The series began in 1998 with audio adaptations of six Virgin New Adventures novels. After this first season's success, Big Finish began producing audio stories and prose stories simultaneously. These were initially released alternately so that both the audio and the prose made up one continuous series, with some of the wider arc stories only being featured and explained in detail in one medium. For example, Bernice's pregnancy began and ended in the novels The Gods of the Underworld and The Glass Prison, but the audio stories made several minor references to her pregnancy. However, this practice ceased after the third series.
Many characters created or established in the Virgin New Adventures, such as Jason Kane and Irving Braxiatel, made major appearances in this series. Most of the stories cover Bernice's life following her departure from travelling with the Doctor. However, several prose releases have featured stories that portrayed Bernice's life long before she met the Doctor.
Beginning with series 2, Big Finish began to release original audio stories about Bernice Summerfield. They also began to publish short story anthologies that continued ongoing plotlines from the audios.
Staring in series 6, the anthology releases began to alternate between collections of short stories and groupings of three novellas. This continued until series 9.
Road Trip began the pattern that would last until the series' penultimate release, where the boxset would include three audio stories and be accompanied by a tie-in novel.
In 2014, the Bernice Summerfield audio series continued as The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield, now with the Doctor Who license and featuring the Doctor. The release format continued to be annual boxsets, with occasional accompanying book releases under the Bernice Summerfield title.
Crossovers
The Bernice Summerfield range occasionally crossed over with other ranges. For instance, The Plague Herds of Excelis was branded as a Bernice Summerfield story but published not in the Bernice Summerfield range but in the Excelis Saga. Similarly, Bernice Summerfield starred in The Phantom Wreck from The Worlds of Big Finish, a boxset which also featured characters from Big Finish's Graceless, Iris Wildthyme, Vienna, Sherlock Holmes, and Dorian Gray ranges.