History Literature / BerniceSummerfield

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bernice_4796.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:Creator/LisaBowerman as Benny.]]

* DivorcedInstallment: By necessity, as this was the only way to keep the series going without the Doctor Who license.

[[caption-width-right:300:Lisa Bowerman as Benny.]]

** Actress Lisa Bowerman has been the voice of Benny since the first audio dramas featuring the character were produced in 1998. However, she (coincidentally) resembled the artistic rendering of Benny dating back to the character's ''first'' appearance on the cover of the novel ''Love and War'' six years earlier. As Bowerman became more identified in the role, artistic renderings of Benny began to resemble her more, to the point where the 2010 CGI animated short ''Dead and Buried'' directly based Benny's appearance on that of Bowerman (with elements from earlier renderings tossed in). Then, beginning with ''Epoch'' in 2011, Big Finish just started using straight photographs of Bowerman for the cover art.

* AndIMustScream: all too often. The fate of the Monoids in ''The Kingdom of the Blind'', for one, and the nature of the hyperdrive in ''A Tub Full of Cats'' for another.

* HalfHumanHybrid: Benny's son, Peter; a case of HumanMomNonhumanDad.

* AdventurerArchaeologist... [[RecycledInSpace in space!]]

* AdaptedOut: Two of the early audio dramas (''Birthright'' and ''Just War'') were based on novels that originally featured the Doctor and his companions (Ace in both, Roz and Chris in the latter). In the audio versions, they are dropped, and their roles are mostly taken by Jason.

* GroundhogDayLoop: Benny becomes trapped in one in ''Random Ghosts'', though unusually for the trope nobody actually remembers what happened the previous days. Instead, they're forced to look through footage taken by floating camcorders that's held outside of time...which becomes problematic when the cloud service is corrupted and the various recordings are scattered about, and nobody has any idea how long they've been within the loop. It's implied to have been a ''very'' long time.

With the division between "classic" and "new" Who being gradually erased in the 2010's, Bernice is now also free to meet the modern Doctors, starting with an appearance alongside the Twelfth Doctor in the 2015 novel ''Big Bang Generation''.

All in all, the Bernice Summerfield series has quite a few BroadStrokes, and can be approached from a wide variety of starting points. It is one of the Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse's most successful spinoffs, and ''the'' longest running one if you're not picky about which medium it's in.

[[http://bigfinish.com/Bernice-Summerfield/ Big Finish Bernice Summerfield page is here.]]

* ActionGirl / ActionMom

* AllJustADream: [[spoiler:''The Masquerade Of Death''.]]

* ArtifactCollectionAgency: The Braxiatel Collection

* ClassyCatBurglar: Beverly

** Miles Richardson also already looked exactly like [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/braxiatel_trope_8348.jpg the first illustration depicting Braxiatel]] (from the cover for the 1997 Literature/DoctorWhoNewAdventures novel ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoNewAdventuresHappyEndings Happy Endings]]''). There is a joke amongst fans that Miles Richardson is the alias for Braxiatel's human self, just [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E8HumanNature waiting to open a]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E9TheFamilyOfBlood fob-watch]], and Miles hasn't bothered to deny it.

* LawyerFriendlyCameo

* OutWithABang: ''The Greatest Shop in the Galaxy''

* RobotBuddy: Joseph

* SlapSlapKiss: Benny and Jason
* SnarkKnight: Benny
* SpaceOpera
* SpaceshipGirl: ''The Secret of Cassandra''
* StupidJetpackHitler: ''Just War''

* WhamEpisode: Several:

* WritingAroundTrademarks: Not so much this as keeping distance from the parent series -- Daleks and Cybermen can appear, but in stories not featuring the Doctor, nobody goes any further than occasional accidental references to the "Doct..." before stopping themselves.

All in all, the Bernice Summerfield series has quite a few BroadStrokes, and can be approached from a wide variety of starting points. It is one of the Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse's most successful spinoffs, and ''the'' longest running one if you're not picky about which media it's in.

* BroadStrokes: The complicated nature of Benny's continuity (she started in the books and migrated to the audios, which don't always agree) it's now explicit that Benny's early personal timeline is a little tangled, and she often remembers ''both'' versions of a story. For instance, it's hinted she remembers the events of ''Just War'' happening with both the Doctor and with Jason.

* PettingZooPeople: And how. Benny's babydaddy is a wolf/ape alien, one of her close friends is an enormous sentient ''[[IntelligentGerbil hamster]]'', and another is a [[{{Cthulhumanoid}} squid-headed humanoid]].

* EverybodyIsSingle: Thanks, in part, to ExecutiveMeddling. Benny marrying Jason in ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoNewAdventuresHappyEndings Happy Endings]]'' really ''was'' going to be [[HomeSweetHome her happy ending and departure]] from the ''New Adventures''. Then the editors lost their license to ''Series/DoctorWho'', and decided to re-launch it around Benny. Since she'd have to be single for romantic subplots, Benny and Jason's marriage was deep-sixed. They still love each other deeply, though, frequently have sex, and genuinely look out for each other throughout their adventures.

* BigDamnKiss: Benny tackles the Eighth Doctor to the bed during their goodbye, after their first adventure together.

The series focuses on classic adventure as well as the relationships between its characters. Benny travels across the universe to right wrongs, explore new planets, and prevent the end of the world on many occasions. Joining her are her ex-husband [[TheAce Jason Kane]], her friend [[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho007TheGenocideMachine Bev]], her son [[HalfHumanHybrid Peter]], a Time Lord named [[MagnificentBastard Irving Braxiatel]], and many other friends and adversaries. And unlike the Classic ''Series/DoctorWho'' TV series, the ''Bernice Summerfield'' range tends to deal with very mature themes. The stories don't shy away from war, torture and death, but also celebrate love and sex (Benny being from an almost FreeLoveFuture) and show relationships in a realistic way.

In addition to the ''New Adventures'' novels, Bernice has an audio series produced by Creator/BigFinish. The AudioPlay series consists of adaptations of Benny's novels (sometimes directly, sometimes loosely) as well as original stories, frequently intersecting with other AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho ranges.

With the division between "classic" and "new" Who being gradually erased in the 2010's, Bernice is also free to meet the modern Doctors, starting with an appearance alongside the Twelfth Doctor in the 2015 novel ''Big Bang Generation''.

All in all, the Bernice Summerfield series has quite a few BroadStrokes, and can be approached from a wide variety of starting points. It is one of the Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse's most successful spinoffs, and the longest running (if you're not picky about which medium it's in) with Benny herself premiering in 1992, before taking over the ''New Adventures'' and becoming the starring character in 1997 and still receiving regular releases to this day.

All in all, the Bernice Summerfield series has quite a few BroadStrokes, and can be approached from a wide variety of starting points. It is one of the Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse's most successful spinoffs, and Benny has been going strong since 1992.

* EverybodyIsSingle: Thanks, in part, to ExecutiveMeddling. Benny marrying Jason really ''was'' going to be [[HomeSweetHome her happy ending and departure]] from the ''New Adventures''. Then the editors lost their license to ''Series/DoctorWho'', and decided to re-launch it around Benny. Since she'd have to be single for romantic subplots, Benny and Jason's marriage was deep-sixed. They still love each other deeply, though, frequently have sex, and genuinely look out for each other throughout their adventures.

** Miles Richardson also already looked exactly like [[http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/braxiatel_trope_8348.jpg the first illustration depicting Braxiatel]] (from the cover for the 1997 Literature/DoctorWhoNewAdventures novel ''Happy Endings''). There is a joke amongst fans that Miles Richardson is the alias for Braxiatel's human self, just [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E8HumanNature waiting to open a]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E9TheFamilyOfBlood fob-watch]], and Miles hasn't bothered to deny it.

* AdaptedOut: Two of the early audio dramas (''Birthright'' and ''Just War'') were based on novels that originally featured the Doctor and his companions (Ace in both, Roz nad Chris in the latter). In the audio versions, they are dropped, and their roles are mostly taken by Jason.

All in all, the Bernice Summerfield canon has quite a few BroadStrokes, and can be approached from a wide variety of starting points. It is one of the Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse's most successful spinoffs, and Benny has been going strong since 1992.

In addition to the ''New Adventures'' novels, Bernice has an audio series produced by Creator/BigFinish. The AudioPlay canon consists of adaptations of Benny's novels (sometimes directly, sometimes loosely) as well as original stories, frequently intersecting with other AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho ranges. With some stories labeled as a "Side Step" to canon, some being released as standalone specials and others referring to the events of the novels as taking place in the same continuity, the canon is all in all one hell of a tangled mess. This is made even more complicated by the fact that Braxiatel, Benny's employer, also appears prominently in the Creator/BigFinish ''AudioPlay/{{Gallifrey}}'' audios, where one or more versions of him may or may not exist at the same time and loop back in on their own timelines, crossing over with Benny's plot.

* CanonImmigrant: The Cwejen, originally from Literature/FactionParadox, appear in ''The Adventure of the Diogenes Damsel''.

In addition to the ''New Adventures'' novels, Bernice has an audio series produced by Creator/BigFinish. The AudioPlay canon consists of adaptations of Benny's novels (sometimes directly, sometimes loosely) as well as original stories, frequently intersecting with other AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho ranges. With some stories labeled as a "Side Step" to canon, some being released as standalone specials and others referring to the events of the novels as taking place in the same continuity, the canon is all in all one hell of a tangled mess. This is made even more complicated by the fact that Braxiatel, Benny's employer, also appears prominently in the Creator/BigFinish ''AudioPlay/{{Gallifrey}}'' audios, where one or more versions of him may or may not exist at the same time and loop back in on their own timelines, crossing over with Benny's plot. Benny's video appearances include the CGI webcast "Dead and Buried", the live-action short film "The Crystal Conundrum" (alongside the Seventh Doctor) and Big Finish video trailers. With the division between "classic" and "new" Who being gradually erased in the 2010's, Bernice is also free to meet the modern Doctors, starting with an appearance alongside the Twelfth Doctor in the 2015 novel ''Big Bang Generation''. All in all, the Bernice Summerfield canon has quite a few BroadStrokes, and can be approached from a wide variety of starting points.

It is one of the Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse's most successful spinoffs, and Benny has been going strong since 1992.

''Bernice Summerfield'' is a long-running franchise about the titular interstellar archaeologist from 2540, whose adventures take place across hundreds of books, audio plays and other media. Though it originated in the Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse and still takes place in the world of ''Series/DoctorWho'', the Bernice Summerfield line has spun off into its own continuities.