A very muddled story that has a lot of clever ideas, but fails in executing almost all of them.

The Doctor, Ben and Polly land in London, 1948. It is a London still wrecked from the second world war. Within the wreckage, they find a mysterious can of beans that tells them of an ongoing conspiracy. And Polly might be more involved than she realizes.

Let’s start out with a comparison. Do you remember those early internet webcomics? Those days where “random = funny” reigned supreme? That’s what this story feels like. Things happen, but they are unexplained and a bit out there. I am not against creative and whacky sci-fi ideas, but this story throws so many ideas at you, that you can never really find your footing in the setting.

To make it as clear as I can: This story features a battle between a possessed can of beans that speaks through vibration and a force that possesses teddy bears, who are evil because they are missed by their owners. One of those bears belongs to a young Polly, who teams up with our gang to stop the evil force. Eventually, they defeat the threat by changing a “Lost and found” sign to “For disposal”.

It's clearly going for zany, but it fails to take the reader by the hand. It takes a little time to lay some groundwork as we’re standing in the ruins of the war, but it doesn’t take long for the can of magic beans to suddenly show up and become plot-essential. We don’t know what the can does, wants or means, yet suddenly we’re all in on it being the center of our attention. The can becomes our goal and later gives us our next objective, yet we never get the full picture of why we should even trust this can of beans. Would you trust a strange voice whispering in a can?

This is starting to sound stupid, but I think the fact that the can of beans never really proves itself is what makes the whole story collapse in on itself. It makes you lose a lot of investment and there is nothing that picks up the slack. The story tries other stuff, like a younger Polly and the teddy bear plot, but it all feels like an afterthought now. It has no weight, no danger, no importance.

Outside of the main plotline, there’s also not much to write home about. The banter between characters is noticeably weak and there are no strong character moments. Which is weird, considering we meet one of our companions as a child. It’s just another part where the connection with the listener is lacking for me.

All in all, Lost and Found is not a strong story. It lacks fundamentals, character motivations and fun little details that make a story shine. It clearly tries to be whacky, but it all feels halfhearted. I wish I could point out at least one thing it did well, but sadly, I’m drawing a blank.