Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Doomsday Manuscript (novel)

Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Doomsday Manuscript, or simply The Doomsday Manuscript was the first full length novel published by Big Finish Productions following their production of audio story adaptions of novels from the Virgin New Adventures and Virgin Bernice Summerfield New Adventures ranges.

This novel continued to significantly develop the Braxiatel Collection which was first mentioned in the 1979 Doctor Who television story City of Death, though was not visited until 1994's Theatre of War, a Virgin New Adventures novel. Both Theatre of War and this novel were written by Justin Richards.

Publisher's summary
The Doomsday Manuscript: The key to finding the Lost Tomb of Rablev. Legend says that if the tomb is ever opened, the world will end.

The Braxiatel Collection: Home to Professor Bernice Summerfield, and the location of one half of the Doomsday Manuscript.

The Fifth Axis: A callous, aggressive force that is assimilating territory and acquiring art treasures and archaeological finds.

Kasagrad: The last neutral planet in the Assimilated Territories, strategically vital and protected from the Fifth Axis by its impenetrable defence systems.

With the party to celebrate the opening of the Braxiatel Collection and the new year still underway, Benny finds herself drawn into a web of mystery and intrigue that starts with death and gets more serious at every stage. Can she find the second half of the Doomsday Manuscript before it falls into the wrong hands? Can she trust her partner in the quest? What will she find on Kasagrad - the location of the Lost Tomb of Rablev?

And can she squeeze in another drink at Joseppi's - favourite haunt of black marketeers, spies, counterfeiters, Fifth Axis officers, and desperate archaeologists - before the end of the world?

Plot
to be added

Characters

 * Bernice Summerfield
 * Irving Braxiatel
 * Kolonel Daglan Straklant
 * Joseph
 * Adrian Wall
 * Clarissa Jones
 * Mr Crofton
 * Wolsey
 * Broderick Naismith
 * Dale Pettit
 * Munroe Hennessey
 * Fedora Bronsan
 * Milo Yendipp
 * Luci Yendipp
 * Bryn Lavers
 * Georgia Salis
 * Marshal Raul Kendrick
 * Ilsa Deveraus
 * Herv Gresham

Art

 * Braxiatel owns champagne glasses moulded on Marie Antoinette's breasts.
 * Braxiatel has a replica of The Supremacy of Venus on the ceiling of his office.

Foods and beverages

 * Vendolusian plankton is poisonous until partially digested by the Vendolusian pond squwelch, after which it is served as a delicacy.

Individuals

 * Benny's birthday is 21 June.
 * Adrian Wall is a Killoran.
 * Wolsey has his paw broken by Daglan Straklant and then fixed by Ms Jones with genetic binding ointment.
 * Irving Braxiatel gives Benny a replacement Joseph.

Literature

 * Braxiatel has a copy of Stanoff Osterling's The Good Soldiers.

Continuity

 * Benny stands in awe in Braxiatel's Garden of Whispers, not for the first time, as this is where she first met Braxiatel. (PROSE: Theatre of War)
 * The Braxiatel Collection was first mentioned in TV: City of Death.
 * Who the Fifth Axis really are and who are behind them is revealed in AUDIO: Death and the Daleks.