Doctor Who review: The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield: Lost in Translation

Doctor Who: The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield: Lost in Translation gives us four new adventures for Bernice and the Unbound Doctor. How well does it work as a whole?

September was a pretty major month for the popular time-traveling archaeologist Bernice Summerfield. First, there was the long-awaited release of her first series of audios – and in fact, some of Big Finish’s first audio stories ever – on download. In addition to that, the latest volume of Doctor Who: The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield was released on CD and download.

We’ve taken a look at a couple of the earliest stories (just so you know: Oh No It Isn’t! is a huge amount of fun), and we’ll continue to explore this early glimpse of Big Finish history. But before we do that, let’s take a look at her most recent set of adventures. How well does Lost in Translation work as a whole?

Overall, pretty well. As you can probably guess from the title, each of the episodes in Lost in Translation is heavily focused on communication. Language and understanding are both important to an archaeologist like Bernice, so it’s a fitting theme to explore.

David Warner and Lisa Bowerman (pictured here with Misha Butler) continue to share fantastic chemistry in this box set.

Image courtesy 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”

A distinctive mix

Personally, my favorite episodes in this box set are Have I Told You Lately? and Inertia. Both of these are great for the same reason: they’re heavily focused on Bernice and the Unbound Doctor. Lisa Bowerman and David Warner have been fantastic to listen to as Bernice and the Doctor, so any episode that focuses heavily on them is worth listening to. Both episodes present the two at their best: full of banter and even conflict, but also a great depiction of a deep friendship that feels genuine.

The Undying Truth is a great debut episode from competition winner JA Prentice. It features a deep exploration of the characters, one that looks at their paranoias and deep-rooted insecurities.

Honestly, the weakest episode of the set was one that I was looking forward to the most: Gallifrey. While the episode had been built up to explore how the Time Lords would react to the presence of the Unbound Doctor in their universe, the episode moves in a kind of different direction, one that ends in a bit of an anti-climax. It’s not terrible, but it is disappointing.

However, the rest of the box set gives us three solid stories that serve both leading protagonists equally well. On top of that, like previous volumes, it highlights exactly why the pairing of Warner’s Doctor and Bernice is an absolutely fantastic one.

Have you listened to The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield? What’s your favorite volume of the series so far? Let us know in the comments below.