Doctor Who universe review: Bernice Summerfield and the Gods of the Underworld

Filled with a large cast of characters, a grim tone, and many plot threads, Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Gods of the Underworld is a Doctor Who spin-off novel that might not be to everyone’s taste.

Following on from Big Finish’s first novel for the popular Doctor Who character – a novel that directly continued from her previous series of novels published by Virgin Books – Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Gods of the Underworld broadly continues from that story. At the very least, it continues the ongoing arc of Benny’s search for her ex-husband Jason Kane. But it’s also very standalone, and a very different story compared to The Doomsday Manuscript.

For example, while the previous novel had a broad sense of scale, taking place across various worlds, The Gods of the Underworld is primarily focused on one planet. It’s also a lot more complicated, too – while The Doomsday Manuscript had one clear enemy with the Fifth Axis (i.e. space Nazis), there are many different forces at work in Stephen Cole’s story.

To be honest, at times, the book feels a little too complicated to keep up with. There’s a huge cast of characters, each with their own agenda, and it can be difficult trying to remember every single one of them.

One thing that I greatly enjoyed about The Doomsday Manuscript was that, while it was very nicely paced, Justin Richards gave the reader two clear sources of inspiration for his novel, making it very easy to visualize everything and follow along. The Gods of the Underworld avoids any clear pastiches, and while originality can work in its favor, with such a large cast of characters and so many colliding forces, it does make it rather difficult to follow along, at times.

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 grim tone

One thing that definitely stood out about the novel was its extremely grim and violent tone. Be warned, there are some very graphic deaths in this novel, a reminder of exactly what kind of audience both Bernice Summerfield and even Doctor Who novels were aimed at, at the time. A wise choice that Cole made at least is that he didn’t overdo the violence, and as such, it never lost the power to shock.

Having finished completing Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Gods of the Underworld, I’m genuinely not sure what to make of it. Those expecting an easy and straightforward story may be disappointed, especially after The Doomsday Manuscript. Honestly, compared to other books in the series, it’s not an essential read, either (certainly not compared to the next couple of novels, which expand on the mythology of the audios considerably).

But I suspect that for those that can keep up with its many plot threads, there is at least a story to enjoy here. It’s filled with many twists, quite a few that I appreciated (particularly the reveal of what “the Gods of the Underworld” actually were). Not as fun as the previous novel, but a reasonably solid adventure for Benny, at least.

What Bernice Summerfield or Doctor Who stories have you enjoyed that have featured a lot of plot threads to keep up with? Do you prefer a story to be relatively straightforward, or do you prefer something more complicated? Let us know in the comments below.