The second Bernice Summerfield is very different to Oh No It
Isn’t. Whereas Oh No It Isn’t felt at times like a pantomime, this felt very
much like a more grown up adventure. The writer of this story is Matt Jones who
would go on to writer the 2006 Doctor Who story The Impossible Planet/The Satan
Pit, Jones has adapted this story from his own novel. As I am still getting use
to the Bernice Summerfield series, it’s nice that they have done a straight
forward (relatively so) story. The story sees the introduction of Bernice’s
ex-husband Jason Kane who is kidnapped and Bernice is involved in a conflict
between the Ursulans and the Sunless. There is an issue as the Sunless have
invaded Ursu to try and retrieve technology that was stolen from their home
world. It’s a nice situation to use in the story and it’s done very well.
Sophie Aldred and Anneke Wills are the two actors from the
Doctor Who world to grace the Bernice Summerfield world. Aldred seems to having
a whale of a time playing Miranda who seems to be a very unlikeable person, she
almost seems to be like Cruella de Ville. She starts off as a very
condescending person but that quickly changes when it emerges that she is after
the figurine and is willing to kill to get it. Wills on the other hand is very different
and is very likeable, I think that as Doctor Kitzinger she is a warm person who
seems not to far removed from Polly.
The relationship between Bernice and Jason was quite an
interesting one because they weren’t on speaking terms at the start of the
story then once Jason is kidnapped she seems to warm to him slightly but after
they are reunited where there is a brief moment that Bernice seems happy to see
Jason its back to normal. Stephen Fewell does well as Jason Kane and it’s a nice
character that isn’t in the story enough for my liking. Hopefully in future
stories he will return.
The journal entries are a wonderful way of telling the
story. Aside from the lovely music that they use it’s a nice way to break up
the scenes and helped at times with the plot development but really for me it’s
the music that I think is truly superb. Lisa Bowerman is very good as Bernice
in this story as she gets to do be the Bernice that I think she should be and
that is a female Indiana Jones. She is believable as a leader and delivers the
comedy stuff very well and it’s balanced just right with the dramatic stuff. I
found Tameka to be annoying because some of the lines seemed slightly off.
There was one moment where just moments before she is about to be sucked out of
an air lock she is more worried about her hair. Not the most important thing in
such a situation. Apart from these brief moments I thought that Jane Burke was
good as Tameka, the character is designed as someone who clearly doesn’t really
like the slow methodical nature of archaeology. I really do like Lewis Davis as
Emile Mars-Smith who comes across as a slightly weedy person but that maybe why
I like the character. The rest of the supporting characters are very good as
you would expect from Barnaby Edwards and Nicholas Pegg.
I still find myself getting put off by the swearing, its
mild but it’s still unusual to hear from a Big Finish production. Beyond the
Sun is an enjoyable story which I liked far more than Oh No It Isn’t. I don’t think
it’s perfect but it’s reasonable and has aged well over the last 14 years. If I
had one issue with this story is that the tracks are way too long. Most Doctor
Who releases have tracks that are usually at most seven minutes long. Of the
eight tracks that make up this story, five of them are over 10 minutes long
with the longest being 19 minutes and 55 seconds long. There is no need for
this. Thankfully it looks like the next release has more reasonable durations
which is good. I am starting to see why Bernice has been going for 20 years in
book and audio.
Rating – 7/10
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