Written by Tim Foley

Starring Peter Davison and Janet Fielding

Originally released : April 2025

Listened to: April 2025

Context: not much to add here, other than I was looking forward to this one based on the cover alone! There was also a degree of trepidation, based on the 6 episode length of the story however it’s a 5th Doctor epic length story, which is novel, and i was hoping for something a bit faster paced/different than the recent 6 part 3rd and 1st Doctor adventures. I also had some good long walks/exercise sessions ahead to listen to it in long chunks, so the omens for this one were good!

THE REVIEW

What I thought:

I started this on an early morning exercise session and was immediately hooked (no pun intended). The music got me first, the ‘Hooklight theme’ is brilliant, and adds an epic quality to the adventure. The notion of this scary crazy ‘thing’ that our TARDIS team stumble across is classic Who, which then escalates significant and leads to separate adventures for each companion and the Doctor. The seeming destruction of the TARDIS is threaded throughout and the supporting cast are brilliant, in particular Davlin Crux the character is cool/memorable, and Celia Imrie is brilliant as well. The whole thing didn’t feel that long to me, I was enjoying it so much. The ending sets up so many questions rather than answering much, and the 8th Doctor cameo was unexpected and very cool. The epic, quest nature of this one echoes Star Wars epic mixed with lord of the rings.

Rating: 4 out of 5 Daleks – loved this boxset, brilliant, engaging and epic. This TARDIS team are so good together, fantastic.

What I felt:

Very happy to have listened to this one, and also so incredibly grateful that BF is still here after all these years and making such quality new Who adventures. I am also immensely grateful I can afford (mostly) to listen to pretty much all the new releases, and have the time to do so as well.

What am I left thinking?

• I have literally no idea where this story is heading in the second box set, can’t wait!
• If the 8th Doctor, or other incarnations? Will be in the next boxset

Memorable bits

• Adric being confused by Devlin as the Doctor, I would love to see what his ‘doctor’ costume looked like (in particular his cape!).
• So many … I will go with using bits of the TARDIS to shadow the destruction of the ship!