Bernice Summerfield (series)

Bernice Summerfield was the first series produced by Big Finish Productions, combining both audio and prose releases in an ongoing narrative, with the titular character portrayed by Lisa Bowerman.

The series began in 1998 with audio adaptations of six Virgin New Adventures novels. After this first season's success, Big Finish began producing audio stories and prose stories simultaneously. These were initially released alternately so that both the audio and the prose made up one continuous series, with some of the wider arc stories only being featured and explained in detail in one medium. For example, Bernice's pregnancy began and ended in the novels The Squire's Crystal and The Glass Prison, but the audio stories made several minor references to her pregnancy. However, this practice ceased after the third series.

Many characters created or established in the Virgin New Adventures, such as Jason Kane and Irving Braxiatel, made major appearances in this series. Most of the stories cover Bernice's life following her departure from travelling with the Doctor. However, several prose releases have featured stories that portrayed Bernice's life long before she met the Doctor.

The series concluded in 2013, but it was relaunched the next year as The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield.

Series 1
Series 1 was a collection of audio adaptations of Virgin New Adventures novels.

Series 2
Beginning with series 2, Big Finish began to release original audio stories about Bernice Summerfield. They also began to publish short story anthologies that continued ongoing plotlines from the audios.

Series 6
Staring in series 6, the anthology releases began to alternate between collections of short stories and groupings of three novellas. This continued until series 9.

Epoch
After series 11, Big Finish began to release new Bernice Summerfield audios in collected "boxsets" rather than spread out over months.

Road Trip
Road Trip began the pattern that would last until the series' penultimate release, where the boxset would include three audio stories and be accompanied by a tie-in novel.

Many Happy Returns
The audio story Many Happy Returns was released in November 2012 to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of Bernice Summerfield's introduction in Love and War. Its contributors included Xanna Eve Chown, Stephen Cole, Paul Cornell, Stephen Fewell, Simon Guerrier, Scott Handcock, Rebecca Levene, Jacqueline Rayner, Justin Richards, Miles Richardson, Eddie Robson, and Dave Stone. A portion of the proceeds went to the myalgic encephalomyelitis charity "Invest in M.E."

The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield
In 2014, the Bernice Summerfield audio series continued as The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield, now with the Doctor Who license and featuring the Doctor. The release format continued to be annual boxsets, with occasional accompanying book releases under the Bernice Summerfield title.

The Story So Far
To celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the Bernice Summerfield series in 2018, Big Finish released several boxsets in the Bernice Summerfield range, including Treasury, a collection of narrated Bernice Summerfield short stories narrated by Lisa Bowerman and Andrew Cartmel; and The Story So Far: Volume One and  Volume Two, a collection of six new audio stories set throughout Bernice's life.

Crossovers
The Bernice Summerfield range occasionally crossed over with other ranges. For instance, The Plague Herds of Excelis was branded as a Bernice Summerfield story but published not in the Bernice Summerfield range but in the Excelis Saga. Similarly, Bernice Summerfield starred in The Phantom Wreck from The Worlds of Big Finish, a 2015 boxset which also featured characters from Big Finish's Graceless, Iris Wildthyme, Vienna, Sherlock Holmes, and Dorian Gray ranges.