The Lost Ones

The First Doctor #10

'The Lost Ones' from The Dr Who Annual 1966.

Slotting into the canon by ways of the fact that The Doctor mentions he has been to Vortis before in The Web Planet, I was hoping for a bit more of a friendly interaction, as that serial implies he used to have. So to have this story here be quite the opposite, where he is captured by the Menoptera, kind of doesn't make any sense, and seems to be a waste of a grand opportunity presented in the original serial itself. The Doctor's interactions with the Menoptera are fairly simple and uninteresting, with them wishing to dissect him like an insect in the same way that he describes to them what Earth-people to do insects, which is a humourous set-up, but the lack of consistency with it's own source material was a little disappointing. The Doctor's supposed "humanity" is also wishy-washy, as is to be expected in these pre-Time Lord stories, but it's funny how even in this story it contradicts itself, both stating that he is from Earth and then in a footnote stating otherwise. The Atlanteans are a fun additional element, worldbuilding inconsistency aside, and The Doctor's final dilemma of helping them or not was interesting too. Funny that this is the second story so far following Frayed in which The Doctor is stripped naked. Not an image I want to keep reoccurring...