THE NEW ADVENTURES OF BERNICE SUMMERFIELD box set 5: BURIED MEMORIES

 

THE NEW ADVENTURES OF BERNICE SUMMERFIELD box set 5:

BURIED MEMORIES

Lisa Bowerman: I love her! David Warner: he was always a good Doctor but this…this makes him a GREAT Doctor. Wow. Okay, there are some clichés in all the stories but they’re used to great effect and there are things in these four stories, especially DEAD AND BREAKFAST, that have NOT been used before in DW anywhere (as far as I know). All four stories are entertaining, fast paced and fun. THE PRIDE OF THE LAMPION is, like DEAD AND BREAKFAST and some of CLEAR HISTORY, laugh out loud funny. It hits Benny where it hurts and when she’s at her job: archelogy. The love/foe relationship between this grand, cranky, classic and non-classic Doctor and the ever loving, always the same Benny is just marvelous in this story as Benny might finally get the recognition she deserves. There’s also some cool twists and turns about the aliens here and how they were “created.” Marvelous and eye opening about Benny and pride and getting recognition. Just wonderful.

 

The best story in the set is DEAD AND BREAKFAST as the pair pose as husband and wife. No, really. And almost all the dialog is laugh out loud funny as the Doctor does house chores and “debates” with Benny while he and she call each other loving names such as “dear” and “honey.” Lisa Bowerman’s reactions to everything is just…so entertaining, fun, and appropriate. At one point in this story and another in this box set, she slides down and into or with some skeletons, “Sorry, everyone…” and her quips are always funny. Always. Funny. David Warner is a dry comic, an outstanding, anxious but somewhat bored Doctor who gets his boredom relieved throughout these fascinating, awe inspiring stories. The Doctor feels all of that as he’s trying to put things right. DEAD AND BREAKFAST takes place at a bed and breakfast and the characters are all likable, even lovable so that when one seems to die, we’re broken…and another does die that ….well, I won’t give it away…but it makes things sad for us and for Benny but this story takes some of THE PIRATE PLANET and makes it its own. Warm, charming, scary, fast paced, and surprising.

 

CLEAR HISTORY takes the cliché of the VR world that’s been around for at least twenty years and makes a whole world out of it. The Doctor doubts it can be good and hates participating…until there’s “issues”. A good story thanks to the interaction of all the characters, especially, again, Benny and this Doctor.

 

BURROWED TIME takes another cliché…or…okay, very well, maybe more than one cliché…a ghost train, a time trap trip, meeting yourself, not realizing you’re dead…it does resemble a SAPPHIRE AND STEEL story and audio, both of which used trains but this one goes a bit on a different path and yields okay results.

 

The ending is interesting, is all I can say. Benny’s Doctor, David Warner now, is now in our universe…and we’re all the better for it. What a marvelous set of fantastic stories, what DW is all about, action, adventure, ideas, and fun relationships and dialog. It all comes together.