The Lost Resort

The Lost Resort #1

Released: 8 September 2021

Listened: 9/14/21

This 2021 release is a boxed set continuing the story that was in progress after the end of the Main Range. In this four-parter, after picking up Nyssa, Tegan, and Marc, all of them still on edge, the Doctor promises that they’ll talk, and tries to head for Gallifrey to do so. They end up instead on a planet with a crumbly, spooky sanatorium. Marc hopes he can get treated for his cyber-conversion, but the robot who runs the place seems most interested in the Doctor’s mental fatigue. As the Doctor tries to induce a trance state, he’s confronted with a vision of Adric (played by Matthew Waterhouse). This is one of those stories with an isolated location and a very eccentric guest cast, with almost too many quirks to keep track of. Tegan is annoyed, surprising no one, but even she is careful around the idea that Adric is alive in some way. Marc maybe comes to some acceptance of his condition. And Nyssa proves that she’s capable of acting independently (which should have been obvious from the long stretch she was alone with the Doctor, but never mind). Although there’s a certain amount of deception, and some peril, there isn’t really a bad guy or an evil scheme, just a series of sad circumstances. Because the point of the story is the Doctor coming to terms with Adric’s death, and being able to finally say some last words and let go. Matthew Waterhouse certainly does his level best with the dialog, and I’m glad he was able to show up for this story, but it does give Adric a level of gravitas that he never really had on TV. I’m not sure it accomplishes all it set out to do, but it does hopefully bring to a close the friction that started back in “Warzone/Conversion,” and allows this group to go on to further stories.