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“HOOKLIGHT 2 – A TIME-TORN TALE OF TWO DOCTORS”

Hooklight 2 is a rare beast: a Doctor Who story that dares to stretch its limbs across six parts (making twelve in total with Hooklight 1) and still keeps its emotional stakes front and centre. Tim Foley’s conclusion to this grand fantasy epic picks up where part one left off—except now, the Eighth Doctor is stepping into the fray, and things are about to get even more complicated.

While the Fifth Doctor and friends work to prevent the titular Hooklight from freezing time itself, we discover that it’s actually the Eighth Doctor whose earlier failure triggered the situation in the first place. It’s a clever twist that adds a retrospective weight to both halves of the saga. There’s also a poignant return for Nyssa, now fused with the Hooklight, as well as Adric and Tegan—each given their own emotional arc, their own sense of purpose in the endgame.

SPLIT TIMELINES, STRANGE WORLDS, AND FAMILIAR TRINKETS

Foley continues to weave beloved classic Who lore into his intricate tapestry: time rings, hypercubes, and even the TARDIS key and lantern get a nod. These details never feel like throwaway references—they’re smartly used touchstones anchoring the more out-there fantasy elements to something recognisably Doctor Who. They also serve to keep long-time fans engaged while Foley explores stranger, more impressionistic territory.

Once again, the characters are scattered across time and space. The Fifth Doctor journeys in the past with the knightly Davlin, while Adric—also under Davlin’s wing—finds himself in the present. Foley's doubling of Davlin across time gives the story an almost mythic tone, and the mentor-student relationship between Davlin and Adric is particularly rewarding, offering Adric a rare moment of growth. He tries to live up to “being a Doctor” himself—Foley’s take on what it means to be heroic in the shadow of the Time Lord.

TEGAN’S CHAPTER AND A MELANCHOLY REUNION

Part 8 is a bold structural choice—an almost standalone chapter focused entirely on Tegan and her husband. At first, it feels oddly divorced from the rest of the narrative, like a bottle episode in a season finale. But then Tegan meets Eight. His brief, cryptic remarks (“I know who you are”) drip with potential, and for a moment, it feels like we’re peeking behind a curtain the show rarely dares to lift. Eventually, she’s reunited with the Fifth Doctor—three years later from her point of view—and the emotional weight lands beautifully.

It’s a reunion tinged with sorrow and growth. Foley understands that time doesn’t always travel in a straight line, and neither do relationships. The fact that the Doctor has barely blinked since their last meeting while Tegan has lived years is a classic Who heartbreaker, and it works brilliantly here.

EIGHT'S GOODBYES AND ADRIC’S UNTOUCHED FATE

One of the loveliest threads running through Hooklight 2 is the Eighth Doctor’s journey through his own past—not via time travel, but by reuniting with his former companions. Each one brings a little emotional clarity, a little unfinished business. It’s especially touching that he saves Adric for last. He clearly wants to warn him, to prevent his eventual death, but of course, he can’t. That tragic restraint, that desperate wish to interfere with fate but knowing he mustn’t—it’s pure Eighth Doctor pathos, and Paul McGann plays it perfectly.

THEMES OF CONTROL, GROWTH, AND LETTING GO

As the Hooklight tightens its grip on reality, the central characters all grapple with their own inner struggles. Nyssa is the standout here, torn between being used by the Hooklight and her lingering insecurities—some going all the way back to her first days in the TARDIS. Her arc is delicately drawn, and it helps ground the fantastical plot in recognisably human emotion.

Adric, too, continues to shine under Foley’s pen. So often the butt of fandom jokes, he’s given real space to grow here. His attempts to do things his own way while still honouring Davlin’s guidance make him feel more real—and more heroic—than ever before.

THE FINALE: RESOLUTION, RESET, AND A TOUCH OF SADNESS

The conclusion ties everything up with admirable neatness. The Hooklight is defeated logically, and all the narrative threads are wound back into place. It’s satisfying in that traditional Doctor Who way… but there’s a twist.

As the dust settles, the characters slowly begin to forget what happened. It’s a controversial move—especially in a story so rooted in emotional development. The reset feels bittersweet: these characters have grown so much, yet they won’t remember why. But perhaps that’s the point. Growth doesn’t always require conscious memory; it can linger in instinct, in emotion, in the quiet way someone moves forward after the adventure is over.

Yes, it helps preserve canon. No, it doesn’t rob the story of meaning. But it might leave you wishing just one character had been allowed to remember it all.

📝VERDICT: 82/100

Hooklight 2 is an epic conclusion to an already ambitious tale, mixing sweeping fantasy with introspective character drama. Tim Foley delivers another structurally bold, emotionally rich narrative that plays with time, myth, and memory to explore what it truly means to travel with the Doctor. The storytelling is intricate, sometimes even overwhelming, with its many timelines and character arcs, but the payoff is worth the patience.

It’s a story of reconnections, identity, and the cost of knowing too much. There are battles and betrayals, heartfelt reunions and quiet farewells. The Eighth Doctor’s doomed attempt to rewrite a friend’s fate, the Fifth Doctor’s tireless push to heal his fractured TARDIS family, and Nyssa’s struggle against her own insecurities all combine into something truly moving.

Hooklight 2 doesn’t just shine—it burns with mythic intensity, offering a rare kind of Doctor Who story: one that dares to forget itself… but never forgets what matters.