Bernice Summerfield was the first series produced by Big Finish Productions, combining both audio and prose releases in an ongoing narrative, with the titular character portrayed by Lisa Bowerman.
The series began in 1998 with audio adaptations of six Virgin New Adventures novels. After the first season's success, Big Finish began producing audio stories and prose stories simultaneously.
Initially, the ongoing narrative was spread evenly between the two media - for instance, Benny became pregnant in the novel Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Squire's Crystal and gave birth in the novel Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Glass Prison, with the audio stories making several minor references to her pregnancy. However, from the third series onward, the audio stories became the primary series, with novels and short story collections providing greater depth to the world and heavily expanding on the large cast of regular characters. Occasionally, however, prose stories would be integral to the overall narrative, such as the audio story Death and the Daleks continuing on directly from the anthology Life During Wartime, and the regular characters Hass and Doggles being introduced in the anthologies A Life Worth Living and Something Changed respectively. When Simon Guerrier took over as executive producer for Series 7, he made an effort to better combine the audio and prose stories, featuring hitherto prose-only characters in audio and incorporating prose-featured events, such as the death of semi-regular character Ms Jones in the anthology Parallel Lives, into the overall story arc.
Many characters created or established in the Virgin New Adventures, such as Jason Kane and Irving Braxiatel, made major appearances in this series, and several others, such as Wolsey, Isaac Summerfield and Kadiatu Lethbridge-Stewart, were featured in occasional stories. Additionally, links were made with Big Finish's Doctor Who content, such as the character of Bev Tarrant crossing over from the Main Range to become a regular character.
Several authors who wrote for Benny at Virgin also contributed to the line. Writers like Matt Jones, Paul Cornell, Justin Richards, Lance Parkin, Dave Stone, Ben Aaronovitch, Daniel O'Mahony, Lawrence Miles, Mark Clapham and Gary Russell had at least one story produced.
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.
The series concluded in 2013, but Benny received a new series the next year as The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield, where she was briefly reunited with the Seventh Doctor and Ace, before teaming up with an incarnation of the Doctor from an alternate universe. The release format continued to be annual boxsets, with occasional accompanying book releases under the Bernice Summerfield title. Following the passing of David Warner (who played the alternate Doctor) in 2022, the series returned in 2024 with Bernice on her own, in anthologies centred around the Eternity Club, an exclusive group of interplanetary explorers.
- Main article: Series 1 (BFBS)
Series 1 was a collection of audio adaptations of Virgin New Adventures novels.
- Main article: Series 2 (BFBS)
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.
| # |
Title |
Author |
Medium |
Featuring |
Published
|
|
|
Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Dead Men Diaries
|
Various
|
Short story anthology
|
Various
|
September 2000
|
|
|
Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Doomsday Manuscript
|
Justin Richards
|
Novel
|
Brax, Joseph, Adrian, Fifth Axis
|
November 2000
|
| 2.1
|
Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Secret of Cassandra
|
David Bailey
|
Audio
|
|
December 2000
|
|
|
Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Gods of the Underworld
|
Stephen Cole
|
Novel
|
Brax, Joseph
|
February 2001
|
|
|
Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Squire's Crystal
|
Jacqueline Rayner
|
Adrian, Joseph, Brax, Fenman
|
April 2001
|
| 2.2
|
Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Stone's Lament
|
Mike Tucker
|
Audio
|
Adrian
|
May 2001
|
| 2.3
|
Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Extinction Event
|
Lance Parkin
|
Brax
|
July 2001
|
|
|
Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Infernal Nexus
|
Dave Stone
|
Novel
|
Jason
|
August 2001
|
| 2.4
|
Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Skymines of Karthos
|
David Bailey
|
Audio
|
Brax
|
September 2001
|
|
|
Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Glass Prison
|
Jacqueline Rayner
|
Novel
|
Brax, Joseph, Jason, Adrian, Isaac, Peter, Fifth Axis, Fenman, Chris Cwej
|
January 2002
|
- Main article: Series 3 (BFBS)
- Main article: Series 4 (BFBS)
| # |
Title |
Author |
Medium |
Featuring |
Published
|
| 4.1
|
Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Bellotron Incident
|
Mike Tucker
|
Audio
|
Bev, Brax, Joseph, Rutans
|
April 2003
|
| 4.2
|
Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Draconian Rage
|
Trevor Baxendale
|
Brax, Draconians
|
August 2003
|
| 4.3
|
Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Poison Seas
|
David Bailey
|
Brax, Sea Devils
|
September 2003
|
|
|
Life During Wartime
|
Various
|
Short story anthology
|
Various
|
13 October 2003
|
| 4.4
|
Death and the Daleks
|
Paul Cornell
|
Audio
|
Brax, Jason, Adrian, Joseph, Bev, Isaac, Fifth Axis, Daleks
|
January 2004
|
- Main article: Series 5 (BFBS)
- Main article: Series 6 (BFBS)
Starting in series 6, the anthology releases began to alternate between collections of short stories and groupings of three novellas. This continued until series 9.
- Main article: Series 7 (BFBS)
- Main article: Series 8 (BFBS)
| # |
Title |
Author |
Medium |
Featuring |
Published
|
| 8.1
|
The Tub Full of Cats
|
Daniel O'Mahony
|
Audio
|
Maggie, Brax
|
February 2007
|
| 8.2
|
The Judas Gift
|
Nick Wallace
|
Bev, Adrian, Brax, Doggles, Joseph, Hass, the Mim, Draconians
|
April 2007
|
| 8.3
|
Freedom of Information
|
Eddie Robson
|
Adrian, Brax, Doggles, Joseph, Hass, Jason, Peter, the Mim, Draconians
|
June 2007
|
|
|
Nobody's Children
|
Various
|
Novella anthology
|
Various
|
3 August 2007
|
| 8.4
|
The End of the World
|
Dave Stone
|
Audio
|
Jason, Brax, Adrian, Mira
|
September 2007
|
|
|
The Two Jasons[6]
|
Dave Stone
|
Novel
|
Jason, Mira
|
May 2007
|
| 8.5
|
The Final Amendment
|
Joseph Lidster
|
Audio
|
Kadiatu, Jason
|
October 2007
|
|
|
Missing Adventures
|
Various
|
Short story anthology
|
Various
|
19 November 2007
|
| 8.6
|
The Wake
|
Simon Guerrier
|
Audio
|
Peter, Brax, Adrian, Bev, Doggles, Joseph, Hass
|
January 2008
|
- Main article: Series 9 (BFBS)
- Main article: Series 10 (BFBS)
- Main article: Series 11 (BFBS)
| # |
Title |
Author |
Medium |
Featuring |
Published
|
| SP
|
Dead and Buried
|
Eddie Robson
|
Video
|
Brax
|
1 September 2010
|
| 11.1
|
Resurrecting the Past
|
Audio
|
Peter, Brax, Bev, Adrian, Robyn, Doggles, Joseph, Hass
|
September 2010
|
|
|
Present Danger
|
Various
|
Short story anthology
|
Various
|
20 September 2010
|
| 11.2
|
Escaping the Future
|
Eddie Robson
|
Audio
|
Peter, Brax, Bev, Adrian, Doggles, Joseph, Hass
|
October 2010
|
| 11.3
|
Year Zero
|
Jonathan Clements
|
|
November 2010
|
| 11.4
|
Dead Man's Switch
|
John Dorney, Richard Dinnick
|
|
December 2010
|
- Main article: Epoch (audio anthology)
After series 11, Big Finish began to release new Bernice Summerfield audios in collected "boxsets" rather than spread out over months.
| # |
Title |
Author |
Medium |
Featuring |
Published
|
| 1
|
The Kraken's Lament
|
Mark Wright
|
Audio
|
Ruth, Acanthus, Jack
|
September 2011
|
| 2
|
The Temple of Questions
|
Jacqueline Rayner
|
Ruth, Leonidas, Jack, Heskith
|
| 3
|
Private Enemy No. 1
|
Tony Lee
|
Ruth, Leonidas, Heskith, the Epoch
|
| 4
|
Judgement Day
|
Scott Handcock
|
Ruth, Jack, the Epoch, Brax
|
- Main article: Road Trip (audio anthology)
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.
- Main article: Legion (audio anthology)
The audio story Many Happy Returns was released in November 2012 to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of Bernice Summerfield's introduction in Love and War. Its contributors included Xanna Eve Chown, Stephen Cole, Paul Cornell, Stephen Fewell, Simon Guerrier, Scott Handcock, Rebecca Levene, Jacqueline Rayner, Justin Richards, Miles Richardson, Eddie Robson, and Dave Stone. A portion of the proceeds went to the myalgic encephalomyelitis charity "Invest in M.E."
| Title |
Author |
Medium |
Featuring |
Published
|
| Many Happy Returns |
Various |
Audio |
Joseph, Brax, Adrian, Bev,
Peter, Ruth, Jack, Leonidas, Iris, Panda, The Doctor
|
November 2012
|
- Main article: New Frontiers (audio anthology)
- Main article: Missing Persons (audio anthology)
- Main article: The Story So Far
To celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the Bernice Summerfield series in 2018, Big Finish released several boxsets in the Bernice Summerfield range, including Treasury, a collection of narrated Bernice Summerfield short stories narrated by Lisa Bowerman and Andrew Cartmel; and The Story So Far: Volume One and Volume Two, a collection of six new audio stories set throughout Bernice's life.
The Bernice Summerfield range occasionally crossed over with other ranges:
- ↑ The Dance of the Dead follows directly from The Plague Herds of Excelis.
- ↑ The events Benny recounts in this story take place before The Lost Museum. However the framing narrative takes place sometime after The Crystal of Cantus. Despite being published before it, the anthology Parallel Lives follows from Benny's trip to Etheria recounted in The Goddess Quandary.
- ↑ The main events of this story take place immediately after The Lost Museum. However the framing narrative takes place after the framing narratives for both Death and the Daleks and The Goddess Quandary.
- ↑ Genius Loci is set not during series 6 or 7 but during Benny's earlier life.
- ↑ The short story Mother's Ruin is set a few weeks after Summer of Love.
- ↑ This story tales place contemporaneously with The End of the World and The Final Amendment.
- ↑ Though this anthology was published between The Diet of Worms and Glory Days, there is no gap between those two stories.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 This tie-in novel is set between stories in the accompanying boxset.
- ↑ This novel leads into HMS Surprise.
- ↑ This novel is set before Missing Persons despite being published later.
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