Don't let my spoilery review ruin this for you, Red Darkness is best approached fresh, and is easy enough to follow so long as you listen to the whole Shades of Fear box set and are familiar with the rebooted TV series up to the Eleventh Doctor.

Oh, I'm with the majority on this one. Red Darkness is something special. I love the talking dog character, that feels like he is an easy sell but I also feel he is just well written compared to other talking dogs in fiction. Doyle felt like a vocalization of the thoughts a border collie might have, and I say that having grown up with a border myself.

I think the plot structure was a stroke of genius. The Vashta Nerada were a brilliant choice for a threat to go up against the Ninth Doctor. That alone was exciting, but then the story is built like the film Pitch Black and it just works so well at getting you invested in the story. That's not the end of how impressive it is, though. I was so skeptical when I realized a second villain was involved, and was essentially teaming up with the Vashta Nerada like they were two Spider-Man villains. It seemed like a recipe for disaster to me, and I was a little worried that all the positive reviews for Red Darkness were undeserved.

But I would argue instead that these two monsters actually blended really well together. Both the Verimine and Vasta Nerada each get new abilities and resources by working together. It makes their return here purposeful, adding a new dynamic to their abilities and the nature of their threat while showing a new side to both beings we hadn't seen before. It reminded me a lot of the Angels first return, right down to the monster crawling into people's eyes.

I just loved it. Like everyone else, I hope so much that Doyle and Callen return. Big Finish and writer Roy Gill (shaping up to be one of my favourite Who writers at this point) gave us every reason to care about these two and I'm so invested in these new characters. They could basically travel with the Ninth Doctor indefinitely looking for a new home without it even affecting canon too much. To the Doctor, this is him fulfilling a promise just as much as it is getting two new companions so it doesn't feel like this should affect Rose's story with the Doctor, and both Doyle and Callen are fun characters that I think could bring out a lot of great moments in future Doctor Who stories. They already bring out an interesting side to the Doctor in this story, with discussions of life expectancy, the loyalty of Doyle, and Callen's youth all being excellent topics available for future adventures.

It all just works so well, Big Finish would be stupid not to at least try and make it happen.

okay callen and doyle were great, his mum dying was predictable unfortunately. i loved this story, really great how it connected to the colour of terror! great use of the vashta nerada.