While riding a Time Ring back to her ship in the 27th century, Bernice finds herself abruptly diverted to Victorian London. Having been here before with the Doctor, she seeks out her friend Sherlock Holmes' brother Mycroft, who is in the midst of investigating a series of bizarre crimes connected to the number seven.
Meanwhile, the Time Lord Straxus, already stranded in this time period, is alerted to Bernice's presence by his own malfunctioning Time Ring. Straxus and his sinister assistant Septimus begin hunting Bernice in hopes of stealing her transportation.
Tropes
- Bomb Disposal: Bernice tries her hand.
- The Cameo: Chris Cwej. ... Kind of. They're actually "Cwejen," Gallifreyan clone soldiers.
- Changing of the Guard: A sequel to the New Adventure All-Consuming Fire, but focusing on Mycroft instead of Sherlock.
- Clap Your Hands If You Believe: According to the villains, Mycroft merely contemplating the seven-themed crimes will summon a Pale God and destroy London.
- Continuity Nod: As usual, Bernice recites a quick summary of her recent adventures.
- Straxus briefly mistakes Bernice for a Faction Paradox agent.
- Continuity Snarl: In Bernice Summerfield's continuity, Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson are real (cf. All-Consuming Fire, Happy Endings) though those names are aliases. This directly contradicts other stories, such as "Legend of the Cybermen" and "The Snowmen", that maintain they are fictional characters. The former can be explained, as the Sixth Doctor would not yet have encountered Holmes and Watson during that adventure, but the latter cannot.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Straxus will do anything to escape — except hopelessly pollute the time stream.
- Grave Robbing: How Straxus supports himself in Victorian England.
- In Medias Res: Unusually for Big Finish, this trope isn't used to produce an Action Prologue; the story opens in the middle of a conversation instead, with no connection to the previous episode.
- Insufferable Genius: Literally every member of the cast except the protagonist.
- My Future Self and Me: Who saves Straxus and Bernice? Straxus. A past version of him.
- Numerological Motif: Seven.
- Out-of-Genre Experience: Subverted. The audio initially presents itself as a Great Detective story, but while the crimes are a Plot Device the story is not about solving them.
- Retroactive Precognition: A variation. Bernice is aware of the events in Sherlock's life after their last encounter because she's read the coded versions that will be published in The Strand.
- Secret-Keeper: Bernice proves her identity by her knowledge of the planet Menaxus, something that no one on Earth but Sherlock, Watson, and Mycroft could possibly have heard of.
- Serial Killer: The criminal's activity eventually ends up here.
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Mycroft, even more so than his brother.
- Shout-Out: Naturally enough, to Sherlock Holmes canon.
- Stealth Pun: The New Adventures fandom used to classify each new novel as either "gun" or "frock," depending on whether violent action or a detailed background was the primary focus. The Adventure of the Diogenes Damsel, one of the most "frock" of the Bernice audios, has a gratuitous epilogue whose only purpose seems to show her in a fancy frock.
- Straw Misogynist: The murderer's description of Bernice to his first victim.
- Unwanted False Faith: It's strongly implied that the Pale God is actually the Seventh Doctor, which explains the symbolism and why Cwejen would instinctively look to him to solve their problems.
- Villain Ball: The Cwejen decide they'll finish off their hostage later "as a special treat."
- Write Back to the Future: Bernice starts writing Peter one to leave with Mycroft's lawyers.
- More broadly, she keeps in mind a side desire to find some way to make a visible but harmless mark on history to attract a rescuer.
- Writing Around Trademarks: A story written entirely about the Time Lords that never uses the words "Time Lord."
