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

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cobwebs

Image
  Cobwebs by Jonathan Morris Now stop me if you've heard this one before...  The Doctor and Companions arrive in Location X where they discover evidence that something bad is going to happen in the future (i.e. their deaths, the TARDIS not working, etc) and have to fudge the rules of time so they live. It's a Doctor Who stalwart, I should think, I can't count how many stories I've done with it, but the Fires of Vulcan and the entirety of Matt Smith series 6 come readily to mind - and quite frankly, Cobwebs is no exception. It's a complicated time puzzle of a story that will never really surprise you (I figured out the twist a solid hour before it happened.) The story's chief selling point is that for the first time ever since like Mawdwyn Undead and Terminus for two seconds, Tegan, Nyssa, and Turlough are in the TARDIS together. It's other chief selling point is Tegan is in it - this was her second Big Finish audio ever, and she had previously said she would
Read more

Torchwood: Aliens Among Us 2

Image
  Love Rat by Christopher Cooper Trust Big Finish to remake Day One, and not only make it good, but also make it somewhat heartbreaking. Of course, Day One is a terrible and horny bit of TV, and Love Rat is also sort of that way, but it makes up for it (in my book) by dealing with the aftereffects of what this kind of story would actually do to the team. Jack's actions in this episode, although prompted by the parasite, aren't even out of character, and the way he seduces Tyler and Ng and the fallout of that is dealt with in a surprisingly mature and emotional manner. Unlike Day One, which strives to be mature, Love Rat is actually mature, and the Gwen and Ng arc is actually a gutpunch to hear, especially the final few scenes with Rhys, as throughout this series, Ng has taken over Gwen's life and utterly ruined it. It's amazing what Eve Myles can do with just a few words, the emotion she can convey that this isn't what she wants, how horrified she is at not being in
Read more

NCJDDAS: Dark Page

Image
NCJDDAS: Dark Page Cover by Arbrax  This episode of the NOW CANON Judi Dench Doctor adventures was Inspired by Robert Shearman listing a brilliant idea for a short story that wouldn’t work in Doctor Who. I say utter Rubbish. I’m taking that story and writing it in Who. Fight me. It also helps that I haven’t read the story he wrote that I’m utilizing, making this even more of a simple writing prompt thing. Featuring The Twenty Second Doctor, Elizabeth Olsen, as created by Arbrax Chapter One In the town of Broughstershire, at 5:27 AM, the postman came by every house in the neighborhood and gave every single person a letter.  The letter was different for each person. For instance, Mr. Layton got a letter that said May 5, 2027, and below that, in slightly aggressive font, Gangrene. Mrs Curbishley got a letter that said June 18, 2053, Car Crash, and Little Timmy got a letter that said October 9th, 2081, Natural Causes. Of course, these are merely examples, those people don't exist, But
Read more

(MAIN RANGE): Dinnertime Part One

Image
MAIN RANGE: Dinnertime Part One This Story Stars Judi Dench as The Twenty Sixth Doctor and David Tennant as The Tenth Featuring Danny Devito as Danny Devito and John Simm as The Master This Story Takes Place Between A Storm Is A Comin and The Countryfile Conundrum Chapter One "It is said that in the final days of planet earth, everyone had bad dreams. To the west...of the...north... of this world...everyone did...gather? What even is that sentence- um, Sorry, Ah, here we are. IN THE CELEBRATION, of a Pagan rite to banish the cold and the Dark. Each and everyone of those people had nightmares of the pretty mild (for the human race) terror to come (I mean, I think the Dalek invasion was way worse). Everyone except Fred. There's nothing special about Fred, he's not really important to the story, but all the same, he had a dream about shopping, and it was rather average. Okay, so, to sum up. Everyone had bad dreams on Earth, except Fred. They all forgot...Except for one."
Read more

Ninth Doctor Adventures: Ravagers

Image
  The Ninth Doctor Adventures: Ravagers Ravagers is such a weird choice to start the Ninth Doctor Adventures with because in terms of plot, this really feels like an Eleventh Doctor story. It’s convoluted and “timey wimey” and quite possibly disorienting for newcomers. In fact, no, it seems definitely disorienting for newcomers. You think a River Song flow chart was required? Nahh, A Ninth Doctor Ravagers flowchart is required, man. As an audio fanatic, it was quite confusing, and well, perhaps indicative of NuWho Three-Parters, because like most of them, it borders on the shit. And one would expect, me, as not really the worlds hugest Ninth Doctor fan, that I’d hate it, right? Nope! I love it. Really do, I mean, it’s not perfect (first releases for Doctors never are: Sirens of Time, Destination: Nerva and Only the Monstrous are all trash, and Technophobia is just okay) But on the whole, I felt it was a consistent set and the quality never really went up or down much in either directio
Read more