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

Culture

 * Bellotron is a Grade One Planet is a matriarchal society.
 * Bernice mentions Bartleby's Planetary Gazetteer and wants to get the cruk off Bellotron.
 * Quilby implies the Rutans and Sontarans are part of the non-intervention treaty protecting Bellotron.

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.
 * Benny mentions Rigel 9.

Species

 * Neither the Rutans nor the Sontarans are bothering shipping lanes yet.
 * Benny laments that the alien script might as well be written in Ogron, and that she acts like a total Ogron.
 * The Brill are large cats that hunt in packs.

Rutans

 * Rutans can copy personality and memory.
 * Projectiles and bladed weapons are useless against Rutans, who must be burned or blown up to kill.
 * They've developed a mutagenic virus/bomb they plan to disperse through Sontaran space by blowing up Bellotron. After which, the Rutan Empire will target humanity.
 * A traitorous breakaway faction of the Rutans stopped the bomb and even informed the Sontarans about it.

Technology

 * Quilby refers to technobabble as a language.
 * Both the Sontarans and Rutans have access to stealth technology.
 * A Mark VII probe droid has 14 anti-collision devices.
 * The C-11s are six-foot tall droids with cloaking devices, and are made of duralinium.
 * Benny's warp-flight through hyperspace from KS-159 is via cryotube stasis, which had a fast-learn unit.
 * Bev doesnt' watch vidcasts.

Ships

 * The cruiser Rites of Passage' is patrolling nearly 40 parsecs of empty space, along with the Potemkin, Odyssey, and Prince of Wales.
 * Sontaran cruisers include the Stor-class attack craft.

Continuity

 * Captain Quilby suggest that the Zzinbriizi might be responsible for the alien activity on Bellotron. (PROSE: Prime Time)
 * Benny states that the sun sigil is similar to ones on Earth, Argolis, (TV: The Leisure Hive) and Blinni-Gaar. (PROSE: Prime Time)
 * Bev mentions that she's not from this time and place, and that she got here because of the Seventh Doctor. (AUDIO: The Genocide Machine, Dust Breeding)
 * Benny's encountered Rutans before. (PROSE: Shakedown)