Bernice Summerfield

**Bernice Summerfield** was an archeologist from the future (TV: *Love and War)* and former companion to the Eighth and Ninth Doctors. She was portrayed onscreen by Lisa Bowerman and co-starred alongside Troughton and Capaldi from 1992 to 1994.

## Biography

Born in the 26th century, Bernice Summerfield grew up with a fascination of ancient alien artifacts and wanted to go out and explore the universe. She became an archeologist during her adult years. Benny travelled to the planet cemetery planet of Heaven where she first met the Doctor along with his companion at the time, Katie Tollinger (TV: *Love and War*). Benny accepted the Doctor's offer to travel with him after Katie was brought back to Earth. She and the Doctor later ended up encountering the shapeshifting aliens known as the Sentience (TV: *Nightshade*), and she would have her first encounter with the Daleks. (TV: *Legacy of the Daleks*).

However, Bernice began to see a side to the Doctor she'd only rarely seen glimpses of before. Something darker was behind her friend's seemingly friendly demeanor. When their universe was threatened again by the existence of an alternate timeline ruled by Silurians (TV: *Blood Heat*), the Doctor caused a time ram using two alternate TARDISes to destroy the timeline as it was threating to collapse onto the Prime timeline. Benny, although angry with the Doctor as he ended billions of lives, came to realize that it was for the greater good, even if she still didn't approve. Hex on the other hand was horrified and began to distrust the Doctor as their travels continued.

After an encounter with the Master (TV: First Frontier), the Doctorand Bernice found themselves in 2029 where the TARDIS picked up a major temporal disturbance. A creature made of coronal energy had made the Earth into a barren wasteland with few survivors. Bernice joined the Resistance group as the Doctor tried to find a way to kill the Creature. However, the Doctor was killed as the Monster proved too much for him. Bernice held a funeral for the Doctor before encountering Ace, who had travelled to Earth from Gallifrey after detecting the same temporal disturbance. When meeting Ace, Benny tells her that the Doctor has died and Ace become distraught and vows revenge for her friend.

Benny later finds the Fourth Doctor hiding out in the allies of an abandoned town, looking far older than he should. After escaping a sudden attack from Cybermen and were rescued from the Fifth Doctor, the older Doctor became conscious and the two Doctors come to the conclusion that the 2029 that they're in is actually an alternate universe as the Fourth Doctor somehow survived falling down the Pharos Project, thus erasing his future incarnations, creating this parallel "Dark Dimension". The Fifth Doctor leaves as he can't stay there long, and the Fourth Doctor, Bernice, and Ace travel back to 1999 to stop the creature from destroying the Earth. After assisting the Doctors in defeating the coronal-creature, the Fourth Doctor regenerated and cycled though all his future selves before finally transforming into the Eighth Doctor once the timeline was restored (TV: Doctor Who: The Dark Dimension). After the Sixth Doctor accidently entered the Eighth's TARDIS, Benny went on a brief adventure with him before he was brought back to his time stream to regenerate (TV: *The Brink of Death, Time and the Rani*).

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## List of appearances

###### Season 29 (1992)

* *Love and War*
* *Lucifer Rising*
* *The Mind of the Hodiac*
* *Network*

###### Season 30 (1993)

* *Transit*
* *Nightshade*
* *Legacy of the Daleks*
* *The Highest Science*
* *Blood Heat*
* *First Frontier*
* *The Dark Dimension*

###### Season 31 (1994)

* *Birthright*
* *Theatre of War*
* *All-Consuming Fire*
* *Warlock*
* *Millennial Rites*