I appreciated dema1020's comparison to Pitch Black. I hadn't thought of that. To me, it's giving Fallout 4. A lovable dog on a desolate, scary world. Excellent characters. I, too, hope they stick around and we get to see them find a new home. I could look it up but I'll leave that as a mystery until I hit play on the third series.

The fact that this is not my favorite 9DA is a statement to the strength of the series and not an insult to the strength of this episode. I'm in awe of how creative, inclusive, thrilling and clever just about every 9th Doctor audio has been to this point. I expected to like the series because I like 9, the way I like the 10DA's because I like 10. I didn't expect it to be my favorite run, rivaling some of 8's. The child in me, who was devastated that they only got one season with Eccleston on TV, would be so delighted to know I've gotten another 24 just-as-great adventures with the same incarnation, with another 24 published or planned on the horizon. This is going beyond Red Darkness now, but I hope we can see longer arcs and character growth because that is the one thing holding this series back from being as great as Eccleston's run on television. I know that's hard given that we have to find him broken in Rose, and the plotting from Rose until his death is pretty tight. But maybe there are other directions in which he can grow, less related to his war trauma. Idk. I'm not a Big Finish writer. If we continue to get episodes this excellent, I really can't complain.