Review by Jacob Licklider
The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield are entering a new era after the passing of the late great David Warner who was co-lead five of the seven volumes in the range. Despite still being advertised as a Doctor Who range, The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield are going back to having Benny on her own, though with several Doctor Who aliens featuring in the range to keep it connected. The premise of this eighth series is The Eternity Club, one of those series that was clearly thought up as a four disc box set and split into four single releases, though this is slightly easier as The Eternity Club is presented as eight, half hour adventures from different writers. The tone is also considerably different from what has come before, both adventures in this first installment in The Eternity Club are considerably light affairs, playing heavy on the comedy and pastiche elements. The main pastiche is the premise being a Victorian style gentlemen’s club at the edge of the galaxy which is allowing Bernice Summerfield entrance, though her inability to pay member’s fees means that she is being put into the role of a servant for the other members of the club. The club itself is made up of Doctor Who aliens with an association with war, most notably Sontarans, Draconians, and Drahvins. This feels like an idea that later releases are going to play around with more, the second story of this release hints at it with the Drahvins, but it feels like an idea that hasn’t quite been explored. James Goss is at the writing helm for this release and it’s especially interesting to listen to this after Goss’ previous work with Benny. Goss as a writer isn’t always one that I would associate with comedy, but the style here is a more laid back, observational humor about the culture of gentlemen’s clubs with the second half wishing to examine the place of gender roles in the universe for much of the comedy. The directorial duties fall to David O’Mahony who provides a new touch to the series, his style also quite working with the comedy.
The stories themselves are both a bit tricky. The first is ‘The Armageddon Chair’ which is where Goss executes much of the setup of the Club, its various members, and Secretary Pym played by Nickolas Grace. There’s almost too much for Goss to setup in the half hour runtime, the story really only starts to get going just in time for it to come to a conclusion. The conclusion is played off as a joke: Benny is gearing up to go on a grand adventure to help find the lost pennant of 312, played by Simon Kane, but it’s revealed to have been mistaken for a tablecloth and the forgetful cyborg sets himself up to losing it again almost immediately. As a plot, it’s sorely lacking in really any sort of structure as there are several smaller vignettes of Benny helping other members of the club all while being looked down upon for being human. This is an element of the story that is clearly being carried over from the gentlemen’s club premise. Historically these clubs wouldn’t let in women and Goss and script editor Tim Foley have translated that prejudice to being a prejudice against humanity, being seen as lesser by the members of the club. Even 312, a character whose schtick is his forgetfulness and being too kind to tell someone he is being bothered by their behaviour, has this way of denigrating Benny for her humanity which is something that I hope the future entries in the series explore in greater detail.
‘Triumph of the Drahvin’ is the second half-hour episode and it is a more traditional affair for a Bernice Summerfield story. Goss has gone back to the classic trappings of Bernice investigating an ancient civilisation, bringing her archeological skills to use. While Lisa Bowerman as Benny is great in both episodes, this one seems to have invigorated her portrayal, mainly because it is an episode focusing really on two characters: Benny and the Drahvin Grizella played by Naana Agyei-Ampadu. The two women have this great way of butting heads, Benny being on the expedition to the deserts of Parroon as the catering and Grizella’s lack of expertise in the area of archeology makes for some genuinely fun banter. The mystery of Parroon is also a particularly simple one at its core, it’s one along gender divides and Goss uses it to also explore the gender politics of the Drahvins. It ends on a particularly interesting note about how women are generally seen in the galaxy as a clear comment on modern day gender politics, though Goss doesn’t go particularly far with it. Outside of the pair the plot of ‘Triumph of the Drahvin’ involves the male members of the expedition being picked off one by one, including blinding the Sontaran Starll which allows Dan Starkey in this and the previous story a chance to show what types of comedy work well with the Sontarans far better than certain television Sontarans.
Overall, The Eternity Club 1 is honestly a bit of a tricky release to assess. It’s the first release of four and it’s clear that this is just a beginning (there is a tease in ‘The Armageddon Chair’ that the oldest member of the club played by Niamh Cusack is hiding something). The second episode of the release is clearly the stronger one, but both episodes bolster strong performances and a particularly strong direction. James Goss is always a writer I am interested in seeing more but the best that I can really say to assess is that this is a solid start for a new era of Bernice Summerfield. 7/10.
Order on CD/Download from Big Finish
Order on CD from Amazon
Review: The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield – Blood & Steel (Vol. 7)
Check out the rest of our Big Finish reviews!
Indie Mac User 