Bernice Summerfield: Road Trip

Review mostly continued from Epoch
Epoch was difficult for me, as I felt there were pieces I was missing and it didn’t really have much of a conclusion (probably my fault doing this whole thing) But Road Trip is an infinitely more accessible (and just plain better) set than Epoch, it’s three adventures loosely connected in a pretty clever and brilliant way. Ruth and Benny want to go find Peter, Benny’s Kid. Brilliant, that’s all you need, now go have 3 brilliant episodes. It’s honestly horrifying the consistency of the Bernice Summerfield range sets of Road Trip and Legion. They’re accessible and fun. I mean, that’s what you want, right? Benny and Ruth are at the top of their game, wonderfully consistent performers. The only way this could be better is if it were Benny and the Fugitive Ruth Doctor. One can dream.

Brand Management by Christopher Cooper

Brand Management is a fun and simple story, from what I’ve heard of The Benny range, an entirely typical one. Surprising, yet comforting, especially after whatever the hell Epoch was. It’s difficult to say so much about it similar to several Fourth Doctor stories where the Doctor shows up on a planet and collapses an evil government, it’s the same thing for Benny here, it’s formula. But Brand Management has the cleverness to play for comedy with the extraordinary edition of these characters all worship Benny. Benny is pretty well known yes, but she’s not used to this ‘Doctor’ Level of regard, and Lisa Bowerman plays it very well. You gotta love how easily she slides into the Doctor role as well. Nonetheless, it’s just plain enjoyable, nice and simple, the kind of audio that one will often relisten to for comfort. 8.5/10

Bad Habits by Simon Barnard and Paul Morris

As usual from this pair of writers, Bad Habits is pretty dang magnificent, and I can’t think of much flaw in the best Nun story since Sister Act. Funnily enough, one of Bernice’s Marriages, Professor River Song, also had a stint in a nun costume, So consider this my plea for a Benny/River story entirely done in Nun outfits. Bad Habits is quite frankly, one of the funniest audios that doesn’t have Michelle Gomez or Catherine Tate in it. It takes full advantage of the adult jokes in the Benny series in a way not done since Oh No It Isn’t! and it’s quite frankly just plain fun. The side characters including one of Jacqueline King’s many random roles (this one is basically Sylvia in a Mother Superior costume) and a mole rabbit archaeologist as well as a duplicitous twist villain, are all exquisite. There are plenty of stories like this where there’s something unknown about it, a mere feeling telling you it isn’t a 10/10 experience, but Bad Habits, like the best of them, pushes it.
9/10

Paradise Frost by David Llewelyn

The first thing you’ll notice about Paradise Frost is the guest cast including India Fisher and Arthur Darvill. Darvill equates himself very well to the story, unrecognizable from his TV role, but India Fisher is desperately scrabbling for the entire run time, desperately attempting to convince you she isn’t Charley this week. (She has similar problems in Winter for the Adept, which can be forgiven as it predates Charley) Besides from that, Paradise Frost is just plain a very nice production. It’s not predictable, but it’s not unique, it’s not a bad experience, and there’s very little in it that will have you recommending it over hundreds of other equally good productions, but dang it if it isn’t something to enjoy, just a very proficiently made audio drama, by no means that has problems, but also has very little to say that stands out. (Um...it teaches you about DNA?) 8/10