Shades of Fear: Red Darkness

"There are teeth out in the night. They are hungry."

Writer: James Kettle

Format: Audio

Released: February 2023

Printed in: Ninth Doctor Adventures 8.03

Featuring: Ninth Doctor

Synopsis 

The sunlight from Solis Kaliya could revolutionise colony farming. While his mother researches its properties, Callen and his seeing (and talking!) dog Doyle meet a new arrival – and discover an impending threat...

The Vashta Nerada are closing in, and they are not alone.

Verdict 

Red Darkness was an excellent episode to conclude the Shades of Fear eighth volume of Ninth Doctor Adventures! I think this was the best of the set so far and definitely goes down as one of the best Ninth Doctor stories from Big Finish. It’s always fun to reunite an incarnation of the Doctor with a familiar enemy that they never got to face on television. And to be fair in this case, said enemies hadn’t actually made their debut yet! But this was terrific. I liked how things started with the Doctor starting as a stranger amidst an ominous atmosphere with everything being completely deserted. Doyle’s introduction was quite the occurrence as we learned he was a dog! The Doctor wasn’t surprised to be communicating with a canine which was fun and he seems to appreciate the means in which his vocal chords were being utilised to relay speech. Callan was a solid character as well and his partial blindness came into play later in a big way. Iona Lennox as his mother was a great character and I enjoyed how McConnaghy was killed on the call. That was a fine use of the audio format. The significance of the solar light on Kelyard 5 worked well and was unique as the humans that were left were trying to synthesise it. Bram being so clearly infected with the Vashta Nerada was intriguing and it seemed to last an eternity with him at the door trying to convince Callan to let him in. The Doctor seemed to think that the human colony ship had brought the Vashta Nerada with them and they’d been settling and building up their force. The question of where shadows replicate was brilliant to ponder as well. The twist that the Vashta Nerada here were actually fused with the Vermine as a collective was incredible and sublime continuity with The Colour of Terror that started this boxset. The Doctor indicated that there must have been a stray refraction and once again the red on the planet became very problematic! I was a big fan. Iona being responsible for the fusion of these two deadly races from her experiments in synthesising the light was fantastic. She felt responsible for everything. Callan and Doyle being immune to the red light due to their sight and not being able to see that colour on the spectrum was very good utilisation and the use of green filters for Iona and Marjie worked well. All directions pointed to cutting out the red to get to the safety of the TARDIS which worked nicely. Until Marjie was eaten. The filters were also taken which really added a sense of danger, with the Vashta Nerada also emerging as being able to split from the red to attack. With Doyle and Callan safe from the red threat, the plan for them to guide the Doctor and Lennox who would close their eyes was logical but it was clear that it was never going to be so simple. That soon was realised as Lennox admitted she had looked just briefly and she could feel something nagging in the corner of her eye. Her wanting the Doctor to promise that he’d take Callan with him was powerful and he was one to keep his promises. Once they reached the TARDIS I thought it was brilliant that the lamp turned red as the usual white contained a full spectrum. Lennox sacrificing herself in taking off her blindfold and making her choice as she knew she was goner anyway was excellent! The goodbye to Callan was really touching. I must say I thought the voicing of the Vashta Nerada was superb throughout and was the right level of eeriness and disturbing. That’s exactly what you want in a dark episode like this one. The speaking through the dog collar was something I actually expected so I was glad that it was utilised. It was too perfect for them! Christopher Eccleston was at his best once the Doctor took the Vashta Nerada swarm through the Vortex and actually goaded them into separating from the Vermine. That was so well done. Once split, they were weak and the Doctor quickly deposited them on a planet with nothing left to feed on. Callan seemingly sticking around was a surprising ending though and I wonder if we’ll get a further adventure with him and the Ninth Doctor! The ambiguous end was good but I do hope that there is much more to come for Christopher Eccleston and Big Finish. Overall, a fantastic finale! 

Rating: 9/10