Doctor Who: Project: Twilight (2001)
Cavan Scott & Mark Wright
Starring: Colin Baker & Maggie Stables
Big Finish #23
The Doctor and Evelyn arrive in modern day London – on the radio we hear snatches of information that set the scene, Tony Blair etc – and The Doctor has bought Evelyn to South London to buy take-away. The repartee between these two is a delight, both Baker and Stables relishing the spotlight. Hearing a noise they stumble across what appears to be a feeding place for a stray animal – there are dead birds, with strange markings upon them. Then they witness a murder and as they bouncers come from the casino The Doctor and Evelyn are implicated – so when the body explodes in a pool of blood, and a dancer is attacked, why are these casino owners so unwilling to call the police?
A dark gothic tale that wonderfully employs the trappings of seedy South London – some truly great sound work from Big Finish on this one – that sees vampires trying to remain hidden and live life. Vampires, as we learnt in the TV serial State of Decay, are ancient enemies of the Time Lords, and The Sixth Doctor clearly wants to destroy them. This is an unusual stance for the character and it works well contrasting him with Evelyn who is not so – intentional pun – bloodthirsty.
Cavan Scott and Mark Wright’s script was a lot of fun – the two clearly know the genre – and even if the appearance of yet another Buffy The Vampire Slayer clone somewhat mars it (at least it is a twist on that trope, and we see her evolution into this character) – Project: Twilight does something of a first for this range, it promises the return of these characters and that is something to anticipate.
As a script this could have easily descended into parody – that Scott and Wright know what they are doing, and that Baker and Stables are such class acts means that it does not. Project: Twilight is one of the strongest stories yet from Big Finish, and as I listened to it in the failing autumn light walking along a very windy and isolated beach in North Wales, I shivered not just from the cold, but at the gruesome delights Project: Twilight afforded.
