Asking for a Friend (audio story)

Asking for a Friend was the second story in The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield box set Ruler of the Universe.

Publisher's summary
Vast wars are raging across the stars, planets are dying, and the Doctor is sat on a psychiatrist's couch. What's it like to be the Doctor's therapist?

Plot
At Benny's suggestion, the Doctor goes to see the therapist Guilana. He gives short answers but eventually tells her about how he ended the Boskotain War by cancelling out a robot's aggression ray with his sonic screwdriver and feels guilty for not having saved more. He also had a meeting with the genocidal Grand Vogmarsh regarding trade, which reflected very badly on him.

At the next meeting, Guilana asks the Doctor if he has ever made a decision that he regrets. He says that he has not, but tells her about how he used time travel and split himself in seventy-two to do his paperwork and attend all of his meetings. Benny admonished him for paying no attention to his meetings and stormed out, ensuring that she had the last word.

At the next meeting, the Doctor says that he is unsure about whether there is room in his life for Benny. He asks Guilana about why the room is so bare, but she refuses to talk about herself and prompts him to talk about his loneliness. He reminisces about how he crossed the Mother Superior and tried to get the Dominar of Dree to allow anybody and everybody through his sector to be protected by the Apocalypse Clock; when he refused, the Doctor banned any traffic from his sector from entering the safe zone. Benny is appalled.

At the next meeting, the Doctor is nostalgic about the simpler times. Benny later visits Guilana herself and talks about how difficult it can be being friends with a man who changes his personality and her concerns about the Doctor's ability to run the universe. She tells Guilana about how she tried to get the Doctor to win the public's confidence back and that there are rumours that somebody has been conspiring against him. He attempted to get the people of Vastron to safety as the Great Collapse approaches the planet, but the people voted against it.

Guilana tells the Doctor that she had a session with Benny and has him draw a timeline of important events in his life. He remembers how he abandoned the Time Lords in the Great War because he knew that they were wrong and would lose and that the Unbound Master eventually sold them out. More recently, the world of the Quargs was lost to a sun spike due to the uselessness of Parliament.

Aware that the Doctor was cheating with his sessions, Guilana installed shielding which has made her realise that the Doctor has rewritten her entire life; when she first met him, she was single and childless, but now she has a family. The Doctor confesses that he saved her sweetheart from being killed by the Kareem to make her happier given how many people he has failed to save. He asks Guilana if she can fix him, but she says no. He leaves.

Benny is waiting for the Doctor and congratulates him on saving the people of Vastron, which he did by paying the Dominar to terraform a planet using refugee labour and building a replica of their planet. She walks him home, saying that that is what friends are for.

Cast

 * Bernice Summerfield - Lisa Bowerman
 * The Doctor - David Warner
 * Guilana - Annette Badland
 * Ebbis - Hattie Hayridge
 * Radio - Wilf Scolding
 * Host - Guy Adams

Continuity

 * Guilana mentions the Gateway Emporium and what the Unbound Master did there. (AUDIO: The Emporium at the End)
 * The Kareem attacked Guilana's home planet. (AUDIO: The Library in the Body)