The Tertiary Console Room: Review - Professor Bernice Summerfield

'I need someone with a cool head, someone who can follow orders and someone with tact...'

Mike Tucker's second Professor Bernice Summerfield audio, The Bellotron Incident, is the second one in the series to feature prominently an old Doctor Who monster, and here it's the shape-changing Rutans who originally appeared in the Tom Baker story Horror Of Fang Rock (1977). While that was certainly one of the better stories of the Graham Williams era of Doctor Who, the tension of this small-scale, claustrophobic thriller was diluted by the rather ridiculous appearance of the Rutans themselves in their natural form as green blobs, complete with unconvincing Seventies style visual effects. But on audio, where their presence is conveyed through sound alone, they become a far more appealing prospect because there is no obvious effect used to differentiate whose form they have possessed, meaning they could literally be anyone and the listener would be none the wiser until they are exposed.

Big Finish's original Bernice Summerfield range of audios has often utilised its limited casts as important plot elements, with Tucker's own The Stone's Lament, The Extinction Event and the sublime The Mirror Effect all making use of their casts to double up into other parts. The Rutan's very being facilitates this and Tucker takes this idea to heart although he does wisely utilise this as little as possible to keep this a surprise.

Even before the Rutans actually appeared in Doctor Who it was established that they were fighting a long and bloody war with the Sontarans, and Tucker chooses this battle to form the backdrop to his story. The Bellotron Incident is centred around a planet that passes through both Rutan and Sontaran space, leaving an Earth ship, the Rites Of Passage, with the difficulty of preventing either side from exploiting this situation against their enemy. When that ship begins detecting unusual electrical activity on a planet where the most sophisticated technology should be the wheel, they discover the source of this energy is hidden within an ancient system of caves in which their orders forbids them to interfere with without expert archaeological help, and so Professor Bernice Summerfield finds herself once more within a war zone…

This is an intriguing set up for the story, as it has potential to be very tense with the human characters boxed in on both sides by aggressive aliens who only care about fighting each other, but Tucker never really explains the most crucial question about this scenario. Why are the humans involved? The Captain of the Rites Of Passage hints to Irving Braxiatel that there are 'complications' behind their involvement in the conflict but Tucker never explains what these are, making the military's presence somewhat anomalous particularly as when the Rutan appear, it claims that they have no interest in human peace treaties. Why would either them or the Sontarans tolerate their presence and not blast them away? Hopefully Tucker is laying the foundation for something in the future, otherwise much of the plot is built upon contrived ideas.

Aside from these grievances with the setting, The Bellotron Incident initially also suffers from exceedingly protracted pacing. After an introductory scene with a native nomad of Bellotron, conning money out of a local tribe, which helps to show the superstition and primitiveness of the indigenous population, but that itself is largely irrelevant to the actual story making this introduction quite tiresome in context, there is another drawn out introductory scene with Captain Quilby and Commander Ryan of the Rites Of Passage as they try to discover the cause of the unusual readings they are detecting on the planet. But they can't reach the source due to it being concealed and their regulations forbid them access to the cave system without expert assistance, so Quilby calls Brax and Benny is soon dispatched to help. The problem with this is it means Benny doesn't make her first appearance until sixteen minutes into the drama and while there's nothing wrong with keeping the main character off-stage to heighten their impact when they finally appear, but Benny's arrival requires her to be filled in which means that she is told everything that the listener already knows about the Bellotron situation! Had the story begun with Quilby's call to Braxiatel and followed it up with Benny's arrival, it would have been a much more satisfying opening as it would have had mystery, pace and would have avoided the need for repetition, thus making the start of The Bellotron Incident a much more livelier drama than it actually is.

As the action shifts to Bellotron itself, Tucker picks up the pace as the story rapidly becomes a sub-Indiana Jones style attempt to get into the ancient caves, evading packs of wild animals and strangely dead nomads in the process. The threat of the Brill is well conveyed thanks to some inventive sound design by Andrew Swann, but Tucker fails to inject any real tension into the scenes where Benny and Ryan are attempting to penetrate the inner sanctum and circumvent the various traps that have been set around it. This has the knock on effect of making these scenes which could be exhilarating seem rather pedestrian as it seems too routine.

The Rutan revival isn't as successful as the return of the Ice Warriors in The Dance Of The Dead because there's no credible attempt to reinvent or rejuvenate the Rutan, and while Tucker ultimately does try to cast a different light on them with the revelations of the final scene of the play, it's all told to the audience through other characters experience rather than hearing it for ourselves which makes it hard to care about. The ending in particular suffers from Tucker's desire to provide a surprise twist as this totally undermines the drama as none of the characters likely to return will have learned anything or changed as a result of the events of this play, rendering it all superfluous.

Tucker is a writer that likes to reuse his ideas when he can and with The Bellotron Incident, he extends this to characters as well as it sees the return of his light-fingered intergalactic thief Bev Tarrant, played again by Louise Faulkner, last seen with the Doctor and Ace in Tucker's last Doctor Who audio Dust Breeding (2001). Given that she seems set to join the ranks of the semi-recurring characters in Benny's world, it's an unusual way to introduce the character to a potentially new audience as she doesn't feature here until twenty minutes before the end and Tucker offers little insight into her character, beyond the fact that she's a thief and likely to do whatever is necessary to steal anything of great value. Despite plucky performances from Faulkner, Bev has never really been developed a great deal as a character and hopefully is she does return, other authors will be able to flesh her out and build her characterisation.

Director Gary Russell encourages good performances from his cast, with Lisa Bowerman, as ever, on fine form. The rapport she shows with Louise Faulkner during the final moments of the play shows that Bev Tarrant's arrival in the Benny-verse could prove to be interesting, if her presence is utilised well. Amazingly, there is an explicit reference to their mutual associate, although Richard Hurndall's incarnation would surely not approve. Karl Hansen's Commander Ryan is the most developed of the guest cast, proving an able foil for Benny for the bulk of the story and the evolution of their relationship is one of The Bellotron Incident's most interesting aspects. Bar all too brief cameos from Miles Richardson and Steven Wickham, the cast is completed by Peter John, an actor who shone brilliantly in the lively Doctor Who adventure The Church And The Crown, so it's great to hear him recast again here. As Captain Quilby, he is very convincing as a strong and authoritative leader, although given the distinctiveness of his voice it was surely an unwise move to double him up with the nomad in the opening scene, and anyone who has read the cast list and knows of John's vocal expression may end up wondering why Quilby has disguised himself and is attempting to con the natives…

The Bellotron Incident is sufficiently diverting to be entertaining, it suffers from Tucker overplaying certain scenes, sacrificing the story's pace for extended exposition, which reduces its effectiveness. Given this and the host of unanswered questions that Tucker ignores, this is a rather quiet and inauspicious start to the fourth season of Bernice Summerfield audios. Tucker surprises with his final twist, but its implications are such that any emotional investment made by the listener is lost as the characters likely to return will not be effected by the events of the story. The title is very apposite, for The Bellotron Incident is unfortunately a very incidental exploit for Benny.