The Tears of Isis

The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield #2.4

Released: 12 June 2015

Listened: 3/6/21

Una McCormack gets to write the finale to this set, and as usual for her, it’s slightly arch and off-kilter. Sutekh has won, apparently. The Earth is completely scorched and lifeless, and the only survivors are a modern-day cult of Sutekh, who are kind of surprised that the world did end when their prophecy said it would, and they’re kind of falling apart as a result. That’s an OK concept, but it leads to a plot of Benny trying to save a bunch of people who don’t really want to be saved, over the Doctor’s objections. It’s not really a slam-bang ending. Once again, the Doctor had a plan the whole time, or at least appears to have had one, and once again he didn’t let Ace or Benny in on it, in fact appearing quite despondent at the start of the story. Normally, there’s a reason he keeps his companions in the dark, but it doesn’t seem entirely clear this time. More unfortunately, there’s no real closure for our main characters, as they just head off in the TARDIS. Ace presumably goes back to Gallifrey, and Benny heads off into an alternate universe. Maybe there will be more stories in this time period, but I kind of doubt it. So that’s a wrap for Benny for this project, aside from the occasional guest appearance later on. I do like Lisa Bowerman’s portrayal of her, and I recognize her importance to the Big Finish story overall, but she’s not my favorite not-from-TV companion.

---The “Unbound” Benny boxed sets featuring David Warner as the Third Doctor take place here (from Benny’s point of view), but I’m not covering those right now.---