The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield Vol 7: Blood and Steel – Review

As I’ve been reading through the Virgin New Adventures range of books, I’ve really grown to love the character of Bernice Summerfield. And even though I’ve got quite a few of her audios in my Big Finish library, I’ve not listened to many of them, either due to time constraints or just because I’ve decided to listen to something different. As a result, I’ve missed out on many of The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield.

But I made time for Blood and Steel, Bernice, David Warner’s Unbound Doctor and the Cybermen?! Initially, I wasn’t sure I would enjoy the set; would it be a bit too dark and adult for something to do with Doctor Who? Well, yes, but I still loved every second!

The opening episode, Willkommen, by producer James Goss sets things up in an entertaining way, with the Doctor and Bernice following a distress call that leads them to 1930’s Berlin. As Bernice points out, this isn’t the best time to find oneself, either as a trapped alien or a time traveller. And it doesn’t take long before the sins of the past begin to show themselves, between the Hitler Youth and Swastikas adorning every building and street corner, things are instantly set up in a grim tone.

There is a great look at fascism throughout this set and using the Cybermen to explore these elements is a great choice, not only do they bring the extreme horror of this ideal, but they are terrifying in their own right. While the Doctor spends most of his time enjoying, or not, the company of the Compere, who runs a Cabaret show. The Doctor and the Compere are so interested in the growing Cybermen threat, they’ve forgotten that Bernice and her new friend Wulf have gone to explore why people have been going missing. This leads them to a forest where they find what’s been happening in a disused railway tunnel, Bernice and Wulf find themselves up next for Cyber-Conversion.

There are a number of familiar sound effects for people who have seen the Cyber chambers on television but actually hearing Bernice explaining to Wulf what is going to happen to them as it’s happening to them, makes the scenes even more shocking and harrowing. Of course, the Doctor gets there in time, but only in time to save Bernice. But there was a part of me that wondered if Big Finish were going to flip the table and kill off one of their most popular characters!

The second story of the set, Wulf, deals with the fallout from the previous episode, with a Cyber-Wulf going back to his village in the German Countryside. Instantly, from writer Aaron Lamont, there are shades of the Hammer Horror villages from the Dracula and Frankenstein films, but this is a story about an outsider. Lamont is very good at making this an incredibly personal story and even though Bernice doesn’t appear until around halfway through, I didn’t grow bored. When Bernice does find Wulf, Lamont cleverly doesn’t make the story about her, and she has to witness how tragically things are going to turn out for poor Wulf.

Most of the story is about seeing how much Wulf can take before he cracks. His family begrudgingly take him back, he had left them for the lights of the big city, then was turned into a monster. While his mother takes some time to get used to how her son is now, his father is a little more forgiving, even if he does use him mainly for pack labour around their farm. From the outset, there was really only one way this story was going to end, but that doesn’t make things any less tragic as the melancholy atmosphere draws the story to its end.

Fascism and conformity are themes that are greatly explored in the third story, Ubermensch, which could have felt like something of a remake of Tomb of the Cybermen. But I suppose we can have a little nod to the past every now and again isn’t a bad thing so in-between a group of academics with the Doctor and Bernice along for the ride, uncovering an ancient tomb, symbols and carvings and passing intelligence tests, this story takes a different look at the political group that would one day become the Nazi Party. Author Rochana Patel takes an intelligent look at how people can fall into fascism with the right propaganda and the right amount of silence people won’t notice the corruption going on around them.

In this case, the story looks at the corruption of education as the group are trying to uncover the last remains of the Vrill, who they claim to be the superior Aryan race. Despite all the death and darkness that makes up most of this story, there is some humour to be had thanks to David Warner’s Doctor. He never makes fun of or light of the Nazis or of their actions but of the danger unfolding around everyone in this specific location. Throughout this entire set, there is a thin line that they are running along, and it could have been very easy for one or all of the writers to fall off it, but thankfully, despite the grim setting and storytelling, it never gets completely doom-laden, nor does it become Allo’ Allo’.

The final story is perhaps the best of the set and really shows a new and terrifying side to the Cybermen. There were times in Victoria Saxton’s – Auf Wiedersehen – when I thought it was going to go too far. The Doctor had been captured and psychologically tortured by a partially converted Compere, who sends audience members to the conversion chambers through a deadly Cabaret show. David Warner steps up to the plate and gives an increasingly desperate performance as more and more characters are killed in front of him.

Fascism plays another big part in this story with the selected audience members being people that would have been targeted by what came next. One particularly haunting sequence involves a handsome man being sent off to be converted and return to his cyber-suit saying he’s still pretty because his brain still hasn’t processed what has just happened. It’s a moment that once you hear it, it’ll stick with you and one that I’m not sure you could get away with in a proper television Doctor Who. The trouble Bernice and the Doctor have is that have to keep history on track but give people enough hope that the Cybermen are going to be the only threat. Both Lisa Bowerman as Bernice and David Warner do an amazing job here as they do throughout the rest of the set.

Blood and Steel will also mark perhaps the last time we ever hear David Warner’s Doctor but what a story to leave as an ending! While its sombre tone might frighten some listeners off, dealing with elements of fascism, which is still prevalent in today’s world, it’s still quintessentially Doctor Who. Credit should go to the production crew for making the Cybermen scary again, and I hope we get versions like this in the television series proper.

Blood and Steel is an absolute triumph, but I hope this isn’t the last we hear from Bernice Summerfield!