

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The previous story For the Tenth Doctor was ‘The Trojan Dalek’ (Audio) For Anya was ‘The Trojan Dalek’ (Audio)	The next story For the Tenth Doctor is ‘The First Son’ (Audio) For Anya is ‘The First Son’ (Audio)
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