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A review by andrew_j_r
Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Doomsday Manuscript by Justin Richards
4.0
I have been aware of Bernice Summerfield as a character for decades now. Originally introduced as the Doctor Who companion to replace Ace in the Virgin books that continued the series after broadcast stopped in 1989, Benny became a character in her own right. When Virgin lost the rights to do the books they tried for a while to continue with Benny as the main character, which kind of worked, but it was audio production company Big Finish that really bought Benny to life when they started doing audio adaptations of some of those Virgin books (all of which I had read). The character has gone from strength to strength, they are still recording new material with her now. This book was the first in a tie in range when Big Finish decided to stop adapting Virgin novels and started to produce original plays about the character.
The book absolutely captures the spirit of these dramas. The characters are absolutely spot on, when reading lines by the two key characters, Benny herself and Braxiatel, you can hear the actors who we have become used to over the last twenty years saying those lines. It sets up her new home base in the original plays, The Braxiatel Collection, in a way that the audios cannot, so I now feel like I know far more about her home than I did by just listening to the plays. There are ancillary characters from the plays who pop up here (the huge Killoran Adrian Wall who becomes an important figure in the radio plays pops up, as does a hilarious explanation for his name, which I never knew until now).
As for the story, it’s not bad. The twist at the end is very satisfying and something I did not see coming, and as I said the characters just leap off the page, especially Benny and Brax. There are some obvious moments (there is a character that dies, and you are pretty certain, quite rightly, that he’s not actually dead and will resurface) but this is a very good start to the range. I think the story itself would have only got three stars, but the characters elevate it to a four
The book absolutely captures the spirit of these dramas. The characters are absolutely spot on, when reading lines by the two key characters, Benny herself and Braxiatel, you can hear the actors who we have become used to over the last twenty years saying those lines. It sets up her new home base in the original plays, The Braxiatel Collection, in a way that the audios cannot, so I now feel like I know far more about her home than I did by just listening to the plays. There are ancillary characters from the plays who pop up here (the huge Killoran Adrian Wall who becomes an important figure in the radio plays pops up, as does a hilarious explanation for his name, which I never knew until now).
As for the story, it’s not bad. The twist at the end is very satisfying and something I did not see coming, and as I said the characters just leap off the page, especially Benny and Brax. There are some obvious moments (there is a character that dies, and you are pretty certain, quite rightly, that he’s not actually dead and will resurface) but this is a very good start to the range. I think the story itself would have only got three stars, but the characters elevate it to a four