‘The Lost Resort’ (Audio)

‘THE LOST RESORT’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

A Hospital of Ghosts and Adric’s Ghost with the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Marc

The Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Marc are back! 🙂

So, it turns out I was wrong. Apparently, ‘The Lost Resort’ and ‘Perils and Nightmares’ (or as the two stories are now called ‘The Perils of Nellie Bly’ and ‘Nightmare of the Daleks’) were recorded in 2020. The stories were recorded from the 14th to the 15th and from the 20th to the 21st of January 2020.

It just turns out that Big Finish decided not to release them in the original 2020 schedule and only released ‘Thin Time’/‘Madquake’ in that year. They saved the remaining three stories of the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Marc’s adventures in ‘Doctor Who’ for a special CD box set release in 2021. 🙂

I suppose that’s fair, considering Big Finish had to rework their schedules due to the Covid-19 pandemic happening from 2020 into 2021. Big Finish also made the decision to end ‘the monthly adventures’ range of ‘Doctor Who’ stories in March 2021 and have future stories be in special box set releases. 😐

I was sad that Big Finish ended ‘the monthly adventures’ range and I wondered whether the remaining Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Marc stories would be released at all. I was so happy when it was announced in April 2021 that the stories would be released in a very special CD box set release. 🙂

‘The Lost Resort and Other Stories’ CD box set contains the final chapter of the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Marc arc that began in ‘Tartarus’. I was looking forward to finding out how things would unravel in the journey the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Marc have been going on in their travels. 🙂

I revisited the previous stories ‘Tartarus’, ‘Interstitial’, ‘Feast of Fear’, ‘Warzone’, ‘Conversion’, ‘Time Apart’, ‘Thin Time’ and ‘Madquake’ before ‘The Lost Resort and Other Stories’. This was so I could get a clear idea on how things had turned out for the characters so far and where they were going next.

It was also a delight to hear Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton, Janet Fielding and George Watkins reprising their characters after experiencing a couple of tumultuous years in the real world. It was also fun how Matthew Waterhouse’s Adric and the Daleks (voiced by Nicholas Briggs) would fit in. 🙂

Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, George Watkins, Sarah Sutton and Matthew Waterhouse in ‘The Lost Resort’.

The first story in ‘The Lost Resort and Other Stories’ CD box set is a four-part story by AK Benedict called ‘The Lost Resort’! I have encountered AK Benedict’s ‘Doctor Who’ writing in Big Finish before.

She’s also written ‘The Calendar Man’ with the Eleventh Doctor and an episode in ‘Rose Tyler: The Dimension Cannon’. It was so intriguing to hear AK Benedict’s take on the Fifth Doctor TARDIS team.

‘The Lost Resort’ takes place immediately after Peter Davison’s Doctor picks up Nyssa, Tegan and Marc from the planet Callanna in ‘Madquake’. He had promised to talk to them about recent events.

It’s quite tense when the Doctor’s with his companions in the TARDIS. He hopes to take them to Gallifrey where they’ll have a room and an arbiter to discuss things and what his current feelings are.

But as always, things don’t go according to plan. The TARDIS is soon diverted away from Gallifrey to the planet Soresia. There, the Doctor and friends visit the Welkin Sanatorium in order to recuperate.

The planet contains an unusual temporal atmosphere. The Welkin Sanatorium might be an ideal place to recuperate, but it transpires the patients happen to be mere shadows of their former selves.

There’s also a contagious virus which soon affects the Doctor and his friends. The Doctor hopes to resolve the issue once and for all, but must overcome grief and guilt once the ghost of Adric appears.

I must admit, I was expecting this story to feature the Fifth Doctor TARDIS team having a full-on encounter with Adric’s ghost. There are touches of that, but it’s not to a great extent I would expect.

It’s not like ‘Psychodrome’ where it’s a full-on study of each of the four TARDIS regulars. There’s more focus on the plot and the planet that our heroes are on, which is a pity in the circumstances. 😦

I would have liked more scenes of Adric interacting with the Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Marc as they solve the mystery of Soresia as a ‘fivesome’. Sadly, there didn’t seem to be enough of that for me. 😦

Don’t get me wrong, the performances of the actors are very good. Each character gets to have standout moments. But this doesn’t match in terms of how I perceive really strong character drama.

It’s ironic that this story features a virus that the Doctor and his friends become infected by. ‘The Lost Resort’ was recorded in January 2020, two months before the Covid-19 pandemic happened. 😐

It’s also intriguing how this story has the Fifth Doctor dealing with the aftermath of Adric’s death from ‘Earthshock’. The only other time that happened was in the story ‘The Boy That Time Forgot’. 🙂

And Adric was played by another actor – Andrew Sachs. I know ‘The Lost Resort’ doesn’t reflect that and so few people rate ‘The Boy That Time Forgot’ highly, but it was fascinating to compare the two.

Peter Davison delivers his best as the Fifth Doctor in this audio story. I like how the Doctor comes to terms with Adric’s death here as well as coming round to apologising to the friends he abandoned. 🙂

Sarah Sutton is equally good as Nyssa in this story. Mind you, Nyssa doesn’t get that many scenes as I would like in this story and she’s sadly the one who gets affected by the virus to a greater degree. 😦

I liked that moment where Nyssa told the Doctor not to treat her, Tegan and Marc as if they were children. I played that scene twice so that I could hear how Nyssa stood her ground with the Doctor.

Janet Fielding is also good as Tegan in this audio story. Mind you, she does get cranky when she’s out of her depth on the planet Soresia and she lets her emotions speak first before she thinks about them.

George Watkins is equally good as Marc in the drama. I don’t think the after-effects of his cyber-conversion are greatly explored compared to ‘Madquake’. but they do get touched upon a bit in this.

I liked it when Marc rescued Nyssa from drowning. It was also great to hear Matthew Waterhouse playing Adric’s ghost in this adventure and how he makes a noble sacrifice for the Doctor’s sake here.

Anna Barry (who was in ‘Day of the Daleks’) guest stars as Dr. Aether Beauregarde. There’s also Ailbe Parsons playing Nora, Aether’s wife; and Julia Sandiford as the multiple versions of Fabrico on Soresia. 🙂

There’s also Glen McCready playing the two rivalling brothers Franco and Luchino. And there’s Chandrika Chevli as Sylvie and Clare Louise Connolly as Thad, who’s like Sylvia’s robotic son in the story. 🙂

George Watkins and Matthew Waterhouse in ‘The Lost Resort’.

‘The Lost Resort’ is a decent story featuring the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan, Marc and the ghost of Adric. I wouldn’t say it’s a full-on character study like ‘Psychodrome’, but it’s a really decent attempt.

The CD extras are as follows. On Disc 1 of ‘The Lost Resort and Other Stories’ CD box set, there’s a suite of incidental music to enjoy. On Disc 2, there are behind-the-scenes interviews with the cast and crew, including Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton, Janet Fielding, George Watkins, Matthew Waterhouse, producer/director Scott Handcock, etc.

‘The Lost Resort’ rating – 7/10

---

The previous story For the Fifth Doctor was ‘Madquake’ (Audio) For Tegan was ‘Madquake’ (Audio) For Nyssa was ‘Madquake’ (Audio) For Marc was ‘Madquake’ (Audio)	The next story For the Fifth Doctor is ‘The Perils of Nellie Bly’ (Audio) For Tegan is ‘The Perils of Nellie Bly’ (Audio) For Nyssa is ‘The Perils of Nellie Bly’ (Audio) For Marc is ‘The Perils of Nellie Bly’ (Audio)
Return to The Fifth Doctor’s Timeline
Return to Tegan’s Timeline
Return to Nyssa’s Timeline
Return to Marc’s Timeline
Return to The Doctors’ Timelines Index
Return to The Companions’ Timelines Index
Return to Doctor Who Timelines
Return to The Nyssa Challenge
Return to Doctor Who
Return to Sci-Fi