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Bernice Summerfield: Virgin New Adventures #1
Oh No It Isn't!
The Doctor's former companion, Bernice Summerfield, has found a new job at St Oscar's University. Whilst on a field trip to Perfecton she is attacked by a reality warping missile. Bernice must be at her best to solve the problems that this creates.
249 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1997
146 people want to read
About the author
Paul Cornell
617 books1,505 followersPaul Cornell is a British writer of science fiction and fantasy prose, comics and television. He's been Hugo Award-nominated for all three media, and has won the BSFA Award for his short fiction, and the Eagle Award for his comics. He's the writer of Saucer Country for Vertigo, Demon Knights for DC, and has written for the Doctor Who TV series. His new urban fantasy novel is London Falling, out from Tor on December 6th.
via Wikipedia @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Cor...
via Wikipedia @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Cor...
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
June 22, 2024
I've listened to the audio play loads of times but this is my first time reading the book and it is just as funny as it is on audio :) Bernice Summerfield is hands down still one of my favourite all time companions and this is a great introduction to get to know her.
Brilliant and funny story.
Brilliant and funny story.
July 21, 2011
The first novel in the Bernice Summerfield series, spun-off from her 1990s "Doctor Who New Adventures" travels. I didn't follow the rest of the series, but I did love the character enough to read her stand-alone debut...and I wasn't disappointed. Hilarious, exciting, sweet, and completely bonkers. In other words, a book worthy of Paul Cornell's talents...and worthy of the Doctor's seal of approval.
September 13, 2018
Not only entertained me enormously - but also the guys at the garage while I was waiting for my car to be repaired. My chortling, laughing and full on snorting seemed to brighten their day. Great fun.
March 19, 2017
A quite amusing romp in the world of Pantomime... Still, I'm not quite sure that it can beat the Big Finish Production of this with Nicholas Courtney playing Wolsey.
August 6, 2018
I suppose, kind of my definition, a book where the main characters find themselves in a world of panto needs to be able to be described as a romp. This fits the bill fairly well.
It's appealing and keeps the attention and is an easy read. It's not mind-blowing or life-changing, but it's fun and I'm glad I read it. It will be interesting to see what the podcast folks have to say about it.
I would like to know if Professor Archduke was supposed to be someone in particular though.
It's appealing and keeps the attention and is an easy read. It's not mind-blowing or life-changing, but it's fun and I'm glad I read it. It will be interesting to see what the podcast folks have to say about it.
I would like to know if Professor Archduke was supposed to be someone in particular though.
May 5, 2021
The British pantomime tradition is a form of theater that I am for the most part, unfamiliar with and as such reading a novel that takes place inside a pantomime becomes an interesting task for one such as myself. The flagship novel in Virgin Publishing’s line of Bernice Summerfield novels begins with Oh No It Isn’t! written by Paul Cornell, the creator of the character of Benny way back in Love and War, and picks up where The Dying Days left off with Bernice Summerfield an actual professor of archeology with her own book deal. I mean she already published and had no intention of writing a sequel, but she just had a really bad divorce and is attracted to one of her students. Yeah, Benny has already had a pretty weird year and it’s about to get weirder as she takes an archeological expedition to the planet Perfecton, home to an ancient civilization of the Perfectons who have connections to the People from The Also People. In orbit around the planet, however, are the Grel, a race of squid-like humanoids obsessed with creating facts who bombard the planet with missiles sending Benny on an adventure into Pantoland where she’s joined by her students (as the Seven Dwarves), her cat Wolsey (who is sentient), her colleague Professor Arthur Candy (who becomes a woman), and the ship’s crew as Menlove Stokes from The Romance of Crime and The Well-Mannered War looks on trying to find a solution to the problems.
Creating this fantastical environment for Benny to react to is a great way to start off the novels, while not having to begin any real overarching series plot. Cornell creates a believable way for Bernice to get to the planet and has Benny like a fish out of water and utterly confused. The parts of the pantomime our characters play alter as Benny alters the reality around her through several breakings of the almighty fourth wall. Her first character is that of Dick Whittington, a pantomime role often done by a woman in drag, leading to several Dick jokes from the pussycat Wolsey who gained sentience to serve as companion to the adventure. They go through several fairytale tropes before saving the day. Benny keeps her general wittiness about her yet has a reserved sadness. Her robotic room servant Joseph brings one of her students early on in the book for a bit of romance and you really get to see how bad losing Jason Kane at the end of Eternity Weeps has left her. She thinks the student, Michael Doran, she’s brought is cute, but cannot bring herself to do any lovemaking with him as it would be wrong. She has the desire to do it all, but she controls herself making her mood even worse. It falls deeper once she goes into pantoland and sees Doran as one of the dwarves who are infatuated with Benny and able to see through the character.
Benny then becomes a princess ala Cinderella in the pantomime before finally manifesting as the character of Aladdin and having to fulfill the plots of those stories, all the while Wolsey and the dwarves sort of tag along for the ride. Being not your traditional seven dwarves, they make for some good comic relief along with Dame Candy, the quintessential Panto Dame. Menlove Stokes and the rest of the faculty’s plot only really ties in at the end of the novel and it is easy to see why it was cut out when Big Finish adapted this book for an audio drama in 1998 (only a year after its release). Stokes is still the funny character we’ve seen and Cornell populates the University of Dellah with interesting people such as a pair of old ladies who constantly bicker and a Pakher Professor, but they don’t really hold a candle to the comic adventure that Benny has embarked on in the rest of the novel. As a novel, it is not quite perfection, but it at least gives us a good base to start on the series for Bernice Summerfield as well as give us a jumping on point for new readers outside of Doctor Who’s sphere of influence. 9/10.
Creating this fantastical environment for Benny to react to is a great way to start off the novels, while not having to begin any real overarching series plot. Cornell creates a believable way for Bernice to get to the planet and has Benny like a fish out of water and utterly confused. The parts of the pantomime our characters play alter as Benny alters the reality around her through several breakings of the almighty fourth wall. Her first character is that of Dick Whittington, a pantomime role often done by a woman in drag, leading to several Dick jokes from the pussycat Wolsey who gained sentience to serve as companion to the adventure. They go through several fairytale tropes before saving the day. Benny keeps her general wittiness about her yet has a reserved sadness. Her robotic room servant Joseph brings one of her students early on in the book for a bit of romance and you really get to see how bad losing Jason Kane at the end of Eternity Weeps has left her. She thinks the student, Michael Doran, she’s brought is cute, but cannot bring herself to do any lovemaking with him as it would be wrong. She has the desire to do it all, but she controls herself making her mood even worse. It falls deeper once she goes into pantoland and sees Doran as one of the dwarves who are infatuated with Benny and able to see through the character.
Benny then becomes a princess ala Cinderella in the pantomime before finally manifesting as the character of Aladdin and having to fulfill the plots of those stories, all the while Wolsey and the dwarves sort of tag along for the ride. Being not your traditional seven dwarves, they make for some good comic relief along with Dame Candy, the quintessential Panto Dame. Menlove Stokes and the rest of the faculty’s plot only really ties in at the end of the novel and it is easy to see why it was cut out when Big Finish adapted this book for an audio drama in 1998 (only a year after its release). Stokes is still the funny character we’ve seen and Cornell populates the University of Dellah with interesting people such as a pair of old ladies who constantly bicker and a Pakher Professor, but they don’t really hold a candle to the comic adventure that Benny has embarked on in the rest of the novel. As a novel, it is not quite perfection, but it at least gives us a good base to start on the series for Bernice Summerfield as well as give us a jumping on point for new readers outside of Doctor Who’s sphere of influence. 9/10.
July 21, 2009
Totally mad fun. A nice launch to this Doctor-less series.
June 18, 2016
A fun, madcap romp to kick-start the BERNICE SUMMERFIELD series... thoroughly enjoyable!
May 3, 2025
https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/oh-no-it-isnt-by-paul-cornell-and-jacqueline-rayner/
The first of the Bernice Summerfield spinoff novels, adapted to become the first Big Finish audio. Bernice, settling into her new job as a professor of archæology, finds herself sucked into a world where she and her colleagues are transformed into pantomime characters, and facing down the alien Grel. (Facts! Good facts!) It’s actually rather well done – the concept risks being either too twee or too clever for its own good, but Paul Cornell bends the rules of narrative here just enough to get away with it.
The first of the Bernice Summerfield spinoff novels, adapted to become the first Big Finish audio. Bernice, settling into her new job as a professor of archæology, finds herself sucked into a world where she and her colleagues are transformed into pantomime characters, and facing down the alien Grel. (Facts! Good facts!) It’s actually rather well done – the concept risks being either too twee or too clever for its own good, but Paul Cornell bends the rules of narrative here just enough to get away with it.
November 17, 2024
The first book in the Bernice Summerfield series, this one is mad to put it bluntly, a mixture of fairytale and panto. There is a good mix of poignancy too- I particularly like Bernice's cat and the horror he felt at the idea of turning back into a non-sentient animal. My only criticism is that the students didn't work for me, maybe because we didn't much opportunity to get to know them before they had their characters exaggerated.
December 25, 2025
Read the book upon it's original release, so this was a re-read. Enjoyed it quite a bit.
November 27, 2024
Half this book was excised for the audio and I can see why. This would have made a great novella, as a novel
I think the joke wears a bit thin.
I think the joke wears a bit thin.
December 14, 2009
The author's best composition, judging by the other two books of his I've read. Takes awhile to get going, but then it's fun.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews