Bernice Summerfield 7.6 the Empire State (Bernice Summerfield Big Finish) [Audio CD]

The Doctor Who universe is hardly known for understatement. TV old and new, books and audios, all exist straddling a precarious barrier between 'over-the-top' and 'completely over-the-top'. With the glorious return of Doctor Who to TV (and Series 2005 firmly in the public consciousness), Big Finish Productions, carriers of the flame for the preceding five years, were forced into a rather difficult corner: what to do, how to keep up. Their monthly Doctor Who range, after a couple of years veering between maintaining a generally trad style and a leap into newness, changed its cover design, added the rather self-congratulatory CD extras to each release (then to the end of each disc for heaven's sake) and set about transforming itself into Russell T Davies without pictures. Think audio CGI.

By this time, the Benny range had already gone in the opposite direction. What Big Finish's Doctor Who range attempted with scale, Benny tried on an increasingly personal level. Benny's seventh season (2006), of which 'The Empire State' was the sixth and final story, was the beginning of this trend and a return to a more distinctive individual voice.

In contrast to the 21st century Whoniverse, 'The Empire State' has a wonderful economy of scale. With only four actors (and two walk-ons) and about as many settings, it has a coherence that many of Benny's earlier 'grand canvas' stories completely lack. It begins with one of those arresting opening few minutes that fascinates without giving a blatant plot exposition: an odd, unexplained explosion, Benny not making sense in a bar (where else?) and a conversation in a lift that is all vagueness and hints, all gradually coalescing into an intriguing and satisfying whole. The script (only Eddie Robson's second for Big Finish, after his brilliant Doctor Who tale 'Memory Lane') is first class, capturing Benny's trademark world-weariness without descending into outright cynicism.

Someone is trying to blow up the Empire State (no, not the one in New York) and succeeding. We know from quite early on who is responsible; what is puzzling is why it is still there. It turns out Benny can somehow put it all back together which is even more puzzling. More puzzling than that is how she got that ability in the first place. Just as one question is answered, another one pops up in its place (as opposed to the more common arrangement of positing a single dilemma and mercilessly dragging it out to fill the available space).

As with the script, so the acting. Louise Dann and Simon Watts (as Maggie and Rand respectively) are particularly noteworthy in what they don't do; here again that welcome breeze of understatement. Neither takes the opportunity to do anything other than what is required, without bluster or histrionics. Lisa Bowerman puts in another great performance too, no surprise there, but here without the glaring contrast of a support cast that are not up to her level.

Matthew Cochrane's incidental music does a great deal to maintain the overall feel: modern without being intrusive or flashy, weaving in and out of the sound design without ever swamping it. It's all extremely polished and professional.

Yet there are a couple of down sides. The production as a whole is occasionally so slick and underplayed that, with a decent pair of headphones and a darkened room, one is in danger of it washing over you completely. Less forgivable is the denouement: hardly a surprise and not well-hidden, it sounds too much like a tagged-on, end of season reset button.

Nevertheless, even though 'The Empire State' is not typical Benny, nor typical Big Finish, it is splendid drama; a theatre of ideas rather than one of mere sound and fury and very definitely worth your time.

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