The Dr Who Annual 1966: The Lost Ones

The Dr Who Annual 1966
"The Lost Ones"
Written by [unknown]
Published: September 1965
Read: 22nd September 2016

What's It All About

When I read where the Tardis had landed today, I must admit that I groaned. Yes, it's Dr Who's first visit to the planet Vortis and he is seen set upon by the Menoptera. However, we don't get a rehash of The Web Planet, nor do we get a rip-roaring page-turner of an adventure. Instead, this story really looks into scientific curiosity as the Doctor is intrigued at these enormous insects, and the Menoptera in turn, are fascinated by the Doctor. Of course, when the Doctor is imprisoned and threatened with being dissected (as he was in "The Sons of the Crab") I started to think we were going to get a rehash of the previous story albeit with the Menoptera instead of the Yend of Wengrol.

Enter the eight-foot giant soldiers who rescue the Doctor and carry him off to their crashed spaceship. Here, we are once again given over to scientific and historical curiosity as the soldiers are identified as being from the city-state of Atlantis! The Doctor correctly surmises that he has travelled thousands of years back in time, and he theorises on the history of these Atlanteans, that they were able to travel the stars and colonised other universes before they turned on themselves leading to the destruction of Atlantis. The soldiers repeated references to the Greek gods, also lead the Doctor to suspect that survivors moved out to Ancient Greece and Ancient Egypt, spreading their myths and shaping humanity.

Summing Up

To sum up, then, this was a story that was short on action, yet provided some intriguing insights into the make-up of the inhabitants of Vortis, as well as providing us (yet another!!!) theory for what fate befell Atlantis and the Atlanteans. There was only one stand-out scene for me in this story, where Dr Who was forced to remove all of his clothes in order to prove that he wasn't an insect! That certainly wouldn't have happened had this story had appeared on television, and with good reason, but I could certainly see Hartnell injecting all his defiance and will into it and not losing his dignity. To top it all off, we have another downbeat ending with Dr Who leaving the Atlanteans battling it out with thousands of Zarbi and larvae guns. Dry but interesting.

6/10

Continuity Corner

• Dr Who invented the Atmospheric Density Jackets (The Web Planet) for use in the eventuality that an accident deprived him of oxygen.
• This is Dr Who's first visit to the planet Vortis, as he has never met Menoptera or Zarbi before.
• Dr Who once again confirms that he is from the planet Earth ("The Sons of the Crab").
• The Zarbi served as companions and workers for the Menoptera for millions of years. The Menoptera were forced into exile when a Zarbi queen evolved that was different to any other: she was ambitious and set about equipping the Zarbi with weapons. The Menoptera were forced to evacuate to one of the orbiting moons aboard a sole spacecraft.
• Dr Who hypothesises that the giant Atlanteans colonists on Earth must have settled in Ancient Greece, Egypt, and Crete where they forgot their noble origins, devolving into savagery, yet still worshipping their gods.