Project Twilight (audio story)

Project: Twilight was the twenty-third story in Big Finish's monthly range. It was written by Cavan Scott and Mark Wright and featured Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor, Maggie Stables as Evelyn Smythe and introduced Rosie Cavaliero as Cassie Schofield and Stephen Chance as Nimrod.

It was the first story to feature the Forge. Consequently, it began a long-running story arc which did not end until the audio story A Death in the Family in 2010.

Publisher's summary
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?

Part one
The date is 4 October 1915 and Dr William Abberton is writing in his diary. He writes about because being forced to "destroy souls" on a daily basis for "King and Country". He's interrupted by a nurse, who brings a patient to Abberton. Abberton comforts the patient as he injects something into him. Abberton asks the patient to "remember the man who made [him] a god". Suddenly gunshots are heard outside the laboratory and an alarm begins ringing. Amelia Doory breaks into the room and Abberton threatens to shoot her if she gets closer, referring to her as "Twilight 7". Amelia remarks that a gun would do little to stop her and asks if Abberton has "done it" to the patient Nathaniel. Reginald Mead runs into the room and is ordered by Amelia to unstrap Nathaniel. Before the three of them run away, Amelia kills Abberton.

In present day London, Reginald is running a casino in Bermondsey. After greeting a police inspector and telling someone to pick something up at the office, he asks Cassie Schofield how she's settling into her new job as a waitress at the Dusk. Reggie tells her to ask him or Eddie for help if she needs anything and is distracted by someone named Steve. As Cassie walks away she bumps into Deeks. Amelia approaches them and tells Deeks to come with her to the private gambling room. Reggie is also in the room and he grabs Deeks. Reggie and Amelia attack Mr Deeks.

Nearby, the Sixth Doctor receives his order of Peking crispy duck from The Slow Boat. As he leaves the restaurant with Evelyn Smythe, he begins reciting an old Gallifreyan nursery rhyme about Zagreus. Evelyn tells him to stop and accidentally steps on the mauled corpse of a cat. They see more dead animals, including a Cocker Spaniel and a pigeon. The Doctor follows the trail of bodies into an alleyway and finds a large nest. He uses the teeth marks on the animals to deduce that a human has been eating these animals.

Back at the Dusk, Cassie receives her wages from Reggie. Amelia watches and tells Reggie that she wants Cassie. They go downstairs to find that Mr Deeks has waken up. They inject something into Deeks. Upstairs, Eddie goes outside to have a smoke and nears something nearby. A figure with heavy robotic footsteps approaches Eddie. Eddie recognises the person and says, "Oh god! It can't- Reggie said you were dead!". The Doctor and Evelyn hear Eddie scream as he is shot with a crossbow. They run out of the alleyway to see the mysterious figure running away from a dying Eddie. The Doctor tries to catch the figure, but accidentally runs into a garbage can. Evelyn tries to calm Eddie, but he dies in her arms. Reggie walks outside after hearing the commotion and threatens the Doctor and Evelyn. Eddie suddenly wakes up, despite the fact that he has no pulse. The Doctor tells Reggie to call an ambulance and Reggie responds that there's no need for a hospital as he has medical facilities in his club.

The Doctor and Reggie lift Eddie and take him to the Dusk's basement. The Doctor orders Reggie to restrain Eddie, Evelyn to clean up the blood coming from Eddie's wound, and Amelia to take his coat. As Evelyn looks for towels she finds Mr Deeks dead body. The Doctor asks for explanations from Amelia and Reggie, but they tell him that they will explain after he saves Eddie. As Evelyn tries to soak up Eddie's blood, she finds that Eddie's body temperature is becoming abnormally high. The Doctor asks Amelia to get him a scalpel so he can get the barbed arrow out of Eddie. Eddie begins steaming and bloating. Eddie explodes, covering Evelyn in blood, skin, and internal organs.

Amelia thanks the Doctor for his efforts in trying to save Eddie. The Doctor notices how calm she is with the situation, like she suspected Eddie to explode. Evelyn says that she needs to clean herself up, so Amelia directs her to the casino's washroom. As the Doctor escorts Evelyn to the elevator, Reggie tells Amelia that he thinks they should kill the Doctor and Evelyn and Amelia responds they shouldn't because the Doctor is "much more than he appears".

The Doctor returns and Reggie angrily asks why he attacked Eddie. The Doctor says that Eddie was hurt by a tall, dark, and sinister man, which immediately alarms Reggie and Amelia. The Doctor angers Reggie by asking for an explanation of what's going on. Amelia takes Reggie to another room and tells him to keep himself under control. She asks him to call some of his contacts to dig up information on the Doctor.

Reggie calls Billy and asks him to find information on the Doctor. He walks into his office to find Cassie going through his business files. Before he can hurt her, Evelyn walks in and says that she's looking for the loo. Cassie quickly takes advantage of the situation and offers to show Evelyn the way.

Back in the basement, Amelia explains that she, Reggie, and Eddie are the results of research program conducted by a government organisation known as the Forge. Amelia was in prison when she was taken as a test subject. She was put through radiation therapy, DNA manipulation, and countless courses of drugs. Amelia theorises that the Forge were trying to augment them into super-soldiers. Amelia explains that she has spent the last century searching for a cure for her condition. In recent years she has been forced to use live subjects. The Doctor promises to help her with her experiments on two conditions: she must keep Reggie under control and nobody else can die.

Meanwhile, Cassie hears a noise as she walks outside with Evelyn. A human on all fours comes out of the shadows and jumps towards Evelyn and Cassie to eat them.

Part two
The Doctor enters, talking to the person to allow Evelyn and Cassie to escape. Evelyn returns to hit the creature with her bag, allowing the Doctor to get away, too. Then, Amelia enters, calling the human Nathaniel, and "one of us". They help Nathaniel into Amelia's lab, giving him a sedative and dressing his wounds while Amelia explains that he has Porphyria due to his genetic mutation, so the sun damages him greatly.

Reggie enters and calls Nathaniel "the runt", though Amelia interrupts him. They realise Nathaniel has recently been tied up, and claim Nimrod, the man who hurt Eddie, is responsible. Reggie becomes very angry, but Amelia makes him leave, and the Doctor and Evelyn speak quietly about helping Cassie after her trying evening. Reggie calls Bob and tells him to increase security. Evelyn escorts Cassie home, enquiring about a boy in a photo. Cassie cries, telling her that the boy was her son, who she left with her mum to look after. A man who broke into her house a few days ago is blackmailing Cassie by threatening her son's safety. Evelyn comforts her and stays at her home while Cassie goes to get the information the man asked for.

The Doctor and Amelia discover nanobots in Eddie's blood, and that Nimrod must have injected those nanobots into Eddie's immune system as he stabbed him, or else he would have very quickly healed. Nathaniel has no nanobots in his blood, so Nimrod wasn't trying to kill him, simply send a "calling card". Meanwhile, Cassie has retrieved the book that she's being blackmailed for, and Evelyn helps her crack the code inside. The blackmailer comes to the door, and Cassie screams. She has been attacked. She and Evelyn return to the casino for medical care as Amelia telepathically contacts Reggie, who tells her what he's discovered about the Doctor, believing him to be some "UN lackey", dealing with the unexplained.

The Doctor snoops around, failing to open a door with a "sophisticated locking system". He sees Reggie, and follows him as he meets with Matthew, who hands over some merchandise. Amelia assures Matthew that "the project" is worth the trouble, and promises a breakthrough, though Matthew is skeptical. He offends Reggie, who then breaks several of his fingers. Matthew speaks on the phone, telling the person on the other end of the line that it will take a few minutes for his fingers to heal. The Doctor approaches him and offers to help his hand, asking what he was delivering, but Matthew warns him away, saying he'd be safer away from this business. Matthew gets into his car, but the brakes aren't working and it's full of water, which burns him. Matthew is able to smash the window and escape.

Nimrod then approaches the Doctor. Reggie comes too, standing up to Nimrod, and Nathaniel approaches as well, barking. The Doctor then holds a taser to Nimrod's spine, threatening him if he doesn't let Nathaniel go. Tasing Nimrod has no effect, and Nimrod kills Nathaniel. Opening Matthew's briefcase reveals blood bags, and the Doctor turns to look at Reggie's reflection- he has none. "Vampires?!" Says the Doctor.

Part three
Reggie attacks Nimrod, but his armour is impregnable- he says it ended up at the Forge. Nimrod is about to kill Reggie, but Amelia interrupts them, knocking him out, and asking the Doctor for help. Nimrod has disappeared, and the three of them go inside. Evelyn knocks at the door with a crying and bleeding Cassie, who the Doctor tries to help. A little later, a drunk Reggie is miserably making fun of the Doctor and smashing things. Amelia contacts him, telling him that Cassie doesn't look good, even after The Doctor's administrations. The Doctor has completed a transfusion on Cassie, telling Evelyn she'll be okay, but he is distressed. He says Abraham would have known what to do, claiming he's the greatest expert on these things outside of Gallifrey.

Evelyn starts admonishing the Doctor for going on about Gallifrey when it seems to have nothing to do with what was going on, and makes the Doctor explain that the "creatures out there" were set free by his people, and now it was their duty to kill them all because of the harm they did. The Doctor tells her to return to the TARDIS with Cassie. He doesn't tell her that they're vampires. She gives him the journal Cassie stole. Meanwhile, Reggie is threatening someone over the phone, trying to get them to find a person. Amelia visits the Doctor, who asks her what she'd know about "natural". She yells at the Doctor, making it clear that she didn't ask for this, and that it was the British Empire's fault for playing with powers it didn't even know existed.

She tells him her story- about meeting Reggie who was suffering from shell shock, and about the pretty Nathaniel, and the injections given in 'the Forge' as part of the war effort that made them become vampires. The Doctor apologises, admitting that he's probably only scared because they're different to him. Reggie interrupts Evelyn as she tries to take Cassie to the TARDIS, telling her that Evelyn needs her down in the lab. Cassie begs her not to leave her with Reggie.

Reggie comes on to Cassie, hurting her and threatening to break her other arm. He describes the way he and the other soldiers tortured a German soldier.

The Doctor explains that he can reprogramme the nanobots to fix the mutations to the vampire's DNA, potentially curing them. Evelyn arrives, and upon realising that the Doctor didn't send for her, the trio rush to stop Reggie from hurting Cassie. They're too late; Cassie has been tortured, and her face has been broken. Amelia turns against the Doctor, revealing that she plans to further develop the Twilight Virus using the Doctor's breakthrough, not curing vampirism but spreading it. The Doctor admits to Evelyn that Reggie and Amelia are vampires, and the Doctor- Amelia too curious about his two hearts to kill him- is locked up by Reggie. The Doctor tells Reggie that Amelia soon won't have any use for him.

Evelyn and Cassie have been taken to the lab, where Amelia explains that injecting them with the virus with a syringe will turn people into vampires, and that they are not weakened by crucifixes, garlic, cannot reproduce by biting, or anything else from human vampire lore. The Doctor, unable to escape, despairs.

Part Four
Cassie is turning into a vampire with the use of the virus and nanobots, screaming in pain. The Doctor paces his cell, wishing he'd listened to Houdini. He realises he still has the journal Evelyn and Cassie found, and starts decoding Abberton's notes contained inside. Meanwhile, Amelia proclaims Cassie to be "the first", now a vampire, while Evelyn begs Cassie to remember who she is. The Doctor's cell is unlocked by Nimrod, who asks for his help to find "something down here", threatening him with a crossbow.

Cassie is strong, hearing Amelia's thoughts, hearing blood, and then being encouraged to feed on Evelyn. Nimrod asks the Doctor if being a morality crusader washes away his own guilt, then electrocutes the door with many locks, finding the room to contain a bloodfarm- over a hundred cages containing humans, kept alive but constantly providing blood for the vampires. There's a door at the other end that leads into the sewer tunnels. Nimrod says he'll use explosives to blow up this place, but the Doctor tells him not to, because that will blow up the humans. The humans seem to be completely unable to respond and escape, even when the Doctor opens their cages.

Meanwhile, Reggie has brought the Doctor breakfast, and becomes enraged upon finding him escaped. Evelyn tries to convince Amelia not to turn her into a vampire. Reggie comes in, and Amelia goes to the bloodfarm whilst Reggie stays with Cassie and Evelyn. The humans in the bloodfarm have only ever known those cages, so don't know to leave. Amelia arrives, explaining that they used to just kidnap people for food, but then the disappearances were noticed, so they started to breed their own humans. Extra blood was sold to other Forge victims in return for DNA to continue Amelia's experiments. Amelia tells the Doctor that Nimrod is actually Dr. William Abberton.

Reggie frees Cassie to allow her to feed on Evelyn, but she turns around, attacking Reggie instead. Abberton explains that he injected himself with the Twilight Virus as he was bleeding out, so he could survive to destroy his creations. Amelia picks up the crossbow, and she leaves with the virus. Cassie starts to laugh as she stabs Reggie with one of Nimrod's arrows, and he explodes like Nathaniel did. Nimrod has been injured, and the Doctor pursues Amelia out through the sewer tunnels. Cassie sobs and runs off, telling Evelyn she isn't safe to be around.

Nimrod/Abberton primes the explosives as the Doctor catches up to Amelia, who explains that each vampire has a different weakness, in case they needed to be taken down. Amelia has never figured out what her weakness is, but claims the Doctor's is self sacrifice. The Doctor implores Amelia not to do this- all she has to do is crush the vial in her hand and the virus will spread- while the countdown reaches zero. The explosion takes out the Dusk Casino, and everything underneath it, leading the Doctor to believe Evelyn dead. Amelia and the Doctor struggle, falling into the Thames. The vial is gone, and London is safe.

Evelyn is alive, having been shut into the sewer tunnels by Nimrod- his last act was saving her as he destroyed the Project. She fishes the Doctor out of the river, who thinks that it is possible Amelia drowned. They find Cassie, and Evelyn and the Doctor convince her that her conscience gives her hope to survive without being monstrous. Cassie decides to find her own way to beat the virus, staying isolated in Norway while she deals with her condition, promising to take responsibility for her life. Evelyn gives her her handkerchief, and the Doctor promises to come back for Cassie. The pair leave in the TARDIS, and the Doctor apologises for shouting at Evelyn earlier, and letting his prejudice come before her life. He goes to make cocoa.

Somewhere, someone contacts Nimrod, still alive, who declares that although they don't know what happened to Amelia, he will find Cassie.

Cast

 * The Doctor - Colin Baker
 * Evelyn Smythe - Maggie Stables
 * Amelia Doory - Holly De Jong
 * Reggie Mead - Rob Dixon
 * Cassie - Rosie Cavaliero
 * Nimrod - Stephen Chance
 * Dr William Abberton / Matthew - Rupert Booth
 * Mr Deeks - Mark Wright
 * Nurse - Kate Hadley
 * Eddie - Daniel Wilson
 * Newsreader - Gary Russell

The Doctor

 * The Doctor tries (and fails) to play the Moonlight Sonata.

Foods and beverages

 * The Doctor buys Peking duck with prawn crackers and chicken fried rice at The Slow Boat.
 * Evelyn makes hot cocoa at Cassie's home.

History

 * The Doctor implies that he was present during the Spanish Inquisition.
 * A newscaster on the radio states that Tony Blair has recently visited several of York's local businesses and tourist attractions.

Vampires

 * The Doctor claims that Bram Stoker was the greatest authority on vampires outside Gallifrey.

Continuity

 * The Doctor sings the Zagreus poem. (AUDIO: Neverland, Zagreus)
 * The Doctor mentions meeting Harry Houdini (TV: Planet of the Spiders) and that he once visited the court of Kublai Khan. (TV: Marco Polo)
 * Evelyn tells the Doctor that fishing him out of the River Thames in front of the Tower of London is becoming a habit. (AUDIO: The Marian Conspiracy)
 * Cassie shows Evelyn a picture of her son, Thomas Schofield. The Doctor would later travel with Thomas, although by then he was going by the name of Hex. (AUDIO: The Harvest, Thicker Than Water)