Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Draconian Rage (audio story)

, or simply The Draconian Rage, was the second audio story of the fourth season of the Big Finish Bernice Summerfield series. It was a sequel to the Doctor Who Big Finish audio story The Dark Flame, and was the first story since 1999's Mindgame Trilogy produced by Reeltime Pictures to feature the Draconians in a performed story.

Publisher's summary
On the fringes of the Draconian Empire, an entire planet has gone mad: twenty million Draconians lie dead -- victims of an ancient, apocalyptic suicide ritual. Now the Draconians need an archaeologist -- and in particular they want Professor Bernice Summerfield.

Female and human, Benny is everything a Draconian distrusts... So why has she been invited to the very heart of the Imperial Homeworld? As an age-old conspiracy deepens around her, and her own bad memories are disturbed, Benny wonders if she can really trust the Draconians...

...and, even worse, if she can even trust herself...

Plot
After receiving a request from Imperial Minister of History Lord Paranash, Braxiatel asks Benny to take his shuttle to Draconia to examine an artefact found on Tranagus, which was once part of the Earth Empire. She initially refuses as she wants to spend time with Peter and is concerned about the situation following the ritual suicide of twenty-million Draconians on Tranagus, but Braxiatel persuades her into going. She is welcomed at Dralos Spaceport by her escort, Lord Vasar, and taken to the Imperial Palace where Paranash takes over from Vasar.

Paranash, who is impolite towards Benny because of her gender, takes her to the sanctum where Emperor Shenn keeps his most valuable exhibits in anti-photon globes, rendering them invisible. He makes the Tranagus artefact visible, revealing that it is a human skull which makes Benny feel an itch in her head. When she tells Paranash this, he has his guards arrest her and informs her that he is an agent of the Cult of the Dark Flame, whom she fought on Marran Alpha. The skull, she realises, is that of the cult's leader, Vilus Krull, whose will lives on inside memories including her own. With Vasar's help, Paranash has Benny's head shaved, before he then drills into her skull to release Krull's will.

Benny passes out, necessitating further drilling, and is imprisoned. Vasar visits her and claims that he is working against Paranash and the Cult of the Dark Flame, who orchestrated the mass suicide on Tranagus and intend on starting a war between Earth and Draconia and deposing the Emperor. Whilst Paranash is speaking with the Emperor, Vasar releases Benny, giving her an analgesic and a laser pistol and leading her through the rat-worm-infested catacombs and into the sewers. She kills several rat-worms when they are attacked and climbs a ladder into the sanctum without Vasar, who expresses concern for his own safety if he is seen with her on camera. She finds the Emperor waiting for her and, influenced by a hologram of Krull's skull, she shoots him.

Paranash arrives with Vasar and has Benny arrested for the Emperor's assassination. To Paranash's surprise, Vasar reveals that, whilst he is indeed a member of the Dark Flame, he believes that Paranash is simply using the cult for his own personal gain and shoots him after having Benny released. The Emperor is alive, wearing a laser-proof vest at Vasar's suggestion, and decapitates Vasar as a traitor to the throne despite his promise to renounce the cult. With the return of her free will, Benny chooses not to kill the Emperor and, swearing never to return to Draconia, leaves the Imperial Palace uncertain as to whether or not Krull's influence remains in her head.

Cast

 * Bernice Summerfield - Lisa Bowerman
 * Irving Braxiatel - Miles Richardson
 * Emperor Shenn - Philip Bretherton
 * Lord Paranash - Kraig Thornber
 * Lord Vasar - Johnson Willis

Individuals

 * Braxiatel says that he would send Bev Tarrant if he wanted to steal an artefact.
 * The skull of Vilus Krull was recovered from Marran Alpha. Krull himself was from Tranagus, and this is where he came in contact with the Dark Flame, which Bernice describes as an energy being from the end of time.
 * Bernice is between 40 and 45. She does not believe in destiny. She is a "colonial;" she a human, but from the colony world Beta Caprisis rather than Earth.
 * Emperor Shen discusses a Draconian philosopher, Yaisho, who lived circa 274984, 2000 years before William Shakespeare, who lived 800 years ago.
 * Paranash's broodfather died in the battle of Charon during the Dragon War.
 * When Bernice believes the Dark Flame is in her head, she worries if it was passed on to Peter.
 * Bernice describes Shen as "Emperor of half the galaxy."

Planets

 * Benny gets invited to the Draconian home world, and arrives in its oldest city, Dralos.
 * Tranagus, in the trona sector, was part of the Earth Empire, but is now a colony world of the Draconian Empire via the trona agreement.
 * There is a Draconian embassy on Earth.

Draconians

 * Draconians have three hearts: one for lies, one for truth, and one for the Empire.
 * They have green blood.
 * It is tradition for traitors to the Empire to be decapitated.
 * Draconian eras include the Arken millennia, which predates the Imperial age, the 3rd dynasty, and the 10th dynasty.
 * Draconians don't like humans, and dislike females even more.

The Dark Flame

 * The Cult of the Dark Flame is a thousand years old, with agents across the galaxy.
 * As a message, the Dark Flame made 20 million Draconians on Tranagus commit suicide. This is being called the "Draconian Rage" by Earth media, cited as an epidemic of space rage.

Technology

 * The Emperor has a star shuttle and wears a laser-proof vest.
 * The Draconians have on display the remains of a starbuster missile, a relic of the last great war between Earth and Draconia.
 * An anti-photon globe renders the contents invisible.
 * Draconian spaceports have five levels of antibacterial sterilisation.

Creatures

 * Vasar has a rubber duck.
 * Rat-worms are poison-carrying mutant vermin that can strip people to the bone. They live in the sewers of Dralos.

Continuity

 * The skull of Vilus Krull and Marran Alpha are referred to numerous times, which Bernice says happened "years ago." (AUDIO: The Dark Flame)
 * Bernice exclaims "Goddess." (AUDIO: The Shadow of the Scourge)
 * Peter Summerfield no longer makes noises that will destroy a building. (PROSE: The Glass Prison)
 * Draconians utilise air cars. (TV: The Pirate Planet)