In Living Memory (audio story)

In Living Memory was the seventieth Bernice Summerfield audio story released by Big Finish Productions. It was the fifth and final story of the Missing Persons series.

Publisher's summary
Bernice Summerfield is alone...

Having been captured — albeit technically rescued — by an old enemy, she finally learns the truth her friends and their disappearances... and realises that she is a cog in a far greater machine.

Whatever happens, this is now the end for Bernice Summerfield... and she's determined to go down fighting.

But how long can she resist when the odds are stacked against her? And is there really such a thing as a happy ending...?

Plot
The Epoch take Benny to a base at the Heart of Time from which they stem the flow of history. Dr Bernard Springmoore, whom she met on Saravas, Moros Prime and Legion but cannot recall, explains that he is the occulant of all realities and that the Epoch detected temporal instabilities around Benny which they believed were exacerbated by Ruth and Jack, two people who were out of their time. He removed them from her timeline, but the instabilities continued, so they took Peter and Irving as well.

Dr Springmoore shows Benny an entrance to the Time Vortex and an eddy where the Epoch isolate people from continuity if they threaten their scheme. Because of her time travel and stubbornness, time would split and the universe would reset itself if she were to enter the Vortex. To prevent this, the Epoch isolate her timeline and map and remap her memories to make her believe that she is Lisa Bowerman, an actress playing a remapped Benny called Emma Dunlop. She records an audio story with the remapped Irving, Peter, Ruth and Jack, who are called Miles Richardson, Thomas Grant, Ayesha Antoine and David Ames.

Emma arrives in Bridgermere with the deeds to Bridgermere Hall, the ancestral home of Julius, played by Richardson, who tells her that they are all being held in a soap opera by the Epoch. He invites her to join him in escaping, but she declines. Finn, Brooke and Troy, played by Grant, Antoine and Ames respectively, also reveal that they are aware of the truth and Emma changes her mind, heading with them up the road in the hopes of entering the real world. A door appears and another Benny steps in, whom Scott Handcock explains is the Benny from Victorian London in Judgement Day. Gary Russell, a Hierophant, tells the actors that Benny is real.

Victorian Benny takes the actors to the Heart of Time where their memories start to come back. They confront Dr Springmoore, who sends a group of Epoch back in time to stop Benny on Atlantis, inadvertently creating a paradox. He then sends another group to Theon's planet, creating a further paradox where they collect Benny and bring her here. The Epoch place Irving, Peter, Ruth and Jack in a time bubble and the two Bennys reveal that Dr Springmoore is another version of them from an alternative timeline, mapped and remapped. Victorian Benny jumps into the Vortex with Dr Springmoore, splintering them across time and rendering the scheme redundant. The universe is reset.

With the Epoch's continuity disrupted, their temporal operations are suspended and their agents and Hierophants returned to their proper place and time. They explain that they mapped history and saw the chaos of the universe, which they believed was due to Benny's adventures, and employed her help in resolving it; instead, she mapped and remapped reality and became Dr Springmoore. The Epoch has now reached its end. Benny suggests that, rather than return to Legion, they use the Epoch technology to be selfish and find those that they have lost: Bev, Adrian, Jason, Antonio, Lara, Leo and Gallifrey.

Cast

 * Bernice Summerfield - Lisa Bowerman
 * Jack - David Ames
 * Ruth - Ayesha Antoine
 * Peter Summerfield - Thomas Grant
 * Irving Braxiatel - Miles Richardson
 * Dr Bernard Springmoore - Seán Carlsen
 * The Epoch - Michael Thomson
 * Willem van der Heever - David Warwick
 * Krige - Susan Vidler
 * Shrynor - Brett Underwood

Uncredited cast

 * Scott Handcock - Himself
 * Gary Russell - Himself

Worldbuilding

 * Gary Russell is a Hierophant.

Continuity

 * Benny has not been travelling alone since Raster. (AUDIO: Year Zero)
 * Ruth mentions the Dominiccis, Gabriella and Federico, in her brainwashed state. (AUDIO: Brand Management)
 * Springmoore visited Benny on Saravas after her "mishap" with Shepton Rothwell. (AUDIO: Big Dig)
 * Benny says that villains normally dress for the occasion. (TV: Doctor Who)
 * Benny says that she would be split into millions of splinters if she were to be pushed into the Vortex. (TV: The Name of the Doctor)
 * In this story three versions of Bernice Summerfield appear. One from the prime timeline, the one from the Victorian London reality (AUDIO: Judgement Day) and a male version named Dr Bernard Springmoore who was originally a woman but was remapped multiple times by the Epoch. (AUDIO: Big Dig)
 * Benny mentions Theon. (AUDIO: The Winning Side)
 * Benny wants to use the Epoch's technology to find Bev Tarrant, Adrian Wall (PROSE: Adorable Illusion) and Jason Kane. (AUDIO: The End of the World) Peter wants to use it to find Antonio Tulloch, (AUDIO: The Curse of Fenman) Jack for Lara (AUDIO: Many Happy Returns) and Ruth for Leonidas. (AUDIO: Private Enemy No. 1) Braxiatel intends to use it to find Gallifrey. (AUDIO: Disassembled, Intervention Earth)
 * Benny's adventure in Athens is mentioned in passing. (AUDIO: The Oracle of Delphi)
 * One Benny comments about Dr Springmoore's name: "At least it's not Wintergreen". Later, an older version of Bernice Summerfield will use Wintergreen as an alias so she won't be recognised by her teenage self. (AUDIO: Ever After Happy)