| PROJECT: TWILIGHT by Cavan Scott & Mark Wright |
| Story ? Synopsis: The Doctor brings Evelyn to London for his favourite meal, crispy duck. They stumble on a series of dead animals, then witness someone shot. The victim was a croupier from nearby casino, the Dusk, where the owner, Reggie Mead, brings the victim in. Despite the Doctor's efforts to save him, he explodes. Reggie's associate, Amelia, explains that they're also victims of the Forge, a scientific establishment set up years before. They are pestered by Nimrod, who was the shooter earlier. Nimrod reveals to the Doctor that Reggie and Amelia are in truth vampires. The Doctor is angry that they lied to him, but Amelia convinces him she's trying to find a cure. Nimrod is shot, and disappears. Evelyn tries to take Cassie, a young waitress, home, but they are attacked, and return to the Casino. Reggie gets Evelyn out of the way, then attacks Cassie. The Doctor completes Amelia's work, and then she reveals she doesn't want a cure - she wants to spread the "twilight virus" to all humanity. She locks him up, and Reggie injects the virus into Cassie. As Cassie feels the effects, Amelia decides not to infect Evelyn, instead letting her be Cassie's first meal. Nimrod rescues the Doctor, and they find a 'blood farm', where Amelia and Reggie kept 'livestock' to supply blood. Nimrod plans to blow the place up. The Doctor has to try and find Amelia before she puts the virus into London's water supply. Reggie finds Cassie and Evelyn, but is killed by Cassie, who is aghast at what she has now become. The Doctor pushes Amelia into the Thames, where she vanishes, but without releasing the virus. Nimrod explodes the Casino, ending the Twilight experiment. The Doctor and Evelyn take Cassie to Norway, where she can try and adjust to her new state. But Nimrod vows to find her. |
| Review:- The first Dr Who adventure from this partnership brings the 6th Doctor and Evelyn into a grim side of London, and a nasty encounter with some nasty pieces of work... That the Doctor should come to this corner of the world because of food is somehow typical, and that this should be counterpointed to a series of dead animals, and ultimately dead people, is also rather apt. Scott & Wright's first audio script for this range is full of promise. The Forge gives a simple (!) motive, and also a chance to build up an organisation whose path the Doctor can cross again sometime (and does, in Project: Lazarus). Here, we get to meet Nimrod, scourge of the escaped experiments, and Reggie and Amelia, vampiric owners of a seedy casino. The script keeps the action fairly tight, and uses a small cast to good effect (after the slightly talky first episode). That the reveal of the vampires is successfully held back until the mid-point is impressive, although the Doctor does accept a lot unquestioningly before that. Evelyn does at least make herself useful, developing a friendship with the unfortunate Cassie. This leads to the tumultuous revenge scene in pt 4, when rather than kill her friend, Cassie kills her tormentor, Reggie. It's a shame that Amelia gets to be the articulate baddy, with Reggie so OTT, it affects the credibility of both of them. Surely, she could have got rid of him much sooner, if she had such a low opinion of him? Instead, the Doctor has to rely on help from Nimrod, who puts an explosive stop to the Twilight virus. Amelia escapes, perhaps to fight another day, and Cassie is taken away from her life, and her son, who turns up later in a different story... It's quite a tidy little adventure, but rather too self-satisfied. With the goodies and baddies so obvious, there is little to do except wait for the inevitable. Not the Doctor and Evelyn's finest hour. |
| Disclaimer: I own a copy. |