Doctor Who review: Bernice Summerfield: Buried Memories – Burrowed Time
By James Aggas
The last story of Bernice Summerfield: Buried Memories presents the story of a train that hasn’t stopped running. Even after the civilization that made it was wiped out centuries ago…
Burrowed Time, the last episode in the latest volume of Doctor Who: The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield, is an interesting little episode. The story is focused on a train. A train buried deep underground. A train that’s apparently haunted…
The story explores two key perspectives. First, there’s the archaeological dig that Benny stumbles across. Essentially, it’s looking into why a train is still running on a planet where life had been wiped out long ago. There’s a mystery here, and the Doctor and Benny hate mysteries. No, that’s a lie – they love a good mystery, and they certainly find one here.
The other key perspective is that of Anita. The last survivor on the train, Anita has been stuck there for hundreds of years. But how? And does she even know that? When Anita meets Benny, her world and her perception of things get turned upside down…
Top L to Bottom R: Julia Deakin, Laura Aikman, David Warner, Lisa Bowerman and Richard Lumsden feature in the final episode of Bernice Summerfield: Buried Memories.
(Photo credit: Bernice Summerfield/Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions.
Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)
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Ideas vs atmosphere
Lani Woodward’s story is an interesting one. It’s a bit of a sci-fi take on the ghost story genre, except it’s never quite that creepy. While the mysterious “ghosts” are a little effective, the story never quite feels as atmospheric as it could be.
On the other hand, the main character of Anita is an interesting one. At the start of the story, she’s clearly in some kind of desperate situation, we just don’t know what that is. But when we do find out, it’s clear that there’s something important even she’s not aware of.
This leads to some great discussions between the Doctor and Benny. There’s a moment that Benny handles badly, and the Doctor is quick to point out just how badly she handled it. And this is something else I enjoyed about Burrowed Time: for much of the story, the focus is as much on Benny as it is on the Doctor. Both of them have their stronger and weaker moments, and they round each other out nicely.
While not quite as strong on the emotional content as Pride of the Lampians or Dead and Breakfast, Burrowed Time is still a decent enough story to end Buried Memories on. One with plenty of interesting ideas while using its two leads rather well.
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What are your favorite takes on a ghost story in Doctor Who? What stories do you think explore the Doctor and his companion best? And if you’re a fan of Benny, what are your favorite stories of the archaeologist? Let us know in the comments below.