Bernice Summerfield - Definition and Overview

Bernice Surprise Summerfield is a fictional character originally created by author Paul Cornell as a new "companion" of the Seventh Doctor in Virgin Publishing's range of original full-length Doctor Who novels, the New Adventures. The New Adventures were fully-licensed novels carrying on from where the Doctor Who television series had left off, and Summerfield was introduced in Cornell's novel Love and War in 1992.

Bernice Summerfield history

A 25th century archeologist, Summerfield became a hugely popular character amongst fans of the books, and was present right up until their end in 1997. She officially stopped travelling with the Doctor in Happy Endings but returned for the last Virgin New Adventure, The Dying Days. That year, Virgin had lost the licence to publish Doctor Who fiction, which was taken back by BBC Books. However, range editors Peter Darvill-Evans and Rebecca Levene decided to continue the series, without the Doctor Who name or the Doctor and any other BBC copyright characters featuring, with Summerfield as the new lead.

These Bernice-led New Adventures continued until 1999, when the Virgin fiction department closed down. The previous year, however, audio production company Big Finish Productions had begun issuing full-cast, officially licensed professional audio dramas starring the character on CD, and they continued to do so. The character is played in all Big Finish's productions by actress Lisa Bowerman. After they gained the license to produce Doctor Who audio dramas in 1999, Big Finish twice featured Bernice in Doctor Who stories set during the run of the New Adventures novels.

As of 2004, Big Finish are still regularly producing Bernice Summerfield audio dramas, and the company has also published various novels and short story collections featuring the character. They have also announced provisional plans to produce a straight-to-video film production based around her.

Bernice Summerfield books

Doctor Who - The New Adventures

• Love And War
• Transit
• The Highest Science
• The Pit
• Deceit
• Lucifer Rising
• White Darkness
• Shadowmind
• Birthright
• Blood Heat
• The Dimension Riders
• The Left-Handed Hummingbird
• Conundrum
• No Future
• Tragedy Day
• Legacy
• Theatre of War
• All-Consuming Fire
• Blood Harvest
• Strange England
• First Frontier
• St Anthony's Fire
• Falls the Shadow
• Parasite
• Warlock
• Set Piece
• Infinite Requiem
• Sanctuary
• Human Nature
• Original Sin
• Sky Pirates!
• Zamper
• Toy Soldiers
• Head Games
• The Also People
• Shakedown
• Just War
• Warchild
• SLEEPY
• Death and Diplomacy
• Happy Endings
• Eternity Weeps
• The Dying Days

The New Adventures

• Oh No It Isn't
• Dragon's Wrath
• Beyond the Sun
• Ship of Fools
• Down
• Deadfall
• Ghost Devices
• Mean Streets
• Tempest
• Walking to Babylon
• Oblivion
• The Medusa Effect
• Dry Pilgrimage
• The Sword of Forever
• Another Girl, Another Planet
• Beige Planet Mars
• Where Angels Fear
• The Mary Sue Extrusion
• Dead Romance
• Tears of the Oracle
• Return to the Fractured Planet
• The Joy Device
• Twilight of the Gods

Big Finish novels

• The Doomsday Manuscript
• The Gods of the Underworld
• The Squire's Crystal
• The Infernal Nexus
• The Glass Prison

Big Finish novellas

• The Big Hunt
• A Life in Pieces

Big Finish anthologies

• The Dead Men Diaries
• A Life of Surprises
• Life During Wartime
• A Life Worth Living

Bernice Summerfield audio plays

Season 1

• 1.1 - Oh No It Isn't
• 1.2 - Beyond the Sun
• 1.3 - Walking to Babylon
• 1.4 - Birthright
• 1.5 - Just War
• 1.6 - Dragon's Wrath

The first season of Bernice Summerfield audio plays are all adaptations of New Adventures novels originally published by Virgin Publishing. (Oh No It Isn't by Paul Cornell, Beyond the Sun by Matthew Jones, Walking to Babylon by Kate Orman, Birthright by Nigel Robinson, Just War by Lance Parkin and Dragon's Wrath by Justin Richards.) All six plays were adapted by Jacqueline Rayner. Each of the plays spans 2 CDs, except for Dragon's Wrath, which was issued on a single CD.

The plays deviate from the original novels, in terms of plot and characters, to varying degrees. This is particularly evident with the productions of Birthright and Just War, both of which were originally Doctor Who novels. These changes were necessary because, at the time of their production, Big Finish Productions weren't licensed to produce Doctor Who audio plays.

Actor and photographer Lisa Bowerman was cast in the role of Bernice Summerfield. Bowerman had previously appeared in Doctor Who story Survival (1989). The first series also co-starred Stephen Fewell as Jason Kane. A variety of actors familiar to Doctor Who fans played guest roles in many of the plays, including Colin Baker, Sophie Aldred, Nicholas Courtney, Elisabeth Sladen, Anneke Wills and Richard Franklin.

Season 2

• 2.1 - The Secret of Cassandra
• 2.2 - The Stone's Lament
• 2.3 - The Extinction Event
• 2.4 - The Skymines of Karthos

For the second season of Bernice Summerfield audio plays, Big Finish Productions experimented by developing ongoing character arcs that alternated between two different mediums -- the audio plays and novels. The experiment was largely successful, although fans who didn't collect the novels were initially confused to discover that Bernice Summerfield was pregnant during the final audio play of the season, The Skymines of Karthos. The pregnancy was explained in the novel The Squire's Crystal (by Jacqueline Rayner).

The run of plays from the second season onwards take part in what has become known as the Collection continuity. A number of regular characters are introduced for the first time, most notably Irving Braxiatel. First referenced in the 1979 Doctor Who story City of Death (written by Douglas Adams and Graham Williams), Braxiatel first appeared in person in the New Adventures novel Theatre of War.

Season 3

• 3.1 - The Greatest Shop in the Galaxy
• 3.2 - The Green-Eyed Monsters
• 3.3 - The Dance of the Dead
• 3.4 - The Mirror Effect

Season 4

• 4.1 - The Bellotron Incident
• 4.2 - The Draconian Rage
• 4.3 - The Poison Seas
• 4.4 - Death and the Daleks

Season 5

• 5.1 - The Grel Escape
• 5.2 - The Bone of Contention
• 5.3 - The Relics of Jegg-Sau
• 5.4 - Masquerade of Death

Miscellaneous

• Buried Treasures
• The Plague Herds of Excelis

See also

Doctor Who spin-offs

External link

Big Finish Productions (http://www.bigfinish.com)

• Travelled from: Love and War (novel) to Happy Endings (novel)