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Series Six

JUNE 2005 - JUNE 2006

  1. THE HEART'S DESIRE     2. THE KINGDOM OF THE BLIND

3. THE LOST MUSEUM       4. THE GODDESS QUANDARY

5. THE CRYSTAL OF CANTUS

The Heart's Desire

Season 6 of the Bernice Summerfield series starts off with an unusual story

that you are sure to either love or loathe. David Bailey and Neil Corry's Heart's Desire begins with Benny travelling to the planet of Marlowe’s World on an urgent mission to

save the Brax-iatel Collection, but on the way she gets caught up in the machinations of

the Eternals and their search for the Enlightenment…

The first half of this play tricks you into thinking that it is going to be some kind of gangster tale. No; that's not right, it actually tricks you into thinking that it is going to be some kind of disaster tale, then a gangster tale… and then even a raging zombie tale! Suffice it to say

that The Heart's Desire stumbles from one crazy idea to the next, awkwardly switching

styles without (at least initially) any obvious reason.

Midway through the story, the listener is hit with the revelation that the entire situation has been contrived by the Eternals, explaining why the story up to that point felt so artificial.

Sadly there are some parts of this release that fall truly flat. More should have been made of the It's a Wonderful Life curse; it could have been really great, were it done well. Had Bailey and Corry shown a little bit more imagination, then we could have been treated to a horrific look at a Bernice who never met the Doctor, never experienced love with Jason, never had Peter... In short, a Bernice who lived a boring, unfulfilling life. Instead though, we have to endure scenes of Bernice baking buns. Not a good idea, is it? Couldn't we have at least had an appearance from her parents?

Nevertheless, Lisa Bowerman and Conrad Westmaas (better known as the eighth Doctor’s erstwhile companion, C'rizz) share an excellent rapport as Benny and private investigator Raymond Hardy, especially early on in the story. The weak link though is Lucy Beresford's Ms Topsy Turvey - her relentless squeaky voice is aural torture. Every time she screams I begin to wince like a dog forced to listen to a dog whistle! Even the southern accent she uses doesn't help.

And so all told, The Heart's Desire is something of a mediocre start to the series’ sixth season with some ideas that could've worked, yet didn't. At least we have the return of the Monoids to look forward to in the next release…

The Kingdom of the Blind

After the lacklustre season opener that was The Heart’s Desire, this Jacqueline Rayner-penned tale could’ve been the better choice to start the series’ sixth season.

The Kingdom of the Blind begins with Benny hearing a young woman’s voice in her head, screaming in despair as her masters cut out her friend’s tongue. Horrified by what she has heard, Benny begins sleepwalking, steals Braxiatel’s private ship and then wakes up to find herself marooned on a strange planet dressed only in her nightie, with strange voices in her head and a bunch of one-eyed monsters threatening to cut out her tongue! Enter the Mon-oids...

Just as the K1 robot did in the previous season, the Monoids of Doctor Who fame make their way into the Bennyverse, and surprisingly they work ten times better here than they did on television back in the spring of 1966, though I suppose here they don’t have the infamous Dodo Chaplet to contend with!

Rayner has built this audio adventurearound Benny’s unconscious rescue of a lost colony, leaving the Monoids (somewhat) in the background. This was a wise move in my view, as I could imagine a story full of their macho nonsense would being bearable in any way. This doesn’t mean she doesn’t explore their unusual one eyed status though, and there is a great, horrific idea at the core of the story, involving the cutting out of tongues or the removal of eyes. It seems that, deep down, the Monoids feel inferior to humanoids and thus remove their additional senses to ensure their superiority.

As dark as it is though, there is a lot of comedy here too. Indeed, there are enough laughs (Benny’s brilliant facade of deafness, winding up the Monoids with her sing-song about peeling spuds), frights (Jason being shown why 44 has speech, because his eyes have been removed) and surprises (Benny suddenly waking up from her hypno-state to realise she is standing on an alien planet in her nightie) to keep anyone happy. The only real down-note is the unsatisfyingly open ending that deserved a little more clarification. After the colonists leave the planet and head home, we are not told what the fate of the Monoids is, the story abruptly closing with just an “Oh well, maybe they killed them all and maybe they didn’t” which is just sloppy, really – a single line could have rectified it! Still, at least Benny and Jason weren't coming down with a cold...

Turning to the cast, as always there is a wonderfully relaxed chemistry between Lisa Bow-erman and Stephen Fewell that only comes with having done so many of these audio plays together; they work together so very effectively. Stealing the show though is Caroline Morris (famous for her portrayal of the fifth Doctor’s companion, Erimem) as a female Mondoid,

26. She imbues 26 with lots of character - certainly enough to easily distinguish her from

the beloved Egyptian Pharaoh that she will always be associated with – and the telepathic scenes between her and Benny are truly a delight to hear, especially in the early parts of the tale.

In a nutshell, The Kingdom of the Blind is an extremely enjoyable hour of an audio drama; a fine example taking an idea that is a little shoddy and making something very entertaining out of it through good writing and good direction. A definitive must.

The Lost Museum

The third release of Bernice Summerfield’s sixth season, The Lost Museum by noted Big Finish author Simon Guerrier, is perhaps the most well-written in the series.

The Lost Museum starts off with Bernice and Jason Kane going to Trib City where they in-vestigate damage to its legendary museum. The museum itself was once an icon; a place that united the people and gave them something to agree on. But because of what it repres-ented, it was ransacked; its artefacts stolen and destroyed.

The way the story swings back and forth, leaving the listener unsure who to trust, works very well indeed; for a while you even think that General Markwood (played by Stephen Chance) is the bad guy, then Director Enil (Claire Carroll), but of course it turns out to be neither one of them! And despite the fact it was obvious in retrospect, listeners will be completely taken in by Enil’s deceptions. I certainly was.

I like that Markwood is given his own little story, fighting with his own family and afraid of the complications when it is over. This really makes him stand out as more than your usual thro-waway character.

And along with the two actors mentioned above, Lisa Bowerman and Stephen Fewell are both at the top of their game. For once Jason is the more important character in the story, and it pleases me to see that the series can shuffle its regulars around so effortlessly, giving each of them a chance in the spotlight. It’s also great to see a cliché turned on its head as one of Jason’s manipulative schemes is exposed only to benefit the situation.

That much said, Benny is not neglected - in the middle of all the action she has to face a crowd of ogling onlookers wearing only a towel and - somewhat shockingly - she loses her arm! Talk about unexpected, and that's before we even consider Bev Terrant and Adrian Wall hooking up!

All told then, The Lost Museum is another winner for season six. Notorious for being just fifty-five minutes long, the storyline has no padding at all, yet never feels rushed. Instead of trying to stretch the tale to the regular length, Guerrier allows the story to take its natural course and it is all the better for it. Highly Recommended.

The Goddess Quandary

The fourth release in the sixth season of the Bernice Summerfield series is one that really helps build up to the tension ahead of the season’s grand finale.

Andy Russell’s Goddess Quandary starts off with the Braxiatel Collection celebrating its annual Liberation Day, commemorating the end of the Occupation and the defeat of the

Fifth Axis (Death and the Daleks). I love how Russell’s tale cuts back and forth between Benny’s interview about the legend of the last resting place of Etheria’s warlord, Aldebrath, and about what went down at the Collection, including the mysterious disappearances of

Ms Jones (which is chronicled in the novella Parallel Lives) and, of course, Irving Braxiatel himself.

Lisa Bowerman gives another grand performance as Benny here, sharing some wonderful scenes with Parasiel (Paul Bryant), Aldébrath (Lizzie Hopley), Father Secundo (Duncan Wisbey) and her old friend Keri, the Pakhar, this time voiced by Jane Goddard. Goddard’s take on Keri is more hamster-esque than Sarah Mowat’s was in the Buried Treasures CD freebie, and all the more enjoyable for it. The sound design and music by Simon Robinson

is likewise top-notch.

Overall, The Goddess Quandary is another gem that will have listeners begging for more

as Benny’s ongoing interview with Parisiel continues into the shocking season finale, The Crystal of Cantus. A must!

The Crystal of Cantus

The sixth season of the Bernice Summerfield series concludes with a real bang, finally deal-ing with questions that have been burning for a long time, but without confirming anything or bringing it all out into the open. Indeed, The Crystal of Cantus is full of intriguing hints and whispers about a “grander plan”…

The story picks up from where The Goddess Quandary left off, with Benny continuing her interview with Parisiel. We pick up the story at the beginning of the year, just after Bernice had returned from Trib City. She’d managed to get herself in a whole load of trouble and even lost her arm (see The Lost Museum), so she was lying in bed, feeling sorry for herself, when Jason came to see her about a message regarding a crystal on the lost colony world of Cantus.

Whilst not all of the regulars appear in this story, the three most important do and it is what occurs between them that makes this release so very special. The Crystal of Cantus proves to be a real emotional rollercoaster ride, especially for both Benny and Jason.

The roots of Joseph Lidster’s storyline date right back to Season 3, where Brax forced Jas-on to forget a terrible secret that he had learnt about him when they confronted themselves

in the mirror. Since the events of The Mirror Effect, Jason has been suffering with terrible headaches when he tries to remember certain things, such as the incident with the Purpara Pawn where he was accused of murder. Hints have been left that Jason has been Brax’s puppet ever since then, but what on Earth could be so very important that Brax would use Benny’s ex-husband in such a manipulative fashion?

Irving Braxiatel has always threatened to topple Benny as the most interesting character in this series because he is so darn enigmatic. He has been around in the Whoniverse ever since his first appearance in the Doctor Who New Adventures novel Theatre of War, and has grown as a character to the point where I would say that he is just as “listenable” as the Doctor himself. He became an important regular in the Benny-led New Adventures, before becoming the essential head of the Collection where the series that we now enjoy takes place.

And The Crystal of Cantus adds some fascinating back-ground colour, as Lidster allows us to experience Brax’s

life on Gallifrey through a few references to the Big Finish

series of the same name, which explain how close he is to

President Romana and why he chose to leave Gallifrey. What

makes this story so brilliant is how Lidster skilfully weaves in

all this continuity, managing to make it all seem pre-planned

and, most importantly, worthy of a story in its own right, rather

than winding the necessary answers around a workmanlike

plot.

And you really have to give the series credit for not letting you get comfortable. Bumping off Clarissa Jones (Parallel Lives); suggesting that Peter might be a murderer; the invasion of the Collection by the Fifth Axis (Death and the Daleks); the burgeoning romance between Bev Tarrant and Adrian Wall; and now, outing Braxiatel as the terrifying schemer that he really is! Seems like there's trouble ahead for the Collection...

Lisa Bowerman and Stephen Fewell are fantastic here as Benny and Jason, especially in the in scenes regarding Brax, Parasiel, and the Cybermen. Miles Richardson is on top form too as Brax, as we learn that everyone on the Collection is a part of his master plan! Nick Briggs is on hand too to give a grand performance as both Ronan McGinley and, of course, the Cybermen (albeit uncredited in respect of the latter). Steven Wickham’s Joseph is used effectively too, despite being given a very limited role.

The Verdict? The Crystal of Cantus is an astounding way to conclude Season 6, showing brilliant maturity. Highly recommended indeed.

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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