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Just War was the fifth Bernice Summerfield audio drama produced by Big Finish Productions. It was the third in a trilogy of stories known as the "Time Ring Trilogy" whose arc element was the use of Bernice Summerfield and Jason Kane's wedding time rings, given to them when they were married in Happy Endings.
Like Birthright, this was adapted from a Virgin New Adventures novel, rather than from a Virgin Bernice Summerfield New Adventures, which featured Bernice without the Doctor. The original novel Just War featured the Seventh Doctor, Bernice Summerfield, Chris Cwej and Roz Forrester. For this audio adaptation Bernice's role remains intact, whilst Jason Kane takes on a combination of the other characters' roles in the plot.
Continuing the pattern from the previous stories, the photos of Lisa Bowerman and Stephen Fewell are featured on the original audio cover.
Publisher's summary
The Time Trilogy: Part 3
"Tomorrow belongs to us, not you. If you were really from the future, Miss Summerfield, you would be a Nazi."
The Nazis occupy British soil and British citizens are being deported to European concentration camps. Those who do not co-operate with the Germans are shot.
This isn't a parallel universe: this is Guernsey, 1941, and it's where Bernice is stranded. With no sign of Jason, she has to endure the full horror of the situation, alone and afraid.
And something, somewhere has gone wrong. The Nazis are building a secret weapon, one that will have a decisive effect on the outcome of the war - and it's up to Benny to put history back on course...
Plot
Part one
Jason has arrived in Guernsey in 1936 and drinks with Emil Hartung, telling him about his and Benny's adventures and briefly mentioning radar, before realising that he is a Nazi. With no sign of his ex-wife, he joins the Scientific Intelligence Division and, whilst in London in 1941, learns that Hartung is a Nazi scientist and has returned to Guernsey. He takes a special interest in the goings-on there, beginning to wonder if Benny is there too.
Benny is living in Guernsey with Ma Doras, posing as her daughter, Celia, and working as a cleaner at the hotel whilst waiting for a sign of Jason. She becomes concerned that her colleague Marie, who is believed to be a collaborator, suspects that she is an impostor and wonders if something strange is happening at the airstrip, leading her to go for a walk with Private Gerhard Flur to investigate. They bump into Private Franz Hutter and, when an aircraft crashes nearby, Benny returns home and plans to examine the wreckage the next day to find out if it is alien.
Benny is caught looking at the aircraft, which is years ahead of where Earth technology ought to be, and is forced to shoot and kill Gerhard when he recognises her as Celia and could cause trouble for Ma Doras. As a consequence of Gerhard's death, Wolff cuts rations and has six civilians executed, promising a substantial reward for information on the killer. Somebody slips a note to Benny purporting to be from a resistance group, offering her passage to Britain, and surrenders to Wolff when she sees him snapping Marie's neck upon confirming that she was a spy. Wolff threatens to have Nurse Rosa Kitzel shave Benny's head until she confesses to kill Gerhard, although, seeking to keep Ma Doras safe, she cannot explain how she knows his name.
Learning of Gerhard's death at the hands of a woman, Jason suspects that it is Benny and smuggles himself into Guernsey, but he is almost immediately captured and brought before Oberst Oskar Steinmann. Meanwhile, Wolff beats Benny and breaks her hand, which Kitzel bandages. Benny begs for her not to leave her.
Part two
Steinmann visits Benny, whom Wolff has been torturing without asking any actual questions, and has Kitzel move her to a cell with a bed and provide her with a light meal, admonishing Wolff for his actions. He takes over interrogation upon realising her connection to Jason and has Kitzel give her a relaxant which loosens her tongue and makes her talk about being an archaeologist from the future. She tells him that fascism will soon disappear, but he is certain that Nazis will go out into the stars and continues to interrogate her until she temporarily believes that she is Celia Doras.
Steinmann has Jason look at designs of a new German aeroplane and, in his absence, Benny uses a butter knife to threaten Kitzel into taking her to the morgue to make sure that neither of the bodies there are Jason's. She confirms that this is not the case, takes the chronokinetiscope from the charred body of Hartung and puts on Kitzel's uniform before locking her in a drawer and goes to rescue Jason. Steinmann recognises her and takes her and Jason to see the new plane, a stealth bomber far ahead of its time and made of the same substance as the chronokinetiscope. Based on the timeline of the bomber's creation, Benny deduces that Jason let something slip to a Nazi and he remembers telling his story to Hartung in 1936.
When Steinmann attempts to shoot Benny and Jason with a gun confiscated from Benny, he finds that it is empty and is overpowered and tied up. She refuses to leave using the Time Rings so long as the anachronistic plane is in 1941; she and Jason steal it and fly to England, updating one another on what they have been up to since their respective arrivals. Remembering the plans he looked at, Jason realises that the plane's reserve fuel tank might cause it to explode and pumps fuel into it from the main tank, removing the oxygen and preventing any fire. Benny decides that they have to return to Guernsey to destroy the plane and ensure that neither the Nazis nor the Allies get a hold of it.
Steinmann reads Benny's diary and reads her account of the end of the war and how he will be tried for war crimes at the Nuremberg Trials. He shoots Franz to keep the diary secret. When Benny and Jason return to Guernsey, Jason disarms Wolff and sends Benny to set the plane to explode, shooting Wolff when he taunts him about Benny crying during her torture. She does not approve, but he is unrepentant and refuses to ever allow anybody to hurt her again. He holds her and they use their Time Rings to return to St Oscar's as the plane is destroyed.
Benny remains in her rooms and eventually lets Jason in, but she declines his invitation of a drink at the Witch and Whirlwind and does not wish to discuss the possibility of their relationship being rekindled. She asks him to leave her alone with Wolsey so she can write up her diary, in which she records how she is terrified at Jason having killed for her. She decides not to use her Time Ring again and recognises that she does still love Jason, who promises to be there when she wants to talk.
Cast
Worldbuilding
- Jason mentions radar.
- Jason's grandfather died in World War II. He wonders whether his father would have beaten his children if his father had been alive.
- Marie Simmonds works at the hotel. She sleeps with Hauptsturmführer Rosner.
- Jason says that being called "Captain Kane" makes him sound like a Marvel Comics character.
- Jason reads a file on Hartung containing facts about Hartung:
- He was born 26 June 1898.
- His father was a dentist and his mother the daughter of a prominent industrialist.
- He served in the Luftwaffe in France during World War I and went on the Heidelberg.
- He worked on the design teams of all the major German car companies.
- He was a famous racing driver from the late 1920s until 1936.
- He is an expert on aerodynamics, physics, mathematics, rocketry, metallurgy and radio waves.
- Jason likens the code as a cross between a French exercise and The Two Ronnies.
- Jason claims to be from Canada.
- Benny says that Tameka is looking after Wolsey.
- Wolff is a sadist.
- Franz mentions Gerhard's mother and sister.
- Benny mentions the hyperdrive.
- Benny mentions the butterfly effect.
- Ma Doras is John Lafayette's cousin. He told her about Benny.
- Steinmann reads Benny's diary and learns of the events of 1945:
- On 9 May, Field Marshal Keitel and Marshal Zhukov sign Germany's unconditional surrender.
- On 23 April, Russians arrive on the outskirts of Berlin.
- On 28 April, Mussolini is executed.
- On 30 April, Adolf Hitler commits suicide.
- Steinmann is to be tried at the Nuremberg Trials.
Notes
- This is the final audio in the "Time Ring Trilogy", comprised of Walking to Babylon, Birthright and Just War. To emphasise this fact, their covers feature a ring motif.
- Later stories in the Bernice Summerfield series—Paydirt and Dear Friend—reference both the events of the original novel Just War featuring the Seventh Doctor, and this Doctor-less audio Just War as having occurred to Benny.
- The director of the audio is either:
- Gary Russell according to the CD and the Big Finish website
- Nicholas Briggs according to The Big Finish Companion: Volume 1.
- Gary Russell originally planned Wendy Padbury, who played the Second Doctor companion Zoe Heriot, for the role of Ma Doras. Instead the role went to Maggie Stables, who later was cast as Evelyn Smythe, the first original Big Finish companion.[1]
- This was the first Bernice Summerfield production recorded after Big Finish had been awarded the Doctor Who licence by the BBC.[1]
- The author of the novel Lance Parkin bought back the rights to his novel from Virgin Books, making negotiations more complex than for other adaptations.[1]
- The German military rank "Standardtenfuhrer" in the credits is misspelled. The correct spelling is Standartenführer.
- The story was recorded on 13 and 14 March 1999 at Crosstown Studios, London. However, the first studio session on 13 March failed to record and had to be retaken on 14 March.[1]
- This story was originally released on CD and cassette. On 31 August 2020, it was made available as a download for the first time.
- Like in Walking to Babylon, Jason quotes The Germans, an episode of Fawlty Towers; when Steinmann denies that he "started it", Jason says, "Yes, you did. You invaded Poland."
Cover gallery
Cover with actors' photos and the release number, additionally mentioning the author Lance Parkin
Cover with Paul Vyse's series logo
Cover of the original novel
Continuity
- Jason says that he knew an Emile once. (PROSE: Beyond the Sun / AUDIO: Beyond the Sun)
- Jason mentions travelling to Babylon (AUDIO: Walking to Babylon) and defeating insects in 1909. (AUDIO: Birthright)
- Jason mentions Ninan. (AUDIO: Walking to Babylon)
- Jason was vouched for by Mikhail Vladimir Popov. (AUDIO: Birthright)
- Jason remembers the ship that he was flying when he first met Benny. (PROSE: Death and Diplomacy)
- Benny remembers her feelings for Michael Doran (PROSE: Oh No It Isn't! / AUDIO: Oh No It Isn't!) and John Lafayette. (PROSE: Walking to Babylon / AUDIO: Walking to Babylon)
- Benny finds her Ursulan necklace. (PROSE: Beyond the Sun / AUDIO: Beyond the Sun)
External links
- Official Just War page at bigfinish.com
- Just War at the Doctor Who Reference Guide