The Lost [AUDIO/2021.7.14]

★★★☆☆

  I don't think I can be too harsh towards The Lost; to be honest, there's no need for me to be harsh at it at all. It's a good Dr. Who adventure, and a needed one after two emotionally charged events throughout the previous entries of Dalek Universe 2. A two-hander focused on confronting secrets and unresolved tensions with a touch of the surreal -- what's to fault in that? Normally -- and when I say normally, I of course mean if its full potential was utilised properly -- I would've given it a higher score. Rather unfortunately, The Lost is bogged down by a general unwillingness on both Robert Valentine's part as well as the production's. It's simply not as ambitious as it could easily be, and it doesn't help that the two-hander approach faces a few stumbling blocks, chief amongst them being the lack of intensity in any aspect of the story. The writing's pretty okay, the concepts are pretty okay, and the execution (beginning to end) is pretty okay. Pretty okay's the name of the game here, and although I'm not disappinted, I can't say I'm satisfied.

  As mentioned, everything amounts to pretty okay... except for the performances of the actors. Believe me, David Tennant and Jane Slavin give their all in their roles. Slavin makes Anya Kingdom all too real, a woman who discovers that the man she's felt guilt towards has secretly been associated with the deaths of her two childhood heroes and family members. She even has to act as Ann Kelso at one point, and it's a bittersweet moment for both the Doctor and the audience. The Doctor has a small reckoning with his own past here, and Tennant's as brilliant as always. Therefore, if you're looking for a two-hander with standout performances, I'd recommend The Lost in a heartbeat. If you're looking for a two-hander that I'd consider great and above (i.e. with ingenuity, creativeness and intensity in many to all aspects), I'd instead recommend Scherzo. Now that I mention it, this is rather like a lesser version of Scherzo. Then again, that adventure had emotional stakes and interpersonal/conceptual/body horror on a whole another level. Hard to compare to that.