‘PROJECT: TWILIGHT’
Please feel free to comment on my review.
Forge File – Vampires in London
‘Project: Twilight’ is a gripping and gruesome tale of bloodcurdling proportions!
This is a significant story, as it starts off an arc featuring the mysterious Forge; the equally mysterious Nimrod and vampires in London! Yes! Vampires! I said this story had bloodcurdling proportions in it!
This adventure stars Colin Baker as the Doctor with his companion Maggie Stables as Evelyn Smythe. It is a four-part adventure by Cavan Scott and Mark Wright. I enjoyed listening to this adventure, although I did need to re-listen to the first two episodes again in order to get a full grasp of the story.
This story has the Doctor and Evelyn visiting London in 1999. They come across the Dusk, a seedy casino on the London docklands. Finding the owners dodgy and suspicious, the Doctor and Evelyn discover that the results of a government project could mean a new dawn and the end for humanity.
Colin Baker and Stephen Chance in ‘Project: Twilight’.
The Forge is a mysterious government department designed to deal with alien material and technology. Some of their methods are pretty dodgy, especially when the experiment for humans to have special vampire DNA inside of them during World War II went wrong and it had caused trouble.
As I listened to this adventure, I didn’t know what to expect. I was quite shocked to discover that the monsters in this audio adventure were vampires. The gritty, grimy London setting and atmosphere suits this story very well, as the Doctor and Evelyn find themselves in deeper danger than expected.
The Doctor has met vampires before in stories such as ‘State of Decay’ and ‘Goth Opera’. These aren’t the same vampires that come from E-Space. These vampires don’t have fangs or billowing capes, since they get their blood by injecting a needle into someone instead of biting on their necks.
I’m not a fan of vampires, as I find them too terrifying. But the bloodcurdling atmosphere of this story was effective, as the Doctor and Evelyn find corpses on the London streets and the Doctor is shocked when payment is given in blood. The Doctor is determined to stop the vampires at any cost.
From left to right: writer Mark Wright, Maggie Stables, Colin Baker and writer Cavan Scott.
Colin Baker delivers a splendid performance as the Doctor. I liked how Colin’s fiery attitude matches his moral stance throughout this story. Colin’s Doctor is disgusted by the Forge’s experiments and what the vampires are doing. He defies the vampires the right to exist, due to his Time Lord beliefs.
What stood out for me with the Doctor in this story was how he was unable to recognise the owners of the casino as vampires. Nimrod points it out and the Doctor makes a mistake. It’s a side of Colin’s Doctor where he’s vulnerable, especially as he has to save Evelyn’s life before the vampires get her.
Maggie Stables is equally delightful as Evelyn Smythe. She’s seasoned as the Doctor’s companion by this point in their travels. I liked Evelyn’s motherly nature and the special relationship she has with Cassie. Evelyn’s witty attitude shines throughout, even during the face of danger when she’s tied up.
The guest cast in this includes Holly de Jong as Amelia Doory, one of the owners of the Dusk casino. Amelia is a vampire and seems to be the leader of the operation at the casino. She’s a pretty sinister woman and the Doctor defies her on where she stands in this story, whilst Amelia is very dismissive.
There’s Rob Dixon as Reggie ‘The Gent’ Mead. Reggie also owns the Dusk casino with Amelia and is also a vampire. He’s a bit of bully when he mistreats Cassie at the casino; breaks people’s arms and loses his temper when things go wrong. The Doctor and Reggie are at loggerheads with each other.
Maggie Stables and Rosie Cavaliero in ‘Project: Twilight’.
Rosie Cavaliero guest stars as Cassie, who works at the Dusk casino for Amelia and Reggie. Cassie is a troubled woman who has a son called Tommy, whom she lost to her family. Cassie has a hard time during this story, since she gets manhandled by Amelia and Reggie who want her to become a vampire.
Stephen Chance guest stars as the mysterious Nimrod who works for the Forge. Nimrod was responsible for the experiments involving humans to become vampires during WWII. The Doctor meets him when Nimrod tries to hunt down the last of the vampires at the casino to destroy them.
The story concludes with the Doctor and Evelyn taking Cassie with them in the TARDIS, before taking her to a place where it’s dark and she can be safe as well as be of no harm to anyone. This could mean that Cassie will return. Nimrod is still out there too and he’s hunting down Cassie on behalf of the Forge.
The CD extras are as follows. At the end of Disc 2, there’s a trailer for ‘The Eye of the Scorpion’ with Peter Davison, Nicola Bryant and Caroline Morris. There’s also an outtake from the making of ‘Project: Twilight’, which you’ll have to wait for or fast forward to fourteen minutes on the last track.
‘Project: Twilight’ is a gripping adventure to listen to with the Doctor and Evelyn. You’ll have to have a strong stomach to listen to this audio, as it contains vampires. This story started an arc featuring the Forge and Nimrod and I wondered where it would go next. All would be revealed in later stories.
‘Project: Twilight’ rating – 7/10
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Bradley's Basement 
I love this audio drama it’s gothic horror with a twist, some of the scenes are quite unnerving & gruesome especially Cassies fate which was so tragic.
A excellent review Tim, loving the photos.
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Hi Simon.
Glad you enjoyed my review on ‘Project Twilight’. I haven’t listened to this story for a while, but I’m onto it soon. I do recall how gothic the atmosphere this story was and it was shocking when Cassie goes through a hard time especially with the Forge and Nimrod and becoming a vampire.
Glad you like the photos, Simon. The one with Colin and Maggie and writers Cavan and Mark was taken from Cavan Scott’s website, which I hope he won’t mind me using for this review on my blog.
Tim. 🙂
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