Birthright (audio story)

Birthright was the fourth Bernice Summerfield audio drama produced by Big Finish Productions. It was the second in a trilogy of stories known as the "Time Ring Trilogy" whose arc element was the use of Bernice Summerfield and Jason Kane's wedding time rings, given to them when they were married in Happy Endings.

This was the first story to be adapted from a Virgin New Adventures which featured the Doctor. Whilst the Seventh Doctor did not feature heavily in the original novel, Ace did. Ace's role is now taken by Jason Kane.

Though adapted from a Seventh Doctor story, the work marks the Sixth Doctor actor Colin Baker's first work for Big Finish. This is also the first Big Finish release featuring an actor behind one of the televised Doctors. Colin Baker doesn't play the Doctor here though, which means he, like David Tennant after him, is an actor who played a televised Doctor but whose first work for Big Finish was not in the role of the Doctor.

Continuing the pattern from the previous story, the photos of Lisa Bowerman and Colin Baker are featured on the original audio cover.

Publisher's summary
The Time Ring Trilogy: Part 2

"If the human race were to die tomorrow, insect life would carry on regardless. Insects might even become the dominant species!"

Thrown off the Time Path, Professor Bernice Summerfield is trapped in early 20th century London, with only one of the pair of time rings she needs to get home. At the other end of time, her ex-husband Jason Kane finds himself stranded on a dead world, where the queen of the Charrl demands his help to save her dying race. But all he wants to do is find Benny, and return to the 26th century.

In the East End a series of grisly murders has been committed — is this the work of the legendary Springheel Jack or, as Benny suspects, something even more sinister? Allied with a Russian detective, she determines to find out. But the master of a grand order of sorcerers has other plans for her...

Part one
When Ernie goes back to Lily's rooms with her, she is killed by something non-human and, terrified, he tells Constable Hawkins and people blame Springheel Jack. Benny appears several nights later and learns from Charlie that she has arrived in London 1909 and could get the chronokinetiscope back from Lafayette, but she decides to hang around in order to find Jason. After giving Benny some clothes in return for a piece of silver, Charlie visits Khan and tells him about her arrival.

Benny is attacked on the street by a man whom she manages to fend off and who drops a business card for Khan's bookshop. She meets Popov, who came to her rescue, and learns of the murder of his daughter and several other girls in St Petersburg and Moscow before the killings in London began. A survivor of the murderer, with a bite mark on her neck, claims that she was attacked by the Devil and the people on the street accuse Benny and Popov due to them being strangers until Popov shows Hawkins documentation showing that he is a private investigator. Benny finds some chitin at the scene.

Jason arrives on Antýkhon and is brought before Queen Ch'tizz of the Charrl and, when she threatens him with being eaten, he tells her about his Time Ring and his universal translator. She demands his assistance in getting the Charrl through the Great Divide to another world found by the Chronomancers, as their current means of travelling there causes the Charrl's bodies to decay over time. Jason learns that the other world is Earth and promises to get Benny's Time Ring to help them invade; when Khan of the Brotherhood of the New Dawn contacts Ch'tizz about the appearance of a strange woman, she realises that it is Benny and commands him to get her ring. Jason discovers that Antýkhon is Earth and sees that the Charrl's larder is full of humans.

After catching Charlie, who stole the victim's necklace, Benny makes him assist her with his local knowledge. She goes to a library and looks up Lafayette, reading that he was recently married, and is given a copy of a letter written by Lafayette and sent to all major libraries and museums in the country in case she visited. The letter tells of how he has stored the chronokinetiscope at the bank on Guernsey and that he will always remember her even if they never meet again.

Benny places her Time Ring in a safety deposit box and goes to Khan's shop where she learns of the New Dawn and their belief that mankind has become decadent and evil. When she returns to Popov's hotel with Charlie, she is immediately arrested by Hawkins on the order of Chief Inspector Prior for the attempted murder of the woman the night before. Khan, who told Prior to have her arrested her, informs Ch'tizz that they will soon have the second Time Ring.

Part two
At the police station, Benny's jewellery is confiscated and Prior demands to know where her ring is, soon giving away that he is part of the New Dawn. Before she can be transported to Holloway Prison, Popov ensures that the charges are dropped by speaking on her behalf and tells her about the murder of seven women in the course of an hour. A Charrl appears and bites Benny before vanishing, her wound indicating that the women were all killed by Charrl. She pays Charlie to break into Khan's shop with her and finds newspaper clippings about changes to the climate after a meteorite hit Russia. A disorientated Charrl appears and Charlie kills it. Before they can leave, Khan enters and has Benny taken to the cellar whilst Charlie escapes.

Jason is imprisoned and visited by one of Ch'tizz's daughters, Isk, who does not agree with her mother's plans and tells him that the Charrl on Earth have already infected humans in 1909 with their eggs. He manages to convince Ch'tizz to allow him to go to Earth to find Benny's Time Ring to stabilise the Great Divide, although Ch'tizz does not believe that Benny will help willingly and forbids him from telling Benny what he is up to. In return, she promises to send no more Charrl there.

Khan tells Benny about Antýkhon, the Charrl's mission and how the Great Divide was opened by the energy of the meteorite in Russia and fixed in London when the Charrl found him. In return for his help, Khan will, he is told, become Ch'tizz's second and be permitted to reorder human society. He is aware of Benny's safety deposit box thanks to the New Dawn's connections, but Benny has repurposed her universal translator to keep people out. Charlie and Popov rescue her from the cellar and, when she returns to her hotel room, Jason accidentally hits her in the face. He apologises, slips her some knockout drops and steals the key to the safety deposit box, deducing that her password is "Lafayette" and taking her ring.

Infected with eggs by the Charrl's bite, Benny comes under the Chronomancers' influence and takes the two Time Rings after Jason leaves them behind. She heads to the Great Divide and is urged by Khan to use the rings whilst Popov and Charlie work to evacuate everybody in the area. With the Great Divide opened, Ch'tizz appears and declares that humanity will be destroyed to make room for the Charrl, contrary to what she told Khan. Benny suggests that they settle in areas uninhabitable by humans, but a fight breaks out between the Charrl and the police. Using their Time Rings, Benny and Jason close the Great Divide and begin negotiations with Ch'tizz, deciding that they will move the Great Divide to an uninhabited world for the Charrl to make their home.

Without the influence of the Charrl, the eggs inside Benny and any other women will wither and die. Benny says goodbye to Popov and Charlie before joining Jason in moving the Great Divide, which will likely result in them both being moved through time. Should they be separated, they plan to meet on Guernsey where the chronokinetiscope is. The Charrl move down the Great Divide to Analaya VI, but Khan, desperate for the Charrl to stay, rushes towards it and it disappears. Popov wanders what damage Khan has done.

Cast

 * Bernice Summerfield - Lisa Bowerman
 * Mikhail Vladimir Popov - Colin Baker
 * Jason Kane - Stephen Fewell
 * John Lafayette - Barnaby Edwards
 * Jared Khan - John Wadmore
 * Queen Ch'tizz - Jane Shakespeare
 * Chf. Insp. Prior - Jonathan Reason
 * Charlie - Benjamin Roddy

Continuity

 * Jason mentions that he has just come from Babylon. (AUDIO: Walking to Babylon)
 * Jason steals Benny's Time Ring again. (AUDIO: Walking to Babylon)
 * Both contradictory accounts of her visit to Guernsey (PROSE: Just War, AUDIO: Just War) appear to have taken place (PROSE: Paydirt) and Bernice was able to recall them both. (PROSE: Dear Friend)