Judgement Day (BFBS audio story)

Judgement Day was the fifty-sixth Bernice Summerfield audio story released by Big Finish Productions. It was the fourth and final story of the Epoch series.

Publisher's summary
Atlantis has fallen. The Epoch are in command. And terrible decisions lie in wait for Bernice Summerfield.

Bernice and her comrades will be put to the ultimate test – facing Neanderthals on prehistoric Earth; alien creatures on the streets of Victorian London; and the Epoch in the far, far future – but which world will they choose to make their home?

Their journeys have been long and arduous. But soon, they will all end. Because Bernice Summerfield dies today... and, when she does, reality will fall apart around her.

Plot
Benny and Ruth awaken in the dark and meet the Epoch, who task them with watching the adventures of two other versions of themselves in two other possible realities and determining which Benny and which Ruth is real. The Epoch reveal that they have mapped and remapped the solar system to identify threats to themselves and have learnt that they will face Benny at the beginning and end of time.

On prehistoric Earth, the second Benny and Ruth encounter both dinosaurs and cavemen, who have a mobile phone. The cavemen rip Benny apart and intend on doing the same to Ruth, but the Benny and Ruth with the Epoch shut down that reality to spare that Ruth from an agonising death.

The third Benny and Ruth take a taxi in Victorian London to the White Rabbit in the hopes of learning of possible anachronisms, but something spooks the horse and the carriage falls over, trapping them both inside. Jack joins them and anaesthetises Benny with a kiss before taking Ruth and leaping to the roof of St Paul's, where he shows her his biomechanical data glove that can only be used by members of the crew of the shuttle to Zordin. Using the glove, Ruth creates an interdimensional tear which Jack pushes her into.

This Ruth appears with the Benny and Ruth with the Epoch and hands over the glove. Benny pulls the lever to destroy the Epoch's reality, correctly believing that the Epoch would never expect her to do so, and switches off the barrier separating the solar system from the rest of the universe, returning everything to normal. She tells the Ruths to return to London, join Jack and use the Zordin shuttle to return home, but the glove only has enough battery power to send one of them there. Benny planned to enter a stasis chamber and wait outside of time for the world to be restored, but insists that the remaining Ruth takes it instead and gets help from her past self and Jason. Ruth refuses, however, and locks Benny in the chamber.

Benny is resuscitated on Mars Base Grantham Echo 4 in 2616, which was later than she intended. The chamber has a message for her from a version of Braxiatel other than the one that she worked with on the Braxiatel Collection and who invites her to join him on Legion. Before he can pass on a message from Peter, the recording ends. Later, after Benny has headed for Legion, a second person in the chamber is resuscitated.

Cast

 * Bernice Summerfield - Lisa Bowerman
 * Irving Braxiatel - Miles Richardson
 * Ruth - Ayesha Antoine
 * Jack - David Ames
 * The Epoch - Michael Thomson
 * Caveman - Scott Handcock
 * Constable - Graeme Henderson
 * Driver - Alex Mallinson
 * Urchin - Toby Turner

Worldbuilding

 * Benny mentions Wikipedia as what she thinks the Epoch have sourced.
 * The cavemen play "Angry Birds".
 * The caveman are Ugg, Rupert and Raagh.
 * Jack is a mercenary who got too close to Zordin when the Epoch remapped it.
 * The cavemen have Bluetooth.
 * Jack has a biomechanical data glove which he salvaged from the shuttle to Zordin.
 * Braxiatel knows of his other selves and says that he is doing something about it.

Continuity

 * In one of the realities created by the Epoch, Ruth and Benny went to the White Rabbit on the embankment in London. (AUDIO: The Harvest, A Death in the Family)
 * Benny states that if she were in the Victorian era, she would be heading to the Diogenes Club, not the White Rabbit. (AUDIO: The Adventure of the Diogenes Damsel)
 * Benny mentions previously being at the extinction of the dinosaurs. (AUDIO: The Adolescence of Time)
 * Ruth remembers being on the spacecraft to Zordin. (AUDIO: The Kraken's Lament)
 * Benny mentions the Kraken. (AUDIO: The Kraken's Lament)
 * Ruth mentions Leo. (AUDIO: The Temple of Questions, Private Enemy No. 1)
 * This version of Braxiatel has only met Benny once, when she told him that he would attend her wedding. (PROSE: Dragons' Wrath; AUDIO: Disassembled)
 * Braxiatel killed Jason. (AUDIO: The End of the World)