Project: Twilight

The other Vampire Science...

Project: Twilight by Cavan Scott and Mark Wright

Project Twilight is an odd one, in that all of the other Six/Evelyn adventures so far have been incredibly comfortable. If Bloodtide, Lanyon Moor or Apocalypse Element were not fun for the characters, they were at least light-hearted in tone, Evelyn and The Doctor truly relishing their time together. As are most of their following adventures, even the dark Jubilee or Doctor Who and The Pirates being humorous while horrifying. But Project: Twilight is bleak. Entirely more so than one may expect, and one of the first audios that carves out a new place for itself in the canon, in that...holy crap they would never have put this on television. As such, it feels expanded universe, nearer to Vampire Science than State of Decay or Vampires of Venice. Which is certainly a choice. 

Also in that, it includes Vampires. Plenty of the fellows. 

Entitled To Melodrama: The Doctor and Evelyn are definitely put through their paces, the story heavily doused with bits of medical horror to start off with. Colin Baker really is excellent, portraying a more this is not what I am used to side of the Doctor, who feels out of place in this grit. If one begins to wonder if it feels like a Doctor Who story and not some bloodfest horror flick, worry not, as Baker acquits himself admirably to the material. His chemistry with Maggie Stables, is as usual, unlike anything else I've ever heard.

Evil Evelyn, Pirate Queen: It's quite horrible what this story does to Evelyn. Not that anything bad happens to her, per-se. More like it's hard to hear such a old grandmotherly character, who genuinely feels like a relative who invites you over for tea, to have to witness this sort of thing. Unlike how many other companions would act in this scenario, she hardly adapts herself. She's horrified, and aghast. Not that any other companion wouldn't be, but Evelyn is especially emotionally vulnerable, which makes it harder to witness. She makes the whole audio however, bounds more enjoyable. I love her character too much.

The Monsters: The story doesn't spend much time on the horror aspects of these vampires, more the medical horror of what the forge is doing to these ordinary people. These ain't Dracula, or the modernized Goth version of Vampires, these are ordinary people who have been brutally used by a vile institution. 

Overall: Project: Twilight is incredibly dark, yes, but it's not ham-fisted how dark it is, like I've been making it out to be. The grit distracts from that, in many ways. It's definitively not inately nicey nicey as Doctor Who plays usually are, but Big Finish are carving out a place for themselves, experimenting, and although it perhaps isn't my thing, or something that they frequently do in releases outside this arc (grit isn't their area, they're more apt for these days to instead add an inch of despair) It is an admirable production. Don't let me building it up as some horrifying thing keep you from trying it, I think I'm getting worse at explaining these things: 8/10