Absent Friends (audio story)

 was the first story in the audio anthology Doom Coalition 3, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by John Dorney and featured Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor, Nicola Walker as Liv Chenka and Hattie Morahan as Helen Sinclair.

Publisher's summary
Earth. The late 20th century. Across the world, the mobile phone is gaining popularity as more and more people decide to join the digital age. But for the residents of a sleepy English town sitting in the shade of a new transmission mast, that ubiquity has a troubling cost.

When the TARDIS veers off-course, the Doctor and his companions find themselves in the middle of a mystery. Sometimes the past comes back to haunt you. And sometimes the future does as well.

Plot
In 1998, Mr Selwyn of Superville Com watches a press conference that he recently gave, apologising for the eyesore of a transmission mast being put up in Calcot and offering each of the residents there a free mobile phone which he believes will change their minds. He receives a phone call and tells his boss that he believes everything went according to plan.

Although the Doctor intended on returning to Gallifrey to inform Padrac of recent events, the TARDIS materialises in Calcot, which Helen immediately recognises as England. The Doctor decides to give the TARDIS a complete overhaul whilst Liv and Helen enjoy a weekend in the country, taking them to get rooms at the local pub and giving them debit cards. Thanks to an archaeologist having left without paying there are two rooms, but Helen instead decides to go to London to see her family. Liv, although hesitant, agrees to cover for her.

Phillip knocks on the TARDIS door and assumes that the Doctor is a policeman sent to deal with nuisance calls that began when the mast was put up. Having found nothing wrong with the TARDIS, the Doctor heads to the pub.

On her way out, Liv hears the landlady, Kate, on the phone with somebody who keeps pretending to be her dead son and lets her know that she can talk to her. Liv bumps into the Doctor, who tells her that the TARDIS must have been brought to Calcot by an external force, and claims that Helen is sleeping and should not be disturbed. They head to the TARDIS.

In London, Helen tries to pay her taxi fare with her debit card and is confused by the decimal system. She arrives at her childhood home, which has since become flats, and calls the agent to find out who lives there.

Liv tells the Doctor about Kate's nuisance call and the free mobile phones, raising the Doctor's suspicions and prompting him to go with Liv to speak to Phillip.

Helen rings the doorbell and meets her brother George, claiming to be her own daughter and using the name Ruth.

Phillip tells the Doctor and Liv that he has been receiving phone calls from someone doing a flawless impression of his ex, Colin, who died in a car crash in the late 1980s and sounds like he did when they met twenty years prior. He also tells them of Kate's son, who died at the age of eight at a level crossing, and that SuperVille Com have an office at the mast.

George tells "Ruth" that he is not happy to see her as Helen's alleged robbery at the National Museum had tarnished the family name and the Sinclairs' reputation before disappearing. He apologises for treating her poorly for the sins of her mother when she goes to leave and insists that she stay, fetching some photo albums.

The Doctor and Liv meet Mr Selwyn, posing as freelance journalists, and, on the way to his office, learn that there is a locked office apparently containing sensitive information. The Doctor asks Mr Selwyn about the phone calls and he and Liv are both given free mobile phones to see what they think of them. Once they have parted, Mr Selwyn asks his secretary to call the boss. The Doctor inspects his phone and he and Liv discuss how artificial Mr Selwyn and the others at the office looked.

To be completed.

Cast

 * The Doctor - Paul McGann
 * Liv Chenka - Nicola Walker
 * Helen Sinclair - Hattie Morahan
 * George - Jeremy Clyde
 * Angus Selwyn - Ian Puleston-Davies
 * Phillip Cook / Kal - Richard Hope
 * Kate Drury - Anna Acton

Continuity

 * Liv says that she has been to London (AUDIO: A Life in the Day, The Red Lady) and the coast (AUDIO: Beachhead) and might as well do "the bit in-between".
 * Liv recalls seeing mobile phones in Stegmoor. (AUDIO: Beachhead)
 * Helen mentions being on the run with the police. (AUDIO: The Red Lady)
 * Helen pretends to be her daughter when she meets her brother George. Molly O'Sullivan did the same when she met an older David Walker in the 1970s. (AUDIO: Eyes of the Master)