Family Ghosts

Prerequisites: None needed, although Albie's Angels gives context to a brief interaction.

Like Birdsong before it, I was pretty unimpressed with Lost Hearts. The concept is solid enough, and even sounds like some quintessential Who fun. There are some spooky moments, and the time paradox the story attempts is fairly well done. My issues lie within the characters: none of them are that interesting. For one thing, we're introduced to Helen's grandfather, but the story doesn't really take that link anywhere interesting. There's a moment where he expresses sexism, but it's later completely glossed over by saying he wasn't in his right mind. Compared to a story like Albie's Angels, this audio just fails to live up to its premise. Beyond this lack of real character moments, this is a decent story, it's just kinda underdeveloped.

An amazing story it starts off very school reunion esc but takes its own spin of it and I quite like what was done it’s eary and very entertaining

🙏🏼59% = Fine! = Skippable!

Thworping through time and space, one adventure at a time!

WHERE DID ALL THOSE HEARTS GO?

Lost Hearts jumps straight into the story with no hint of time or setting, which can be somewhat jarring because the main characters already know the guest characters. The story gradually reveals that it centers around Helen's relatives.

The story is a slow, character-centred drama. Despite the well-rounded characters, the story lacks enough tension or danger to sustain the listener's interest. The latter half raises the stakes as Helen’s existence is endangered, and the focus is shifted onto the villain and their plan, and this is where the story finally turns more engaging, with a couple of twists to boot.

This one has a great cast, with Steve Brody and Tim Bentinck in particular standing out with their engaging performances. Brody gets through the story as an educated and eager ghost hunter before it is revealed that he is actually a famous author, M. R. James. Benticnk sounds outright like Nyder from Genesis of the Daleks and gives those villain vibes from the get-go.

This story was pretty good , from the shocking death of the doctor and Helen being wiped from existence to the strange reveal of the companion of the story being MR James, it’s a rollercoaster of a ride that feels like shada for some reason (university setting probably) with professor Snape from Harry Potter as the antagonist with its own unique big finish twist, while I did enjoy the story I kind of wish this episode focused a bit more on Helen and her grandfather, I know we got a focal Helen story in what lies inside with albies Angels but I really wanted to explore more of her family history and how that affects Helen as a character. Liv was great in this story she shows a real streak of independence here earning the standout character for this story. As we near the point where she will leave the doctor and Helen I wonder how they will all say goodbye. Overall this story is a fun time bending and shocking adventure, I’d put it at about equal to the last story (bird song) it’s fun! And a pretty decent one.

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.