New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield Volume Three


Bernice Summerfield is a spinoff, which from what I can see, is the one with the most range and opportunity to reinvent itself, almost outside Doctor Who even. It has some of my favorite stories, (Vesuvius Falling, Oh No It Isn’t) and some real stinkers, including my two least favorite stories this side of Combat Rock, (Curse of Fenman and Summer of Love) But I’m happy to say that while Bernice Summerfield Volume Three and Four don’t always feel like Benny at her best, (Warner Doctor is too much of a presence for Benny to always feel like the lead) all the same, it is a positively lovely experience in its own, these two boxsets carving out a niche in the Whoniverse in a way only Bernice Summerfield can do.

The Library in the Body by James Goss

The Library in the Body Is, and will remain the highlight of the series for quite a time. And not just because of the title. The story introduces the Unbound Universe for Benny, and it’s changed considerably in the meantime it’s been offscreen. But it’s efficient in what it does, Introduces a universe where it really feels time is collapsing, where the time war has ravaged it beyond any chance of survival, while telling a damn good story in the meantime, with side characters so memorable that the singing Nuns became the very symbols for this universe. Benny and David Warner are, as this set and the many others commissioned since prove, fucking exceptional. This story introduces a new Doctor! And he’s rather nicely done, Warner only falls on the latter self of my Doctor list because of the competition. If anything though, My only complaint will be that Benny and Warner feel like they fight eachother for screen time a bit. But that’s an aside, as Everything about Library in the Body is just plain viscously good, this is how you do an opener: 9/10

 Planet X by Guy Adams

A tad usual fare, Planet X is once again, considerably exceptional, even if I like it a lot less than Library in the Body. Planet X is just plain good, presenting once again, a universe with the time war ravaging all the planets, and what a world would do to escape that. If a bit cartoony, it’s also stylishly wicked, and just has some good concepts. The more Planet X did, the more I was enthralled, but it is slightly boring for the Doctor to be immune to all the normalizing machines and everything (it would have been much more fun to normalize the Doctor and have Benny save him) which added a bit of a damp squib to the climax. Nonetheless my complaints are slim, another lovely little piece. 8.5/10

 The Very Dark Thing by Una McCormack

Okay, so a lot less good than the previous two, but by no means a bad effort, simply one typical of Big Finish. The Very Dark Thing presents a world of cotton candy and unicorns and soft things and pink that is actually rather brutal and totalitarian, and I should ordinarily love this, if not for our characters interacting with their memories rather weirdly (AMNESIA IS NOT FUN, NO WRITER IS EVER RIGHT IN THINKING IT IS FUN) and It’s just rather weird without explanation in bits. I think this one might deserve the attention for a relisten, but my negative feelings for it remain steadfast. 7/10

 The Emporium at The End by Emma Reeves

What even is this one? It’s um. Acceptable. It strangely refuses to refer to a character we know to be the Master as The Master, and it gives him a strange role in the crisis that they’ve spent three stories building up (Especially considering we still don’t know what it was That fought in this universe’s time war, especially without the Daleks!) but everything is strange. Nonetheless, it has some positively marvelous scenes (any with Benny and The Master are a delight, how has she never met him!) and some gorgeous imagery, especially when they go onto the roof near the end of the universe and the stars slowly go out. Nonetheless, I felt like, although it wasn’t bad, it wasn’t anywhere near as polished as the set began, and Benny definitely has had better material to work with. 8/10, but the extra one point is entirely for the Master

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