Doctor Who review: Bernice Summerfield: Buried Memories – Pride of the Lampians

When Bernice Summerfield finds an artifact from a previously unknown civilization, she thinks she’s made the discovery of her life. But is the Pride of the Lampians all that it seems?

At last! I finally have had a chance to listen to last month’s box set, The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield: Buried Memories! While there are a few other Doctor Who releases that I need to catch up on, this box set was something that I was particularly excited about.

For one thing, I absolutely adore Benny. Even when I’ve got so much of her earlier seasons to listen to (please release her earlier seasons on download asap, Big Finish!), the character still stands out. Not just as one of the best characters in the Doctor Who universe, but in science-fiction altogether. And the opening episode of Buried Memories, Pride of the Lampians by Alyson Leeds, explores why.

"Bernice Summerfield finds the last relic of a lost civilisation. One that the Doctor is worried may never have existed."

Another reason why I was so excited to listen to this new box set is that all the writers are completely new to Big Finish. A big risk, but considering how long both producer James Goss and director Scott Handcock have looked after this character, I completely trust that they know what they’re doing.

Lisa Bowerman and David Warner return for a brand new series of The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield!

(Photo credit: Bernice Summerfield/Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions.

Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)

More from Winter is Coming

• For All Mankind finally gives us information in Episode 405, “Goldilocks”
• Watch a stunning VFX breakdown of The Wheel of Time season 2
• Of course Steve Toussaint (Corlys Velaryon) thinks Eve Best (Rhaenys Targaryen) should rule Westeros
• Confirmed: The Last of Us season 2 will air in 2025
• Final season of Star Trek: Discovery will have “a lot of action, a lot of adventure, a lot of fun”

Drama and intrigue

And honestly, based on just the opening episode, it’s a risk that seems to have paid off. Alyson Leeds completely understands Bernice, inside and out. She knows that it’s not just the character’s strengths that make her so brilliant, but also her flaws. Both of which are explored in Pride of the Lampians.

At the start of the episode, Leeds introduces an intriguing mystery. While Benny believes she’s made an important discovery, the Doctor believes it’s a big con trick. But Benny isn’t the kind of person who’s easily fooled, and the more she digs in, the more evidence she finds about this race. Could the Doctor be wrong about this?

Unsurprisingly, this leads to a lot of tension between her and the Doctor, which is great to explore. While you do want your two leading characters to get along well and have a strong friendship, you also need conflict to make drama work. But there also has to be strong reasons for that conflict, too.

Fortunately, when you’ve got two characters that are as equally brilliant and stubborn in their own way, that conflict can be easy to create under the right circumstances. And Leeds is very good at creating the right circumstances for these two to have a major difference in opinion.

With both an intriguing mystery and an excellent exploration of the series’s lead (the real lead – in this instance, the Doctor really is the companion), Pride of the Lampians is a strong opening episode for Buried Memories, and an excellent debut from Alyson Leeds.

Are you a fan of Bernice Summerfield? Have you enjoyed any of her adventures with David Warner’s Unbound Doctor? Let us know in the comments below.