Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Secret of Cassandra

Bernice Summerfield Audio Dramas #2.1

by David Bailey, Lisa Bowerman (Narrator)

A vicious war between two nations is coming to a head, and the final movements are centred on the sailing ship Cassandra. Along with a very strange cargo, Cassandra carries Captain Colley, a man with his own sad burden, and the paranoid General Brennan, a woman convinced that her actions will end the war once and for all. Their grim mission goes entirely to plan, until the Cassandra gains an extra passenger - a shipwrecked archaeology professor by the name of Bernice Summerfield.

Sensing something is very wrong aboard the ship, Bernice's snooping brings her close to a terrible truth. Soon, Bernice doesn't know who to trust, and she can no longer be sure if anyone is who they claim to be...

Genres: Doctor Who, Science Fiction, Fiction, Audiobook

Audio CD

First published December 18, 2000

About the author

David Bailey is a British editor and author whose published output to date comprises a combination of short stories, audio dramas and magazine articles.

Both before and since being professionally published, Bailey contributed to a number of Doctor Who fanzines in writing and editorial capacities, including Matrix, Silver Carrier and Cottage Under Siege.

As an editor, he worked for the British magazine publisher Titan from 1997 to 2000 during which time he edited their Simpsons and Xena, Warrior Princess titles among others.

His first professionally published writing was a number of articles for the magazine Cult Times, starting in 1996. Since that time he has contributed articles to a wide range of factual publications, including consumer guides and television listing magazines.

Subsequently, he co-authored a number of guidebooks to television series such as Friends and Frasier. These were produced by Virgin Publishing.

The body of David Bailey's fiction writing, both audio and prose, has been produced for Big Finish Productions' range of Doctor Who and Doctor Who derived materials.

In 2011, he decided to start writing under the pen name of David Bryher as his real name meant that he was hard to find on Google.

Reviews

[Gareth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Between a 3 and a 4 for me - an interesting story / plot with a small but varied and interesting cast, with at least one pretty good twist in there for me as a first time listener.
It is let down somewhat by the sound quality at times, with the environmental noises outweighing the dialogue making it very hard to hear what they are saying at certain points, and overall just a bit briefer a story than I would like.
Otherwise Benny in good form as always, and like I say the rest of the characters are an interesting group, and I quite enjoyed listening to this overall.

[Julia · Rating 2 out of 5]

La vacanza di Bernice sul pianeta Chosan subisce un brusco arresto quando la sua nave viene affondata e lei si ritrova naufraga in un'isoletta in mezzo all'oceano. Per fortuna viene salvata da... un veliero. Esatto, un veliero, anche se il computer di bordo è parecchio sofisticato. A salvarla è stato il capitano Colley, ma il suo unico passeggero, il generale Hannah Brennan, è parecchio sospettosa e pensa che Benny possa essere una spia. C'è infatti una guerra in corso tra due continenti rivali, e il generale pensa che riportare la nave Cassandra verso il loro continente sarà decisivo per le sorti della guerra. Qualcosa infatti è presente a bordo, e Benny è intenzionata a scoprire cosa, specialmente quando inizia a dubitare di chi si può fidare e di chi no.

Pure in vacanza Bernice si trova in mezzo a una guerra: mai un momento di pace.
È una storia interessante, ma che fa un po' da riempitivo tra le altre. Sia il capitano, il padre di famiglia che ha perso tutto a causa della guerra, sia il generale, spietata, paranoica e disposta a tutto per lo sforzo bellico, sono personaggi abbastanza archetipici, ma che tuttavia mostrano più spessore andando avanti. Mi è piaciuto il computer di bordo, un'intelligenza artificiale basata sulla figlia del capitano (che per la sua innocenza mi ha ricordato la sintetica Rachel ne Il Diario di River Song). Ma il punto di forza di questa storia è, per l'appunto, il segreto di Cassandra.

[Jamieson · Rating 3 out of 5]

So this is my first proper Bernice Summerfield audio. Yes, I've encounter Benny in a handful of Doctor Who audios and have over the years dabbled in the Virgin New Adventures novels (the Doctor Who ones, not the Benny series published after Virgin lost the Doctor Who license), I've even listened to audiobook version of the first Big Finish Benny novel (which if I understand things occurs before this story), but this is my first Benny audio drama. Short of listening to the novel adaptations that made up the first season, this seemed like a great place to start. And...

...it's okay. The story wasn't anything out of the ordinary. It was a nice little self-contained story of political intrigue and hidden agendas that Benny gets stuck in the middle of. And that's about it. It's not terrible, but it's not grand and expansive. It was just an average Benny story. The weirdest thing was that it had an actual theme song (with lyrics) which was kinda hard to understand. I'd compare it to Star Trek: Enterprise which had an actual song instead of instrumental themes like the four previous series and was kinda jarring in its own way.

So, I'd say that this isn't the best Benny story I've ever heard but it's not terrible. Just average, and as such, it might work well as a jumping on point. There's no real background, meaning no overt references to the Doctor or Benny's Virgin series and no mentions of the Braxiatel Collection where she's station for most of the first few seasons of her Big Finish run. So, in essence, a very middle-of-the-road type story and that's okay. I still enjoyed it, it just isn't something I'll be coming back to very often.

[James Mullins · Rating 2 out of 5]

There was a nice little twist and completely forgetting that some geeza had to die so everyone can hop in his brain and take his body. Very interesting set of characters but nothing really sucked me in you know.

[Sara Habein · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my favorite of the Benny stories, but it was fine.

[Mole Mann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Better than Bailey's Skymines of Karthos, it's a quite tense naval story.

[Duncan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Launching series two this uses a small cast and has quite an interesting premise. Cast are all good. I didn't notice too many problems with audio as I was listening through headphones. Others have mentioned issues so I guess headphones is the answer. a little bit confusing but ok start to series.

[April Mccaffrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another on my Benny relisten!

A good story involving Benny being stranded at first on an Island in the middle of an ocean and being rescued by a Captain on what at first appears to be an old-fashioned ship with a paranoid military General.

This was certainly very early days audio as some parts i did struggle to hear it but I think that was on purpose due to the nature of the story with the sound of the storm at sea.

Also, I have a completely different cover to the one on this showing. My cover is of Lisa herself as Benny smiling centre front with a picture of the ship and her stuck on the Island. Interesting to see.

[Nicholas Whyte]

The Secret of Cassandra was a nice set of character studies, spoiled by a silly plot. Why on earth should the captain, charged with a vital military mission, stop off to pick up passing strangers? And the switch of loyalties of the computer Cassandra was most unconvincing.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bernice is marooned on an island, she is rescued by a sailing ship that has some very odd passengers. And the planet is in the midst of civil war. This is a fun story where Bernice shines, a lot. The twist is predictable though, but it is a character led story. A good listen.

[Debra Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

Typical war story with a computer twist that only Benny would be involved in.