Venus Mantrap (audio story)
Venus Mantrap was the forty-seventh Bernice Summerfield audio story released by Big Finish Productions. It was the third story of the tenth season.
Publisher's summary[[edit] | [edit source]]
Eros, artificial moon of Venus, has a reputation for romance, but Professor Bernice Summerfield is just visiting for the money – specifically the secret royalties of her recently deceased partner, the famous "novelist" Jason Kane. Jason entrusted control of the inheritance to Bernice's rival in love and academia, acerbic alien rodent Professor Scoblow, and Bernice is prepared for a fight.
Unfortunately for Bernice, the path of finance rarely runs smoothly and disgruntled hamsters are the least of her problems: Eros's twin moon, the warlike Thanatos, is moving into alignment, Erosian society is in turmoil, war rockets are due for launch, and worst of all the banks are closed until further notice.
To get her hands on Jason's money, Bernice must ally herself with Scoblow to bring peace to Eros and Thanatos through a dangerous combination of espionage and dating, at terrible risk to both life and dignity.
And if that wasn't bad enough, a force as inevitable as death is waiting to strike...
Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]
Benny arrives on the artificial planet Eros from the orbital spaceport and has to explain to tourist Mr Felterby that she is not the same Bernice Summerfield who serves as President of Earth, something she seeks to avoid having to do again by donning a pair of sunglasses. After giving Adrian and Peter a call to let them know that she has arrived, she visits old acquaintance Professor Scoblow, Jason's editor, at the Eros Scientific Relationship Consultancy to ask her to surrender her position as co-signatory of Jason's bank account containing the royalties from his books. Scoblow agrees, which surprises Benny, and they head to the bank to sort things, only to find that relations between Eros and Venus have broken down and all financial transfers have been frozen. According to rumour, Thanatos will attack Eros with war rockets when it enters alignment.
Benny and Scoblow return to the Scientific Relationship Consultancy. There, Scoblow tells Benny about the Venusian ambassador N'Jok Barnes and Benny decides to steal the security codes for the Thanatosian armouries from his hotel room whilst he is on a date with Caspel, a Love Drone, and thus prevent war. However, the Love Drones join the riots which have begun across Eros, so Benny is forced to pose as one, using the alias "Jenny Wintermeadow". She is initially hesitant, but finds herself sexually attracted to N'Jok and goes with him upstairs after an attempted bombing of the hotel. She fails to get N'Jok to have sex with her in the lift or jacuzzi to keep him away from his room and they find Scoblow and Vice Chancellor Twisk inside, Scoblow having found a negative hyperspace signaller and a series of plans in the safe before Twisk entered.
Admitting to being human, Benny has everybody turn around so that she can puts her underwear back on and slips out of the room with everything from N'Jok's safe. N'Jok informs the police and Twisk, with whom he is working to stage a conflict and bring about peace, leaves to give a speech to the masses, but Benny replaces his speech with an excerpt from Jason's unpublished pornographic book, Barely Humanoid, humiliating him. She then poses as President Summerfield and delivers the speech that N'Jok wrote for Twisk, after which N'Jok explains that he wanted to be remembered for bringing peace and that Twisk wanted to become Chancellor. Benny rejects him due it being too soon after Jason's death and she and Scoblow visit the bank where she empties Jason's account and gives Scoblow 10% as promised.
Scoblow declines to join Benny in celebrating and insists that she leave Eros as soon as possible. At the spaceport, Benny sees Mr Felterby again and learns that he is with the Transgalactic Taxes and Duties Division of the Outland Revenue, sent by the Xlanthi to collect various taxes which Jason had failed to pay. Benny reluctantly makes the payment rather than wait six months on the Ice Moon of Flisp for an appeal. Following an explosion, she learns that President Summerfield's corpse was flown to Eros from Earth and gets a call from Adrian informing her that Peter has been kidnapped and taken to Earth by a Mr Frost. Benny tells Adrian that, should Mr Frost contact him again, he should warn him that she is on her way.
Cast[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Bernice Summerfield - Lisa Bowerman
- Professor Megali Scoblow - Jo Castleton
- Vice Chancellor Safton Twisk - Ian Brooker
- N'Jok Barnes / Newsreader - Luke Sorba
- Felterby / Tannoy / Journo #1 / Lift Voice - Sean Connolly
- Guard / Journo #2 - Alex Mallinson
Uncredited cast[[edit] | [edit source]]
Crew[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Cover Art - Adrian Salmon
- Director - John Ainsworth
- Executive Producers - John Ainsworth and Jason Haigh-Ellery
- Music and Sound Design - Thea Cochrane
- Producer - Eddie Robson
- Writers - Mark Clapham and Lance Parkin
- Line Producer - David Richardson
Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Eros and Thanatos are twin artificial planets near Venus.
- Peter is working on a logic game from Braxiatel's hard drive.
- Benny uses a vidphone.
- Adrian and Peter are in Dallas and due to visit Mexico.
- Scoblow wears Harris tweed.
- Barely Humanoid is an unpublished Jason Kane book.
- The Velvet Mandible published Jason's works.
- Jason's bank account is with Galcred.
- Caspel is a Love Drone of Quinn.
- N'Jok stays at the Helion Hotel.
- Benny likens Scoblow's business to a whorehouse.
- Benny stole an electronic lockpick from Bev.
- President Summerfield has disappeared in Brazil.
- Christmas is Scoblow's lawyer.
- Robophilia is the sexual attraction to robots.
- The penalty for possessing an electronic lockpick is five years on the Lunar Penal Colony.
- Benny and Scoblow would have to wait six months on the Ice Moon of Flisp if they sought to fight the Xlanthi over Jason's money.
Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]
- This audio drama was recorded on 19 December 2008.
- The book in which Megali Scoblow was introduced, Beige Planet Mars, was also co-written by Lance Parkin and Mark Clapham.
- A download version of this story was released on 23 May 2022.[1]
Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Scoblow first appeared in PROSE: Beige Planet Mars.
- Many mentions are made of the Benny clone (now President of Earth) from AUDIO: The Final Amendment.
Footnotes[[edit] | [edit source]]
External links[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Official Venus Mantrap page at bigfinish.com
- Venus Mantrap at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
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