Review of Lost Hearts by sircarolyn
16 May 2024
This review contains spoilers
One thing I love about Doctor Who is when they do cults. There have been many, many cults in the history of DW with varying degrees of success (K9 and Company, I love you, but what is that all about...). This episode sees Helen's grandfather, as a student, accidentally getting embroiled in a cult.
Seeing a Sinclair in the cast list, I was very excited to see them dig deep into Helen's family life again as I feel like her family background is something that has more potential than we've really seen so far. However, I confess I found Robert to be underutilised on that front. He was there and we got a little taste of Helen's family, but it was in no way the complicated, messy delve that I was hoping for.
As for the rest of the episode, it was delightfully spooky and gave our cast lots to do, which was appreciated. I enjoyed Liv's attempt at piloting the TARDIS, and the tension of Helen fading away. The episode promised us something ghostly and thrilling, and it did deliver. It very much gave me the vibes of Fairytale of Salzburg, and that is a vibe I love. Certainly, it was one of the more engaging 8DA episodes of recent years.
But - and I hate to say it, because I did like this episode - it felt generic. Was it fun? Yes. Was it spooky? Yes. But was it new? Was it the kind of shake up of the status quo that the 8DA range sorely needs? Did it feel like a real challenge to the characters? Not really. And, unfortunately, I think an explosive change is what this range needs because right now, it's feeling a little bit like going through the motions.