New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield Volume Four

Volume Four is essentially more of the same from the unbound universe. 3 standalone stories that build a bit, followed by a Master showdown that hardly utilizes the Master. I don’t think Volume Three and Four are what I wanted for Bernice’s tenure into the UnBound universe, but it’s pretty great. Volume Four certainly takes a lot more risks, but they don’t feel as such, especially how universally loved these two sets are. I’m going to say they aren’t. They aren’t as good as fans say there are, and they’re just two good sets, not the best Bernice Summerfield or Who sets or anything. They’re just good.

The City and The Clock by Guy Adams

City and The Clock feels to me the least enjoyable out of the set, a usual series set up of Benny’s doing archaeology saddled with the whole “end of the universe” stuff which doesn’t make much sense of how the Doctor’s acting toward her if her work is so important right now. In fact, much of the set is like that. City and The Clock does nothing bad on paper, it does some Neat character work involving the Doctor becoming jerky-ish, which although I can’t front on a critical standpoint (its all very nicely done) it’s not very enjoyable to listen to The Doctor being a prat to one of our favorite characters without much reason. Which does make for some great drama as the set goes on, I’m not fronting that, it’s just not very fun to experience now is it? Especially when the thing Benny discovers on her Archaeology trip is just “Zombies” Instead of something awesome like usual. There’s nothing bad about it at all, it’s very good, just not fun. 7.5/10

Asking For A Friend by James Goss

This one is pretty great, everybody says so. It’s also not a 10/10 perfect release or anything but a slightly above average nine, over hyped just like Spare Parts. I just feel that when you say “The Doctor goes to Therapy,” you imagine the Pickle Rick scenario. You know, that one episode of R&M with Pickle Rick. And as such, Asking For A Friend feels worse, not because it’s a bad piece of writing, but because one of the tightest episodes of television ever already covered a very similar thing. The story doesn’t veer away from the uncomfortable sides of Therapy, The uncomfortable sides of people, even going as far as to Drunk the Doctor. I think it may have been a step too far, the scene is supposed to persuade you of what a bad place the Doctor is in, not break your childhood. All the same, Asking For A Friend is still a very good, gorgeous piece of writing. I just think that it could have been better. 9/10

Truant by Guy Adams

This one story has all the fun the previous two have been missing, and even if it’s critically not the best, it’s still my favorite of the set, and I really generally liked it. This is Benny/Warner on top form. And it’s hard to comment about it beyond that, it’s a generic fun piece, proving that this team is worth to keep following, in a fun appreciable way that we haven’t seen since Planet X. I love that Warner can no longer escape his destiny, and I love that Benny is his tether to helping him work. It ends with an intriguing cliffhanger to boot: 9/10

The True Savior of The Universe by James Goss

Essentially the same as Emporium at The End, with a combined sprinkling of Trial of A Time Lord, and the Star Wars Clone Wars Senate episodes. At least The Unbound Master calls himself as such, and he’s devilishly slick throughout, I love him. As with Emporium, Gatiss/Kisgart is a stunning performer, his scenes with Benny and Warner spectacular. I hope he returns to the Benny sets.
Nonetheless, even if it feels slightly as if running over the same ground, even stale, it still concludes the arc very nicely.
Except for the fact that this arc deserved another boxset. It really deserved another boxset, as this conclusion feels both satisfying, and terrible. They pick up some random energy and then travel back to our universe? In a dang near flawless script, it feels cheap: 8/10