definitely not,4 is a good score tbh.
applause Iām so sad itās over, need more right now. A wiser me wouldāve savoured it more but in this timeline I have zero self restraint.
If I had to, I would echo that HL1 is better, but comparing is a bit silly. It overall just works so very well. Beautiful story, Tim Foley can do no wrong, this is my favourite Tardis-team now, imagine Iām giving another standing ovation. (sorry, I canāt say anything constructive or sensible, I just really like it that much)
8 Likes
Yeah Iām loving this team on audio lately. Shot up in my rankings.
4 Likes
Alright Iāve calmed down a bit here some things that actually make sense:
The most unexpected thing about HL2 is how little unexpected things it does. After the reveal of HL1 it would be very easy (and even deserved if you asked me) to go all out with the crazy bullshit and throw in some big mad things, or do a 8 vs 5, the let the Doctor face a moral dilemma or something against himself, do something even bigger.
But instead, after HL1 escalating the entire situation to be more and more epic, HL2 almost scales it down. HL1ās post credit scene made me at least, mostly excited for Eight to play a big role, but of course, after listening to this, thatās not what that scene is setting up. Itās all about Dr Myles, and her personal journey. Always big fan of actually it was the small things that mattered.
What I like about the ending is that it does a reset mindwipe, and makes me upset about the reset mindwipe, but it doesnāt make me upset at the story. Iām upset from a Watsonian perspective, because the story actually touches upon the pathos that comes with reset mindwipes. Because losing a part of your life, having an experience thatās been, getting retconned into being insignificant, awful that is. And I always get upset at reset mindwipes because theyāre often dealt with so lightly, or in some way have it still be a victory. I like that itās a tragedy here, that itās like having a downer ending without making it super depressing.
8 Likes
Having Adric say āNow Iāll never know if I was..ā
Tim Foley when I get my hands on you
5 Likes
Ok Iāve finished it and I have a few thoughts:
First off just want to say this was an epic story and I really enjoyed it
While I could listen to Paul McGann read a phonebook and it would be instantly amazing and the cold open was cool, it was a bit too much of an exposition dump for me and kind of spoiled some plot points in Part 7 and Part 10 (the intriguing reference to the Time Lord War Council and the fact that the cliffhanger has the Doctor, Tegan and Kessica thinking the TARDIS is about to be destroyed when we already know it was Eightās that was shattered). I would have personally moved the content to the conversation between Eight and Kessica in Part 12. Loved how they had Eight manipulating everything from the background, especially the interactions with Merla, Adric and Davlin
Also, despite this being an epic 12 part story i think it needed at least another part or two showing how Kessica found The Fifth Doctor and woke him up rather than just expositioning it to Tegan
I felt that while Adric got some great development, I feel like he was forgotten about for a while and would have liked him to appear a bit more since most of the focus was on Tegan, Nyssa and the Doctor, especially in Parts 2-6
The ending was interesting regarding the reset and I liked how it was treated by the characters (except perhaps the idea that Merfolk Murders may have been retconned since itās one of my favourite stories of all time) but I kind of wish more happened to the characters to warrant it
Overall 4/5, really enjoyed it
7 Likes
Just finished Episode 8 and Iām quite enjoying this. I know itās been said ad nauseum on here, but Tim Foley needs to write for the TV series. The Episode 7 cliffhanger was interesting. And we get the Tegan show in Episode 8. I loved her meeting with the Oracle. Though the time jump at the end, while a great cliffhanger, felt rather abrupt.
6 Likes
Iāve just finished part 12 and all I can say is, wow. I think this second set absolutely lives up to the first, and the story as a whole more than earns its place in the hall of all-time Big Finish classics, in my opinion. I have tons of thoughts about this second half, but I want to do a relisten before posting any more, so I can really take it all in. I will say that if RTD hasnāt already picked up the phone and asked Tim Foley to write for the TV show, he needs to do it right now!
7 Likes
Finished this today, my favourite Doctor, one of my favourite TARDIS teams, absolutely loved it
Itās gonna take a whole lot for something to top Hooklight as the best release of 2025 for me
8 Likes
Have not had the time to listen yet. Next week is Hooklight week.
1 Like
Finished just now!
I really enjoyed it. Kessicaās arc was really touching and I think it handled Adric and Five really well.
I wish Nyssa had had a more active presence in the plot than she did. Similarly, Teganās solo episode didnāt work wonders for me because I didnāt find Oscar particularly interesting ā but those are smaller things.
PLEASE, Big Finish ā more longform stories like this!!!
10 Likes
I do wonder if weāll hear more of Davlin one day? Iād be open to it for sure.
6 Likes
Iām halfway through a second listen of this story at the moment, and while I really enjoyed both Fallen Heroes and The Interstellar Song Contest last week, this absolutely knocks them both into a cocked hat for me personally, for one very big reason. Those other two stories, while each fantastic in their own ways, present a very dark version of the Doctor as a character - the Doctor of Fallen Heroes, while remorseful, is still willing to destroy an entire planet and condemn a whole species , while the Doctor of The Interstellar Song Contest threatens and then tortures that storyās villain . While those actions sadly arenāt really out of character for the Doctor at this point (and indeed, Iāve seen at least a few people in various corners of the internet who have finally come around to War and Fifteen because of these stories), they arenāt part of the appeal of the character for me. The Doctor that I really love, and one I want to see/hear/read about, is the one presented here, in both his Fifth and Eighth incarnations - a man who will reunite someone with his lost childhood teddy bear as a reward for a good deed, and who runs out of coins because he has too many wishes for a fountain. A man who, rather than blowing things up or shouting and raging at the villain, saves the day through his words, his wisdom and just being there for other people. The world can be a very dark place a lot of the time, and a lot of media these days reflects that, and I canāt help but prefer this kind of Doctor, and this kind of story, which are suffused with warmth, empathy, humour, optimism and earnestness, over those of the other releases last week, because it represents the kind of person I want to be and see in the world, and the kind of fiction I want Doctor Who to be. I think Tim Foley has a very Moffatian approach both to the Doctor as a character and Doctor Who as a work of fiction, and it comes through fantastically in this story, in a way that really elevates it for me.
Sorry for the wall of words - this is one of those stories that I think really distills down the essence of what I love about the character, and during a week when the main show diverged from that a bit, I wanted to share that here. No disrespect intended to anyone who prefers the more morally grey Doctors - the above is entirely my own opinions which are, of course, the correct ones 
/j
7 Likes
I love both approaches, and I love that Doctor Who is a franchise that can give us both, done expertly, in the same week
7 Likes
Hooklight 1 hasnāt worked for me ā purely because I keep zoning out starting from part 2. I really wanna listen to it properly now that the last half is out and I hear notbing but praise
8 Likes
Hooklight 1 is great so far - listened to about 30 minutes of it earlier.
Really looking forward to the rest.
9 Likes
Starting Hooklight 2 tonight! Hopefully two days off Big Finish was long enough for me to be able to do it without burn out continuing ā¦
9 Likes
Hooklight 1 finished,
Nyssa being in two realties is really thrilling stuff, and the gang all get something to do! Plus we get a cameo from 8 which i was pleasantly surprised by
9 Likes
Absolutely, Iām not averse to a bit of darkness and moral ambiguity (goodness knows there is enough of that in Classic Who as well) - I just definitely prefer the more āchildrenās heroā style take on the character that the Moffat years followed. I do think it is important the Doctor never gets too dark though - heās still the hero, and thereās the whole ānever cruel or cowardlyā ideal that he tries to live up to, even if he frequently falls short of it. I also worry that the more arrogant, trauma-driven archetype is becoming a bit more of a ādefaultā for the character these days, after it has come back in a big way for Fourteen and now Fifteen - itās nice to get the opposite of that in stories like this one, and I hope the pendulum swings a bit back in that direction before too long in the show. As you say above though, Doctor Who is a broad tent, and thereās ultimately room for all kinds of different approaches to the character!
8 Likes
I have mixed feelings about the childrenās hero perspective on the character. For one, I love it in the Moffat years (and there is good reason Capaldi was for some time my favorite iteration of the character). On the other hand, itās such a definitive run for them that since Iāve been feeling that character wise the Doctor is a bit aimless. In a sense I kinda wish the Twelfth Doctor was a finale to the series and the character as a whole, and whatever comes after happpened before.
Which is not to say I love everything that happened in the Capaldi years, or that I dislike all that happened since, because thatās not my point, but rather that the take is such an idealised version of the character that I donāt think later stories can truly live up to it. Itās a powerful realization of the Doctor as a myth, and it hits me hard, but Iām not sure thatās what I want Doctor Who to be.
Nowadays I lean a bit more to the classic side of things. My ideal Doctor is a traveller first and I find their character more interesting when it doesnāt align with a traditional hero role. I want stories that question their morals too. I agree that the never be cruel take on Twelfth is fantastic and extremely beautiful, but I think there is something lost narrative wise when the Doctor ācanātā be cruel anymore.
This is not me saying your feelings arenāt valid, to be clear, just how Iām not sure how I feel about it because of the same reasons. This was not a very well articulated response but I hope I could get across some of what I mean lol
7 Likes