The Wake was the fortieth Bernice Summerfield audio story released by Big Finish Productions. It was the sixth and final story of the eighth season.
Publisher's summary
"What else could you have done?"
"Taken more note of the warnings, I guess. We saw a future Peter once, and he'd become a killer. Ms Jones told me I was doing a lousy job as a mother, and when I didn't listen she stole him from me. Then there was how he was on Montevadros. Even the Oracle of flipping Delphi warned me to be on the look out. And if I'd spent less time knocking about with monsters and magic artefacts, and more time here with him...
This is where you're meant to tell me that I mustn't blame myself."
"You mustn't blame yourself."
"Yeah thanks. I feel so much better now."
Plot
Following Jason's funeral, Benny tries to investigate the circumstances surrounding his death at Peter's hands whilst the Collection becomes increasingly popular thanks to the public's belief that Braxiatel has resumed control. Hass tells her that he allowed Peter inside his encounter suit to survive temporal anomalies and later to fly around his pocket dimension in a pressure suit, which he believes might have contributed to him killing Jason. Benny blames herself as well for not acting after seeing a violent future Peter and for ignoring Ms Jones's concerns about her parenting.
Braxiatel makes himself popular with the students and offers his services as a figurehead for the Collection, claiming that wants no actual power, but Benny does not believe him. Adrian rejects her when she initiates sex with him in an attempt to make herself feel better and she agrees to go to dinner with Doggles after robots attack as part of a plan to work out who has the skills to defend against invasion. Although Benny assumes that Braxiatel is responsible for the drill, Doggles claims responsibility. Adrian looks after Peter and speaks with Joseph, admitting that he feels that his own animosity towards Jason might have led to Peter killing him.
Doggles defends Braxiatel's past actions at dinner and, when Benny changes the subject away from matters concerning Jason, he confides in her that he remembers being killed by the Fifth Axis and that he feels like he is being used as a puppet. He lets slip whilst walking her home that Braxiatel suggested that he seduce her, which angers her, and she pays another visit to Hass to confirm her suspicion that Braxiatel got him to wipe out the Mim. He confesses that he was responsible for the destruction of the Mimsphere and not the Draconians, knowing that it was wrong but having been manipulated by Braxiatel into doing it.
to be completed
Cast
- Bernice Summerfield - Lisa Bowerman
- Bodie - Rex Duis
- Peter Summerfield - Thomas Grant
- Adrian Wall - Harry Myers
- Braxiatel - Miles Richardson
- Doggles - Sam Stevens
- Joseph - Steven Wickham
- Hass - Paul Wolfe
Uncredited cast
Worldbuilding
- Benny says Irving Braxiatel was waiting after the business with Dellah.
- Adrian carves Jason's gravestone.
- A dance version of "Abide with Me" was traditional in Jason's time.
- Joseph has no like finding Mira.
- Peter likes fish fingers.
- Adrian and Bodie are building a new accommodation block with improved plumbing for the students.
- Benny and Braxiatel discuss Napoléon Bonaparte.
- On Hatch's Beard, Benny was sentenced to be hanged for splitting an infinitive. Jason saved her by spreading honey beneath the death squad's corsets, causing their laser nipples to malfunction.
- Doggles remembers being killed by the Fifth Axis.
- Benny wears mascara.
- The Collection is run by the Provisional Diet.
Notes
to be added
Continuity
- Benny recounts her first meeting with Irving Braxiatel. (PROSE: Theatre of War)
- A scene from her wedding is reproduced practically word for word from PROSE: Happy Endings.
- A scene from PROSE: Tears of the Oracle is also reproduced.
- Braxiatel hangs up the picture seen on the cover of PROSE: A Life Worth Living — now missing Ms Jones.
- Hass says that PROSE: Let There Be Stars happened while Benny was on the Drome. (AUDIO: The Worst Thing in the World)
- Benny refers to having seen a grown up and violent Peter (which was the result of a temporal manipulation). (AUDIO: The Grel Escape)
- Doggles mentions he and Benny nearly had sex. (AUDIO: Summer of Love)
- Doggles asks about the clones of Jason. (AUDIO: The Final Amendment, PROSE: Sex Secrets of the Robot Replicants)
- Doggles tortures Adrian using some equipment taken from the Viyrans. (AUDIO: Mission of the Viyrans et al)
- Braxiatel mentions the cave were Avril Fenman resides on the collection. (PROSE: The Squire's Crystal, The Glass Prison, Acts of Senseless Devotion)
- At the wake, Adrian mentions what he did in the Fifth Axis occupation including finding a safe place for the hybrid children (PROSE: Suffer the Children) and the resistance. (AUDIO: Death and the Daleks)
External links
- Official The Wake page at bigfinish.com
- The Wake at the Doctor Who Reference Guide