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Series Three

FEBRUARY 2002 - MARCH 2003

  1. THE GREATEST SHOP IN THE GALAXY     2. THE GREEN EYED MONSTERS

3. THE PLAGUE HERDS OF EXCELIS

4. DANCE OF THE DEAD     5. THE MIRROR EFFECT

The Greatest Shop in the Galaxy

After the successful (yet confusing) second season and the release of Jacqueline Rayner's novel The Glass Prison, a third season of the Bernice Summerfield series began in early 2002. Starting this season off was Paul Ebbs' surreal tale, The Greatest Shop in the Galaxy (the story's title being a clear nod to the 1988 Doctor Who serial, The Greatest

Show in the Galaxy).

In my view The Greatest Shop in the Galaxy may qualify as the most bizarre release in the range to date. The premise is rather simple - Benny travels to the planet Baladroon, where, ostensibly, she’s going to exhume its famed Latrines – but the planet is home to the Gigamarket, the so called greatest shop in the galaxy, and she’s more interested in how many shoes she can buy with Adrian Wall’s swiped credit chip.

Ebbs seems determined to delight in throwing in as many concepts as possible to create a bizarre, off-the-wall story in vein of some of Dave Stone's works. However, it is this imbalance in the story which results in there being a broadly comedic first twenty minutes before an extremely sudden shift into drama which really disrupts the flow of the story. Further, this release didn't deal with the implications of what happened to Benny in her last appearance prior to this adventure, in The Glass Prison, where she gave birth to her half-Killoran/half-human son, Peter. Luckily for us though, the next release would pick up the loose ends and deal with the implications.

Lisa Bowerman brightens the story up with a lively performance. Benny’s unexplored fetish for shoes borders on the obsessional, but Bowerman makes it believable through her convincing and confident display. David Benson's Gigamarket Executive Keelor really shines as the character proceeds to show Benny around on her arrival and provides an interesting outlet for the humour, yet also demonstrates a more vulnerable side when strange things begin happening. Big Finish mainstay Toby Longworth also brings a villainous angle to the role and certainly makes the most of Joggon’s unusual tendencies! What’s more, Steven Wickham makes his very first appearance as Benny’s porter, Joseph (who later appeared in the 2003 Doctor Who story The Dark Flame). It’s not an auspicious debut into Benny’s audio world for a character whose roots go right back to the novel of Oh No It Isn’t! as the time anomalies ensure that he's malfunctioning throughout the story, giving Wickham little to do except make silly noises. A downright shame, really.

"BOING!"

On the whole, The Greatest Shop In The Galaxy is a bizarre and muddled story, which only occasionally shows flashes of inspiration. Nevertheless, it stands as something unique as there isn’t anything quite like it, but whether or not this is a good thing rather depends on the listener’s own sensibility to the strangeness of Ebbs’ world. If you prefer the bizarre and the muddled, then The Greatest Shop in the Galaxy is right up your alley.

The Green Eyed Monsters

After the surreal season three opener The Greatest Shop in the Galaxy, this release written by Dave Stone finally deals with the issue of Benny's newborn child, The Green-Eyed Monsters embracing this thread with both hands, making this the first audio to do so since Peter was born in The Glass Prison, several months earlier. This also marks the final use of the Adventure Is My Game theme. Yay!

The title alone is very apposite for the story that Stone has chosen to tell, representing not only the legends that Benny goes to investigate in the Goronos system, but also the jealousy that epitomises the relationship between the two men in Bernice's life - ex-husband Jason Kane and father of her child the Killoran construction worker Adrian Wall. This subplot really shines with both Jason and Adrian being portrayed successfully; I particularly enjoyed the development of their uneasy alliance as they find themselves holding baby Peter. It is excellently written, making the respect that both come to have for each other seem very real, particularly when it culminates in Adrian admitting something very personal about his feelings towards Benny. However, the Goronos system thread of the plot comes off as lightweight at times, but it's forgivable.

Lisa Bowerman is excellent as ever, showing how Benny copes with being a mother and actually interacting with her half-Killoran, half-Human son. Stephen Fewell's returns as Jason after a with only a few vague references to the novels Twilight Of The Gods (the final Virgin novel released in autumn 1999) and The Infernal Nexus to explain his absence. The love / hate relationship between Benny and Jason has mellowed a little by now, although Fewell makes sure Jason sounds as devious as ever. Fewell's Jason Kane strikes up a good banter with Harry Myers' Adrian Wall which gives their scenes credence as they see each other as rivals for Benny's affections. Lady Ashantra du Lac voiced by Maria Darling is the character that it sounds like Stone had the most fun writing and Darling's performance is a lot of fun; her evil scheme is very ridiculous yet has the faintest sense of plausibility to be workable and Stone uses her as a way to play against convention in how she acts towards Bernice. Steven Wickham gets some good lines as Joseph the Porter, particularly during

the opening scene despite being sidelined throughout the story. The sound design and music by David Darlington isn't too shabby either.

The Verdict? The Green Eyed Monsters is an unusual and fun-filled release. Some may be disappointed by this and find it insubstantial, but I think that the richness of the characters and dialogue presented here more than make up for any inadequacies of the story.

The Plague Herds of Excelis

After the first three successful Excelis tales, Big Finish closed the Excelis series with a

coda set just after The Green-Eyed Monsters. The story sees Benny leave the Collection in Brax's living shuttle heading towards the dying world of Artaris, where she meets a “Trans-temporal Adventuress” by the name of Iris Wildthyme…

Stephen Cole's script seems designed to prevent those who have not been following Bernice's continuing adventures from becoming alienated by elements of the ongoing story, and it explains Benny’s slightly tetchy attitude throughout the story well. The way in which this story is tied into the rest of the trilogy is very intriguing indeed, showing that events have been in motion for much longer than anyone expected and there was more to Excelis than just the rise and fall of Warlord Grayvorn. Cole develops his own ideas well with those

behind the animal undead being particularly sound, although given their unspeaking nature it does require some overt explanatory dialogue, but given a similar situation from the fifth Doctor tale The Land Of The Dead, it's kept firmly in the background.

Lisa Bowerman has been playing Benny for a long time now, and this shows through her assured performance, which is fantastic. As with her (then) sole performance to date in the Doctor Who main range, The Shadow Of The Scourge, Bowerman demonstrates that she is a perfect choice for Benny. Katy Manning's performance as Iris is also superb - some of the time, Iris comes across a little more sinister than she usually does (a wee bit seventh Doctor-esque), but perhaps this is the result of having Cole writing her instead of her creator Paul Magrs, but it's appropriate for this story that has a harder edge to it than Magrs' stories have tended to have in the past. Trevor Littledale is the most impressive though, immediately creating an impression as the prophet Snyper who seems to know much more about the events occurring than he's letting on. Kate Brown also excels as the Empress Vitutia, and although Stewart Alexander's Aaragon is somewhat unmemorable at first, he does grow

in stature throughout the story.

The music and sound design by David Darlington works wonders here just like with the other Excelis stories beginning with a score that reflects the fact that Excelis has returned to a state of barbarism rather than advancement. While Excelis Decays ended the Doctor Who part of the series with a bang, The Plague Herds of Excelis ends it by tying up loose ends - especially Iris' - and adding something tangible enough for it to be considered as important overall to the series.

Highly Recommended.

Dance of the Dead

Continuing from The Plague Herds of Excelis, Stephen Cole's tale Dance of the Dead begins with Bernice smuggled aboard a space liner called Empress on her way back to the Braxiatel Collection after being left behind by Iris Wildthyme. While this release is a stand alone title, it does assume that the listener has knowledge of Benny's Excelis adventure as there is little attempt to explain why the Queen was having the peace conference or its history. This also marks the first appearance of the Martian Ice Warriors in the Bernice Summerfield range, in a story which thankfully is a far-cry from Justin Richards’ lacklustre fifth Doctor tale Red Dawn. The era of Benny versus classic Who monsters had begun!

In a somewhat Poseidon-esque fashion, the tone of the story is evident quite soon as a disaster strikes the Empress liner. This enables the script to be played very dramatically

and with plenty of claustrophobia, giving the story a darker edge than some of the more overtly silly adventures Benny has been experiencing recently. Along with this, Cole introduces a subplot involving Benny and Grand Marshall Sstac becoming possessed by the memories of alien Colgarian lovers which works very well, so much so that it's development is a real surprise when it first occurs as the listener isn't always aware that the possession has started until it's too late.

The performances are wonderful. The rapport between Lisa Bowerman and Matthew Brenher is believable, particularly during the scenes of Colgarian possession where both

put in sympathetic displays allowing the listener to really understand the depth of feeling between these two aliens. Vivian Parry as General Azzar is memorable for both what the character does and how Parry plays her, while Frances Magee injects his character Karter with just the right amount of ambiguity for his actions to be plausible.

David Darlington really picks up on the claustrophobic nature of the script to give the sound design a sense of confinement which really helps to emphasise the mood and setting, his musical score, quickly and ominously creating the feeling of panic as disaster strikes whilst keeping the element of danger closely running beneath the surface of the story.

In a nutshell, Dance of the Dead is a gripping slice of drama, which is let down by a slightly anticlimactic resolution. Cole improves on his previous Benny script by keeping a much tighter focus on the characters and the two main areas of the plot, the disaster and the alien possession coming together to form a thoughtful and dramatic story.

If you love Benny and Ice Warriors, then you're sure to love this.

The Mirror Effect

Season 3 of Bernice Summerfield concludes on a high note with The Mirror Effect.

Stewart Sheargold’s story features every character mentioned in the above reviews plus cameos from Joseph the Porter and Benny’s son, Peter. In utilising all these characters, Sheargold examines intimately the relationships between Benny and her friends, tightly focusing on how they have been changed by recent events. Sheargold also brings out the darker parts of the characters by setting them against one another and bringing their innermost fears to the surface. The result is a dark and edgy psychological drama where little is as it appears as it is reflected in the mirror…

As the story goes on, it becomes apparent that Benny and Jason have been brought inside a mirror artefact within the Collection and that Braxiatel and Adrian have followed them through. It's notable that Sheargold refuses to elaborate on the reason why the mirror affects these characters so profoundly, though the central concept of highlighting the darker sides

of all the characters certainly gives the cast plenty of meat to sink their teeth into as they almost all get to show two sides of their character, both their ‘real’ selves and their dark 'mirror' counterparts.

Speaking of the cast, Lisa Bowerman delivers another confident display as Benny, her journey into darkness wonderfully conveyed as she finds herself alone with no one to face

but herself ('mirror' Benny, as it were). Miles Richardson also gives another great performance as Irving Braxiatel. In the world of the mirror, both characters fears about how Benny prefers the other come to the fore and Stephen Fewell and Harry Myers are both superb at bringing this to life with Fewell in particular showing how disturbed Jason can become when his insecurities about the woman he loves comes to the fore. While Steven Wickham gets a few lines towards the end as Joseph, the other supporting cast member is Beverly Cressman, who plays Doctor Carnivel, a survivor of whatever happened to the crew of the mining station before, it soon becomes evident that Carnivel is much more than just.

All in all, The Mirror Effect is a slice of dark, edgy psychological drama, the like of which hasn’t been heard in the Benny audios for a while. A brilliant way to close the season.

Copyright © Kory Stephens 2009

Kory Stephens has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

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