The Tertiary Console Room: Review - Professor Bernice Summerfield

'The fear was so palpable. It was that which made us hurt one another, no, killed each other. Slowly but surely, one by one, and it was your fault!.'

In the world of Bernice Summerfield, it seems somewhat paradoxical that despite having built up a significant cast of supporting characters, the original audio stories from Big Finish have used them rather sparingly. With the winding down of the interlinked novel series, characters like Irving Braxiatel, Adrian Wall and Jason Kane have tended to stay in the background with only Dave Stone's The Green Eyed-Monsters utilising the last two recently.

Stewart Sheargold's The Mirror Effect, the final story in Benny's third season of audio releases, goes someway to readdressing this by featuring all of the characters mentioned above plus cameos from Joseph the Porter and Benny's son, Peter. In utilising all these characters, Sheargold examines intimately the relationships between Benny and her triumvirate of friends, tightly focusing on how they have been changed by recent events. The acute significance of the title becomes clear as Sheargold uses the idea of reflecting the darker parts of the characters against each other, bringing out their innermost fears to the surface. The result is a dark and edgy psychological drama where little is as it appears as it is reflected in the mirror…

By placing the listener immediately into the story without explanation, Sheargold lets them piece together the situation which sets the tone for the drama straight away as The Mirror Effect's script encourages careful attention from its audience as the emphasis is firmly character-based and the development of their interactions is crucial to the progression of the storyline. It soon becomes apparent that Benny and Jason have been brought inside a mirror artefact within the Collection and Braxiatel and Adrian have followed them through. Sheargold hints that there was something drawing them inside and that the choice may not have been their own which gives an immediate sense of dread as the tension is created. This is further stressed by the way that Benny and Jason talk to each other upon their arrival as they begin to argue with each other over whose fault it was and the seeds of suspicion are already forming in Benny's mind even then.

The development of Sheargold's story is exemplary. It builds cautiously, enabling the tension of the situation to be stoked to the maximum as the fears of the characters come to the fore and begin to effect their perception and he heightens this atmosphere at every possible opportunity. It's a fascinating idea to use the concep t of a mirror reflection to explore the main characters here and it does bring up some surprising results such as Braxiatel's fears that Benny secretly despises him for creating a situation on the Collection where he can utilise the publicity of her half-breed child and the depth of hatred that Jason feels towards Adrian because of the fear he feels at the possibility of loosing Benny to the Killoran completely. Also interesting is the way that Sheargold refuses to elaborate on the explanations he gives for the reason why the mirror effects these characters so profoundly. This ambiguity is another example of the focus on character based drama rather than plot based, and it leaves a lot of questions unanswered about the nature of the entity they find within.

The central concept of highlighting the darker sides of the characters gives the cast plenty of meat to sink their teeth into as they almost all get to show two sides of their character, both their 'real' selves and how they have been affected by their experiences but also their 'mirror' versions as they play against each other creating conflict.

Lisa Bowerman delivers another confident display as Benny with her journey into darkness wonderfully conveyed as she finds herself alone with no one to face but herself. Her performance is quite subtle at times and the change between the assured and assertive Benny of old to the terrified version she becomes as the full horror of what she's up against is revealed is quite startling. Sheargold's script brings this into clear focus when this Benny meets her mirror image towards the end and because of the exaggerated nature of the mirror Benny, the difference between the two aspects of Bowerman's performance define how both versions of the character are perceived because they contrast each other skilfully.

Of the regular characters, undoubtedly the scene stealer here is Miles Richardson as Irving Braxiatel, begging the question of why is this only the second meaningful time he has appeared in Benny's stories when he's so good in the role. Richardson's voice is rich and deep, instantly giving Braxiatel a considerable presence in the audio and given the forceful nature of the character is entirely appropriate. During the run of Bernice Summerfield New Adventures novels, the worst misuse of Brax as a character was to employ him as a kind of substitute figure for the now absent Doctor and attempt to recreate the relationship Benny had with him during the time she spent with him as a companion, which was flawed because the dynamic between Benny and Brax is fundamentally different. While Braxiatel is ostensibly a good man, there's always been a slightly sinister side to him as his motivations have sometimes been ambiguous. Sheargold's script returns this element of mystery to the character with hints at his dark side before showing it in spectacular fashion with a most unexpected course of action towards one of the other characters. Richardson plays this with just the right note of deviousness and it emphasises the idea that there is a lot more to Irving Braxiatel than has been shown in Big Finish's ranges so far. His character is an area certainly worthy of further exploration in future Benny audios.

As shown memorably in The Green-Eyed Monsters there is a fierce rivalry between Jason Kane and Adrian Wall as they both stake their claims for being the main man in Benny's life, holding up their badges as ex-husband and father of her child respectively as their qualifications for the role. In the world of the mirror, both characters fears about how Benny prefers the other come to the fore and Stephen Fewell and Harry Myers are both superb at bringing this to life with Fewell in particular showing how disturbed Jason can become when his insecurities about the woman he loves comes to the fore. Indeed the unhinged nature of Fewell's performance makes it completely believable that he would choose the actions he undertakes here due to his increasing paranoia about how others see him and how his role seems inadequate somehow.

While Steven Wickham gets a few lines towards the end as Joseph, the other supporting cast member is Beverly Cressman, who plays Doctor Carnivel. Initially seen as a survivor of whatever happened to the crew of the mining station before, it soon becomes evident that Carnivel is much more than just that and Cressman is very effective as the instigator of doubt into the minds of the other characters by provoking them and playing off their emotions and feelings. It's quite a small part in the overall play as the focus is on the main characters, but it's a very effective one.

Andrew Swann's sound design is certainly atmospheric in creating an appropriate echo filled sound for the abandoned mining station and there are a number of interesting effects used throughout the production which really help to convey what is happening. This is important because Sheargold's script features little expository dialogue about what the setting looks like and so the post production work becomes more important here as it needs to insinuate the setting to help create it for the listener in their own mind's eye, and in this respect Swann succeeds well. Regular Benny series composer David Darlington is on hand to score the story and he's come up with some interesting music, full of stings and jagged patters vaguely evocative of Dudley Simpson's Doctor Who work. While this emphasises the dark nature of the story perfectly through its unusualness, its effectiveness isn't as complete as it might have been as it lacks variation and so become repetitive after a while.

The Mirror Effect is a slice of dark, edgy psychological drama, on a scale of which the like hasn't been heard in the Benny audios for a long time. Sheargold probes the innermost fears of the four central characters with great lucidity, giving them a depth which accentuates their personalities. When this is coupled with the superb performances of the cast, the result is a breathtaking production which raises the standard for which future Benny audios must aim for. The Mirror Effect is simply the best original Bernice Summerfield audio produced by Big Finish to date - more in the same vein please!