Bernice Summerfield

Bernice Surprise Summerfield is a fictional character originally created by author Paul Cornell as a new "companion" of the Seventh Doctor in Virgin Publishing's range of original full-length Doctor Who novels, the New Adventures. The New Adventures were fully-licensed novels carrying on from where the Doctor Who television series had left off, and Summerfield was introduced in Cornell's novel Love and War in 1992.

A 25th century archeologist, Summerfield became a hugely popular character amongst fans of the books, and was present right up until their end in 1997. She officially stopped travelling with the Doctor in Happy Endings but returned for the last Virgin New Adventure, The Dying Days. That year, Virgin had lost the licence to publish Doctor Who fiction, which was taken back by BBC Books. However, range editors Peter Darvill-Evans and Rebecca Levene decided to continue the series, without the Doctor Who name or the Doctor and any other BBC copyright characters featuring, with Summerfield as the new lead.

These Bernice-led New Adventures continued until 1999, when the Virgin fiction department closed down. The previous year, however, audio production company Big Finish Productions had begun issuing full-cast, officially licensed professional audio dramas starring the character on CD, and they continued to do so. The character is played in all Big Finish's productions by actress Lisa Bowerman. After they gained the license to produce Doctor Who audio dramas in 1999, Big Finish twice featured Bernice in Doctor Who stories set during the run of the New Adventures novels.

As of 2004, Big Finish are still regularly producing Bernice Summerfield audio dramas, and the company has also published various novels and short story collections featuring the character. They have also announced provisional plans to produce a straight-to-video film production based around her.

See also

Doctor Who spin-offs