Bernice Summerfield (series)

Bernice Summerfield was the first series produced by Big Finish Productions, combining both audio and prose releases in an ongoing narrative, with the titular character portrayed by Lisa Bowerman.
The series began in 1998 with audio adaptations of six Virgin New Adventures novels. After the first season's success, Big Finish began producing audio stories and prose stories simultaneously.
Initially, the ongoing narrative was spread evenly between the two media - for instance, Benny became pregnant in the novel Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Squire's Crystal and gave birth in the novel Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Glass Prison, with the audio stories making several minor references to her pregnancy. However, from the third series onward, the audio stories became the primary series, with novels and short story collections providing greater depth to the world and heavily expanding on the large cast of regular characters. Occasionally, however, prose stories would be integral to the overall narrative, such as the audio story Death and the Daleks continuing on directly from the anthology Life During Wartime, and the regular characters Hass and Doggles being introduced in the anthologies A Life Worth Living and Something Changed respectively. When Simon Guerrier took over as executive producer for Series 7, he made an effort to better combine the audio and prose stories, featuring hitherto prose-only characters in audio and incorporating prose-featured events, such as the death of semi-regular character Ms Jones in the anthology Parallel Lives, into the overall story arc.
Many characters created or established in the Virgin New Adventures, such as Jason Kane and Irving Braxiatel, made major appearances in this series, and several others, such as Wolsey, Isaac Summerfield and Kadiatu Lethbridge-Stewart, were featured in occasional stories. Additionally, links were made with Big Finish's Doctor Who content, such as the character of Bev Tarrant crossing over from the Main Range to become a regular character.
Several authors who wrote for Benny at Virgin also contributed to the line. Writers like Matt Jones, Paul Cornell, Justin Richards, Lance Parkin, Dave Stone, Ben Aaronovitch, Daniel O'Mahony, Lawrence Miles, Mark Clapham and Gary Russell had at least one story produced.
Most of the stories cover Bernice's life following her departure from travelling with the Doctor. However, several prose releases have featured stories that portrayed Bernice's life long before she met the Doctor.
The series concluded in 2013, but Benny received a new series the next year as The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield, where she was briefly reunited with the Seventh Doctor and Ace, before teaming up with an incarnation of the Doctor from an alternate universe. The release format continued to be annual boxsets, with occasional accompanying book releases under the Bernice Summerfield title.
== Stories ==
		Novel			Anthology
=== Series 1 ===
Series 1 was a collection of audio adaptations of Virgin New Adventures novels.
# 	Title 	Author 	Medium	Featuring 	Released
1 	Oh No It Isn't! 	Paul Cornell and Jacqueline Rayner 	Audio 	Wolsey, Grel	September 1998
2 	Beyond the Sun 	Matt Jones 	Audio 	Jason Kane 	September 1998
3 	Walking to Babylon	Kate Orman and Jacqueline Rayner 	Audio 	 	January 1999
4 	Birthright 	Nigel Robinson and Jacqueline Rayner 	Audio 	 	February 1999
5 	Just War 	Lance Parkin and Jacqueline Rayner 	Audio 	Jason Kane 	August 1999
Buried Treasures	Making Myths 	Jacqueline Rayner 	Audio 	Keri 	August 1999
Buried Treasures	Closure 	Paul Cornell 	Audio 	 	August 1999
6 	Dragons' Wrath 	Justin Richards and Jacqueline Rayner	Audio 	 	September 2000
=== Series 2 ===
Beginning with series 2, Big Finish began to release original audio stories about Bernice Summerfield. They also began to publish short story anthologies that continued ongoing plotlines from the audios.
# 	Title 	Author 	Medium 	Featuring 	Published
 	Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Dead Men Diaries 	Various 	Short story anthology	Various 	September 2000
 	Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Doomsday Manuscript 	Justin Richards 	Novel 	Brax, Joseph, Adrian, Fifth Axis 	November 2000
2.1	Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Secret of Cassandra 	David Bailey 	Audio 	 	December 2000
 	Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Gods of the Underworld	Stephen Cole 	Novel 	Brax, Joseph 	February 2001
 	Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Squire's Crystal 	Jacqueline Rayner	Novel 	Adrian, Joseph, Brax, Fenman 	April 2001
2.2	Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Stone's Lament 	Mike Tucker 	Audio 	Adrian 	May 2001
2.3	Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Extinction Event 	Lance Parkin 	Audio 	Brax 	July 2001
 	Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Infernal Nexus 	Dave Stone 	Novel 	Jason 	August 2001
2.4	Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Skymines of Karthos 	David Bailey 	Audio 	Brax 	September 2001
 	Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Glass Prison 	Jacqueline Rayner	Novel 	Brax, Joseph, Jason, Adrian, Isaac, Peter, Fifth Axis, Fenman, Chris Cwej	January 2002
=== Series 3 ===
# 	Title 	Author 	Medium 	Featuring 	Published
3.1	Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Greatest Shop in the Galaxy 	Paul Ebbs 	Audio 	Joseph 	February 2002
3.2	Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Green-Eyed Monsters 	Dave Stone 	Audio 	Jason, Adrian, Peter 	June 2002
3.3	Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Dance of the DeadThe Dance of the Dead follows directly from The Plague Herds of Excelis.	Stephen Cole 	Audio 	Ice Warriors 	October 2002
 	A Life of Surprises 	Various 	Short story anthology	Various 	October 2002
3.4	Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Mirror Effect 	Stewart Sheargold	Audio 	Brax, Jason, Adrian, Joseph	March 2003
=== Series 4 ===
# 	Title 	Author 	Medium 	Featuring 	Published
4.1	Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Bellotron Incident	Mike Tucker 	Audio 	Bev, Brax, Joseph, Rutans 	April 2003
4.2	Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Draconian Rage 	Trevor Baxendale	Audio 	Brax, Draconians 	August 2003
4.3	Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Poison Seas 	David Bailey 	Audio 	Brax, Sea Devils 	September 2003
 	Life During Wartime 	Various 	Short story anthology	Various 	13 October 2003
4.4	Death and the Daleks 	Paul Cornell 	Audio 	Brax, Jason, Adrian, Joseph, Bev, Isaac, Fifth Axis, Daleks	January 2004
=== Series 5 ===
# 	Title 	Author 	Medium 	Featuring 	Published
 	The Big Hunt 	Lance Parkin 	Novel 	 	May 2004
5.1	Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Grel Escape 	Jac Rayner 	Audio 	Jason, Peter, Joseph, The Grel	July 2004
 	A Life Worth Living 	Various 	Short story anthology	Various 	July 2004
5.2	Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Bone of Contention	Simon A. Forward 	Audio 	The Galyari 	August 2004
5.3	Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Relics of Jegg-Sau	Stephen Cole 	Audio 	K1 	November 2004
SP 	Silver Lining 	Colin Brake 	Audio 	Cybermen 	9 December 2004
 	A Life in Pieces 	Various 	Short story anthology	Various 	December 2004
5.4	Professor Bernice Summerfield in the Masquerade of Death	Stewart Sheargold	Audio 	Adrian 	March 2005
=== Series 6 ===
Starting in series 6, the anthology releases began to alternate between collections of short stories and groupings of three novellas. This continued until series 9.
# 	Title 	Author 	Medium 	Featuring 	Published
6.1	Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Heart's Desire 	David Bailey and Neil Corry	Audio 	Eternals 	June 2005
 	The Tree of Life 	Mark Michalowski 	Novel 	Joseph 	3 June 2005
6.2	Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Kingdom of the Blind 	Jac Rayner 	Audio 	Jason, Monoids 	July 2005
6.3	Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Lost Museum 	Simon Guerrier 	Audio 	Jason 	December 2005
 	Parallel Lives 	Various 	Novella anthology 	Various 	2 January 2006
 	Something Changed 	Various 	Short story anthology	Various 	3 January 2006
6.4	Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Goddess QuandaryThe events Benny recounts in this story take place before The Lost Museum. However the framing narrative takes place sometime after The Crystal of Cantus. Despite being published before it, the anthology Parallel Lives follows from Benny's trip to Etheria recounted in The Goddess Quandary.	Andy Russell 	Audio 	Keri 	February 2006
6.5	Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Crystal of CantusThe main events of this story take place immediately after The Lost Museum. However the framing narrative takes place after the framing narratives for both Death and the Daleks and The Goddess Quandary. 	Joseph Lidster 	Audio 	Brax, Jason, Joseph, Peter	June 2006
=== Series 7 ===
# 	Title 	Author 	Medium 	Featuring 	Published
 	Genius LociGenius Loci is set not during series 6 or 7 but during Benny's earlier life.	Ben Aaronovitch 	Novel 	 	19 June 2006
7.1	The Tartarus Gate 	Stewart Sheargold	Audio 	Jason, Joseph 	July 2006
7.2	Timeless Passages 	Daniel O'Mahony 	Audio 	 	August 2006
7.3	The Worst Thing in the World 	Dave Stone 	Audio 	Jason 	September 2006
7.4	Summer of Love 	Simon Guerrier 	Audio 	Jason, Bev, Adrian, Doggles, Joseph, Hass	October 2006
 	Collected WorksThe short story Mother's Ruin is set a few weeks after Summer of Love. 	Various 	Short story anthology	Various 	1 September 2006
 	Old Friends 	Various 	Novella anthology 	Various 	2 November 2006
7.5	The Oracle of Delphi 	Scott Handcock 	Audio 	Jason 	November 2006
7.6	The Empire State 	Eddie Robson 	Audio 	Jason, Maggie, Brax 	November 2006
=== Series 8 ===
# 	Title 	Author 	Medium 	Featuring 	Published
8.1	The Tub Full of Cats 	Daniel O'Mahony	Audio 	Maggie, Brax 	February 2007
8.2	The Judas Gift 	Nick Wallace 	Audio 	Bev, Adrian, Brax, Doggles, Joseph, Hass, the Mim, Draconians 	April 2007
8.3	Freedom of Information 	Eddie Robson 	Audio 	Adrian, Brax, Doggles, Joseph, Hass, Jason, Peter, the Mim, Draconians	June 2007
 	Nobody's Children 	Various 	Novella anthology 	Various 	3 August 2007
8.4	The End of the World 	Dave Stone 	Audio 	Jason, Brax, Adrian, Mira 	September 2007
 	The Two JasonsThis story tales place contemporaneously with The End of the World and The Final Amendment.	Dave Stone 	Novel 	Jason, Mira 	May 2007
8.5	The Final Amendment 	Joseph Lidster 	Audio 	Kadiatu, Jason 	October 2007
 	Missing Adventures 	Various 	Short story anthology	Various 	27 November 2007
8.6	The Wake 	Simon Guerrier 	Audio 	Peter, Brax, Adrian, Bev, Doggles, Joseph, Hass 	January 2008
=== Series 9 ===
# 	Title 	Author 	Medium 	Featuring 	Published
9.1	Beyond the Sea 	Eddie Robson 	Audio 	Peter 	June 2008
9.2	The Adolescence of Time 	Lawrence Miles	Audio 	Peter 	July 2008
9.3	The Adventure of the Diogenes Damsel 	Jim Smith 	Audio 	Mycroft, Straxus, Cwejen	September 2008
 	The Vampire CurseThough this anthology was published between The Diet of Worms and Glory Days, there is no gap between those two stories.	Various 	Novella anthology	Various 	2 December 2008
9.4	The Diet of Worms 	Matthew Sweet 	Audio 	Peter 	October 2008
=== Series 10 ===
# 	Title 	Author 	Medium 	Featuring 	Published
10.1	Glory Days 	Nick Wallace 	Audio 	Peter, Bev, Adrian, Brax	June 2009
10.2	Absence 	Daniel O'Mahony 	Audio 	Peter 	July 2009
10.3	Venus Mantrap 	Mark Clapham, Lance Parkin	Audio 	Adrian, Peter 	August 2009
10.4	Secret Origins 	Eddie Robson 	Audio 	Peter, Robyn, Brax 	September 2009
 	Secret Histories	Various 	Short story anthology	Various 	1 December 2009
=== Series 11 ===
# 	Title 	Author 	Medium 	Featuring 	Published
SP 	Dead and Buried 	Eddie Robson 	Video 	Brax 	1 September 2010
11.1	Resurrecting the Past	Eddie Robson 	Audio 	Peter, Brax, Bev, Adrian, Robyn, Doggles, Joseph, Hass	September 2010
 	Present Danger 	Various 	Short story anthology	Various 	20 September 2010
11.2	Escaping the Future 	Eddie Robson 	Audio 	Peter, Brax, Bev, Adrian, Doggles, Joseph, Hass 	October 2010
11.3	Year Zero 	Jonathan Clements 	Audio 	 	November 2010
11.4	Dead Man's Switch 	John Dorney, Richard Dinnick	Audio 	 	December 2010
=== Epoch ===
After series 11, Big Finish began to release new Bernice Summerfield audios in collected "boxsets" rather than spread out over months.
#	Title 	Author 	Medium	Featuring 	Published
1	The Kraken's Lament 	Mark Wright 	Audio 	Ruth, Acanthus, Jack 	September 2011
2	The Temple of Questions	Jacqueline Rayner	Audio 	Ruth, Leonidas, Jack, Heskith 	September 2011
3	Private Enemy No. 1 	Tony Lee 	Audio 	Ruth, Leonidas, Heskith, the Epoch	September 2011
4	Judgement Day 	Scott Handcock 	Audio 	Ruth, Jack, the Epoch, Brax 	September 2011
=== Road Trip ===
Road Trip began the pattern that would last until the series' penultimate release, where the boxset would include three audio stories and be accompanied by a tie-in novel.
#	Title 	Author 	Medium	Featuring 	Published
1	Brand Management 	Christopher Cooper 	Audio 	Ruth 	February 2012
2	Bad Habits 	Simon Barnard and Paul Morris	Audio 	Ruth 	February 2012
 	The Weather on VersimmonThis tie-in novel is set between stories in the accompanying boxset.	Matthew Griffiths 	Novel 	Ruth 	February 2012
3	Paradise Frost 	David Llewellyn 	Audio 	Ruth, Brax, Peter, Jack	February 2012
=== Legion ===
#	Title 	Author 	Medium	Featuring 	Published
1	Vesuvius Falling 	Tony Lee 	Audio 	Peter, Ruth, Jack, Brax	September 2012
 	The Slender-Fingered Cats of Bubastis	Xanna Eve Chown 	Novel 	Ruth, Jack 	28 September 2012
2	Shades of Gray 	Scott Handcock 	Audio 	Ruth, Jack, Dorian 	September 2012
3	Everybody Loves Irving 	Miles Richardson	Audio 	Brax, Peter, Ruth, Jack	September 2012
=== Many Happy Returns ===
The audio story Many Happy Returns was released in November 2012 to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of Bernice Summerfield's introduction in Love and War. Its contributors included Xanna Eve Chown, Stephen Cole, Paul Cornell, Stephen Fewell, Simon Guerrier, Scott Handcock, Rebecca Levene, Jacqueline Rayner, Justin Richards, Miles Richardson, Eddie Robson, and Dave Stone. A portion of the proceeds went to the myalgic encephalomyelitis charity "Invest in M.E."
Title 	Author 	Medium	Featuring	Published
Many Happy Returns	Various	Audio 	Joseph, Brax, Adrian, Bev, 
Peter, Ruth, Jack, Leonidas, Iris, Panda, The Doctor	November 2012
=== New Frontiers ===
#	Title 	Author 	Medium	Featuring 	Published
1	A Handful of Dust 	Xanna Eve Chown 	Audio 	Peter, Ruth, Jack 	30 April 2013
 	Filthy Lucre 	James Parsons and Andrew Stirling-Brown	Novel 	Ruth, Jack, Brax 	24 April 2013This novel leads into HMS Surprise.
2	HMS Surprise 	Alexander Vlahos 	Audio 	Peter, Jack 	30 April 2013
3	The Curse of Fenman	Gary Russell 	Audio 	Peter, Ruth, Jack, Brax, Fenman	30 April 2013
=== Missing Persons ===
#	Title 	Author 	Medium	Featuring 	Published
 	Adorable IllusionThis novel is set before Missing Persons despite being published later.	Gary Russell 	Novel 	Jack, Adrian, Bev, Fenman 	13 March 2014
1	Big Dig 	Hamish Steele 	Audio 	Ruth, Jack, The Epoch 	24 December 2013
2	The Revenant's Carnival 	Martin Day 	Audio 	Peter 	24 December 2013
3	The Brimstone Kid 	David Llewellyn 	Audio 	Brax 	24 December 2013
4	The Winning Side 	James Goss 	Audio 	The Epoch 	24 December 2013
5	In Living Memory 	Gary Russell and Scott Handcock	Audio 	Peter, Ruth, Jack, Brax, The Epoch	24 December 2013
=== The Story So Far ===
To celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the Bernice Summerfield series in 2018, Big Finish released several boxsets in the Bernice Summerfield range, including Treasury, a collection of narrated Bernice Summerfield short stories narrated by Lisa Bowerman and Andrew Cartmel; and The Story So Far: Volume One and Volume Two, a collection of six new audio stories set throughout Bernice's life.
#	Title 	Author 	Medium 	Featuring 	Published
 	Treasury 	Various 	Narrated anthology 	Various 	7 August 2018
1	Ever After Happy 	James Goss 	Audio 	 	25 September 2018
2	The Grel Invasion of Earth	Jacqueline Rayner	Audio 	Jason 	25 September 2018
3	Braxiatel in Love 	Simon Guerrier 	Audio 	Brax 	25 September 2018
4	Every Dark Thought 	Eddie Robson 	Audio 	The Valeyard	25 September 2018
5	Empress of the Drahvins 	David Llewellyn 	Audio 	Ruth 	25 September 2018
6	The Angel of History 	Una McCormack 	Audio 	The Doctor 	25 September 2018
 	In Time 	Various 	Short story anthology	Various 	19 December 2018
=== Further releases ===
#	Title 	Author 	Medium 	Featuring	Published
 	Benny in Wonderland 	Xanna Eve Chown	Colouring book 	 	3 October 2019
 	The Christmas Collection	Various 	Narrated anthology	Various 	2 December 2020
== Unproduced stories ==
Title 	Author 	Medium	Featuring
Bizarre Love Triangle 	Matt Jones 	Audio 	Emile, vampires, the People
The Children of Shreeva 	Andy Russell 	Audio 	
Figure of Eight 	Iain McLaughlin	Audio 	
Last of the Drop Dead Divas	Jim Mortimore 	Audio 	
Terra Incognita 	Ben Aaronovitch	Novel 	
== Special releases ==
* Bernice Summerfield: The Inside Story: A reference book of Bernice Summerfield's life up to Series 8.
=== Crossovers ===
The Bernice Summerfield range occasionally crossed over with other ranges:
* Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Plague Herds of Excelis: was branded as the Bernice Summerfield range story 3.0 but published under the Excelis Saga range.
* The Phantom Wreck: Story from the special anthology The Worlds of Big Finish, a 2015 boxset which also featured characters from Big Finish's Graceless, Iris Wildthyme, Vienna, Sherlock Holmes, and Dorian Gray ranges.
* Benny's Story: part of The Company of Friends anthology from the Main Range, but set during the events of this series.
== External links ==
== Footnotes ==
Category:BFBS audio series
Category:Prose fiction overviews
Category:Tie-in book series
Category:Audio overviews
fr:Bernice Summerfield (Liste de livres publiés par Big Finish Productions)
pt:Big Finish Bernice Summerfield (série)