#The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfeild

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“Once more the lights of Skaro blaze out across the universe and they shall never again be extinguished!”

Featuring: Sylvester McCoy as the Doctor and Lisa Bowerman and Sophie Aldred as the companions

Set Between: After ‘Random Ghosts’

Stand alone? : No part of a Boxset

Marks out of 10: 8/10

Summary of the plot

SPOILER WARNING! Listen to Random Ghost before reading on.

Lost and trapped on Skaro Bernice Summerfield tries desperately to escape, whilst learning of the history of the Kaled and Thal along the way. But with Daleks around every turn it will be difficult to escape unharmed.

Review

Despite what it says on the Box, this is less of a Doctor who boxset and more of a Bernice Summerfield one, containing three strong stories (We won’t talk about the first one) which all have that old school Benny series vibe. James Goss has penned a strong finale which once again requires a great deal of focus to follow and gives back story to ‘Random Ghosts’. With time still broken it’s another timey whimey format and I suppose you could say a time line maze, whereby you just don’t know what will be around each corner. On a whole it’s a story of mistakes and their consequences.

Despite being a little bored by the Daleks I do highly enjoy the character of Davros. Terry Molloy does as good of a job of bringing him to life as he did in Rememberance of the Daleks, his few lines of dialogue are dramatic and chilling. It’s such a shame that his appearance in the boxset was so sparse.

Is there any Bernice Summerfield reviews where I haven’t ranted about how good Lisa Bowerman’s acting skills are? James Goss has characterized Benny fantastically well in this story and given her a variety of different layers which Bowerman nails, particularly in the scenes where Benny is scared beyond measure. She also appears to be almost narrating this one.

The Doctor and Ace seem to have had very little part in any of the stories in this boxset other than to simply provide a bit of back story and mostly they fell into the background. Which was okay in my books because as I said previously I came here for more Benny and certainly didn’t go away disappointed.  

 Buy it here

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“Time doesn’t like it when you interfere with it, it tends to fight back”

Featuring: Lisa Bowerman and Sophie Aldred

Set Between: ‘Good night sweet ladies’ and ‘The lights of Skaro’

Stand alone? : No part of a Boxset

Marks out of 10: 8.5/10

Summary of the plot

Hot on the trail of Ace, Benny arrives on a planet where time has gone wibbly wobbly, forcing her to relive events over and over.

Review

Guy Adams’s addition to the boxset reminded me of Big Finish’s “Ghost in the machine.” Despite the fantastically creative and well thought out ideas Adams has pieced together, the found footage type plot line makes it a little hard to follow. However if you keep on listening through all the confusion and mystery you’ll soon discover that this story is purposely being told in a non linear way, gradually building up suspense which all leads up to a dramatic and unexpected finale.

I loved the large array of emotion behind the dialogue, preformed brilliently by the cast. It’s all rather dramatic but not in a way which is over acted or grating. You can really sense the desperation these characters are feeling. Once again the plot throws Benny into centre stage and once again Lisa Bowerman proves what a phenomenal actor she is. She’s a real powerhouse.

Ace on the other hand slightly annoyed me here. If you’ve read any of my reviews you’ll have guessed that Ace is my favourite of the classic companions. She was and still continues to be a layered character with a good balance of vulnerbilty and strength and Sophie Aldred does a fantastic job portraying her. However the VNA version of Ace seems to have one single layer of “overly aggressive and stroppy.” I understand that her characterization here stems from what happens to her in ‘love and War’ (read it its brilliant) and her ending up in what is basically the space version of the Army.

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“Good night ladies, good night sweet ladies.”

Featuring: Lisa Bowerman as Bernice Summerfeild.

Set Between: ‘The revolution’ and ‘Random Ghosts’

Stand alone? : No part of a Boxset

Marks out of 10: 8/10

Summary of the plot

Whilst searching for Ace on a supposedly uninhabited moon, Benny encounters some very confused people in need of her help and a labyrinth where ghosts try to make contact. Things only get worse when the monster of the labyrinth makes an appearance.

Review

Now that’s more like it! This is the Bernice Summerfield I came here for. Bernice Summerfield in a remote place doing what she does best: adventurous archaeology and solving a mystery with limited resources and information. Una McCormack has penned a story which really feels like it’s been plucked straight out of Big Finish’s old Benny range. It’s atmospherically creepy, packed with suspense and keeps you guessing until the big reveal before ending on an exciting cliff hanger which made me eager to listen to the next story.

Unlike so many other newer stories, Good Night Sweet Ladies isn’t so action packed that the characters disappear into its plot, it’s pacing is fairly slow and leaves plenty of space to establish and develop each character, with some fantastic pieces of dialogue, particularly in the final few scenes where there is some real emotional acting. Lisa Bowerman is back on top form too, and with the absence of both the doctor and Ace she is given the chance to really get stuck into the lead role once more.

Buy it here

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“The Doctor without a plan and a TARDIS is just an annoying man in a hat.”

Featuring: Sylvester McCoy as the Doctor and Lisa Bowerman as the companion

Set Between: Before Good Night Sweet ladies

Stand alone? : No part of a Boxset

Marks out of 10: 5/10

*Jump on point*

Summary of the plot

Bernice Summerfield is on the run from robots and madman after she breaks the laws on a planet where the inhabitants seem to worship science. To make matters worse the Doctor isn’t himself at all.

Review

I’ve been eager to get my hands on more Benny stories since I finished the latest boxset but unfortunately their format seems to have shifted to The Version New Adventure style, which I was reluctant to listen to due to this version of Ace. Never the less, having been gripped by the trailer I decided to buy it in the sale.

A little bit of a shaky start to the boxset I have to say, with a story containing a similar vibe to “The Brimstone Kid“ and season 24 of Classic Who. In an attempt to be quirky and comical, Nev Fountain has produced a story which is incredibly difficult to follow, although it does get more intriguing as the story goes on and there is a large amount of expl;anation in it’s final scenes. 

This is an Ace lite story and it’s nice to hear the dynamic between just Benny and the Seventh Doctor. Sylvester McCoy and Lisa Bowermen are both tallented actors although I have to say this wasn’t their best preformance.

Buy it here