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Soon after the release of Project: Twilight, Cav and Mark were interviewed by Scottish journalist Kenny Smith for his fanzine, The Finished Project. With special thanks to Kenny we are able to reprint the feature here. The original interview interview ended with speculation over whether there would be a follow-up story, but at the time no-one news if Project 2 would ever get off the drawing board...
THE ORIGINS OF THE STORY
Mark Wright and Cavan Scott are the first writing double-act from Big Finish - Gary Russell's credit on Minuet in Hell being for extensive script editing and re-writing. Thankfully based on only one play they've gained the reputation of Haisman and Lincoln as opposed to Baker and Martin or Baker and er, Baker.
Having written a short story for The Dead Men Diaries, Big Finish's Bernice Summerfield story collection, the pair were commissioned to write a Doctor Who audio. As Cav says: "The original idea came about at about three in the morning sitting in a bar in a Las Vegas hotel. I suddenly realised that here was a place with no day or night. The atmosphere was perpetual dusk; there were no clocks or windows and no need to go outside. An ideal joint for vampire management."
Mark adds: "We actually pitched the idea for Project: Twilight long before Christmas Spirit was a twinkle in either of our eyes and we'd almost forgotten about it when Gary came and asked us to develop the idea further."
Writing in a partnership can be problematic when the writers are living close at hand, but the internet made things slightly easier when Mark moved to London, leaving Cav behind in Bristol. "We plotted together as much as possible and then separated up the episodes, Mark doing two and three and me doing one and four, then we'd pass them over and rewrite and tweak bits, adding this, taking that out."
Then, of course, Mark had to move house: "The process wasn't helped by my job moving me to London just as we started work, but it worked out nicely in the end."
Cav continues: "I really enjoy the plotting process, fuelled by coffee and hobnobs, bouncing ideas off each other. It's fun. Writing can be such a lonely existence, but in a partnership it's suddenly teamwork."
Mark jokes: "The coffee and Hobnobs were definitely a bonus! Writing in a partnership is a bit like having a training partner. Just like you might not want to go down the gym, you might not want to sit down at the keyboard, but there's somebody there to spur you on, and vice versa. Also, if something isn't working in a section that you're working on, you can just zap it up a phone line and there's somebody there who sees something that you can't and makes it work. And, more importantly, there's somebody else to buy the curry when you're skint."
THE SIXTH DOCTOR & EVELYN
The Sixth Doctor and Evelyn partnership has quickly become a favourite with the fans and Mark agrees. "We've always said our default setting would be the Fifth Doctor and Peri, even though we started writing for the Seventh and Ace, but writing for Colin and Maggie is fantastic, because their relationship is so much different than what's gone before. Yes, the Doctor is there to save Evelyn when she needs it, but most of the time she can take care of herself, and because the character is so much older than what's come before, her relationships with the supporting characters are different and refreshing."
Having been a fan of the Sixth Doctor for years, Cav was pleased to get the chance to write for him. "I was delighted when Gary asked us to switch to the Sixth Doctor as I have been banging on about how great Colin was for years. He's just so delightful to write for, all those big moral outbursts but now, with the new improved Big Finish version, able to show real compassion and sensitivity. And Evelyn is a dream, someone who doesn't just worship the Doctor and who in fact thinks she's older, and wiser, than him most of the time. Plus, she gets to wear a lot more clothes than Peri ever did, which based on Lee Sullivan's image of Evelyn is a good thing!"
PLOT CHANGES
The script evolved as the pair got underway with the writing process, as Cav explains:
"It was a completely different story when we started. Originally called Blood Money to tie into the whole vampire/casino thing, it featured the Seventh Doctor and Ace fighting the undead alongside a couple of cops called Inspector Hawthorne and Detective Rosewood, both names of wood usually identified with stakes. Oh yes, and it had strippers in it until Gary pointed out that would be slightly difficult on audio. Shame."
Mark points out: "Our other working title was 'The Twilight Plague', but I quite like the conspiracy ideas that Project: Twilight throws up."
Cav reveals that not everything that was written made it to the final recording session. "One scene that I'm sorry was dropped was Reggie taking his anger out on his fighting dogs after he'd faced the sharp end of the Doctor's tongue. Gary didn't want to have to handle dog effects again after The Spectre of Lanyon Moor."
"Another element which wouldn't have worked on audio was in the original synopsis we had Ace snooping around the casino and finding a cat drinking from a saucer of blood, which then attacks her - it was a vampire too," admits Mark.
As the pair attended the recording sessions, they were able to get a good first impression of the casting. Cav: "was amazed with Rob Dixon, who plays Reggie. He seemed such a nice, gentle man but when he got behind the microphone he was absolutely chilling. That's one chap who enjoyed his torture scenes slightly too much for comfort."
ACTING THE PART
Having worked on Big Finish productions as an actor, it had given Mark a good impression of what to expect at the recording of the story. "Recording is always fun and I got the chance to step behind the mic, my third appearance in a Doctor Who. The cast were just incredible and had a great time doing it. Holly De Jong playing Amelia has done so much work on TV and film, including playing Newt's mum in the director's cut of Aliens, and was really fired up to play a vampire. Rob Dixon was great too. My personal favourite was getting Rosie Cavliero in to play Cassie - she played John Thomson's illicit love interest in several episodes of Cold Feet - and she was fab. Everyone one was fab, if that's not too luvvie of me!"
He might not be an actor, but Cav was able to play a minor part in the original cut of the story: "I originally recorded the part of the mysterious 'Man on TV' To most listeners he sounds like just a news-reader although subsequent events in the story arc were set to show how he was out to take over the world. Of course my high hopes that a character I would play would become as popular as the Master or even that chap out of the Horns of Nimon were dashed when Gary decided to re-dub my work in post production. I was robbed, guv’nor.
"That said, recording the atmospheric background sounds was a hoot. There I was, standing in a studio with Mark, Jason and an American fan all wailing and lamenting at the top of our voices. Then Gary asked us to do it again, because we were too tuneful. Our pain had started to harmonise."
RUMOURS, RUMOURS EVERYWHERE
Cav admits that that fan rumours on the internet kept him amused in the build-up to the story's release. "We've really enjoyed watching the rumours grow out of nowhere as we were writing. One minute we were bringing back Rassilon and Omega, then it was to be the Great War between the Gallifreyans and the undead with Rassilon revealed to be a vampire himself. Oh yes, and then we were charged with killing off Evelyn."
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