A Mutual Friend (short story)

A Mutual Friend
Main character(s):	Bernice Summerfield
Featuring:	Sarah Jane Smith
Key crew
Writer:	Terrance Dicks
Release details
Part of:	A Life of Surprises
Release date:	4 October 2002
Bernice Summerfield short stories
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Treasury
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A Mutual Friend was the fourth story in the Bernice Summerfield anthology A Life of Surprises. It was written by Terrance Dicks.

Summary

Bernice Summerfield is hungover, so she goes to a coffee shop to recover. Whilst Jason Kane is buying Britney Spears CDs for Irving Braxiatel, Benny meets a brown haired lady in the shop. They share drinks and stories, and learn that they have a friend in common.

Characters

• Bernice Summerfield
• Sarah Jane Smith

References

• Benny meets Sarah Jane at a Starbucks.

Notes

• This was later one of the eight stories collected in Treasury.
• This story was written in the style of Dicks’ own ‘Brief Encounter’ stories for the Doctor Who Yearbook.

Continuity

• Sarah Jane mentions the Doctor leaving her (TV: The Hand of Fear) and seeing him again at a kind of family reunion. (TV: The Five Doctors)
• Benny remembers gangsters in Chicago and vampires on an alien planet, (PROSE: Blood Harvest) an Ogron detective and a demonic crime lord, (PROSE: Mean Streets) giant ants, (PROSE: Set Piece) and squat dome-headed warriors fighting glowing jellyfish. (PROSE: Shakedown)
• Sarah warns Benny not to go to Metebelis III if the Doctor ever offers. (TV: Planet of the Spiders)