Bernice’s second audio adventure takes us Beyond the Sun and a spot of archaeology!
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voters
Oh Beyond the Sun… it’s basically just kind of dull innit. All you folks complaining about Benny being too long, I don’t agree with you in general but you’ll be bang on for this one. It’s just, meandering. I don’t remember what happens, I’ll be honest, even though I did only listen to it a few months ago. I did write a review then though!
7 Likes
I enjoyed it a lot. Can’t remember much about the plot, but it was easy to follow (which is the biggest factor to me when it comes to media in another language), and the chips I made listening to the audio were delicious.
8 Likes
It’s fine-ish, I think. Love Benny as always in this one, Bowerman is just so good, and love how Benny is characterized here. The Story itself sadly kinda drags, which pains me to say since I believe in longer Stories and their strengths, sadly this one just kinda goes through the Motions. At times, it doesn’t feel like much is happening. And the Supporting Cast is also nothing to write home about. I did find some Ideas presented here interesting, but ultimately it leaves a lot to be desired. I think I prefer the Novel much more this Time around.
8 Likes
I really disliked this one. The plot was meandering, and boring, plus it cut out a lot of interesting stuff from the book.
Stories like this are the reason why, outside 3 stories, I will skip Series 1 of Benny on any re-listens.
2/5.
8 Likes
Just finished this, yea pretty boring Bowerman is great as always and I like Stephen Fewell as Jason tho.
7 Likes
This was boring but also had some really weird, disturbing things in it?
Here’s what I wrote over in my other thread:
7 Likes
I’d forgotten that stuff but the moment I read it, I went - oh yeah! I remember Scott!
7 Likes
Yeah, this story started out strong and then just fell apart. Lisa Bowerman shines throughout and I was delightfully surprised (and confused) to hear both Anneke Wills and Sophie Aldred here (I hadn’t checked the cast list beforehand). My first rodeo with Jason as well, and he’s okay, I guess.
But overall, a huge, boring and forgettable affair.
4/10
Beyond the Sun begins with a sharp, witty premise rooted in Benny’s strengths—archaeology, sarcasm, and strained ex-husband diplomacy—but quickly spirals into a directionless, poorly paced sci-fi muddle. Despite Lisa Bowerman’s ever-reliable performance and solid production values, the lack of clear stakes, weak alien characters, and a completely unfocused second half drag this story down. As a debut for Jason, it’s underwhelming. As a Benny adventure, it has moments of charm—but they’re buried too deep beneath the rubble.
You’re welcome to read my full review below (spoilers hidden):
7 Likes
This first season is full of Doctor Who luminaries probably because Big Finish wanted an excuse to work with their heroes (when actually making Doctor Who seemed a bit of a pipe dream) so we get Nicholas Courtney, Anneke Wills, Sophie Aldred, Elisabeth Sladen, Colin Baker and Richard Franklin across this first season.
7 Likes
It clearly did the trick!
5 Likes
Well the Bernice audios is precisely why the BBC granted them the licence.
9 Likes
Just to add to my Audio Club earnings. Sorry again fans
7 Likes
I’m going to go out on a limb here and say this was better than I was anticipating it would be but still not great. I didn’t remember a huge amount about it aside from Sophie Aldred camping it up (why are her non-Ace roles always glamorous bitches - she does the same schtick in Shakedwon) and Tameka and Emile.
I think this one betrays it’s novel origins far more than any of the others in this first series (with the possible exception of Dragon’s Wrath). There are huge time jumps between some scenes - one of the worst is the one where Bernice is off to the hotel to have sex with Jason and then 2 second later is in her tent talking to Tameka and, as a listener, we suddenly have to play catch up only for 2 minutes later for Benny to be explaining what happened in between to the police - it’s very clumsy. There are also quite a few scenes where the characters tell us what just happened - probably in a chapter they decided to cut for time rather than adapt.
There are far too many characters as well for an audio story (again betraying it’s novel origins). There are whole scenes where suddenly a character will speak (particularly Jason) and you weren’t even aware they were there.
It also seems determined to show how ‘adult’ it is with lots of tits and shit and casual sex, meaning it does come across as a bit adolescent.
Lisa Bowerman is brilliant as Benny, though, and Anneke Wills is pretty good as Dr Kitsinger. Stephen Fewell doesn’t get anywhere near enough to do as Jason and this is a pretty poor story as an introduction to him (Walking to Babylon is much better in that regard).
I like the world building of the blooms and the 8 different species coming from them and ancient superweapons are usually fun but overall this one just doesn’t quite work even if, actually, I did quite enjoy relistening to it.
Oh, and the actor playing Emile sounds like Joe Swash.
7 Likes
Is this good in the sense of being actually good? I don’t know. But it was precisely what I needed today, an audio with a bunch of funny and entertaining moments and a not too complicated plot that I could occasionally zone out on while being engaging enough that my brain shuts up. So yeah. In my opinion it did it’s job and I liked it
9 Likes
“The thing is, I rather suspect my husband has been kidnapped.”
Where do I even start? Matthew Jones would create an exceptional two-part adventure featuring the Tenth Doctor and Rose, which still holds up really well today. It featured the exceptional talents of Gabriel Woolf, in what was the second time he lent his voice to a god-like villain with immense power!
It won’t have escaped your attention that I’m stalling for time, because ‘Beyond the Sun’ was such a vacuous script that I genuinely don’t remember half of what happened. All the characters had the depth of a paddling pool, and the acting skills of an amateur dramatics society at the mental asylum. You should honestly skip this one: don’t endure two hours of misery like I did.
2 Likes
This is pretty much the exact opposite of Oh No It Isn’t for me.
In Oh No It Isn’t, I loved the idea for the story, but it felt like being thrown in the deep end, you were expected to already know and care about Benny. To put it simply, the story felt like it was plucked from the middle of the season, rather than the start.
Beyond The Sun in contrast shows you Benny doing her regular job, gives you a sense of where she is in life, has a plot that uses not just her general smarts, but her knowledge of archeology specifically. It feels a lot more like a season opener, not the opening to a first season admittedly, but a second or third, still giving some context to where we’re at, almost reminding the listeners who are tuning back in while explaining to the new ones.
Unlike Oh No It Isn’t however, the plot… is fine?
I don’t have any major problems with it, I understand the adult nature of a lot of elements putting people off, though being a massive torchwood fan, it wasn’t particularly offputting to me specifically. The problem is I just don’t have anything to say about it really. It does just feel like it should’ve been the first story given the plot is so simple, we get great stuff for Benny’s character (I particularly like the ending), and it’s not trying to be anything more than it is really (which is both a good and bad thing).
7 Likes
I think this was fine, but definitely dragged towards the end. Excited to get back to Benny, going to try and get more into the original range!
5 Likes