Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Kingdom of the Blind (audio story)

Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Kingdom of the Blind, or simply The Kingdom of the Blind, was the twenty-fifth Bernice Summerfield audio story released by Big Finish Productions. It was the second audio story of the sixth season, released in July 2005. It featured the Monoids' second appearance in a story, their first being in the 1966 Doctor Who television story The Ark.
== Publisher's summary ==
Jason Kane thought things had been going so well with ex-wife Bernice Summerfield, until she went sleepwalking, stole Brax's shuttle (causing Jason grievous bodily harm in the process), and then abandoned her on-off lover to the mercy of a horde of mute and unfriendly aliens.
Although Benny — waking to find herself marooned on a strange planet dressed only in her nightie, with strange voices in her head and a bunch of one-eyed monsters threatening to cut out her tongue — would probably argue that her day was even worse, thank you very much.
But Benny does seem to have stumbled across the last resting place of a legendary civilisation, so it's not all bad. Well, assuming she and Jason can survive — intact — long enough to tell anyone about it...
== Plot ==
Whilst sleeping, Benny hears 26 screaming as 15's tongue is cut out and goes out into the snow in her nightie. Jason leaves Peter in Joseph's care and follows Benny as she boards Braxiatel's shuttle and sets off to help 26, with whom she remains in contact as she sleepwalks. 26 tells her that she and 15 both have two eyes, but that her people, whom she has no name for, are only allowed to keep their second eye if they remain silent. If they do not, their masters give them the choice of whether to lose their tongue, eyes or ears.
Benny arrives at her destination and wakes up when she is grabbed by the Monoid masters, feigning deafness to avoid having her tongue cut out. Her hands bound by Zarf, she is taken to Hult, the High Master, to have her deafness tested; the masters make two loud noises to try to catch Benny out, but 26 is nearby and telepathically lets her know when the noises are going to happen so that she does not react. She is then taken to prepare food in the kitchens and meets 26, who notices that Benny is wearing a relic of the Halyvon, a psychic race who sent out a spaceship before their world, Petrius III, was wiped out. 26 is wearing the same necklace, indicating that she is a descendant of the Halyvon.
Jason wakes up on the shuttle, having been knocked unconscious when it took off, and goes looking for Benny despite being barely able to walk, but he is captured and brought before 44, the only slave to choose to lose his eyes instead of his tongue. Jason promises to get the Halvyon off-world and he and 44 use a communications system to make it seem that they can all speak and frighten the Monoids into becoming their slaves, but Hult, who is about to have Benny's tongue, eyes and ears removed due to her having accidentally given herself away, says that they will only recognise those who can prove that they can speak as equals. Hult uncovers the deception and Benny and 26 run, going with 89 to meet with Jason and 44.
Hoping to give all of the Halyvon the ability to communicate telepathically, Benny asks 44 where he got the necklace which he gave to 26. He takes Benny, Jason and 26 into the caves to the Halyvon spaceship deep in the caves, where 26 senses that there was a fight between the Halyvon and that the survivors were taken as slaves by the Monoids after a girl took away the necklace and their telepathic abilities were lost and forgotten. 26 rebuilds a machine which will make all of her people telepathic and telekinetic, abilities which 44 uses to bring all of the Monoids to the ship where he strips them of their names and seals their mouths. Thanks to the necklace, Benny sees what the Halyvon were like and how it was the rich and powerful who left their world to die.
26 declares that she is the boss, a word which she learnt from Benny, and that the Halyvon will destroy this planet with the Monoids on it and return to Petrius III, but Benny persuades her to instead leave the Monoids on another world. 44 heals Jason's wounds and orders him and Benny to leave before taking off for Petrius III. The two of them return to Braxiatel's shuttle and head back to the Collection.
== Cast ==
* Bernice Summerfield - Lisa Bowerman
* Jason Kane - Stephen Fewell
* Aliens - Richard Unwin
* 44 - Paul Clayton
* 26 - Caroline Morris
== Crew ==
* Cover Art - Adrian Salmon
* Producer & Director - Gary Russell
* Executive Producer - Jason Haigh-Ellery
* Music and Sound Designer - Simon Robinson
* Writer - Jacqueline Rayner
* Monoids created by Paul Erickson and Lesley Scott
== Worldbuilding ==
* 15's tongue is cut out.
* Jason tells Joseph to look after Peter.
* 29 and 83 are ordered to return to work.
* Zarf binds Benny's hands.
* Rezram fears that Benny might be born of slaves with more than the permitted senses.
* The Tottenham Hotspurs won the FA Cup in 1982.
* The Galactic Trust have placed a preservation order on Petrius III.
== Notes ==
* This story was a prequel to the television story The Ark, which takes place millions of years in the future.
* This audio drama was recorded on 22 March 2005.
== Continuity ==
* Benny talks about her divorce with 26. (PROSE: Eternity Weeps)
* The First Doctor, Steven Taylor and Dodo Chaplet would encounter the Monoids aboard the Ark circa 10,000,000 and once again 700 years later. (TV: The Ark)
== External links ==
Category:Bernice Summerfield sources
Category:Series 6 (BFBS) audio stories
Category:2005 audio stories
Category:Stories set in the 27th century
Category:Monoid stories
Category:One part audio stories
Category:Bernice Summerfield audio stories