Beyond the Sun

Bernice Summerfield Audio Dramas #1.2

by Jacqueline Rayner, Matthew Jones (Narrator), Lisa Bowerman (Narrator)

"You're on your own, Bernice"

Bernice Summerfield has drawn the short straw. Not for her the pleasures of intergalactic conferences and highbrow lecture tours. Oh no. She's forced to take two overlooked freshers on their very first dig. And just when it seems things can't get any worse, her no-good ex-husband Jason turns up, claiming that he is in deadly danger. Benny finally begins to believe his wild claims, but unfortunately only after he has been kidnapped from his hotel room.

Feeling guilty, she sets out to rescue him. Well, let's face it, no one else is going to. Her only clue is a dusty artefact that Jason claimed was part of an ancient and powerful weapon. But Professor Bernice Summerfield PhD knows that's just silly nonsense. She's been an archaeologist long enough to know that lost alien civilisations do not leave their most powerful weapons lying around for any nutter to find. Do they?

Once again Benny is all that stands between Jason and his own mistakes, as she tries to prevent the wrong people acquiring this terrible and somewhat unlikely weapon - a weapon rumoured to have powers beyond the sun.

NOTE: This story is based on the original novel of the same name that was the second in the series of New Adventures released by Virgin Publishing Limited.

Genres: Doctor Who, Science Fiction, Audiobook

Audio CD

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Jacqueline Rayner is a best selling British author, best known for her work with the licensed fiction based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who.

Her first professional writing credit came when she adapted Paul Cornell's Virgin New Adventure novel Oh No It Isn't! for the audio format, the first release by Big Finish. (The novel featured the character of Bernice Summerfield and was part of a spin-off series from Doctor Who.) She went on to do five of the six Bernice Summerfield audio adaptations and further work for Big Finish before going to work for BBC Books on their Doctor Who lines.

Her first novels came in 2001, with the Eighth Doctor Adventures novel EarthWorld for BBC Books and the Bernice Summerfield novel The Squire's Crystal for Big Finish. Rayner has written several other Doctor Who spin-offs and was also for a period the executive producer for the BBC on the Big Finish range of Doctor Who audio dramas. She has also contributed to the audio range as a writer. In all, her Doctor Who and related work (Bernice Summerfield stories), consists of five novels, a number of short stories and four original audio plays.

Rayner has edited several anthologies of Doctor Who short stories, mainly for Big Finish, and done work for Doctor Who Magazine. Beyond Doctor Who, her work includes the children's television tie-in book Horses Like Blaze.

With the start of the new television series of Doctor Who in 2005 and a shift in the BBC's Doctor Who related book output, Rayner has become, along with Justin Richards and Stephen Cole, one of the regular authors of the BBC's New Series Adventures. She has also abridged several of the books to be made into audiobooks.

She was also a member of Doctor Who Magazine's original Time Team.

Reviews

[April Mccaffrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Relisten 29/05/24

Bernice: I'm afraid being shot has become an occupational hazard.
Tameka: For an archaeologist?!

I'm trying to do a Bernice Summerfield marathon to beat the slump!!

As I read / relisten /rewatch different areas of Doctor Who, I like to think my opinions on characters do tend to change into more positive ones over time.

However, no matter how much I relisten to Bernice Summerfield, Jason Kane still gives me the biggest icks.


I much prefer the books, but they did an okay job at adapting the story but Tameka using a (slur??) is rather jarring. How did I miss this on my previous listens?

Also, its really funny how they let the characters full on swear in the earlier audios because they could get away with it. They should bring that back.
-
2nd time listen.

Now having read the book, I do prefer the book to the audio of this. Only because the book added so much depth and tension to how terrifying and brutal the sunless were. The audio lacked the tension and actually, most of the actions of the sunless were missing. They were hardly in any scenes if only a few and even then not detailed enough.

But I forgot Sophie Aldred played Miranda in this so it was nice to hear her play a baddie on audio.

Relisten 16/05/2021-

Sometimes I miss big finish and the way they focused on Benny and did hour long audios and novel adaptations.

[Gareth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably between a 3 and a 4 for me, not quite as good as Oh No It Isn't for, but still a good listen. Not the straight fun of the first one, more serious at times, with some quite dark scenes. Lisa Bowerman as Benny great again, and a new varied cast here, including a couple of veteran Doctor Who actors in new roles, and some very interesting interactions between the varied characters. A couple of bits at the end didn't seem to quite add up for me, which detracted from the story a bit, but was still a good overall listen nonetheless.

[CJ · Rating 2 out of 5]

The plot is meandering and can be a slog to get through. At some points things are just rushed through while hoping you remember what was said, and other times there are scenes where the plot doesn't seem to happen. The looming threat is talked about but as a listener you have no connection to them. The audio design is better then Oh No It Isn't but without a character 'narrating' what is happening, it just sounds like noise. While an improvement in one way the plot is very lacking and leaves one wanting more. 2.5/5

[Tabitha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Felt like it was missing some information or something

[Zach · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars - The Sunless is not very interesting but Sophie as a villain is fun to hear. Other than that maybe too many characters.

[Duncan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not having read the original book. I don't know what was amended, added or cut out. However, I felt that some details were missing here. It's ok enough but a curious choice for a second story to launch a series especially following the camp fun of "Oh no it isn't"

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Could well have been a five star story, but it seemed to have been edited down far too brutally from the original novel.

[Nicholas Whyte]

http://nhw.livejournal.com/976612.html[return][return]another archaeological dig-goes-wrong story but introduces the character of Jason, Benny's ex-husband, and lots of emotional angst as well as the actual plot. I was completely absorbed in it, and yet failed to spot the voices of Sophie Aldred and Anneke Wills until I read the sleeve notes afterwards.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bernice's husband needs help again. And Bernice goes to the rescue. It ends up with her crash landing on a prohibited planet with an unusual culture, and the Sunless being dictators over them. This is a decent adaptation of the book, though does not go into the same amount of depth. It is a very character based piece in the audio. A good read.

[Debra Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great Adventure