Death and the Daleks (audio story)

 was the final audio story of the fourth season of the Big Finish Bernice Summerfield series. It was a direct sequel to the short story anthology Life During Wartime.

It was unusual, though not unique, in that it began with a "previously on Bernice Summerfield" segment, which brought listeners up to speed with the details of the Fifth Axis Occupation of the Braxiatel Collection covered in Life During Wartime.

Written by Benny's creator Paul Cornell, this story revisited the planet Heaven, the planet where she first met the Doctor. This story also revealed greater details about the Fifth Axis, a group first introduced in The Doomsday Manuscript, the first full length Big Finish Bernice Summerfield novel published in 2000. It also debuted Benny's father on audio.

It was an unusual length, the first 2 CD Bernice Summerfield audio story since Just War and the only original Bernice Summerfield audio story to be 2 CDs long as of March 2018.

The second CD also includes the bonus story Closure, originally released as part of the audio anthology Buried Treasures.

Publisher's summary
The Braxiatel Collection has been occupied by the Fifth Axis, who seem to be led by a figure from Bernice's past. Behind this mysterious man lies the evil time-travelling power of the Daleks.

As Bernice's friends rise up to end the occupation, Bernice embarks on a desperate rescue mission, to somewhere she last went long ago.

Braxiatel confronts his destiny, Jason risks all for his love, and lives are shattered and lost, as the battle of the Braxiatel Collection reaches its epic conclusion.

Our heroes will live free or die...

Part one
After downloading Fifth Axis security data to her pass card, Benny sees her father, Isaac, on a screen and removes her disguise, but he claims not to know her and tells her that he leads the Fifth Axis fleet. He raises the alarm and she runs away to Jason, telling him that she believes him to be under mind control and giving him the pass card to have analysed. The next day, she visits Braxiatel, who has been repeatedly questioned by Marshal Anson about the whereabouts of his time capsule, and updates him on what she has learnt.

Jason shows Benny that Isaac's transmissions seem to be relayed from Heaven. She manipulates Anson into letting her go there on an archaeological mission and says farewell to Adrian, telling him that she loves him in case he is killed whilst she is away. After saying goodbye to Peter, Benny heads off with Jason, whom she is surprised to learn has been given permission to join her. They follow the signal to the Heavenite arch where, after fleeing from Daleks, they find Isaac being used as a battle computer and release him, but they are caught and questioned. The Daleks confirm that they kidnapped Isaac from the 20th century to exploit his knowledge.

Lieutenant Moskof interrogates Bev about the Braxiatel Collection Revolutionary Council, but Joseph knocks him out and rescues her, having been told by Jason not to worry about the Axis learning of their security data having been compromised as the resistance will receive the new codes once transmitted. During a food riot, Bev tells Ms Jones about Moskof's actions, but she remains largely sympathetic towards him and asks her to allow her and Moskof to escape the Collection together. Adrian is informed by Moskof that he and the other Killorans are to be deported to the Fifth Axis homeworld, but they protest and Braxiatel tells the resistance to rebel tonight.

Using the energy contained in Jason's fat suit, Benny gets herself and Jason out of their prison cell and they go back for Isaac, escaping by hoverbike as the Daleks chase them on transolar discs. They reach the Fifth Axis spaceship they arrived in and fly back to the Collection, Isaac comforting Benny when the Fifth Axis archaeologists they left behind are firebombed by the Daleks. Benny sends a coded message to Joseph for Braxiatel to warn him of the Daleks ("doubtless anyone listening expects kind sentiments"), leading Braxiatel to dematerialise his time capsule, previously disguised as his office, with Anson still inside. The Daleks, Benny says, must not take her or her friends alive.

Part two
Isaac is able to escape the pursuing Daleks in hyperspace and, when they arrive on the Collection, he and Benny go to find Peter whilst Jason gets in contact with his mercenaries, whom Bev has called in to assist in the liberation. Anson escapes when Braxiatel hands him over to Adrian, who then leads the Killorans against the Axis and joins Jason. Mister Crofton dies in Jason's arms, telling him that he helped the revolution for his wife and asks him to ensure that his will is honoured. Moskof rejects Ms Jones when she suggests that they leave the Collection together and pretends to have been using her as a hostage the entire time when the rebels come to hang her as a traitor. When he is cornered by Benny and Isaac, he shoots himself rather than be arrested.

Braxiatel demands the Fifth Axis's surrender and has the irregulars capture and detain their surviving soldiers. At Isaac's suggestion, Braxiatel takes him, Benny, Jason and Bev to the Dalek control centre in his capsule, but Isaac falls back under Dalek control and sends the capsule down a time contour to be seized by the Daleks. Braxiatel tries to kill Isaac upon realising that the Daleks' goal had always been to acquire his capsule, but Benny and Adrian stop him and Isaac gets control of himself once again. They are pursued down the time contour by a Dalek time machine and Benny suggests that Braxiatel materialise the capsule at the control centre as planned to introduce the Fifth Axis to their true masters.

The two time machines materialise and the Fifth Axis attack the Daleks, believing them to be inferior beings due to them being aliens and managing to kill several of them by aiming for the eyestalks per Isaac's instruction, but not before Anson is killed. The Axis are then made to surrender to Benny and her friends and enter Braxiatel's time capsule. Benny tells Jason that she wants them to resume their relationship and Jason kills the final Dalek whilst Braxiatel uses the Daleks' time capsule and his own technology to put together something similar to the Dalek battle computer, which he then has Isaac use to decimate the Fifth Axis; he sends some fleets into black holes, some towards a Draconian fleet and manipulates others into damaging their own homeworld's defences.

Braxiatel travels in his capsule to negotiate with a number of spacefaring powers for their protection and invites aliens back to the Collection to examine what is left of Fifth Axis culture. He also hires Bev as his personal assistant. Benny catches up with Isaac, who stays to help with the reconstruction, and declines his offer to go back to the 20th century with him but promises to visit him in Braxiatel's capsule. She visits Ms Jones when she comes out of hiding to resume her job and invites her to join her, Jason and Bev at Café Vosta.

The story of the end of the Fifth Axis occupation is told every Liberation Day to help remember those who died. On one such day, Benny presents the centrepiece of the Garden of Whispers as stipulated by Mister Crofton's will: two burgundy crystal lilies which will remain there forever in memory of him and his wife.

Cast

 * Bernice Summerfield - Lisa Bowerman
 * Irving Braxiatel - Miles Richardson
 * Jason Kane - Stephen Fewell
 * Adrian Wall - Harry Myers
 * Joseph - Steven Wickham
 * Bev Tarrant - Louise Faulkner
 * Ms Jones - Beverley Cressman
 * Mister Crofton / The Daleks - Nicholas Briggs
 * Isaac Summerfield - Ian Collier
 * Marshal Anson - Michael Shallard
 * Bernard Moskof - Andrew Westfield

Art

 * Braxiatel has a J. M. W. Turner painting.

Daleks

 * The Daleks use Isaac Summerfield as a Dalek Battle Computer.

Foods and beverages

 * Braxiatel drinks lapsang souchong and eats Kunzle cakes.
 * Benny mocks the Daleks stating they couldn't "exterminate [their] way out of a tomato".

Individuals

 * Benny sees her father, Isaac Summerfield, who appears to be posing as the leader of the Fifth Axis.
 * This is the first confirmation that Irving Braxiatel is a Time Lord as he has a TARDIS.
 * Bernice mentions Winston Churchill, Napoléon Bonaparte and Alexander the Great.
 * Mira is one of Jason's irregulars.

Planets

 * Benny and Jason track the transmission to the planet Heaven. The planet Heaven was the place where Benny first met the Seventh Doctor in Love and War.

Species

 * Marshal Anson mentions the Hoothi when speaking of Heaven.
 * Joseph delivers a message from Bernice to Braxiatel which reads "Doubtless Anyone Listening Expects Kind Sentiment" to alert him to who are really pulling the strings.

Continuity

 * Bernice voices a "previously on Bernice Summerfield" detailing the events of PROSE: Life During Wartime.
 * Benny mentions Heaven and the Hoothi. (PROSE: Love and War)
 * The Daleks use a battle computer as the Renegade Daleks did in Shoreditch, London in November 1963. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks)
 * Bernice mentions the Daleks making duplicates, which they last experimented with in TV: Resurrection of the Daleks.
 * Bernice also mentions when she first met the Vardans. (PROSE: No Future)
 * Bernice mentions the Movellans, when saying they were able to defeat the Daleks for centuries, making the universe look like a disco. She also mentions their weakness, of removing the hipside powerpacks. (TV: Destiny of the Daleks)
 * Braxiatel listens to The Magic Flute to relax, as Romana II did during her Presidency. (AUDIO: Weapon of Choice)
 * Bernice mentions that the Daleks' once manipulated one empire against another. (TV: Frontier in Space)
 * Parasiel attended the lecture Benny delivered on the occupation, the framing story of this adventure. (AUDIO: The Goddess Quandary)