Paydirt (short story)

	Bernice Summerfield
	46th century
	Big Finish Productions
	Lance Parkin
	A Life of Surprises
	4 October 2002
Bernice Summerfield short stories
← Previous	Might
Next →	Dear Friend

Paydirt was the nineteenth story in the Bernice Summerfield anthology A Life of Surprises. It was written by Lance Parkin.

Summary

In the 46th century, Stev Grayson, Gould, N-v23 and Professor Kent are excavating a dig site looking for information on Bernice Summerfield.

Later, they discuss the legends they've heard about Benny, and speculate whether an earring they've found belongs to her. Professor Kent tries to explain to the students the nature of fact and legend.

Characters

• Bernice Summerfield
• Stev Grayson
• Gould
• Kent
• N-v23

Worldbuilding

• A universe exists where the Doctor had thirteen half-immortal children with Benny.
• Professor Kent mentions King Arthur, Robin Hood, Beowulf, Jack the Ripper, Lady Macbeth, Catwoman, Sherlock Holmes, Don Quixote, Shakespeare's plays, the Bible and Greek myths.
• Clonodating is banned by the Vatican.
• There are tombs for Benny on Mars, Vremnya and the Kalkravian asteroid belt.
• Benny's eyes are variously described as green, blue and brown.

Notes

• Benny uses "the Professor" as an alias. The Seventh Doctor was often called "Professor" by his companion Ace.
• Prior to this story, Lance Parkin had addressed the idea of multiple timelines or versions of Benny in Fishy Business, published in Perfect Timing 2 in 1999. A character named Danny the Fish and Mr Saldaamir encounter a version of Benny who had become the Doctor's lover following The Dying Days.
• In Parkin's Iris Explains, published in the charity anthology Missing Pieces, Iris Wildthyme mentions a version of Benny who had thirteen children with the Doctor.
• The version of Benny who became "Supreme Commander of all human space" is a reference to two drafts of Parkin's rejected epilogue for The Dying Days, Valeyard of the Daleks and Eulogy of the Daleks.

Continuity

• Gould knows that Benny fought vampires in the 20th century, (PROSE: Blood Harvest) was tortured by Nazis (PROSE: Just War; AUDIO: Just War), stood alongside the Cathars in the 12th century (PROSE: Sanctuary) and got married in 2010. (PROSE: Happy Endings)
• According to one account, Benny died on Vremnya on 31 October 2599. (PROSE: Twilight of the Gods)