Beyond the Sun was the second Bernice Summerfield audio drama produced by Big Finish Productions. This was the first audio to feature Jason Kane, voiced by Stephen Fewell. This audio story also featured two former Doctor Who television actors: Sophie Aldred and Anneke Wills.
Adapted from the novel of the same name by its author Matt Jones, this is the only Bernice Summerfield audio story of the first season not to be adapted by Jacqueline Rayner.
Publisher's summary
"You're on your own, Bernice"
Bernice Summerfield has drawn the short straw. Not for her the pleasures of intergalactic conferences and highbrow lecture tours. Oh no. She's forced to take two overlooked freshers on their very first dig. And just when it seems things can't get any worse, her no-good ex-husband Jason turns up, claiming that he is in deadly danger. Benny finally begins to believe his wild claims, but unfortunately only after he has been kidnapped from his hotel room.
Feeling guilty, she sets out to rescue him. Well, let's face it, no one else is going to. Her only clue is a dusty artefact that Jason claimed was part of an ancient and powerful weapon. But Professor Bernice Summerfield PhD knows that's just silly nonsense. She's been an archaeologist long enough to know that lost alien civilisations do not leave their most powerful weapons lying around for any nutter to find. Do they?
Once again Benny is all that stands between Jason and his own mistakes, as she tries to prevent the wrong people acquiring this terrible and somewhat unlikely weapon — a weapon rumoured to have powers beyond the sun.
Plot
Part one
Benny is digging for Chelonian artefacts on Apollox 4 with two students, Emile and Tameka, when she is approached by Jason for the first time in months and goes to dinner with him. He hands her a crystal figurine to look after, having been told that it is the key to a weapon, and they have sex in Jason's hotel room. In the morning, Jason is apparently kidnapped whilst Benny is in the shower and she is arrested on suspicion of assisting him in smuggling artefacts and attempting to cover for him, but she is exonerated when they find no stolen data in the figurine.
Having learnt of an arms-dealing accomplice of Jason's from Ursu and that the figurine might originate from there, Benny heads to the planet with Emile and Tameka to do an orbital sweep before returning to St Oscar's. However, the spaceship is shot and Benny puts Emile and Tameka in an escape pod before the ship crashes with her and Jones, the pilot, still on board. Jones is killed by the Sunless and Benny reaches an Ursulan village where Emile and Tameka are being cared for by Scott, who recognises the figurine as the type used in the Ursulan Blooms.
In the morning, Scott takes Benny, Emile and Tameka head to the city to meet Kitzinger, an expert on the Blooms. They stay at Leon's home and, alone at Leon's, Scott tells Emile about how he lives by a code of freedom and asks him if he would like to have sex, which he declines. Benny, Tameka and Leon visit Kitzinger at the hospital and, when she calls for security, Tameka knocks her out and they take her to Leon's. When she wakes up, she explains that the Sunless, from whose planet the Blooms were taken, have retaken the Blooms and must not get the figurine.
Scott tells Tameka how he was born from a Bloom but was one of nine siblings rather than the usual eight, with Miranda being an anomaly. He shows her a photograph of her and she recognises her as Jason's accomplice.
Part two
At a party, Miranda tells Benny that she worked with Jason to locate weapons stolen from the Sunless homeworld and negotiate their return until he left her because of his conscience. She claims not to know about the figurine, but she makes a call which leads to twenty Sunless appearing with guns. Benny, Emile and Tameka escape in an armoured vehicle and return to Leon's apartment where they find evidence of a fight and Leon, Scott and Kitzinger missing. The Sunless arrest them and take them to Kitzinger's scout ship.
Kitzinger takes the figurine, which she calls "the Visionary", and orders the execution of Emile and Tameka. Leon, who has been working for the Sunless, saves them and is locked up with the three of them as the ship travels to the Sunless homeworld. Upon arriving, they are moved to a cell in a crystalline building where Jason has been imprisoned and manage to escape, finding Scott and Kitzinger nearby. They incapacitate a Sunless and, putting on a uniform, shaving her head and putting on make-up, Tameka impersonates one and steals the Visionary, giving it to Benny, but Miranda threatens to kill Jason unless Benny hands it over.
Benny gives the Visionary back to Miranda, who uses it to try to activate a Sunless weapon. However, Benny reveals that the figurine is actually only a representation of the Visionary and that the Visionary is Miranda herself; she is not an Ursulan and has been following a biological imperative to activate the device and will have to sacrifice herself to do so. Tameka drops her into the hole opened by the figurine and the dead sun is renewed, confirming that the device was not a weapon but a tool to restore the planet.
Heading back to Ursu, Tameka finds out that she is pregnant with Scott's child and Scott asks Emile to stay with him, but Emile plans to return to his father. Benny declines Jason's offer of a drink or dinner, but allows him to read the code of ethics that she wrote per Ursulan custom: "Bernice Summerfield is a human being. And as such she is all too capable of being cruel and cowardly. And yet, while she is often caught up in violent events, she endeavours to remain a woman of peace."
Cast
References
Notes
- Stephen Fewell was recommended for the role of Jason Kane by Lisa Bowerman.[1]
- Ursulans are named by Matt Jones after Ursula K. Le Guin.[1]
- This is the directorial debut of Gary Russell for Big Finish Productions.
- The image of Bernice Summerfield on the original cover is drawn by Lee Sullivan to accompany Paul Cornell's interview about the character in Doctor Who Magazine. A later cover replaced it with Paul Vyse's "Professor Bernice Summerfield" logo.
- The 2nd edition CD booklet featured photos of Sophie Aldred, Lisa Bowerman, Stephen Fewell and Anneke Wills
- This audio story was recorded on 6 and 7 August 1998 at Crosstown Studios in London.
Production errors
- Kitzinger was misspelt as "Katzinger" and Tameka Vito as "Tamiko Vito" in the CD booklet.
Cover gallery
CD cover with Lee Sullivan's Benny, additionally mentioning the author Matt Jones
CD cover with Paul Vyse's series logo, with Stephen Fewell as an added star
Cover of the original novel
Continuity
- Tameka and Benny talk about Sakkrat. (AUDIO The Highest Science)
External links
- Official Beyond the Sun page at bigfinish.com
- Beyond the Sun at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
- Database entry of Beyond the Sun in MusicBrainz