vivdunstan

Continuing my Benny audio listen, and taking a slight detour from the official Big Finish Benny audio season 3, to listen to another story slotting into the middle of season 3. So I'm in the right chronological order, but listening to a Benny story that was released separately from the others.

This story is the fourth in a series of linked Excelis Saga Doctor Who stories from Big Finish, set on a mysterious world, featuring the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Doctors. All 4 stories, as well as a separate music suite, are available together in a collected download bundle.

The earlier Excelis stories with the various Doctors are worth listening to. Guest star Anthony Head is particularly strong. But this 4th story is separate, and can be listened to on its own. Benny has arrived accidentally at Excelis, where she finds a decaying empire, and learns of a mysterious artefact "The Relic". And meets enigmatic time traveller Iris Wildthyme. Iris is another spin-off character from the Doctor Who books published in the Wilderness Years of 1989-2005. She is well acted by Katy Manning, and always worth listening to.

This story itself is a mixed bag. On plus, the scenes with Benny and Iris - usually together, but sometimes apart - are great value. However far too much of the rest of the script involves mega info dumps. So much for the "show don't tell" school of writing. To be fair it had material to recap from the earlier stories. But that could have been handled better, rewritten, or trimmed. It's a shame, because the core scifi idea that the story spins around is strong. And the pairing of Benny and Iris is dynamite. But the whole package needed to be presented in a different way.

I'm glad I listened to it again though. But I'm more critical this time around of the writing.

Best quote: "A handbag!"

Bernice Summerfield ("Benny") was introduced as a companion of the Seventh Doctor in the Virgin New Adventures Doctor Who novels in 1992. Which I totally missed, falling away from Who fandom completely between 1989 and 2003. I even missed the 1996 Paul McGann TV movie, not even knowing that it was happening!

Big Finish started making audio adventures starring Benny in 1998, with her played by Lisa Bowerman. These audios primarily explored her life as the archaeologist working for the Braxiatel Collection. Which also built up an ensemble group around her. 11 series of audios were made between 1998 and 2010, though things were complicated by character and plot developments being split between the audios and books that were being published by Big Finish at the same time. I have read some of these books, and have listened to some of the audios. But still have to go through it all properly, or at least as much of it as I can. I do have quite a lot of the Big Finish books in hand still waiting to read.

After this Big Finish issued a number of audios relocating Benny to another setting, with a totally different ensemble set of characters. I didn't enjoy these, so gave up on them quickly. But I did like what followed, a series of "The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield" audio boxsets pairing Benny with the Seventh Doctor again, and then with an alternative universe version of the Doctor, the "Unbound Doctor", played by David Warner. I really like the Benny and David Warner audios, though have only listened to some of them so far. These continued until David Warner's sad passing in 2022. And there are also some different audios featuring this pairing out this summer.

The more complete approach to listening to the Benny audios would be to go back to the first one in 1998, "Oh No It Isn't!". But for preference reasons I'm going to the start of season 3, which I started listening from a while back, enjoyed a lot, and am keen to resume from. At this point Benny is working for the Braxiatel Collection, and has a baby son Peter.

First up is "The Greatest Shop in the Galaxy", which is a laugh out loud mix of timey wimey stuff, encountering other species, and blatant consumerism. Oh and a small spherical robot assistant, called Joseph, who constantly goes "Boing!". I like this one a lot.

Current listening. I love this pairing, of Bernice Summerfield and the Unbound Doctor. Though the backwards storytelling in this story isn't a great fit for me. It's the first in a trilogy, with James Marsters' Captain John (from Torchwood) and Derek Jacobi's Master to look forward to in the next episode. Which is already newly out. But I have to listen to this first one first!

I'm also planning to resume my paused listen through of all the early Bernice Summerfield audios from Big Finish. She was their original audio starring character, before they got the full rights to Doctor Who.