For a while now, I’ve been posting reactions to big “meaty” arcs such as The Eighth Doctor Adventures, Dark Eyes, Doom Coalition and The Collected War Doctor. Some of the stories I plan to listen to in the near future, though, are either one-off adventures or three-story arcs. I thought it would be easier on the indexer (Hi, Bob!) if I started one “catch-all” thread and maintain the index in the initial post myself. I invite others to contribute to this discussion as well, and it doesn’t have to be strictly Doctor Who, either; anything from Big Finish will qualify. I’m going to start in a couple of days) with…
The Four Doctors - (Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Doctors) - p16
The Five Companions - (Fifth Doctor, Ian, Stephen, Sara, Polly and Nyssa) - p17
The Company of Friends - (Eighth Doctor)
Benny's Story - p1
Fitz's Story - p1
Izzy's Story - p2
Mary's Story - p2
The Transposition Trilogy
The Defectors - (Seventh Doctor and Jo Grant) - p2
Last of the Cyberman - (Sixth Doctor, Jamie and Zoe) - p2, 15
The Secret History - (Fifth Doctor, Stephen and Vicki) - p2
The Masters Trilogy
And You Will Obey Me - (Fifth Doctor and old Master) - p3
Vampire of the Mind - (Sixth Doctor and new Master) - p3, 15
The Two Masters - (Seventh Doctor and both Masters) - p4
Doctor Who "Bonus Releases"
Her Final Flight - (Sixth Doctor and Peri) - p4
Cryptobiosis - (Sixth Doctor and Peri) - p4
Return of the Daleks - (Seventh Doctor) - p5
Return to the Web Planet - (Fifth Doctor and Nyssa) - p5
Trial of the Valeyard - (Sixth Doctor) - p3
Doctor Who - Novel Adaptations
Love & War
Original Sin
Cold Fusion
Sixth Doctor Reunited with Peri
The Widow's Assassin - p4, 14
Masters of Earth
The Rani Elite
Eighth Doctor and Mary Shelley
The Silver Turk - p5
The Witch from the Well - p7
Army of Death - p7
The Third Doctor Adventures
Prisoners of the Lake - p5
The Havoc of the Empires - p5
The Tenth Doctor Adventures (Vol. 2)
Infamy of the Zaross - p6
The Sword of the Chevalier - p6
Cold Vengeance - p6
Companion Chronicles
4.12. Solitaire - (Charlotte Pollard vs. The Celestial Toymaker) - p12
Miscelaneous Numeric
3. Whispers of Terror – (Sixth Doctor & Peri) - p16
6. The Marian Conspiracy – (Sixth Doctor & Evelyn) - p15
11. The Apocalypse Element – (Sixth Doctor) - p15
27. The One Doctor – (Sixth Doctor & Mel) - p16
29. The chimes of Midnight – (Eighth Doctor & Charley) - p19
40. Jubilee – (Sixth Doctor & Evelyn) - p17
45. Project: Lazarus – (Sixth Doctor & Evelyn) - p20
46. Flip Flop – (Seventh Doctor & Mel) - p16
51. The Wormery – (Sixth Doctor) - p7
57. Arrangements for War – (Sixth Doctor & Evelyn) - p8
60. Medicinal Purposes – (Sixth Doctor & Evelyn) - p8, 12
65. The Juggernauts – (Sixth Doctor & Mel) - p8
68. Catch 1872 – (Sixth Doctor & Mel) - p8
73. Thicker Than Water – (Sixth Doctor, Mel & Evelyn) - p9
75. Scaredy Cat – (Eighth Doctor, Charley & C'rizz) - p9
77. Other Lives – (Eighth Doctor, Charley & C’rizz) - p9
78. Pier Pressure – (Sixth Doctor & Evelyn) - p9
80. Time Works – (Eighth Doctor, Charley & C’rizz) - p9
83. Something Inside – (Eighth Doctor, Charley & C’Rizz) - p9
84. The Nowhere Place – (Sixth Doctor & Evelyn) - p9
86. The Reaping – (Sixth Doctor & Peri) - p7
90. Year of the Pig – (Sixth Doctor & Peri) - p7
88. Memory Lane – (Eighth Doctor, Charley & C’rizz) - p10
94. I.D. – (Sixth Doctor) - p10
97. The Wishing Beast – (Sixth Doctor & Mel) - p10
100. 100 – (Sixth Doctor & Evelyn) - p11
101. Absolution – (Eighth Doctor, Charley & C’rizz) - p10
103. The Girl Who Never Was – (Eighth Doctor & Charley) - p11
107. The Haunting of Thomas Brewster – (Fifth Doctor & Nyssa) - p12
108. Assassin in the Limelight – (Sixth Doctor & Evelyn) - p11
110. The Boy That Time Forgot – (Fifth Doctor & Nyssa) - p12
113. Time Reef – (Fifth Doctor & Nyssa) - p12
123. The Company of Friends – (Eighth Doctor & Benny, Fitz, Izzy. Mary) - p1-2
140. A Death in the Family – (Seventh Doctor & Evelyn) - p12
143. The Crimes of Thomas Brewster – (Sixth Doctor & Evelyn) - p12
144. The Feast of Axos – (Sixth Doctor & Evelyn) - p12
145. Industrial Evolution – (Sixth Doctor & Evelyn) - p12
149. Robophobia – (Seventh Doctor & Liv Chenka) - p2
150. Recorded Time & Other Stories (Sixth Doctor & Peri) - p13
153. The Silver Turk – (Eighth Doctor & Mary Shelley) - p5
154. The Witch from the Well – (Eigth Doctor & Mary Shelley) - p7
155. Army of Death – (Eigth Doctor & Mary Shelley) - p7
156. The Curse of Davros – (Sixth Doctor & Flip) - p13
157. The Fourth Wall – (Sixth Doctor & Flip) - p13
158. Wirrn Isle – (Sixth Doctor & Flip) - p13
166. The Acheron Pulse – (Sixth Doctor) - p13
169. The Wrong Doctors - (Sixth Doctor & Mel) - p3, 14
170. Spaceport Fear - (Sixth Doctor & Mel) - p15
171. The Seeds of War - (Sixth Doctor & Mel) - p15
178. 1963: Fanfare for the Commonmen - (Fifth Doctor & Nyssa) - p14
179. 1963: The Space Race - (Sixth Doctor & Peri) - p14
180. 1963: The Assassination Games - (Seventh Doctor & Ace) - p14
182. Antidote to Oblivion - (Sixth Doctor & Flip) - p14
183. The Brood of Erys - (Sixth Doctor & Flip) - p14
184. The Scavenger - (Sixth Doctor & Flip) - p14
188. Breaking Bubbles & Other Stories - (Sixth Doctor & Peri) - p13
192. The Widow's Assassin - (Sixth Doctor reunited with Peri) - p4, 14
193. Masters of Earth - (Sixth Doctor reunited with Peri) - p15
194. The Rani Elite - (Sixth Doctor reunited with Peri) - p15
198. The Defectors - (Seventh Doctor & Jo) - p2
199. Last of the Cybermen - (Sixth Doctor, Jamie & Zoe) - p2
200. The Secret History - (Fifth Doctor, Stephen & Vicki) - p2
204. Criss-Cross - (Sixth Doctor & Constance)
205. Planet of the Rani - (Sixth Doctor & Constance)
206. Shield of the Jotunn - (Sixth Doctor & Constance)
211. And You Will Obey Me - (Fifth Doctor & Old Master) - p3
212. Vampire of the Mind - (Sixth Doctor & New Master) - p3
213. The Two Masters - (Seventh Doctor & both Masters) - p4
218. Order of the Daleks - (Sixth Doctor & Constance)
219. Absolute Power - (Sixth Doctor & Constance)
220. Quicksilver - (Sixth Doctor, Constance & Flip)
225. Vortex Ice / Cortex Fire - (Sixth Doctor & Flip)
231. The Behemoth - (Sixth Doctor, Constance & Flip)
232. The Middle - (Sixth Doctor, Constance & Flip)
233. Static - (Sixth Doctor, Constance & Flip)
275. The End of the Beginning - p18
Replies
Hmmm.....
Tomorrow People anyone?
“I’m going to start in a couple of days…”
About that… I started this thread last month when I had a few spare minutes, after I had placed the order. Big Finish says to allow 28 days for delivery, but it rarely takes that long. (Some shipments I’ve received in a mere seven days.) Complicating matters is that I had it shipped to my wife’s place of business, and it arrived while she was on vacation. It’s in now, though, so I will soon be ready to begin…
THE COMPANY OF FRIENDS – Four one-part stories
1. Benny’s Story
2. Fitz’s Story
3. Izzy’s Story
4. Mary’s Story
“BENNY'S STORY” by Lance Parkin
“Deep in the mines of Epsilon Minima, Professor Bernice Summerfield is up to her neck in it - as usual. The Countess Venhella has hired her to recover a lost Time Lord artefact: A TARDIS key, it turns out. Guess whose?”
Bernice Summerfield confounded me for a long time, but I think I’ve got a handle on who her character is now. I suppose I could have looked this up years ago, but here is some information from the online TARDIS Data core: “The Dying Days was the final release of the Virgin New Adventures line of Doctor Who novels and the only one featuring the Eighth Doctor. After this novel was published, Virgin Books forfeited the rights to produce novels featuring the Doctor to BBC Books. This marked a transition to a new series of novels featuring Bernice Summerfield as the main character while BBC Books made their own series of novels featuring the Eighth Doctor.”
So she first appeared in the one and only Eighth Doctor paperback from Virgin in the New Adventures series, then went on to be featured in a series of books on her own. I was not-too-surprised to learn that I already own a copy of The Dying Days. (Thanks, Bob!) Her first Big Finish appearance was The Shadow of the Scourge (October 2000), only the 13th offering in the main range. After that, she went on to be featured in a new solo audio series of her own, The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfiled.
“Benny’s Story” is the second ever meeting of Bernice Summerfield and the Eighth Doctor, and it is written by the same author who introduced her in The Dying Days. Here is what he had to say about it: “It’s a while since I wrote The Dying Days, the first meeting of the Eighth Doctor and Benny Summerfield. While it was never discussed, because Virgin knew they’d lost the license to publish Doctor Who books, I’m sure that Eighth Doctor New Adventures would have brought back Benny as his companion—we all know that she’s a popular and enduring character. I think they work well together, and it’s lovely to get the chance to try to demonstrate that with Paul McGann and Lisa Bowerman as my playthings.”
The story itself is narrated by Benny first person. She introduces herself and alludes to her series of solo adventures (“What do you think? That I just sat around doing nothing after I left the Doctor?”) as well as “The Shadow of the Scourge” (“I bumped into the Doctor once again when he was in his seventh incarnation, I think.”). Even though Benny has an established history with which I am unfamiliar, this story does an excellent job of introducing the character.
The plot’s not bad, either.
...the same author who introduced her in The Dying Days...
Note that Benny had appeared alongside the Seventh Doctor in dozens of novels before her appearance in The Dying Days.
So noted. I misunderstood her first meeting with the Eighth Doctor to be her first apearance. (I told you Bernice Summerfield confounded me!) Thanks for the correction.
The initial post-cancellation novels featured the Seventh Doctor and Ace, Benny was the first companion created for the novels (you should have all of these somewhere, it sounds like you haven't had a chance to read them). They brought her back recently for one of the Twelfth Doctor novels. "I'm an archaeologist, but probably not the one you were expecting."
There are alot of elements in "The Dying Days" that make a lot more sense if you've read the previous novels with Benny in.
“(you should have all of these somewhere, it sounds like you haven't had a chance to read them)”
Ha! (I have had time to sort them, however.)
"I'm an archaeologist, but probably not the one you were expecting."
That’s funny.
“There are alot of elements in "The Dying Days" that make a lot more sense if you've read the previous novels with Benny in.”
I’m satisfied with her re-introduction in “Benny’s Story.” I think I’ve been given all of the information I really need to know. I really like Lisa Bowerman as Benny. Maybe one day I’ll get around to buying her audio adventures. And Torchwood. And UNIT. And… You know what? I just realized I’ve been conflating “Benny Summerfield” with “Evelyn Smythe.” Ugh.
The “completist” in me is just going to have to realize it may not always be possible to get in on the beginning of everything. Although, I did order Robophobia (up next, after The Company of Friends) because it’s the first appearance of Liv Chenka.
Whoever Liv Chenka may be.
Liv Chenka has been travelling with the Eighth Doctor through the audios "Dark Eyes" and "Doom Coalition."
"Night of the Doctor" has brought audio adventures into canon (AFAIAC, anyway), and The Company of Friends folds print companions/adventures into audio continuity. Does that make the print versions canon, too?
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