Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Dance of the Dead (audio story)

Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Dance of the Dead, or simply The Dance of the Dead, was the fourteenth Bernice Summerfield audio story produced by Big Finish Productions. It was the first Bernice Summerfield audio story to feature the Ice Warriors and only the second time they've appeared on audio. The first was in the 2000 Doctor Who audio story Red Dawn.

This story leads on from The Plague Herds of Excelis with Iris Wildthyme having dropped Benny on board the Empress following their adventure.

Publisher's summary
Illegally smuggled aboard a spaceship, hungover to the nth degree, all Benny Summerfield wants is to curl up in a ball and die. And it looks like she's going to get her chance.

When disaster strikes the ship — human error, or deliberate sabotage? — Benny barely survives. Banding together with a party of Ice Warriors and a laconic steward, a hazardous, arduous race is on to find a way out of the wreck before it breaks up all together. But are her fellow escapees all they seem? Benny finds that's hard to tell when your own mind's being hijacked by the memories and emotions of a dead alien — while a Martian Grand Marshall becomes your better half...

Plot
After being dropped off on the Empress by Iris to complete her journey back to the Braxiatel Collection, Benny meets the steward Karter, Grand Marshal Sstac of New Mars and his aide-de-camp General Azzar. Above Ronos Minor, Karter warns of a belt of turbulence and a generator explodes, apparently splitting open several Kolgarian crystals and releasing a gas which kills the Kolgarians.

Azzar finds that the hull has been torn apart and a number of people sucked out into space. Whilst Benny and Sstac wait behind due to their lack of equipment to help them breathe, Azzar and Karter head to the bridge to extinguish the flames and increase the oxygen and Azzar comes to believe that a bomb was responsible for the damage. Sstac calls Benny "Musjarna", a name that he does not recognise, and Benny accuses him of leaving her in the rain before coming to her senses. The sprinklers are activated and Benny and Sstac make the journey to the bridge, during which Sstac realises that they absorbed memories from the crystals.

A ceiling falls and crushes Azzar's leg whilst Karter is believed to be dead. Benny and Sstac are forced to take an alternative route towards the bridge and Sstac attempts to kill her for infidelity when the Kolgarian memories resurface. They hear Azzar make an external message asking for retaliation againt Queen Bastrovan for the attack on the Empress and find that she has set the ship on a collision course with Ronos Minor to ensure action against the Queen. Sstac has another episode and chokes Azzar, believing her to be Musjarna's lover, before Benny brings him out of it. Azzar kills herself by electrocution to avoid fighting Sstac.

Benny discovers that Karter has stolen jewellery from the dead passengers and intends to leave the Empress by shuttle, despite him having claimed that the shuttles were completely inaccessible. She talks to Karter over the intercom and he tells them how he pretended to be a steward and that his partner, Regan, was not supposed to have caused as much damage as he has. At the shuttle bay, Benny offers to pay for a place for her and Sstac in Karter's shuttle, but he refuses to take Sstac and asks for sexual favours from her. Benny pretends to be Musjarna and kicks Karter in his genitalia whilst he is distracted. Karter then shoots Sstac and escapes.

A Martian Squad Leader finds Benny and Sstac unconscious on the ship and rescues them. Upon awakening, Benny writes a letter for Sstac and informs him that Karter remains at large for now and that the Empress has broken up. She cannot feel any trace of Musjarna inside of her and asks to see him so that they can go to Kolgar together.

Cast

 * Bernice Summerfield - Lisa Bowerman
 * Grand Marshall Sstac - Matthew Brenher
 * Karter - Francis Magee
 * General Azzar - Vivien Parry

Crew

 * Cover Art - Adrian Salmon
 * Director - Edward Salt
 * Executive Producer - Jason Haigh-Ellery
 * Music and Sound Design - David Darlington
 * Producer - Gary Russell
 * Writer - Stephen Cole
 * Ice Warriors created by Brian Hayles

Worldbuilding

 * Sstac and Azzar come from New Mars.
 * Karter asks the passengers to activate their stasis harnesses.
 * Kolgarians come from Kolgar.
 * The captain is killed.
 * Regan works in the shuttle bay.
 * Adrian has told Benny that the attractive human men that she meets often turn out to be the bad guy.
 * Sstac wears a cloak.

Continuity

 * Iris Wildthyme placed Benny on the starship after their adventure on Excelis. (AUDIO: The Plague Herds of Excelis)
 * Before leaving, Iris states that she was going to a bar that she knew, leading into her adventure with the Sixth Doctor. (AUDIO: The Wormery)