The Monthly Adventures #023 - "Project: Twilight" by Cavan Scott and Mark Wright

Some people call Big Finish convoluted. Some people say that the Main Range is full of random references, interwoven stories, important scenes in entirely unrelated episodes and constant tie-ins with their other series. Some people say the Monthly Adventures can be hard to navigate. Those people are all correct. Project: Twilight is the beginning of the infamous Forge Arc, an odd, convoluted and often melodramatic series of stories that all begin here, in a bleak crime story with vampires and genetic experiments. We’re about to be on the trail of Nimrod and Cassie Schofield for a very, very long time, so strap in.

In 1915, shadowy organisation the Forge carried out genetic experiments of prisoners and soldiers from around the Isles. 86 years later, and the Doctor and Evelyn become embroiled in the disturbing going-ons in The Dusk, a London casino with the strangest of owners.

(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Project: Twilight is truly unlike anything I’ve ever seen in Doctor Who. Even on a relisten, I am shocked that this is a story in the Main Range and not an oddball, supernatural take on True Detective. This is not a script in which our characters belong; the Doctor in his technicolour dreamcoat or Evelyn Smythe, professor of history and enjoyer of cocoa should be running around the universe, fighting off big robots and lizardmen. Instead our villains this time are just real, nasty people. We are in a dingy little casino and we are unsafe, people can be killed just like that, and never in nice ways. Everybody is a monster or a wreck and it is miserable in the best possible way. This is a bloody, fascinating crime thriller that somehow made it into the family friendly prime time TV show Doctor Who’s expanded media, and I for one love it. I have a weird soft spot for vampire stories, I think that done well they can be some of the most versatile movie monsters; tragic, scary and fun is a rare combo and vampires usually check all three boxes, Project: Twilight being no exception. Cassie’s transformation hits close to the mark, Nimrod is terrific, fun character with an incredible vocal performance and Amelia and Reggie make for two of the most real, gritty, vile antagonists the show has ever seen, real bottom of the barrel scum, true human (well, not quite human) evil in their own despicable little ways. Everything here just clicks for me, it’s dark with a point, we are meant to feel out of our comfort zone, it’s not just needless violence (most of the time). The characters are interesting and the world is fleshed out, you feel real stakes and real horror as what the hell these people are planning is revealed to you. Adrenaline pumping action with some genuine care and nuance put into it, this is not a style Scott and Wright will give us again, instead opting for more B-movie notes and melodrama, so I’d savour it whilst you can.

However, the story can go too far. There are some moments that are unnecessary cruelty, which can be expected from a story like this, the line it walks on is razor thin. I think the main bit that just made me feel sick for little reason is when Reggie mutilates Cassie for snooping on him. I already am scared of Reggie, Cassie heals soon after because of the vampire mutation, we didn’t need any more reason to hate this guy or give any more reason for Cassie to kill him later on, this is just sickening and pointless. Also, as many others have noted, the Doctor and Evelyn both act really strangely throughout this audio, they hardly ever react to what’s going on around them, despite how horrifying it is. You can not convince me that 60-year-old history professor Evelyn Smythe, who gives her students chocolate cake and knitted jumpers, will see a man explode, be covered in his viscera and just go “oh blast, looks like I’m covered in blood, what an inconvenience”. Also, pretty much every character is covered in blood from this moment on and then they never address it again. There is no space of time for them to go and change but nobody ever acknowledges that they’re covered in a man’s insides.

I think Project: Twilight is brilliant. Horrific and gritty genius that pushes the characters and the listener out of their comfort zone and into unexplored realms, forced to confront the dredges of society through the lens of a vampire story. It teeters on edginess but just saves itself for me, easily a personal favourite.

8/10

Pros:

+ A truly unique story: grim, bleak and ugly

+ Amelia and especially Reggie made for absolutely vile villains

+ Nimrod is an incredibly entertaining character and performance

+ Cassie was easily likeable and a good, grounded character in this madhouse of a story

+ Gripping story with a twisting plot

Cons:

- Needlessly cruel at points

- The Doctor and Evelyn both feel strangely out of character and unreactive

- A couple annoying but ultimately minor plot holes