Bernice Summerfield - Public Enemy No.1!
A while ago, around September in fact, while discussing a story I was pitching for my Doctor Who IDW series, BBC script editor Gary Russell asked 'do you want to write a Benny play?'
Now, to those in the know, a 'Benny play' is actually a Bernice Summerfield audio drama by Big Finish, and it's something that I've wanted to do now for a very, very long time.
A character created ny writer extraordinaire Paul Cornell, I first met Doctor Bernice Summerfield back in the nineties, when she became one of the Virgin 'New Adventures' companions of the Doctor. I read many (but not all) of her novels, I read the spin offs that Virgin did after the BBC grabbed the Doctor Who book rights back and I've listened to her audios - that is, I've constantly listened to her audios because when I shared a house with my good friend Craig Andrews, he is the biggest Benny fan in the world - he actually likes Bernice more than the Doctor - and he played these stories constantly.
(Flash fact - about six years ago I asked Ade Salmon, the one time artist of the Bernice Audios to draw Craig a Benny sketch - it's on pride of place on Craig's wall. And, when he met Paul Cornell at my wedding in January, Craig was too scared to tell him how much he loved the character.)
Fast forwards to late last year and I'm suddenly writing one of four stories set in a new universe. Nobody knew the ground rules and, to make it worse, I was following Jaqueline Rayner who, apart from Paul is probably THE definitive 'Benny' writer. Big shoes indeed to follow.
I can't say much about the story, apart from the fact that I wrote the treatment at two in the morning on my iPad while at the New York Comic Con last October, and that I managed to throw a couple of 'fan lines' in while I was writing. It was unfortunately recorded on the weekend of my Wedding, and Tracy understandably banned me from missing the latter to watch the recordings, but I've been told that it sounds brilliant, which is good enough for me.
My second audio for Big Finish, I found this was a little easier to write as I think I re-found my audio book 'sea legs' on this one. Hopefully I'll do more audios down the line, and tell more stories.
I'd definitely write Bernice again. It was great fun.
The box set that I'm in, The Epoch, comes out in September.
3. PRIVATE ENEMY NO. 1
Written by TONY LEE
The Great Leader is dead… Long live the Great Leader!
Atlantis is in disarray. The Historians are hiding Bernice, Leonidas and Ruth within their safe house - but the world is changing more than they could have ever imagined.
People are being erased from existence, their memories wiped clean and replaced with those of others. Entire buildings are altering, times are changing… and the Hierophants are on the move.
Can Bernice and her friends save Atlantis from the end of existence? Or will they too be assimilated?