Doctor Who spin-off review: Bernice Summerfield: Walking to Babylon

Bernice looks for her ex-husband in the ancient city of Babylon, in the third story of Big Finish’s pre-Doctor Who series of Bernice Summerfield audios.

After our recent listen to the latest series of Doctor Who: The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield, we decided it was time to continue listening to Bernice’s earliest adventures on audio. We’ve enjoyed Oh No It Isn’t! and Beyond the Sun, now it’s time for Walking to Babylon.

This story is the first part of The Time Ring Trilogy, which focuses on an arc involving the wedding rings of Bernice and her ex-husband Jason Kane. If that doesn’t sound like a pretty complex story already, it’s also been adapted from a novel by Kate Orman – a novel that was originally stand-alone! So adapting a story for a new medium – and as part of a trilogy, to boot – is a pretty tough task for any writer.

Fortunately, this adaptation is in more than capable hands with Jacqueline Rayner. Rayner also adapted Oh No It Isn’t!, and for a new listener like myself, it was extremely difficult to tell what had been cut out or changed. The same is true for Walking to Babylon – the story fits, it doesn’t feel like there are any plot holes or characters short-changed, and it’s perfectly accessible for new listeners. And that’s exactly what you need when you’re retelling a story for a new audience.

Walking to Babylon was adapted by the same writer who handled Oh No It Isn’t’s audio adaptation, Jacqueline Rayner.

Image Courtesy Big Finish Productions

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A character-focused pseudo-historical

As for the story itself, what really stuck out to me about Walking to Babylon were the characters. Edwardian linguist John Lafayette is a fantastic “fish out of water” character. Initially studying the ruins of Babylon, he suddenly finds himself in Babylon itself, hundreds of years earlier. Naturally, he finds himself clashing with the time period in many different ways.

This clash is only increased further when he meets and befriends Benny. What’s particularly enjoyable about the story is how it highlights the clash of moral values between Bernice and Lafayette due to the times they were raised in. Lafayette can grasp the idea of time travel pretty easily, but there are attitudes of Benny that just completely shock him. It’s nice that this adaptation takes the time to explore that.

In fact, that’s true for many of the characters. What I think of with this story isn’t the plot – although it’s told well – but the little conflicts and clashes between all of these characters from different cultures. One that stands out is a conversation between Ninan (played by Doctor Who legend Elisabeth Sladen) and Jason over what it means to be free. In some ways, it’s a small moment, but it just adds so much more depth to the story.

That sums up what makes Walking to Babylon such a great listen. Jacqueline Rayner took Kate Orman’s story and told it in such a way that you have a straightforward plot that’s easy to follow while still having a lot of depth and character exploration. That’s extremely difficult to do when adapting a novel into an audio production that’s not even two-hours long! In short, it’s another recommended listen in the Bernice Summerfield range, and helps to kick off this trilogy of stories to a strong start.

What do you think is important when adapting a story? Should depth be sacrificed to keep the plot intact, or should there be more of a balance? Let us know in the comments below.