The Lights of Skaro

The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield #1.4

Released: 13 June 2014

Listened: 3/5/21

Starting off with a necessary spoiler: The planet in the time loop is Skaro, and that’s where they’re all stuck now, with the time loop breaking down, so at least our characters can do things in order and remember them, but there’s still random time-shifts going on through Dalek history. That explains why Ace didn’t want to try to save the planet, but not why she was secretive about it. She says she told Benny several times, during the loop, but “it didn’t go well,” which is kind of a hand-wave. Benny, admittedly, has a bad history with Daleks, and reacts pretty badly to what’s going on around her, as well as the things she (unwittingly) did during the time loop. It isn’t really the slam-bang ending you’d expect it to be. There’s lots of introspection on Benny’s part, and Ace’s, and even the Doctor’s, as he turns up towards the end. He feels that he may have been responsible for the Daleks’ learning that alien races exist, and therefore causing their wave of conquest. Ace is having her best go at wiping out the Daleks before they get started, now that she has access to Time Lord tech, but she’s still too raw to do it right, proving that she does actually need what she’s learning at the Academy. The story ends with the Doctor rather disappointed in Ace, but we don’t hear much about that, as it’s Benny’s story. As a whole boxed set, it hangs together pretty well, and makes a nice showcase for Benny, although she does spend much of it in over her head.