Authors: Lance Parkin,Lars Pearson
[
923
] The pulp entertainment
Aventures de la Frontière Nouvelle
is presumably a translation of the Adventures of the New Frontier series often cited in New Adventures by Dave Stone.
[
924
]
Benny: A Life in Pieces
[
925
] Dating
Benny: The Goddess Quandary
(Benny audio #6.4) - The cliffhanger leads into
Benny: Parallel Lives
, set in 2606. This audio was released after
Benny: The Last Museum
, but as that story leads into Braxiatel’s departure in
Benny: The Crystal of Cantus
,
The Goddess Quandary
and its related stories must come first.
[
926
] Dating
Benny: Parallel Lives
(Benny collection #6) - The book’s introduction claims that “it is now 2606”, which is in keeping with it variously being stated that Peter (who was born in 2600) is now “five” and “nearly six”. The odd man out is Clarissa Jones’ statement that it’s been “nearly two years” (p4) since the Axis occupation when it’s actually been more like four. In “Jason and the Pirates” - providing a word of its unreliable narration can be believed - mention is made of Oinky Pete, a Piglet Person, presumably the same race that’s extinct in
Burning Heart
(set in 3174).
[
927
]
Benny: Something Changed
. Benny says that, relatively speaking, she owned Wolsey for twelve years.
[
928
] Dating
Benny: The Lost Museum
(Benny audio #6.3) - The blurb specifies the date and month. The last page of
Benny: Something Changed
specifies that
The Lost Museum
comes next in sequence.
[
929
] Dating
Benny: The Crystal of Cantus
(Benny audio #6.5) - According to
Benny: Parallel Lives
(p10), Benny spends “two weeks” trailing Clarissa and Peter to Atwalla 3. If she spends the same amount of time returning, most of January must be consumed with her in transit. While it’s
just
possible to imagine that
Benny: The Lost Museum
takes place in January as stated, Jason says that
The Crystal of Cantus
occurs nearly a week later, so it must now be February.
Benny mentions the realisation that the Cybermen have tombs dotted all over the galaxy as part of established history, confirming that her native time is after the
Cyberman
audio series. Mention is also made of the Garazone Bazaar from
The Sword of Orion
. The Crystal of Cantus would appear to be the Coronet of Rassilon (
The Five Doctors
), provided to Braxiatel by his younger self on Gallifrey.
[
930
] Dating Bernice Summerfield Series 7 (
Benny: The Tartarus Gate
, audio #7.1;
Benny: Timeless Passages
, audio #7.2;
Benny: The Worst Thing in the World
, audio #7.3;
Benny: Collected Works
, collection #8;
Benny: The Summer of Love
, audio #7.4;
Benny: Old Friends
, collection #9;
Benny: The Oracle of Delphi
, audio #7.5;
Benny: The Empire State
, audio #7.6) - Series 7 continues onward from Series 6 (which ends in February 2606) and finishes shortly prior to the opening episodes of Series 8 (which can be definitively dated to October 2607). Unavoidably, then, a single season’s worth of stories must be spread out over a 20-month period.
It’s not entirely clear when the switchover from 2606 to 2607 occurs.
Benny: Collected Works
is less helpful than other collections in making this call, as its stories are set over the course of a year, straddling both 2606 and 2607. Nor is trying to put the year in tandem with the year of release entirely helpful -
The Summer of Love
came out in October 2006, and yet must occur in 2607. The best compromise is to date the first two stories of Series 7 to 2606, and place
The Worst Thing in the World
in 2607, in accordance with a “last year” remark made regarding events in the Drome in
Benny: The Wake
.
In accounting for some of Benny’s time in 2006, she spends at least a month being held captive in
The Tartarus Gate
. She also spends two weeks in transit to reach Kerykeion (and presumably the same amount to return home) in
Timeless Passages
.
[
931
] Benny destroys the cyborg by bringing its present and future selves into collision, evidently invoking the Blinovitch Limitation Effect.
[
932
]
Benny: Collected Works
. The malfunctions begin “months” prior to
Benny: The Summer of Love
. It’s not said how Braxiatel went into the past without his TARDIS to become the Stone of Barter (
Benny: The Empire State
).
[
933
] Dating
Benny: The Summer of Love
(Benny audio #6.4) - The story does, apparently, take place in summer, with references to the heat.
[
934
]
Benny: The Summer of Love
, and similarly noted in the epilogue to
Benny: Collected Works
.
[
935
] Dating
Benny: Old Friends
: “Cheating the Reaper” / “The Soul’s Prism” (Benny collection #9a, 9c) - The two “modern-day” novellas in this collection occur between
Benny: The Summer of Love
and
Benny: The Oracle of Delphi
, and the back-cover blurb says that it’s “late 2607”. Benny now looks “nearly 40”.
[
936
] Dating
Benny: The Empire State
(
Benny
audio
#
7.6) - Benny seems to spend a few days digging up the Stone, and then as many as eight in the new Empire State itself. Benny ends
The Empire State
intending to travel back to the Collection, only seems to lose about a week in transit in the following story, and arrives in time for
Benny: The Judas Gift
, which occurs in the third week of October 2607. So,
The Empire State
very probably occurs in the same month.
[
937
] Dating Bernice Summerfield Series 8 (
Benny: The Tub Full of Cats
, audio #8.1;
Benny: The Judas Gift
, audio #8.2;
Benny: Freedom of Information
, audio #8.3;
Benny: Nobody’s Children
, collection #10;
Benny: The Two Jasons
, novel #9;
Benny: The End of the World
, audio #8.4;
Benny: The Final Amendment
, audio #8.5;
Benny: The Wake
, audio #8.6) - The stories that compose Benny Series 8 unfold in the space of roughly three months.
The Judas Gate
dates itself to 23rd and 24th October, 2607, and the other stories can be extrapolated from that (see the individual entries for more). In
The Tub Full of Cats
, Maggie reiterates the year as “2607”, which translates to “818” in the standard modern calendar.
[
938
] Dating
Benny: The Judas Gift
(Benny audio #8.2) - The exact dates are given via headline news and a recording that Bev makes. Events said to have occurred in “the last year” include alien pollen and time jumps (
Benny: The Summer of Love
) and gravitational shifts (
Benny: Collected Works
).
[
939
]
Benny: The End of the World
[
940
]
Benny: The Final Amendment
. It’s not explicitly said, but Bernard is presumably Clarissa Jones’ father.
[
941
] Dating
Benny: Freedom of Information
(Benny audio #8.3) - A modest amount of time passes during the Draconian occupation of the Collection. Benny has been in hiding for five days when the story opens, and the Draconians lock her up for three more. Jason makes mention of Draconian troops shooting some civilians “the other week”. Also, Hass disabled his radiation-neutraliser “weeks” ago, presumably the amount of time since Braxiatel returned to the Collection and could plot with Hass in person. All signs are, then, that it’s now November - especially as some time must be allotted between this story and
Benny: The End of the World
, which finishes in December.
[
942
] Dating
Benny: Nobody’s Children
(Benny collection #10) - The stories are set after
Benny: Freedom of Information
, and lead into
Benny: The Final Amendment
. The unnamed “institute” with a fondness for the name Victoria is probably Torchwood.
[
943
] Dating
Benny: The End of the World, Benny: The Final Amendment
and
Benny: The Two Jasons
(Benny audios #8.4 and #8.5, Benny BF novel #9) - These three stories run roughly concurrent to one another. Both
The End of the World
and
The Final Amendment
say that the Stonehauser Medical Facility was destroyed “two months ago” (in
Benny: The Judas Gift
, set in October), so it’s now December. A small glitch exists in that Jason refers to Peter as a “half-Killoran eight year old”, when he’s seven at most.
The fact that Benny only here learns about
The Jason Kane Show
- now in Season 15 (which isn’t to automatically say that it’s been running for fifteen years) - suggests that the Braxiatel Collection and Earth are some distance from one another, and news from Earth doesn’t reach the Collection very much. Even so, it’s quite the conceit that nobody at all, not once, has ever mentioned it to her.
The epilogue to
The Two Jasons
claims that Mira and the Jason-clone stay together for some decades, and that the Jason-clone eventually returns to Earth, has sex with President Summerfield and is informed that the remains of the original Benny have been found. However, it’s hard to say (especially in light of President Summerfield’s death in Series 10) whether this is canon or just some bit of fancy on writer Dave Stone’s part.
Mention of the owner of London probably denotes Marillian from
Benny: The Sword of Forever
. The White Rabbit pub, here seen off Earth, appears in Big Finish stories such as
The Harvest
and
UNIT: The Longest Night
.
[
944
] Dating
TW:
“Overture” (
TWM
#25) - The year is given.
[
945
] Dating
Benny: The Wake
(Benny audio #8.6) - Benny gets notification of Jason’s death at the end of
Benny: The Final Amendment
, and the story picks up (albeit in flashback) upon her return to the Collection. An unspecified amount of time passes with her displaying normality at the Collection while she pieces together Braxiatel’s actions, and it’s almost certainly 2608 when she takes Peter and leaves. In support of this, her visit to the Drome (
Benny: The Worst Thing in the World
) is cited as being “last year”. Braxiatel says that Jason’s clones have been “taken care of” - although whether this includes the one who ran off with Mira in
Benny: The Two Jasons
isn’t specified.