Professor Bernice Surprise Summerfield, or simply Benny, is a fictional character created by author Paul Cornell as a new companion of the Seventh Doctor in Virgin Publishing's range of original full-length Doctor Who novels, the New Adventures. The New Adventures were authorised novels carrying on from where the Doctor Who television series had left off,[citation needed] and Summerfield was introduced in Cornell's novel Love and War in 1992.
A 26th-century archeologist, Summerfield became a hugely popular character amongst fans of the books,[citation needed] and was present until their end in 1997. She officially stopped travelling with the Doctor in Happy Endings but returned a few times thereafter, including the last Virgin New Adventure, The Dying Days. That year, Virgin had lost the licence to publish Doctor Who fiction, which was not renewed by the BBC. However, range editors Peter Darvill-Evans and Rebecca Levene decided to continue the series with Summerfield as the new lead and without the Doctor Who name, the Doctor or any other BBC copyright characters featuring.
These New Adventures starring Bernice continued until 1999, when the Virgin fiction department closed down. The previous year, however, audio production company Big Finish Productions began issuing full-cast, licensed professional audio dramas starring the character on CD, and they continue to do so, making her the longest-running audio drama series in the world, the longest-running science fiction audio drama series, the longest-running audio drama series with a female lead, and – together with the books – the longest-running science fiction series with a female lead.[1] The character is played in all Big Finish's productions by actress Lisa Bowerman, who also reprised the role in the live-action fan film The Crystal Conundrum and a video advertisement for the audio The Triumph of Sutekh. After they gained the licence to produce Doctor Who audio dramas in 1999, Big Finish thrice featured Bernice in Doctor Who stories set during and after the run of the New Adventures novels.
Big Finish are still regularly producing Bernice Summerfield audio dramas and the company has also published various novels and short story collections featuring the character.
Bernice also appeared in several comic strips in Doctor Who Magazine, with Virgin and the magazine co-operating on her visual depiction. This depiction, which was also applied to novel cover art, was of a slim, statuesque build, with short dark hair, usually shown wearing a catsuit or some similar outfit. Over time the character's appearance has been modified, and recent changes include a longer hairstyle.
The Doctor first meets Benny in Love and War; she is a 30-year-old archaeologist. She was born in 2540 and is the daughter of Admiral Isaac Douglas Summerfield, a high-ranking Spacefleet officer. Her mother, Claire Summerfield, died when Daleks attacked their homeworld of Beta Caprisis, an Earth colony. She has not seen her father for many years and has spent much of her life searching for him. At times she falsely claims to have a degree from Heidelberg University. She published an archaeological book called Down Among the Dead Men in the year 2566.
Theatre of War features the first encounter between Bernice and Irving Braxiatel (from her perspective). He later becomes a regular character in the Bernice Summerfield-only New Adventures. In Sanctuary Bernice falls in love with Guy de Carnac, a former Knight Templar. He is killed later in the novel. In Death and Diplomacy she meets her future husband Jason Kane, who she marries in the next novel, Happy Endings. Bernice leaves the TARDIS after this novel, but she appears in certain subsequent Doctor Who novels. In Return of the Living Dad, Bernice finally resolves the mystery of what happened to her father.
Virgin had long considered a non-Doctor Who spin-off series, but plans were moved forwards when they lost the license from the BBC. A number of preparations were made for the transition to Bernice-led New Adventures (see below). As Virgin felt Bernice would make a better lead as a single woman, she and Jason Kane were split up. Thus, she appears again in Eternity Weeps, a novel which describes the breakdown of her marriage and is also focused on her more than the Doctor as a prototype for the Doctor-free novels to come.
Likewise, the last New Adventure, The Dying Days, is again focused on Bernice more than the Doctor, with the Doctor absent from a substantial portion of the book. The Dying Days also features an ambiguous epilogue which can be taken to imply that the Doctor and Bernice have sex. This same epilogue also has the Doctor indicating that Benny is his longest-serving companion, although exactly how long she travelled with the Doctor has never been firmly established.
Originally published once a month, the New Adventures went to once every two months after The Sword of Forever. The New Adventures continued with Bernice generally in the leading role. Oh No It Isn't! provides the set-up for subsequent stories, with Bernice becoming Professor of Archaeology at St Oscar's University on the planet Dellah. She has now put her failed marriage to Jason Kane behind her. Oh No It Isn't! also re-introduces the People, a highly advanced alien race from the Doctor Who New Adventures.
In Ghost Devices, we meet Clarence (named after the angel in It's a Wonderful Life). Clarence appears in the form of an angel, but is an artificial intelligence from the People who is eventually (in Tears of the Oracle) revealed to be a character from The Also People. In Dragons' Wrath, Bernice meets Irving Braxiatel for the first time (from his perspective). Beyond the Sun introduces another recurring character, Emile Mars-Smith. Emile, Clarence and the People appear in a number of subsequent New Adventures, while Braxiatel appears in both further New Adventures and Benny stories from Big Finish.
Where Angels Fear starts the Gods arc, a loose overarching story that finishes in Twilight of the Gods. Along the way, Dellah is destroyed and Bernice is uprooted and loses her memory. Twilight of the Gods finishes with a new set-up for subsequent stories involving Bernice, Emile and others, but this was not used as Virgin stopped publishing the series.
As well as continuing the New Adventures after losing the Doctor Who license, Virgin also continued with their Decalog series. These had been Doctor Who short story anthologies, but Decalog 5: Wonders featured a Benny short story ("The Judgement of Solomon") by Lawrence Miles alongside other shorts not set in the New Adventures continuity.
Big Finish licensed the character of Bernice Summerfield from Paul Cornell, Irving Braxiatel from Justin Richards and Jason Kane from Dave Stone, but other elements of the Virgin New Adventures' fictional universe were not obtained. Instead, Gary Russell, Jacqueline Rayner and Cornell developed a new background and character ensemble, introduced in the anthology The Dead Men Diaries and developed in the initial run of paperbacks. The most notable development in Big Finish's paperback novels was Bernice's pregnancy and the birth of her son in The Glass Prison.
The paperback novels proved uneconomic and Big Finish stopped publishing them, subsequently re-launching their Benny books in hardback with the anthology A Life of Surprises.
Each volume comprises a collection of three novellas.
Bernice also appears in a number of Doctor Who short stories, mostly set during her travels with the Doctor.
Bernice appears in one of the New Series Adventures with the Twelfth Doctor (the novel was originally planned for River Song, but plans for the 2015 Christmas special The Husbands of River Song prompted Russell to use Benny instead).
This is a list of recurring characters from the Bernice Summerfield stories, both the original Virgin New Adventures featuring Bernice and the subsequent and ongoing series of audio dramas and novels by Big Finish Productions.
Clarence is an artificial intelligence from the People. The character was created and introduced by Simon Bucher-Jones for Ghost Devices in which Clarence appears in the form of an angel (he is named after the angel in It's a Wonderful Life) to Benny. Clarence is an agent of God, the artificial intelligence that controls the People's Dyson sphere and is eventually revealed (in Tears of the Oracle) to be a character from The Also People.
God is the super-advanced artificial intelligence controlling the People's Dyson sphere. The character was introduced by Ben Aaronovitch in The Also People and became a frequently recurring character in the later New Adventures based around Bernice. On several occasions, God sought to use Bernice as his agent, often sending his emissary Clarence to visit her.
Joseph is Bernice Summerfield's robotic secretary. He appears in several Bernice stories across the Virgin New Adventures and Big Finish's Bernice stories.
Jason Peter Kane was introduced in Death and Diplomacy. In 1996, 13-year-old runaway Jason is caught in an alien transportation beam, which deposits him in a swamp on the planet t'Kao in the 26th century. After thirteen years, the first human being he meets is Benny. When they discuss their sex lives, Jason candidly discusses having slept with nine women, five men and a number of (to varying degrees) humanoid aliens. He becomes a romantic foil for Benny, with their marriage being the centrepiece for Happy Endings, itself celebrating the New Adventures line as its fiftieth book. They are a happily married couple in Return of the Living Dad, however when the BBC withdrew the Doctor Who licence, and the New Adventures continued with Benny as the lead character, an editorial decision was taken to split the couple up, as depicted in Eternity Weeps. Jason remains an intermittently recurring character. He remarries in Deadfall, but his new wife does not appear again in the series. When the New Adventures came to an end, he was trapped in an alternate dimension equivalent to Hell, but Benny's adventures continued with an ongoing series of novels and audio dramas by Big Finish Productions and, through an agreement with creator Dave Stone, Jason re-appeared (portrayed by Stephen Fewell in the audio dramas) and his relationship with Benny restarted. It is strongly implied in The End of the World that he has been killed.
John Lafayette (from Walking to Babylon) was a Victorian translator who was exploring the ruins of Babylon. There, he stumbled across a time corridor and was drawn back in time to the city in ancient times. There he met with Bernice who was seeking out renegade members of the People and Jason, and becomes romantically involved with her.
Lafayette also appears in the audio play Birthright, although he had not appeared in the New Adventure on which it was based.
Emile Mars-Smith was introduced in Matthew Jones's novel Beyond the Sun in 1997. Beyond the Sun was adapted into an audio drama by Big Finish Productions, in which Emile was portrayed by Lewis Davis.
Emile was brought up by a strict religious father, and at the age of fifteen ran away to St. Oscar's University on the planet Dellah. Emile was one of Benny's students at St. Oscar's, and she took him on a field trip to the planet Apollox 4 where they became entangled with an alien species known as the Sunless. During the adventure, Emile finds himself attracted to another man, and realises he is gay.
Ronan McGinley is an office worker from the early 21st Century. One day, while having a cigarette, he meets Irving Braxiatel who promises him one summer of adventure. Braxiatel brings McGinley to the Collection and instigates a romance between him and Clarissa Jones. She is still mourning the loss of her lover, Bernard Moskoff, who was killed during the events of Death and the Daleks. Clarissa enjoys her time with Ronan but is also suspicious as to his past. Investigating, she finds evidence (planted by Braxiatel) that he was a Fifth Axis soldier. She asks him to leave the Collection but, unknown to her, he meets with Braxiatel who tells him that the one good summer he promised is over. Then, a year later, Jason Kane finds McGinley on the planet Cantus. Braxiatel has connected the man to an army of Cybermen in order to keep them under control. During the events of this story, McGinley dies. In the audio drama The Crystal of Cantus, McGinley is portrayed by Nicholas Briggs.
Parasiel is a student on the Braxiatel Collection. When he first arrives, shortly after the end of the Fifth Axis Occupation, his lack of social skills means he is not particularly popular. As he spends more time on the Collection, his behaviour softens a little, and he has a series of affairs with female students. Bernice tells him about the events of The Goddess Quandary and then The Crystal of Cantus. During the second of these adventures, he also has his memory erased by Irving Braxiatel. He left the Collection in Collected Works after one of his love affairs ended tragically; though he says he might return, Benny doubts she'll see him again.
Admiral Isaac Douglas Summerfield is the father of Bernice. A high-ranking officer in space fleet, he went to fight against the Daleks and never returned to his wife and child. Bernice never gave up hope that he could still be alive, and was eventually rewarded when she found him on Earth in 1983. It was revealed in Kate Orman's novel Return of the Living Dad that, during a battle at Bellatrix, the Admiral's ship had been drawn into a worm hole which deposited him back in time to 1963. There he organised a resistance cell to fight the Daleks. 20 years later, Bernice managed to locate him in the village of Little Caldwell. The Admiral was running an underground network helping stranded aliens to leave Earth. He always worried that he would be discovered and shut down by the Doctor.
However, he also had a more sinister plan to detonate a nuclear device on Earth. This would trigger an arms-race that could lead to the development of weapons capable of defeating the Daleks when they tried to invade Earth in the 22nd century. However, the alien he was conspiring with was revealed to be a Dalek agent, and was uncovered by the Doctor. Managing to forgive her father for his manipulation, Bernice teamed up with him and the Doctor and used a missile to destroy a Dalek spy satellite.
In the audio drama Death and the Daleks, Summerfield is portrayed by Ian Collier, who voiced Omega in Arc of Infinity and Omega.
Narrator of the standalone novel Dead Romance, which did not feature Bernice. Christine found out her entire world was a bottle universe being used by Time Lords as a bolt hole to escape the Gods. During the course of the novel she began a relationship with Chris Cwej and helped him to prepare the bottle for the arrival of the Time Lords. After learning of Bernice Summerfield she became fascinated by her and her history convinced there was a connection between them. The novel ended with her being betrayed by Cwej and deciding to leave the bottle for the "real" universe, she eventually ended up on a Gallifrey in ruins, writing her story which she left among the ruins. The last entry of Dead Romance states that she believed that the "real" universe was just a bigger bottle within bigger and bigger bottles; and maybe she could keep traveling upwards through the different bottles until she found the real universe. However she did not seem to achieve this goal as she sent a letter to Bernice in Twilight of the Gods where it is stated that she took a post at a university on the planet Vremnya. Some point after this she was initiated into Faction Paradox where she adopted the title, Cousin Eliza, and is subsequently quoted in The Book of the War; she is one of the central characters in the Faction Paradox audio dramas.
Peter Guy Summerfield is the son of Bernice and Adrian Wall. His middle name Guy was in honour of Sir Guy de Carnac, a man with whom Benny fell in love in the novel Sanctuary but who then apparently died. The circumstances of his conception were unusual because Benny was being controlled by an alien sorceress. Peter appeared the audio drama, The Grel Escape, in which he was voiced by Dacey Warriner and The Crystal of Cantus in which he was voiced by Thomas Grant.
Adrian Wall is a Killoran construction worker for the Braxiatel collection. Killorans are a species who resemble a cross between a wolf and an ape, and Adrian was seven feet tall with huge claws and fangs. He took his name from Hadrian's Wall, in preference to his native Killoran name, after studying the Roman emperor
During the events of The Squire's Crystal, Bernice was possessed by an alien sorceress. Whilst possessed she became impregnated by Adrian, and later gave birth to a baby boy whom she named Peter.
The Killorans appear in the Doctor Who audio plays Arrangements for War (where they invade the planet Világ) and its sequel Thicker than Water. The novella Hiding Places by Stewart Sheargold, published in the anthology Parallel Lives, reveals that Adrian was present on Világ.
This section includes characters who will appear or have appeared in at least one season.
The first season of Bernice Summerfield audio plays are all adaptations of New Adventures novels originally published by Virgin Publishing. Each of the plays spans two CDs, except for Dragon's Wrath, which was issued on a single CD.
The plays deviate from the original novels, in terms of plot and characters, to varying degrees. This is particularly evident with the productions of Birthright and Just War, both of which were originally Doctor Who novels. These changes were necessary because, at the time of their production, Big Finish Productions weren't licensed to produce Doctor Who audio plays.
Actor and photographer Lisa Bowerman was cast in the role of Bernice Summerfield. Bowerman had previously appeared in the Doctor Who story Survival (1989). The first series also co-starred Stephen Fewell as Jason Kane. A variety of actors familiar to Doctor Who fans played guest roles in many of the plays, including Colin Baker, Sophie Aldred, Nicholas Courtney, Elisabeth Sladen, Anneke Wills and Richard Franklin.
For the second season of Bernice Summerfield audio plays, Big Finish Productions experimented by developing ongoing character arcs that alternated between two different mediums—the audio plays and novels. Fans who did not collect the novels were initially confused to discover that Benny was pregnant during the final audio play of the season, The Skymines of Karthos. The pregnancy was explained in the novel The Squire's Crystal by Jacqueline Rayner.
The run of plays from the second season onwards take part in what has become known as the Collection continuity, as they are set primarily on the Braxiatel Collection, a combined museum and university located on the planetoid KS-159. A number of regular characters are introduced, most notably Irving Braxiatel. First referenced in the 1979 Doctor Who story City of Death (written by Douglas Adams and Graham Williams), Braxiatel first appeared in person in the New Adventures novel Theatre of War.
Whereas the previous seasons had focused primarily on the character of Bernice Summerfield, Big Finish used the third season as an opportunity to introduce an ensemble feel to the productions. This is most evident in The Green-Eyed Monsters and The Mirror Effect where the characters Jason Kane, Adrian Wall and Irving Braxiatel are significantly developed. The latter, in particular, suggests that Braxiatel has a darker, more mysterious past than the audience has previously been led to believe.
The other two plays that comprise the third season focus more specifically on Bernice. The Greatest Shop in the Galaxy remains the most light-hearted play of the season, while The Dance of the Dead reintroduces the Ice Warriors from Doctor Who.
While not officially part of the third season (at least as far as the numbering is concerned), the Bernice Summerfield audio play The Plague Herds of Excelis (the fourth play in Big Finish's Excelis series; the first three plays fall under the Doctor Who umbrella) takes place between The Green-Eyed Monsters and The Dance of the Dead. Chronologically, the short story anthology A Life of Surprises also falls within this gap.
The fourth season was unofficially dubbed the "classic Who monsters" season, with each play featuring an alien adversary that previously appeared in the Doctor Who television series. The Bellotron Incident predominantly features the Rutan Host (their major enemies, the Sontarans, are also referred to but don't actually appear), The Draconian Rage features the Draconians, The Poison Seas casts a more sympathetic light on the Sea Devils, while Death and the Daleks (the first double CD release in the series since Just War) sees the first appearance of the Daleks within the Bernice Summerfield series. Prior to its release, Death and the Daleks was entitled The Axis of Evil to keep the appearance of the Daleks a secret.
Big Finish also published an anthology of short stories, entitled Life During Wartime, that was specially written as a prelude to the Death and the Daleks audio play. Paul Cornell, the anthology's editor, described Life During Wartime as "a novel written by multiple authors". Each of the collection's stories are told in chronological order, detailing events that occur when the Collection is occupied by a powerful alien force. The anthology ends on a cliff-hanger that is resolved in Death and the Daleks.
The previous season's tradition of using classic monsters continues into the fifth season, with the Grel (previously heard in Oh No It Isn't!) returning in The Grel Escape, a knowing pastiche of The Chase. The Bone of Contention features the Galyari, who appeared in the Doctor Who audio play The Sandman, while the title and plot of The Relics of Jegg-Sau was inspired by a 1970s Doctor Who licensed jigsaw puzzle that depicted a scene with giant robots identical to the one that appeared in Robot.
The Masquerade of Death brings the fifth season to a close in a dark and surreal fashion.
By the end of The Crystal of Cantus, the true dark and manipulative nature of Braxiatel was revealed and he left the Collection. Its future is now uncertain, with the Draconians claiming they own the planetoid on what it is based. The entire series was directed by Gary Russell.
The seventh season follows the staff of the Collection as they attempt to keep things running smoothly in Braxiatel's absence. Collected Works and Old Friends, two books published during this season's run, also develop the running plots that planetoid KS-159 is under threat from the Draconians and Mim, and that the Collection itself is falling apart literally as well as figuratively without Braxiatel at its helm.
In the eighth season, Braxiatel returns to the Collection, which is threatened by crossfire and politics in the war between the Draconians and Mim. The war comes to an unexpected conclusion shortly after his return, and several regular characters pay a heavy price for realising too late that Braxiatel himself is the real threat. The season ends with Benny cutting her ties to the Collection and Braxiatel, and going on the run with her son Peter. The books The Two Jasons and |Nobody's Children also fit into this season's arc.
The ninth season is a much looser collection of stories, following Bernice and her son Peter as Benny searches for work away from the Collection.
The entire series was directed by John Ainsworth.
The entire series was again directed by John Ainsworth. The animated short Dead and Buried, released online for free, acted as a prelude to this series.[3]
Following the conclusion of the Bernice Summerfield box set range, a new range starring Lisa Bowerman as Bernice Summerfield alongside Sylvester McCoy as the Doctor entitled The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield was launched.
Bernice Summerfield in a series of adventures with a version of the Doctor from the Unbound series. Mark Gatiss returns as a version of the Master from the same series,[4] appearing in The Emporium at the End and The True Savior of the Universe, as well as a brief appearance in a flashback in The Library in the Body.
David Warner died on 24 July 2022. Recording of the series had been completed and was released posthumously.
