Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Bellotron Incident (audio story)

 was the opening audio story of the fourth season of the Big Finish Bernice Summerfield series. It was the first performed appearance of the Rutans since 1994's Shakedown: Return of the Sontarans. Bellotron featured Bev Tarrant, a character which "crossed over" from the Doctor Who audio stories The Genocide Machine and Dust Breeding — the first case of a made-for-audio character leaping from one of Big Finish's ranges to another, outside of the special "event" of the Excelis Saga.

The story began a trend that would be carried throughout the fourth series. To a degree only minimally true of previous series, the fourth run of Benny stories knit Benny firmly into the DWU. Each story of the year would feature prominent species from Doctor Who, and would integrate Benny lore from as far back as her first appearances in the Virgin New Adventures. From this story forward, it would be impossible for fans to argue that Benny's post-TARDIS adventures took place in any other universe but the Doctor's.

Publisher's summary
Two aggressive alien races.

A war that has raged for centuries.

A planet that orbits through no man's land.

The Rutan/Sontaran conflict has started to endanger the Terran trade routes, but when the Captain of the battle cruiser Rites of Passage finds an energy signature of artificial origin on the primitive planet of Bellotron he is duty bound to call in the assistance of a qualified academic.

Confronted by savage predators, fiendish traps and the unexpected involvement of an opportunist thief, an unwilling Benny finds herself caught up in a conflict where neither side plays by the rules—and no-one is quite what they seem...

Plot
to be added

Cast

 * Bernice Summerfield - Lisa Bowerman
 * Bev Tarrant - Louise Falkner
 * Irving Braxiatel - Miles Richardson
 * Joseph - Steven Wickham
 * Commander Ryan - Karl Hansen
 * Captain Patrick Quilby - Peter John

Conflicts

 * Braxiatel mentions the Sontaran-Rutan conflict.

Culture

 * Benny states that the sun sigil is similar to ones on Earth, Argolis, and Blinni-Gaar.

Individuals

 * Both Bev and Bernice get copied by a Rutan.

Planets

 * Bellotron's orbit takes it through Sontaran space and Rutan space, with only a 54 hours between being in either space.
 * When looking at some hieroglyphs, Benny noticed that some of them looked like alphabets found on Earth and Argolis.

Species

 * Captain Quilby suggest that the Zzinbriizi might be responsible for the alien activity on Bellotron.

Continuity

 * Bev Tarrant first appeared in AUDIO: The Genocide Machine, and then in Dust Breeding, both of which were also written by Mike Tucker.
 * Benny last encountered Rutans in PROSE: Shakedown.