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Bernice ("Benny") Surprise Summerfield was a 26th century archaeologist, a companion of the Doctor and an associate of Irving Braxiatel.
An adventurer in her own right, both before and after her years in the TARDIS, Bernice was destined to make choices that would decide the fate of the universe and to become worshipped, in some cultures, as a minor goddess of Inebriation.
Biography
Early life
- The dating of Bernice's early life is problematic. Some dates given for her birth would place it a century too early for her to have lived through her formative events (NA: Falls the Shadow) and others would mean that she was only three years old by the point at which she has been depicted as being seven (NA: Return of the Living Dad). Irving Braxiatel's manipulations of her timeline might have something to do with this. (BFBS: The End of the World))
Birth and childhood : 2540 - 2548
Bernice Surprise Summerfield was born to Claire and Isaac Summerfield on 21 June 2540. (NA: Just War)) Benny's ancestors were partly or mostly of British descent.
A child of the Alliance's Second Dalek War (NA: Love and War), Benny moved from school to school too regularly to settle in anywhere, and appears to have acquired a reputation as a disciplinary problem from an early age. It was at a boarding school on Mal Oreille that she experienced her first recorded adventure, when she discovered that the Matron there was a giant toad feeding on the pupils. She was duly expelled (BFBS: Missing Adventures: Biology Lesson on Mal Oreille).
By the time she was seven years old (NA: Return of the Living Dad), Bernice and her parents were living in the town of Vandor Prime on the planet Beta Caprisis. Despite her father's role as an Admiral in Spacefleet she saw him regularly, and he filled her head with pearls of military wisdom (BFBS: Missing Adventures: The Evacuation of...) as well as taking her fishing and reading her fairy stories (NA: The Pit). Bernice was keeping a diary by this point (NA:Oh No It Isn't!)--she would continue to keep diaries her entire life. She evinced some interest in archaeology by this point, too, as she had sent off for a badge that read "I Dig Archaeology". (NA:Oh No It Isn't!)
Bernice recalls waving goodbye to her father's battleship (NA: Shadowmind), the Tisiphone, as it departed to fight the Daleks in 2547's battle of Bellatrix (NA: Return of the Living Dad). The ship went missing and Bernice's father was thought dead (NA: Love and War). Worse yet, the reports of the Tisiphone's final minutes made it appear that it was fleeing the battle. Admiral Summerfield was deemed a deserter.
Within six months of Admiral Summerfield's disappearance (BFBS: Missing Adventures: The Evacuation of...), the Daleks attacked Beta Caprisis. During the havoc of the attack, Claire Summerfield managed to get Bernice to the safety of a shelter--but she was exterminated by a Dalek ray when she attempted to retrieve her daughter's favourite doll (NA: Love and War, NA: Return of the Living Dad). This at least is how Bernice recalls it, but it is possible that Claire in fact met her end simply stumbling around dazed from the first wave of plasma fire (NA: Lucifer Rising). If the story of the favourite doll originated mostly from Bernice's survivor guilt, then that may explain her later inconsistency as to whether the doll was called 'Rebecca' or 'Molly' (NA: Love and War, Parasite).
With the other survivors, Bernice was evacuated to a space station aboard the Star of Lucknow and then, as she was now an orphan, to foster care.
Teenage life and young adulthood : 2548 - 2570
She declined the hospitality of her foster parents, however, by running away (NA: Parasite); and by thirteen (BFBS: Missing Adventures: The Tunnels to Heaven) found herself placed in a military academy (NA: Love and War). She showed much aptitude for soldiering, but treated the whole ethos with disdain. She was considered for Section Leader among the cadets but her disciplinary record prohibited this (BFBS: Missing Adventures: The Tunnels to Heaven). She was fairly well involved with extracurriculars during her time at the Academy: she was one of its better tennis players (BFBS: Missing Adventures: Thirty Love), and she sang in its production of "Carousel" (NA:No Future).
By sixteen, Bernice had escaped from the Academy and was living in the nearby woods. She had become something of a guru figure to the girls who came to her for advice (NA: Love and War). It was they who first gave her the nickname "Professor" (NA: Blood Harvest). Benny was not alone in the woods, however, as fellow student runaway Simon Kyle had constructed a shelter there for his illictly reconstituted Galapagos tortoises. He became her first lover, but betrayed her to the Academy when they were discovered by a patrol (NA: Love and War, Return of the Living Dad).
Re-enrolled in the Academy, Bernice graduated some years later and was immediately conscripted into Spacefleet. There was, at this point, a draft in effect. (NA: Oh No It Isn't!) She managed to escape, via escape pod, from a troop ship that was enroute to the planet Capella.
Not quite 22, Bernice faked her archaeological qualifications enough to bluff her way onto various digs, and doctored her passport (with the notation TMF, Too Mad to Fight) in order to avoid being drafted. (BNA: Beyond the Sun, Genius Loci) She was exposed as a fraud by the leader of a dig on the planet Jaiwan, but was offered genuine academic credentials (an MA in archaeology) in exchange for her help on the dig. (NA:Genius Loci) On one particular dig in her early career, she was taught that there was a subtle difference between between a knife used for cutting and a spear or hunting knife. (NA: Just War)
By 23, Benny had woken up in prison several times. (BFBS:Missing Adventures:Charged)
At around age 24 (two years after her escape from Spacefleet), Benny spent some time wandering the galaxy with her friend Louise. (BFBS:Missing Adventures: Benny and Louise)
Still aged 24 (therefore, presumably, not long after parting ways with Louise), Benny excavated a Martian site, Mare Silenium. This dig established Benny's reputation as an archaeologist.
Travels with the Doctor
Bernice celebrated her 30th birthday on the planet Heaven, where she was doing work on the Heavenite arch located there. Whilst she was there the Hoothi attacked Heaven, and she met the Doctor and Ace. When Ace decides to leave the Doctor's company, Benny agrees to join--but only after he promises not to play games with her life. (NA: Love and War)
Benny travelled with the Doctor for some time. She was stuck in 1909 London for some time(NA: Birthright). When stranded in 1976, she fronted the punk rock band Plasticine, writing its songs and singing lead vocals. (NA: No Future)
She was captured and tortured by the Nazis in Guernsey in 1943. When they threatened to shave her scalp, it nearly broke her resolve and spirit. (NA: Just War)
Bernice met her future husband, Jason Kane, on the planet Moriel, but they didn't quite realise that they were attracted to each other until Shug pointed it out to them. According to Shug, Jason's bad childhood meant that he equated love with violence, and therefore only sought encounters (mainly sexual ones) with no emotional involvement. Benny, on the other hand, had given her absent father god-like attributes to which no person could measure up; and manoeuvred men into betraying her (re-enacting her father's perceived betrayal of her). They fell in love because they were both trying to sabotage their relationship. (NA: Death and Diplomacy)
Marriage and divorce
Benny married Jason in the village of Cheldon Bonniface, England, on 24th April 2010. It was attended by a host of guests from all space and time. (NA: Happy Endings)
Benny finally found her father, who had been pulled backwards through time and was running a bookshop/coffee shop/safe house for aliens and the temporally stranded, in Little Caldwell, England, in 1983. (NA: Return of the Living Dad) She believed herself to be about thirty-five at this time. Shortly after the adventure with her father--which interrupted her dissertational research--she finally completed her doctorate in archaeology.
Unfortunately, a rift soon developed between Benny and Jason, and the couple divorced. (NA: Eternity Weeps)
The St Oscar's Years : 2593 - 2599
Shortly after her divorce, Bernice received an invitation to take up the Edward Watkinson Chair of Archaeology at St. Oscar's University on the planet Dellah, at a time approximately 25 years in her own future. She accepted, and was transported to Dellah by the Doctor, who also gave her Wolsey. (NA: The Dying Days)
Whilst at St Oscar's, she met Irving Braxiatel, who was then head of St Oscar's theatre department. It appeared that this meeting was their first from Braxiatel's perspective, but subsequent to their earlier encounters from Bernice's. Later revelations regarding Braxiatel's long-term manipulation of Bernice (NA: The Dying Days, BFBS: The Wake) suggest he was either lying on this point or that he was continuing to receive and make use of information from his future selves (BFG: The Inquiry) as whether he had met her before or not, she was certainly known to him.
The Braxiatel Collection Years : 2599 - present
Bernice decided to take up Irving Braxiatel's offer to come to the Braxiatel Collection following Dellah's destruction/removal from normal space. (BNA: Twilight of the Gods) She became the newly-formed Collection's staff archaeologist; she takes up her post as the year 2600 is dawning, at which point she is still in her thirties (having regressed in age at one point in her travels). (BFBS:The Doomsday Manuscript)
Motherhood
Benny fell pregnant after an alien sorceress possessed her body and seduced Killoran Adrian Wall. (BFBS:The Squire's Crystal) The result was Peter Summerfield, a half-human half-Killoran child, who was born (via c-section, since he was too large to be delivered normally) on the planet Deirbhile while Benny was imprisoned there by the Fifth Axis. (BFBS:The Glass Prison) Benny was adamant that she raise her son by herself, as a single mother, despite Jason and Adrian both wanting to play a role.(BFBS:The Green-Eyed Monsters)
Personality and Quirks
Cultural Background
Though animal-derived foods are enjoyed by the wealthy as a decadent luxury (NA:Ship of Fools), most food is artificially created: vat-grown meat, for instance, is common. (BFBS: Missing Adventures:The Evacuation of Bernice Summerfield Considered as a Short Film By Terry Gilliam) Benny seems to view food that is derived from an actual animal with a vague distaste, and is a vegetarian (vat-grown animal products presumably excepted) for most of her travels. (NA:Ship of Fools)
Benny's society does not attach any particular stigma or shame to nudity (NA:Just War (audio drama)), and is apparently quite tolerant of cross-species mating--in contrast to some other contemporary societies, such as the Fifth Axis. (BFBS:Life During Wartime)
Beta Caprisis seems to have been a secular culture: celebrating, for example, a "midwinter festival" rather than Christmas. (BFBS:Missing Adventures:[[[The Evacuation of Bernice Summerfield Considered as a Short Film by Terry Gilliam|The Evacuation of...]]) Bernice herself is an atheist, and always has been. (NA:Oh No It Isn't!, Dry Pilgrimage)
Character Traits
Benny is intelligent and observant, with a (well-deserved) reputation for being able to think on her feet. (NA:Ship of Fools) Her intellectual gifts have less to do with straightforward logical intelligence (for instance, she does not enjoy logic puzzles (NA:The Infernal Nexus)) and more to do with seeing disparate parts of a problem and correctly inferring the connections between them--and therefore, the solution.
She tends to eschew the detached, purely analytical approach to academia (NA:Dragon's Wrath) in favour of reconstructing history from primary sources. That said, she doesn't particularly enjoy the tedious day-to-day grind of archaeological fieldwork--she prefers creature comforts. (NA:Missing Adventures)
Bernice's living quarters, wherever they may be, are perpetually disorganized. She has an organizer--a droid named Joseph--but rarely uses him except to reset her watch to the current local time. She is also habitually tardy (NA:Dragon's Wrath) and absent-minded, frequently mislaying her Braxiatel Collection identity card. (NA:The Dead Men Diaries)
Academic Career
Benny is an expert in Martian language and culture, particularly that of the Ice Warriors. It was her excavation, at age 24, of a Martian site that cemented her reputation as an archaeologist. (NA:The Dying Days, Transit, Legacy) She is also an expert on 20th century Earth history, especially the period she calls "the early Space Age" (1963-1989) (NA:The Dying Days), but admits that her knowledge is a bit hazy on Earth history before about 1900. (NA:Walking to Babylon)
Degrees
Benny sometimes claims (falsely) to have a degree from Heidelburg University.
- M.A. in Archaeology (university unknown) - awarded 2562 (BFBS: Genius Loci, Old Friends)
- Ph.D. in Archaeology (university unknown) - awarded 2587 (NA:Return of the Living Dad)
Impressive-sounding titles
Benny seems to enjoy inventing impressive-sounding titles to append to her name. Some common ones include
- F.R.A.S. - Fairly Rotten At Scrabble (NA:Human Nature (novel))
- F.G.A.S. - Fairly Good At Scrabble
- Holder of the Martian Gallantry Medal (she found it and felt she had earned it) (NA:Human Nature (novel))
Published Works
- Down Among the Dead Men (2566) (BNA: Oh No It Isn't!)
- Devil Gate Drive: The Influence of The Descent of Inanna on Twentieth Century Popular Culture (2594)
- A Practical Guide to Archaeology for Beginners (2594)
- An Eye for Wisdom: Repetitive poems of the Early Ikkaban Period (2595) (NA: Sleepy, Walking to Babylon)
- The Traxian Paradox: A New Perspective (unknown, but before 2600) (BFBS:The Dead Men Diaries:A Question of Identity)
- Dead Man Running (2600)
- Little Archeologists Primer: a story book (2605)
- The Doctor Who Makes Planet Calls (2606)
- 45 Second Piglet (Unknown)
- A comic book only commissioned as Bernice was passing through an American publishing house and had an English accent.
- The Collected Benny Summerfield (2617)
- Head Invaders (2619)
- Incredibly Bad Jokes of the Twentieth Century (Unknown)
Alternate timeline Also Bennys
Partly due to her involvement with the constantly paradox-beset Eighth Doctor (CP: Fishy Business) and partly due to Irving Braxiatel's attempts to edit her timeline for his own sinister purposes (BFBS:The End of the World) Bernice's personal history contains some ambiguity.
Both contradictory accounts of her visit to Guernsey (NA:Just War, BFBS:Just War) appear to have taken place (CP: Fishy Business, Iris Explains, BFBS: A Life of Surprises: Paydirt) and Bernice is able to recall them both (BFBS: A Life of Suprises: Dear Friend...).
Furthermore, a timeline exists in which Bernice married the Doctor in his eighth incarnation and bore him thirteen 'half-immortal' children (CP: Fishy Business, CP: Iris Explains, BFBS: A Life of Surprises: Paydirt).
In general though, Bernice's timeline is not fundamentally unknowable or non-linear such as Iris Wildthyme's, but has rather been repeatedly diverted from what it should have been. Bernice and Jason's divorce was never meant to occur and by the time of the Mim-Draconian War, itself an alteration to history, they should have had two children together.
- Braxiatel's reasons for altering her past have yet to be fully revealed.
Behind the Scenes
Paul Cornell created the personality and biography of Bernice Summerfield with assistance of the then-editor of the Virgin New Adventures range of novels, Peter Darvill-Evans, with artist Lee Sullivan "designing" her visually. Initially, Cornell had visualized her as resembling a short-haired version of actor Emma Thompson.
Bernice first appeared in the Virgin New Adventures series, heralded by an illustrated two page introduction in Doctor Who Magazine. Later, she crossed over into comics in Doctor Who Magazine. Since her creation, she had a a series of books of her own, and would later appeared in audio dramas and new novels and short fiction from Big Finish. If the unproduced special The Dark Dimension had come to pass, she would have appeared on television, though, so far, she has yet to do so. Lisa Bowerman acts as both Benny's voice in audio plays as well as having posed for publicity photos as Bernice.
In terms of continuity, early novels placed Bernice Summerfield as living in the 25th century when she first met the Doctor. Later books changed this to the 26th century, to better fit in with previous continuity established in the Doctor Who television story Frontier in Space, which took place in the year 2540.