The TARDIS has been brought to perhaps its strangest destination yet, a beautiful planet called Rift in the realm of Morning. It's where everything in civilization and the stars supposedly came into being, and this legendary status makes it older and grander than almost anywhere else in the universe. But a visit to a local museum brings trouble as a mystical light from a rusty old lantern echoes in the minds of the Doctor and his friends. A lamp that must never be lit full of a destructive temporal element is about to send the TARDIS team on their biggest adventure yet .....

"Hooklight 1" is an ambitious Fifth Doctor release that's the first half of a massive epic that's unlike almost anything we've heard before. It starts interestingly quietly, as it initially seems like business as usual for the TARDIS team. But the more Tim Foley's script unfolds, the more things feel truly different. The writing feels like Doctor Who does "The Lord of the Rings" with a wonderful blend of sci-fi and fantasy, with the Hooklight itself as our central MacGuffin and the ghoulish Nigh Guard as our Nazgul. It's a bit overlong in places, true, but with plenty of fantastic lore full of political intrigue, philosophy, and big plot points, the narrative is denser than one would expect, backed by an appropriately mysterious soundscape and a great musical score.

Predictably, Davison and Sutton get the biggest developments overall as the Doctor and Nyssa have the biggest visceral reaction to what's going on. But Waterhouse and Fielding get plenty to do as they bear witness to past and future events to shocking effect; emphasis on the shocking part, as there are some big moments here that knock the wind out from under you more than once.

"Hooklight 1" then is a refreshing change of pace for your Doctor Who audio listening, grand and vibrant with a lot to enjoy if you can manage to keep up. Not to a usual Whovian's tastes, but well worth a listen, provided Part 2 sticks the landing.

-- 8.5 / 10

it’s like tim foley wrote this story specifically with me in mind

Thrilling, shocking and utterly fantastic, that’s about all I can say without giving anything away.

It all seemed so quaint in part one. I immediately connected with the Fifth Doctor when I first saw him, and I believe it's because he was the most approachable Doctor. It's impossible for me to imagine being most incarnations of the Doctor in my life, but I think it is possible to be the Fifth Doctor. He is always just doing the best he can, begging people to do the right thing, and making the hard choices when others can't to save who he can. While I don't think Davison has mastered his craft on audio quite to the degree of some other Doctors, he's had quite a number of excellent stories, none better than Pursuit of Nightjar which is an essential work for his Doctor. Then, that brings us to Hooklight.

A twelve-part story told across two boxsets, it's hard to review something properly halfway through. Overall I'd say it was a four-star story for me, but it earned the extra half star in terms of audaciousness and a jaw-dropping twist. Simple enough at first, the TARDIS has landed on a planet and is out of power, things get far far out of hand. Welcome to the northern islands on the planet Rift in the realm of Morning, the original home of civilization, the first galaxy. In a museum, there is a lamp, and suddenly, the lamp lights up. All chaos ensues as Hooklight has returned, an ancient and deadly substance that immediately draws the attention of the ghostly Nigh Guard. There's bucket-fulls of lore getting brought up (Dawnbrides - powerful valkyrie witches, the cloned rulers of Morning - the Halcyons), and we still have many episodes to go.

What I did not expect (and sometimes had to keep straight in my head) was that this was going to be a time-screwy story. The Doctor is pushed by a robot through a portal hundreds of years into the past, and Adric tries to save the TARDIS and ends up presumably in the future. The key to this whole story is Nyssa who is somehow infected with the Hooklight becoming its bearer/herald, and is in multiple places and multiple times at once. The Doctor is with Nyssa and the mage VanderSeer going to tip the second age to the third at the Dark Forge, Nyssa and Tegan are taking the light to the planet Hence to be destroyed, Adric is meeting the last of the Everens, the flamboyant pilot Devlan Crux who apparently was in a relationship with the Doctor in the past and thinks Adric is him regenerated.

There are great moments for the cast, especially near the end. Once the Doctor finds the TARDIS destroyed, Davison just about sobs, and it hits you like a sharp knife. Devlan shoots Adric to regenerate him as part of a complex scheme, and Adric comes clean saying he wanted to just pretend he was the Doctor. Tegan hasn't had a major one yet, but she's the one who discovers the Hooklight...is the TARDIS lamp?? Everything is out of control chaos, and out of nowhere...the voice of Paul McGann hit me like a ton of bricks. Hearing him interacting with Nyssa and Adric, revealed as the Oracle who has somehow masterminded this plan, it was a whopper I was very glad to be unspoiled for. Also: he's apparently wearing an eyepatch.

Tim Foley has built an impressively detailed and multi-layered world that might be a little too complicated. The story of course is only halfway through, so a lot feels unfinished. There is no doubt though: this is one of the most ambitious Big Finish releases ever setting up a story on a true cosmic scale. I can only hope we stick the landing.

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

“HOOKLIGHT 1: THE FIFTH DOCTOR TAKES A FANTASY DETOUR IN THIS EPIC, TIME-TWISTED QUEST”

While I’ve never been the biggest devotee of the Fifth Doctor’s audio adventures, recent outings like Genesis of the Cybermen have been encouraging—and the early buzz around the opening half of Hooklight was simply too intriguing to ignore. A 12-part saga blending grand fantasy with rich sci-fi, Hooklight sees the Doctor and his companions trapped in a strange realm, ruled by myth and shadow, where a legendary object of immense power threatens to fall into the wrong hands. Think Lord of the Rings meets Doctor Who, with a dash of Dune and The Mind Robber, and you'll be halfway there.

SETTING THE STAGE: MYTH, MYSTERY, AND IMMERSION

Just like Peter Jackson’s Fellowship, the story opens with a grand, voice-over prologue, recounting the origin of the Hooklight and the devastation it might cause. From there, we’re slowly immersed in this bizarre world and its peculiar denizens. World-building is the name of the game, and Tim Foley clearly isn’t in a hurry. But rather than meander, this deliberate pacing gives the story space to breathe, establishing a realm of political unrest, space-age mysticism, and quasi-Eastern philosophies. The TARDIS loses power, a mysterious lamp glows to life, and soon the team is split—allowing different story strands to develop and overlap across a vast, interwoven plot.

HOOKLIGHT AS THE ONE RING? WELL, IT FITS

The Hooklight itself is a fascinating creation—so ancient and dangerous that even the Time Lords fear it, with the capacity to stop time entirely. The Tolkien parallels come thick and fast: the heroes are pursued by the monstrous Nigh Guard, a band of beastly hunters part-man, part-creature, who feel like Black Riders reimagined for audio. A particularly tense early cliffhanger has Nyssa and Tegan forced to guard the Hooklight from one of their own, now transformed by the object’s power. There’s a real sense of creeping dread as the Nigh Guard draw ever closer.

AMBIENCE, ATMOSPHERE, AND A TRUE SENSE OF SCALE

The synth-driven soundtrack and imaginative sound design evoke everything from crumbling citadels to lava pits, war-torn sky cities to mystical caverns. You get spaceships and robots alongside wizards and rebels. It’s an unashamedly ambitious space fantasy on a scale Big Finish has rarely attempted, and it very nearly pulls it all off.

THE QUEST DIVERGES: STRANGE ALLIES AND DARKER TURNS

The story’s scope continues to widen with the arrival of new players: Halcyon, who captures the Doctor under mysterious pretences, and Vanderseer, a powerful mage tasked with locating the mythical Dark Forge. While the Doctor is dispatched to uncover the truth, Nyssa and Tegan hold onto the Hooklight, knowing they must destroy it before it’s too late. Meanwhile, Adric is sent on his own detour and gets entangled in a swashbuckling side-plot with Davlin, a heroic figure who mistakes Adric for the Doctor in a new form. Watching Adric relish the deception is oddly charming.

A LAYERED NARRATIVE THAT REWARDS PATIENCE

By the halfway point, things get wonderfully timey-wimey. The TARDIS is discovered—torn apart and scattered across the realm—and the narrative splits into two timelines. Nyssa’s consciousness begins to fragment across time, revealing her to be a crucial piece in this tangled puzzle. The mythology tightens: could the Hooklight actually be the TARDIS’ lantern? How is it linked to the Doctor himself? Is the Oracle, the mysterious figure guiding events from the shadows, another incarnation of the Doctor—or something more dangerous?

A STUNNING REVEAL TO CLOSE OUT PART ONE

The performances throughout are exceptional—Peter Davison anchors the chaos with quiet authority, while Janet Fielding and Sarah Sutton turn in some of their best work. Special praise must go to Celia Imrie as the enigmatic Kessica and David Shaw-Parker’s commanding Vanderseer.

But it's Part 6 that detonates the biggest twist yet. As timelines fracture and Nyssa reaches full psychic enlightenment, the identity of the Oracle is revealed… and it’s none other than the Eighth Doctor. It’s a jaw-dropping reveal, and it recontextualises everything while setting the stage for a second box set brimming with promise. Why is Eight here? How deep do these connections run?

📝VERDICT: 8/10

Hooklight is something rare: a Fifth Doctor epic that dares to break the mould. It's sprawling, intricate, and occasionally overwhelming—but also rich in imagination, with a scope and ambition almost unmatched in Big Finish’s back catalogue. Fans of epic fantasy, grand quests, and deep myth-building will find a lot to love, and the storytelling rewards patient listeners with a dramatic, genuinely surprising mid-point twist. A slow burn—but one that glows bright.