The most frustrating range at Big Finish

Its still BFs most "Unbound" Range to coin a phase but back when it started it took the form of what most unfranchised Sci-Fi was a somewhat heady blend of Humour, Adult Themes and Softcore in the 90s and early 2000s. Obviously you can't do that [too often ] in Doctor Who. 

Regards

mark687

It probably seemed like a good idea at the time. Although I did enjoy the two formats Bernice Summerfield arc back then. The whole idea stands or falls on the two formats still being available twenty years on though, so when the books went out of print it must have been a bit confusing for the people who could only access the audios. I don't have the paperback books anymore but I still enjoy those audios. They are still some of the best Bernice Summerfield stories for me.

It's true that the quality of the early Big Finish Benny stories is variable. Heck, the earlier Virgin New Adventure books featuring Benny, which preceded the BF releases, were also pretty variable in quality.

But I love Benny so I love them all, in spite of the flaws.

It helps to understand that some of the early audios were adapted from the Virgin New Adventures books. And some were adapted from earlier Seventh Doctor New Adventure books, in which Benny was first introduced as a companion to the Doctor, but they had to be changed to exclude regular Doctor Who characters to which Big Finish had not yet obtained the rights.

I have to say, as someone who read the books first, it was interesting to see how some of the books were adapted to audio.

I didn't have most of the BF books when I first listened to the audio stories, so I googled the synopses of the stories I wasn't familiar with on line to fill in the continuity. To this day I haven't listen to and read the stories in strict chronological order, though I hope to one of these days.

I suppose that’s we would call her adventures with the Warner Doctor. Admittedly I haven’t listened to the last set released with the pair but there hasn’t been much reference to her ongoing range in the ones I have listened to.

It’s certainly more accessible than her increasingly impenetrable ongoing range as well.

I believe the releases starting with Epoch were meant to be a soft reboot. At least, folks at BF kept saying it was a good starting point and that you didn't need the preceding series 1-11 to enjoy those releases.

You're not wrong. The success and enduring appeal of Bernice Summerfield is, I think, more the result of Lisa Bowerman's performance. Even the worst Bennynstories I've listened to (and boy are there some clunkers) are still pretty easy to get through because Bowerman always gives 100%, and perfectly embodies Benny's voice. I can't imagine anyone else doing even half so well: she is Benny.


I feel like it's still too soon to even think about talking about where NABS might go next. I'm still holding out hope that they may have another story or two recorded well in advance, so that the last set isn't really the last set, but that's pretty unlikely, I think.

Oof.

How I would do things, if it were up to me, would be to have the Warner-Doctor die in-universe (off-screen, n-between sets). And then just a full boxset of Benny coming to terms with that. The grief. The trauma. The absence. Kind of like how the first Warner-Doctor NABS set (I think it was the first one, at least) dealt a great deal with the Doctor's own grief and trauma for having failed his universe.


I dunno. Maybe that's a bit much. They worked so perfectly well together, I cannot imagine the NABS range without Warner and Bowerman, side-by-side.

Honestly perhaps River Song could join the range for a bit or have Benny appear in The Diary of River Song Series (given The Legacy of Time has set up a backstory between the two)