Doctor Who universe: Bernice Summerfield and the Doomsday Manuscript review

After listening to her first series of audio adventures, we dive deeper into the world of former Doctor Who companion Bernice Summerfield with the novel The Doomsday Manuscript.

For many fans, diving into Doctor Who‘s vast history can be a daunting experience. While there seem to be many clear jumping on points – particularly the first episode of the revival, Rose – it soon becomes clear that there’s always another layer of history to discover. You meet Rose, but then you find out about Sarah Jane. You find out about how she left, but then you discover how many adventures she’d had. You watch her original stories, but then find out about all the other companions and stories of the Classic Series.

For every level of history you discover, there’s a new one waiting to be found. And that’s what going through the history of Professor Bernice Summerfield feels like.

This was something I learned while listening to the audiobook version of Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Doomsday Manuscript. Recently, I listened to her first series of audios that were made available on download earlier this year. They were not only fun to listen to, but easily accessible. Yes, there were clearly established characters, but the adapted stories felt fresh and new, easy for new fans to dive right into.

However, before I got to Series 2, I was aware that Big Finish’s audios and novels for Benny – at least during the early years – were closely connected. In fact, there’s a rather major development in one of the latter that has major implications for the former.

Direct continuation

So, if I was going to enjoy Benny’s Big Finish adventures from the beginning, I wanted to make sure I did it right. And with the earliest ones now available as audiobook readings – naturally, all read by Lisa Bowerman herself – it seemed like a good time to enjoy them.

Having said all of that, one thing that was clear about listening to The Doomsday Manuscript is that it’s not just tied to the audios. While the first series’s stories were extremely accessible to newcomers, this story continued directly from the previous series of novels – a series that has long been discontinued.

So there were many references to characters and events that, for this relatively new fan of Benny’s early audio adventures, were mystifying. It was bold of Big Finish to continue so directly from that other range of novels, but at the same time, it’s easy to see why.

Benny’s primary audience was originally through the novels, and The Doomsday Manuscript was published just a year after Twilight of the Gods – the final novel published by Virgin Books. So it’s easy to see why everyone involved thought that the fans would know about the events referenced in the novel. Certainly, I doubt that anyone at Big Finish would’ve imagined new fans discovering these stories twenty years later.

The Doomsday Manuscript may not be quite as accessible as the audio adaptation of Oh No It Isn’t! But it’s certainly just as fun.

Image Courtesy Big Finish Productions

A solid (and standalone) adventure

So does that make The Doomsday Manuscript an incomprehensible mess for this new reader? Not at all. In fact, it’s through it’s clear and obvious references to many other sources that make it so enjoyable.

For example, this book introduces a major antagonistic group: the Fifth Axis. The best way to describe them? Two words: space Nazis. Specifically, space Nazis that are searching for legendary artifacts of apocalyptic importance.

With a description like that, it’s hard not to be reminded of Indiana Jones, and author Justin Richards has a lot of fun with this. There are many exciting action sequences throughout that are well described, and the story flows at an extremely fast pace.

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Clear influences

Another clear source of inspiration? Casablanca. While it’s missing a doomed love story, the description of Kasagrad – a neutral world that’s under threat of invasion at any moment – very quickly makes its biggest influence clear.

Borrowing from such clear and obvious sources as Indiana Jones and Casablanca can be risky, especially if you don’t handle it right. But overall, Justin Richards’s use of such influences help to sell the worlds and story to its core audience quickly and easily. That’s not to say that it isn’t full of surprises, especially during its final chapters. Just that it allows the story to flow smoothly, especially for its genre-savvy audience.

Despite having such clear connections to long out of print novels, The Doomsday Manuscript is still an extremely enjoyable story in its own right, and another solid reminder of why Bernice is such a fantastic character. Like the audio dramas themselves, I’m already eager to discover more of Big Finish’s novels – and possibly even beyond that.

Are you a fan of Bernice Summerfield? Have you read any of her novels from either Virgin Books or Big Finish? Let us know in the comments below.