The BF Time Warp 023: Project: Twilight

[SiHart]

The Doctor encounters the Forge for the first time in this 6th Doctor adventure...

In the renovated docklands of South East London, on the bank of the river Thames, the doors of the Dusk are open for business. Bets are called, cards are dealt and roulette wheels spun. As fortunes are won and lost, an inhuman killer stalks the local avenues and alleyways - a killer with a taste for human flesh.

Is there more to casino owner Reggie 'The Gent' Mead or is he just a common gangster? What secrets are hidden in the bowels of the Dusk? And what connection does the apparently sleazy Bermondsey casino have to a long-buried government initiative known as Project: Twilight?

The Doctor must form uneasy alliances where the line between friend and enemy is blurred, playing games of chance...

But are the stakes too high?

What do you think of it?

Si xx

[Simon R]

I liked this a lot. It was very contemporay feeling if a little overly violent.

Yah, I'd like to get that one on cass-ette.

Try another?

[stuartdg]

I liked the gritiness in this,but its far from a favourite mostly because it was obviously set up to be part of a trilogy,which didn't get resolved until last year!

[Si Hunt]

Was it though? Cassie being left in Norway very much felt like the happiest end her story could have, and the only one who really escaped "to fight another day" was Amelia, and she never came back anyway!

Si.

[SiHart]

I really liked the grittiness of this one- it really suited the 6th Doctor, maybe because the urban setting was something we didn't see him visit much during his time on TV.

The Forge were an interesting set up, but I feel that it took too long for them to come back last year- it should happened ages before.

Si xx

[Rob McCow]

It's always great to see the 6th Doctor on present day Earth. He's such a misfit that grounding him in something real makes a great contrast.

Isn't this the one where Evelyn gets covered in blood from somebody's exploding chest? I'd have thought she'd have had a heart attack.

And I actually remember the humans-in-cages-for-vampire-food that was one of the cliffhangers, I think. This one might be worth a re-listen!

[Si Hunt]

I've re-listened to this one for my Vervoid column recently, so when the article goes up I'll link to it here.

Si.

[Jon Masters]

A strong 4/5 - the setting works perfectly for Colin, and his desperate attempts to do what is right all the time nicely contrasts with his somewhat ruthless TV persona. Rob Dixon is tremendous as Reggie, and although it is very violent its generally implied more than displayed. On listening again I'm surprised to hear how Stephen Chance doesn't really hit his stride as Nimrod straight away , but soon becomes the baddy we love by Ep 4.

So why not 5 ? Three main niggles:
a) That the Doctor doesn't realise what's going on for far too long, and then gives a feeble cliffhanger to both Ep 2 & 3 (why does it sound like the final word in Ep 2 was recorded somewhere completely different ?)
b) The very forced argument between the Doctor and Evelyn, presumably only to hide the identity of the monsters from Evelyn for a bit longer than necessary. The required make-up scene is equally toe-curling and shouldn't have been needed in the first place.
c) The unsubtle crowbarring in of the Journal - very clumsy, and not really needed to enjoy the story.

Perhaps the best thing though is the legacy it left for BF, and the stories to come.......

[Anthony Williams]

I really, really love this story. In fact, at this point in the range, it's probably my second favourite story so far, after The Holy Terror.

It seems odd having two Sixth Doctor stories one after the other, but produces a nice level of continuity. I'm going to take this as the point where I'm going to stop obsessing on just how good this interpretation of the Sixth Doctor is, and how good Colin is. Unless there's a particularly good or spectacularly performance, I think we should just take that as read from now on.

So, onto the play. Well, I love the beginning. I love that the events of this play have essentially been building for the best part of eighty years. This play is grim, and it's not afraid to show it. We first notice that when we hear Evelyn and the Doctor discovering mutilated animals in an alleyway. And things don't get much better from there - a casino basement with scientific equipment and torture devices. At one point Reggie plays "this little piggy" with someone's fingers, breaking them in the process. Reggie beating and mutilating Cassie is one of the most horrific things that we've ever experienced on audio. Certainly, this could never have been shown on TV.

Yet, despite all this gruesomeness and gore, there's something very endearing about this play. Big Finish's first foray into looking at Vampires. And it poses some interesting ethical questions - admittedly not too far from the BBC Books Eighth Doctor Adventure Vampire Science - on battery farming. If we suddenly found that we were no longer top of the food chain, would we find battery farmed humans abhorrent? Would we cease battery farming as a result of it? An ethical dilemma for sure, there.

For a brief moment during the play, the concept of the unwilling vampire is raised. Do all vampires want to be vampires? Can they control their hunger and addiction to human blood? That's the impression that we get from Amelia for a brief while, and that's certainly what Cassie seems to be left in Norway as at the very end of the play. And while Amelia seems to resent what was done to her, she doesn't want to be cured - she merely wants to take her revenge on the entire human race.

And yes, this certainly does set up a lot of elements for the future. It's easy to see in hindsight, but the Doctor and Evelyn will actually go to the Forge in the next play in the trilogy. Nimrod was a marvellous almost-anti-hero character, and it should really come as no surprise that he comes back later, and it's logical that Cassie would return at the same time, to continue her character development. Heck, we eventually even find out what happens to her son. Is this all a long game by the authors, or did they make up some of it as they went along?

There are a LOT of awfully good concepts here, which really just do something for me. The entire cast is absolutely superb in the various roles that they play. Not one person disappoints. Special mentions should go to Stephen Chase as Nimrod, Holly De Jong as Amelia and Rosie Cavaliero as Cassie.

There's no doubt about it. This is Doctor Who at it's bleakest and most grim. It would never work on TV. But the new, softer Sixth Doctor and the warmth of Evelyn serve as wonderful contrasts to all that's going on around them. I seem to like my Who a bit darker, and this play just really does it for me, getting a very solid 5/5.

[Nyder]

Finished this on the train this morning - wonderfully dark and gritty. And even if Evelyn didn't get much to do (apart from feel sick most of the time - understandable given the levels of gore!) all her scenes were played with gusto.

[Junkyard]

If you liked this, you'll also like Project Lazarus.