The Curse of Fenman (audio story)

The Curse of Fenman was the sixty-fifth Bernice Summerfield audio story released by Big Finish Productions. It was the third story of the New Frontiers series.

The release of this story marked the first appearance of Avril Fenman on audio, in which she is portrayed by Georgia Moffett. Avril had previously appeared in the novel The Squire's Crystal in 2001.

Publisher's summary
It's Advent Day on Legion: a time that traditionally calls for celebration; a day spent with the people you love, when all the family come together, setting aside their differences... or when they bring old scores to settle.

An old foe has been biding her time, manipulating the people and events around Bernice Summerfield for as long as any of them can remember... She knows so many secrets — the secrets they've all been hiding — but not everybody wants to learn the truth.

Today is the day Avril Fenman comes to Legion. She comes to claim her son... and to set Bernice on her final, lonely battle. But will her friends stand by her, one last time?

Plot
''Upon arriving in this universe, which may or may not be his own, Irving learns of his other self and goes to the Chamber of Real Estate on Dexter Prime to find a home, far away from where his other self had lived. Whilst looking at the different properties, he is approached by Avril Fenman, who embeds a crystal in his palm and detects something in his head which resists her; she removes it and sends it back in time about eighteen years to his other self on the Braxiatel Collection before manipulating him into buying a property on Legion as part of her plan to reclaim her son, making sure to erase herself from his memory.''

Benny invites Peter to stay at the Crater Base for Advent Day. Ruth tells Peter that Antonio is not real when he says that Antonio might join them and is surprised when she sees him standing at the door. When she, Jack, Irving, Peter and Antonio arrive at the Crater Base, she and Jack tell Benny about how Antonio was imaginary but now exists. Irving reveals that Antonio died on Bastion.

''Peter, who has been in the slave pits of Bastion for several years after waking up on a slaver ship, meets Antonio. Six months later, they are in a sexual relationship and Peter is coming to terms with his sexuality. Avril approaches Antonio some time later and implants a shard of crystal inside of him as an alternative to Peter, whose slave group she could not get into. She then makes him forget.''

Antonio begins speaking with Avril's voice and asks Benny if she had not wondered how all of her friends were drawn to her. She turns to Ruth, who recognises her voice.

''The daughter of Potentate Dray confirms with Avril, who is inhabiting the body of Carla, what the plans are if the uprising against her father is successful; she will head to Zordin in exile on a series of spaceships which she will destroy as she moves from one to the other using a thermonuclear charge in containers of money. Knowing that her father could not win, she kills him and lets the rebels into the palace before heading to Zordin, with Avril placing a crystal in her palm before she leaves.''

Avril explains that she put the crystals inside of everybody so that she could observe them and they would be drawn together. Jack does not understand how he is involved, however.

''Working at Jacques, Jackson and Jacques' Sons on Kadept, Jack is sent by his father, Jacques, to travel to Raster and collect money from the Quilters. As soon as he leaves the office, Jacques begins making plans for his funeral and to use his life insurance to mitigate the firm's losses, which he overhears. Jack completes the mission and takes a ship to Zordin, on which he meets Benny, Dray's daughter and Avril, who is inhabiting the body of Investigator Muffenne and tasks him with spying on Benny. She places a crystal into his palm and makes him forget about her, but he will honour the deal.''

Peter still does not understand what is going on, so Avril begins to explain.

''Irving arrives at the slave pits looking for Peter and Antonio claims to be him in case it is a trap. He has paid for Peter's freedom, but Antonio refuses to leave without him and a Guardbot shoots him. With his dying breath, he tells Peter to leave with Irving and they share a final kiss.''

The crystal inside Antonio, Avril explains, moved into Peter and made him see Antonio. Irving has known this and hired Jack to work at the White Rabbit after he sensed a crystal inside of him.

Some time after starting work at the White Rabbit, Jack is visited by Avril and explains that there are three versions of Benny: one who was eaten by a Tyrannosaurus rex'', one whom he last heard was with the Epoch and one whom he left Earth with after a version of Ruth died. He and that Benny were remapped into the 27th century, around 2613, and he became the entertainment manager on the cruiser that their shuttle turned into whilst Benny went off to the Raloogan system with archaeologists. When he heard about Irving, he travelled to Legion in the hopes that he would run into Benny.''

Avril brought Jack and Ruth to Legion so that she could absorb their youth and vitality when she manifests her new body as the asteroid Hera passes overhead. She found Benny in stasis on Mars and placed Ruth in another pod before taking the body of Professor Lewis and missing Benny's resuscitation by some months, meaning that she had to wait until she reached Legion. Irving reveals that he has destroyed the asteroid required to restore Avril, allowing Ruth and Jack to destroy their crystals. Peter then shoots Avril, sacrificing Antonio. Benny hugs him as he cries and apologises for not having been there for him and Antonio.

Jack and Ruth go for a walk and discuss Ruth's feelings about the person that she once was. After going to Bastion with Peter to bury Antonio, Benny returns and admonishes Irving for having destroyed the asteroid given that Avril was there in a "bizarre, echoey, scary way", but admits that she wants to trust him. He feels that he now has a clean slate and a family.

Cast

 * Bernice Summerfield - Lisa Bowerman
 * Peter Summerfield - Thomas Grant
 * Ruth - Ayesha Antoine
 * Jack - David Ames
 * Irving Braxiatel - Miles Richardson
 * Avril Fenman - Georgia Moffett
 * Antonio Tulloch - Sean Biggerstaff
 * Clerk / Guardbot / Nik - Thomas Rees-Kaye
 * Newsreader - Mark B. Oliver

Continuity

 * Peter mentions the war against the Deindum. (AUDIO: Escaping the Future)
 * Braxiatel was first infected with Pandora in AUDIO: Pandora and Avril sends it back into the mind of the Collection Braxiatel in 2601 around the time of the events of AUDIO: The Mirror Effect.
 * Avril mentions Deirbhile. (PROSE: The Glass Prison)
 * Benny mentions going to Lyndyaz, (AUDIO: Brand Management) Versimmon (PROSE: The Weather on Versimmon) and Agora. (AUDIO: Bad Habits)
 * Jack mentions a Naxian trader (AUDIO: Iris Wildthyme and the Sound of Fear) and Morok. (TV: The Space Museum)
 * Benny and Jack both say that Advent would not be Advent without plum pudding. (AUDIO: The Chimes of Midnight)
 * Peter mentions Adrian Wall, (AUDIO: The Stone's Lament, etc.) Bev Tarrant, (AUDIO: The Genocide Machine, etc.) Doggles (PROSE: Inappropriate Laughter) and Joseph. (PROSE: Steal from the World)
 * Peter previously said that Irving met Antonio without knowing it as he was in a crowd. (AUDIO: Everybody Loves Irving)
 * One version of Benny was "gobbled up" by a Tyrannosaurus rex. (AUDIO: Judgement Day)