Project: Lazarus [AUDIO/2003.6.23]

★★★★☆

  If you can forgive the slightly indulgent melodrama, you'll find Project: Lazarus to be a brilliant release and a more-than-worthy successor to the superlative Project: Twilight. Cavan Scott and Mark Wright have quite the sick imagination, as the Seventh Doctor portion in particular shows, and with Gary Russell's beautiful direction and sterling performances from Colin Baker, Maggie Stables and Sylvester McCoy, this audio drama almost becomes one for the books. I say almost because the first two episodes -- that would be the Sixth Doctor segment -- actually drag on a little bit. It's nice for the drama and revelations to take centre stage over action, but I feel it was a missed opportunity that they didn't spend enough time with Cassie, how she feels as a vampire and whatnot. I'm not saying that they should have devoted an entire episode to her and her feelings and only on those, but I'm simply showing you my opinion that I would've liked that aspect of Project: Lazarus to be explored more. Maybe if Cassie's story was presented with more commitment and whatnot, her death would've felt less melodramatic to me. Oh well, at least it worked well enough and led to the superlative character study that is Arrangements for War.

  The second half of Lazarus, though -- what a whopper. McCoy gets to be as furious and brooding as he wants, Nimrod continues to be a fantastic villain, and the twist is top-notch. The actual Project: Lazarus turns out to be one of the most demented villainous ploys in recent memory; to clone the Doctor again and again until there are entire holding facilities full of mindless Doctor clones to slaughter is a horrifying idea, and the audio drama realises it with style. Much props to the two Doctor actors (one as the real deal and the other as a clone who is denied the truth that he was, and will always be, just as expendable as the rest of them) for fully committing to the material, or otherwise I suspect this wouldn't have hit as hard. Barking mad and then some, Project: Lazarus (the audio drama this time) is a testament to how experimental early Big Finish was willing to be, both in terms of narrative and structure. An unforgettable experience, I consider this a must-listen for all newcomers.