Peri Brown

Peri, as she appears in Planet of Fire

Yrcanos (Spouse)

**Perpugilliam "Peri" Brown** (born 1966) was a companion of the Fifth and Sixth Doctors.

She was an American college student who accidentally joined the Fifth Doctor during his visit to Lanzarote in 1984. She then elected to remain with him for the rest of her vacation time. She remained with the Doctor after his regeneration into his sixth incarnation, but found it harder to get along with him because of his now brash and arrogant personality.

Peri was separated from him by the Time Lords so that they could cover up the Ravolox conspiracy. According to the Master, Peri was wed to King Yrcanos, but that was just part of the truth. Peri eventually rejoined the Sixth Doctor on his travels.

Her unusual name meant, according to her, "she who lives in the hills".

Peri had limited contact with other companions, although she did encounter a few. She was acquainted with Jamie McCrimmon, meeting him and the Second Doctor during an encounter with the Sontarans. She also became acquainted with Bernice Summerfield, the Brigadier, Ace, Nyssa, Sarah Jane Smith and Liz Shaw when fighting the Cybermen alongside various incarnations of the Doctor.

## Biography

### Early life

According to one account, Peri came from New England. (PROSE: *The Mark of the Rani*)

She would tell the Sixth Doctor that she had never visited London. (TV: *Attack of the Cybermen*)

Her father taught her how to use a gun, although she did not like handling them (PROSE: *Attack of the Cybermen*) and was not confident in her ability to use them. (TV: *Attack of the Cybermen*) At some point, thanks to unknown circumstances, her mother would marry Professor Howard Foster. (TV: *Planet of Fire*)

She began studying Botany at California State University in 1983. (TV: *Timelash*)

On campus, Peri was a sports star, enjoying playing tennis, hockey and lacrosse. (PROSE: *The Two Doctors*) She dated a boy named Chuck (PROSE: *Attack of the Cybermen*).

### Adventures with the Fifth Doctor

#### First meeting

On a vacation to Lanzarote, Peri met three Englishmen and decided to go with them to Morocco before returning to college in the autumn, cashing in her return ticket to New York. However, Howard stopped her from making it to the airport on time by stranding her on a boat.

Peri was saved by Vislor Turlough from drowning and was taken by him into the TARDIS where she met the Fifth Doctor and Kamelion, who assumed Howard's form and, later, the Master's. Kamelion seized control of the TARDIS and took Peri to Sarn where she met the real Master. Following his defeat and Turlough's return to Trion with his brother, Peri joined the Doctor on his travels with the intention of returning to finish her degree. (TV: *Planet of Fire*)

Whilst exploring Androzani Minor, Peri and the Doctor contracted spectrox toxaemia and became caught in the conflict over spectrox between Androzani Major government forces and Sharaz Jek’s insurgency. They were arrested by government forces and sentenced to execution, but were abducted by Sharaz Jek who claimed to be captivated by Peri’s beauty, to her discomfort. They escaped with the aid of fellow prisoner Salateen, however the Doctor became separated from them. Salateen took her back to the soldiers, however she was abducted by Jek again. In his custody she began to die from the disease, and the Doctor returned to her side. Telling Jek to care for her the Doctor retrieved bat's milk, the antidote to spectrox toxaemia, and came back for her. Carrying her back to the TARDIS, the Doctor discovered he only had enough bat’s milk for her so was forced to save her at the cost his own life. She awoke as he was beginning to regenerate, with him managing to say a brief goodbye. The Doctor regenerated into a new incarnation to Peri’s astonishment. (TV: *The Caves of Androzani*)

### Early adventures with the Sixth Doctor

Peri immediately challenged the sixth incarnation to prove he was still the Doctor. He got her to believe it was still him despite his new face and personality. Despite having stabilised physically, he suffered initial personality and mental issues which caused him to lapse into extreme paranoia. He challenged her on her unusual name and believed her to be an evil spirit. At the height of his paranoia, he tried to strangle Peri. When he caught his reflection in a mirror, he was horrified at his behaviour. He decided to exile himself on Titan III as punishment until he had attained appropriate humility, but soon got involved with stopping Mestor and his gastropods. On Titan III, he met another Time Lord, his old friend Azmael, whom he last met in his fourth incarnation. (TV: *The Twin Dilemma*)

According to one account, Peri and the Doctor spent a week frozen inside of a glacier on Vespod Eight shortly after the Doctor regenerated. Otherwise, Peri, demanding that she and the Doctor discuss terms for her remaining on the TARDIS, spent time studying in case she returned to university. (PROSE: *Attack of the Cybermen*)

The Doctor and Peri worked to stop the Neomorph Cybermen from trying to destroy Earth with Halley's Comet and save Mondas, which was destroyed by the First Doctor and keep the Web of Time from being damaged by their carelessness. (TV: *Attack of the Cybermen*)

After the TARDIS ran out of Zeiton-7, the Doctor landed on Varos in the late 23rd century for more to resupply the TARDIS. The society on Varos nearly forced him to participate in their deadly "games" when he attempted to free those trapped in the Punishment Dome. The Doctor and Peri stopped Sil, the swindler behind the "games", and obtained Zeiton-7 for the TARDIS. (TV: *Vengeance on Varos*)

Tracing a time distortion to 19th century England, the Doctor and Peri found the Master and a female renegade Time Lord called the Rani working together for one of her monstrous experiments and for the Master's plan to accelerate Earth technology beyond its normal level. The Doctor sabotaged the Rani's TARDIS and had her and the Master thrown off into the Time Vortex. (TV: *The Mark of the Rani*)

After the Doctor and Peri went on a fishing trip, the Doctor felt a time slip in his subconscious where he saw his second incarnation being executed. Upon Peri's suggestion to see a doctor, he went to Space Station Camera to see the station's head of projects Joinson Dastari. When they arrived, they found there had been a massacre there, with no signs of life. In the service ducts, they found Jamie McCrimmon, who claimed that the Doctor he was travelling with, the Second Doctor, had been executed by the Sontarans during a battle on board the space station. After letting Jamie rest, the Sixth Doctor deduced that the Second Doctor's supposed death was an illusion created by the Sontarans. The Sixth Doctor used telepathy to track the Second Doctor to a hacienda near Seville, where he was being held captive while Dastari tried to isolate the symbiotic nuclei in a Time Lord's cells so that the Sontarans could be given the secret to time travel. Peri Brown distracted the new occupants of the hacienda, including Dastari and the technologically augmented Androgum Chessene, at the front entrance, while the Sixth Doctor and Jamie found a way into the cellars through a secret passageway.

Knowing there was another Time Lord present, Chessene changed the plan into having Dastari alter the Second Doctor into Chessene's Androgum consort. Chessene also betrayed the Sontarans. The effect on the Second Doctor was not permanent, however, as the condition was not stabilised. The Sixth Doctor, Peri, and Jamie followed the Second Doctor to Las Cadenas restaurant in Seville. Dastari and Chessene had the Doctors and their companions brought back to the hacienda. Dastari then freed the Second Doctor and Peri upon realising his mistake in augmenting a primitive Androgum and was shot by Chessene for betraying her. With Peri's help, the Sixth Doctor deceived Chessene into using the faulty prototype TARDIS, and Chessene was killed by molecular disintegration. (TV: *The Two Doctors*)

The Doctor and Peri accidentally became caught in a time corridor and arrived at Karfel, where the sinister Borad ruled. The Doctor, discovering that the Borad was, in reality, a scientist he had known named Megelen, stopped him from mutating Peri into a form biologically compatible with his own and, with the help of new companion H. G. Wells, sent the dictator through the Timelash. (TV: *Timelash*)

The Doctor and Peri went to the planet Necros, where the "Great Healer" was trying to kill him. The Great Healer was, in fact, Davros, who had arranged for the Doctor to be killed at a funeral home. Davros was eventually taken to Skaro to have a trial by the Dalek Emperor. (TV: *Revelation of the Daleks*)

### Further Adventures

The Doctor and Peri arrived on a colossal spaceship and became separated after Peri fell through a ventilation shaft. The Doctor discovered that the ship's computer was planning to cause the Big Bang and avert man's creation into such a violent race. Before he could intervene, a Time Lord drew him, Peri and his TARDIS away and informed him that this event was always destined to occur. Angry at almost averting the existence of the universe, he and Peri took off. When asked where they were going, the Doctor commented that he was going to find the biggest library he could and study up on his history. (AUDIO: *Slipback*)

After their series of stressful adventures, Peri was taken to the planet "Ravolox" to relax due to its similarity to Earth. However, they soon learned, to Peri's horror, that Ravolox was *indeed* Earth, moved light years from its original position. They met the primitive and dimwitted descendants of humans, whom they barely avoided being killed by multiple times, and faced the egotistical machine Drathro. The Doctor also learned Ravolox had been moved to protect secrets stolen from a higher species. The identities of those responsible remained a mystery. (TV: *The Mysterious Planet*)

Arriving on a planet that had been subjugated under years of Dalek rule, Peri helped the Doctor stage a human uprising against their oppressors. (PROSE: *Destiny*) The effect of their actions was so severe, a squadron of Imperial Daleks were sent to destroy them, with the Doctor and Peri being cornered in an old religious building. Whilst their attackers were distracted by the arrival of a group of Cybermen, Peri and the Doctor were saved by Bernice Summerfield, who told them to rendezvous at Old Marley. Peri later joined Bernice and her fellow companions Ace, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, Nyssa, Sarah Jane Smith and Liz Shaw, as well as various incarnations of the Doctor, in holding off the Cybermen that had surrounded the church. Following the defeat of the Cybermen and the restoring of the Doctor's timeline, Peri departed with the Sixth Doctor. (TV: *Destiny*)

On the planet Thoros Beta in 2379, the Doctor found the Mentors were back at work, trying to make deals with a savage king named Yrcanos through a failed attempt to manipulate his mind. After a failed attempt to probe his mind to see if the Time Lords had sent him to intervene on their behalf, the Doctor pretended to be on the Mentors' side and helped Mentor Kiv transplant his mind to a deceased Mentor. When Peri was in danger of having her mind overwritten by Kiv's, the Doctor was put under the control of the Time Lords before he could rescue her. (TV: *Mindwarp*)

### Fate

#### The original

Strapped to an operating table and gagged, Peri was shaved bald and her mind was then erased in order for Lord Kiv's own consciousness to be transferred into her brain, something the Doctor viewed during his trial. Kiv-in-Peri's body was subsequently killed by Yrcanos. (TV: *Mindwarp*)

#### The warrior queen

According to another account, Peri was pulled out of that timestream at some moment before her death and allowed to live as a warrior queen alongside Yrcanos, as revealed to the Doctor at the conclusion of his trial. (TV: *The Ultimate Foe*)

One account suggested that Peri and Yrcanos settled on Earth at some point after their marriage, with Yrcanos becoming a professional wrestler and Peri his manager. (PROSE: *Mindwarp*)

A final account states that Peri left Krontep sometime after Yrcanos' death. Despite having left of her own free will, Peri retained nostalgia for her time as queen on Krontep. After resuming her travels with the Sixth Doctor, she took to having him drop her off once a year at a temple dedicated to her late husband, so she could pay her respects and remember.

On one such visit, she was caught by the young palace guard Rex, to whom she revealed she had disappeared as she realised Krontep didn't need a figurehead any more. She invited Rex on board the TARDIS when he told her that he wanted to travel the universe. (WC: *The Eternal Mystery*)

## Personality

Peri enjoyed playing tennis, hockey and lacrosse. (PROSE: *The Two Doctors*) Peri was often exasperated with the Doctor's sixth incarnation (TV: *Vengeance on Varos*), but still cared for him. (TV: *Attack of the Cybermen, The Two Doctors, Revelation of the Daleks*, etc.)

Although she typically relied on the Doctor, she showed that she was intelligent, such as when she figured that poison must own a cure. (TV: *The Caves of Androzani*) She showed such courage when standing up to enemies. (TV: *Planet of Fire, Attack of the Cybermen, Revelation of the Daleks*, *Destiny*) She also showed compassion on many, even on aliens and on some opponents such as Lytton. (TV: *Attack of the Cybermen*) She mourned the death of Kamelion even though he was an android, (TV: *Planet of Fire*) and also felt remorse on killing a mutant victum of Davros. (TV: *Revelation of the Daleks*) She was remembered by Krontep as leading with iron and compassion. (WC: *The Eternal Mystery*)

Peri seemingly began to develop fond and romantic feelings for the warrior king Yrcanos (TV: *Mindwarp*), whom she married in one timeline. (TV: *The Ultimate Foe*) After the warrior king's death, Peri would regularly visit a temple dedicated to Yrcanos, once a year, to pay tribute to her late husband. (WC: *The Eternal Mystery*)

## Appearance

Peri had dark, shiny hair which she usually wore short and straight (PROSE: *The Mark of the Rani*) but later wore long and curled. (TV: *The Mysterious Planet*) She had a trim young figure (PROSE: *The Mark of the Rani*) and was considered beautiful. (TV: *The Caves of Androzani*, *Timelash*)

She often wore shorts with a low-cut top whilst travelling with the Doctor, (TV: *Planet of Fire*, *Attack of the Cybermen*, *The Two Doctors*, etc.) but donned a royal yellow gown in 19th century Killingworth (TV: *The Mark of the Rani*) and a blue ensemble on Necros. (TV: *Revelation of the Daleks*) In her later adventures, she wore more conservative clothes such as a flaxen and black blazer, a mustard yellow blouse and slacks, (TV: *The Mysterious Planet*) or a black blazer and halterneck coupled with a bright red skirt. (TV: *Destiny*) Whilst visiting the temple dedicated to her late husband, an older Peri wore a black ensemble, including a cloak with a hood. (WC: *The Eternal Mystery*)

## Behind the Scenes

### American accent

While Peri is supposed to be an American, her English accent often slips and her American accent wanders between different regional accents. She sometimes uses phrases and pronunciations that Americans would not use, such as "lift" instead of the American "elevator".

Indeed, the *Attack of the Cybermen* DVD commentary maintained that it was mandated that Peri only use British slang to avoid confusing the audience. This may have worked for the *British* audience but, as Peter Davison pointed on the DVD commentary for *Planet of Fire*, it had the opposite effect on American viewers. They could spot Bryant's fake American accent — or, really, *any* British actor's attempt at American — with ease. This was one of the principal reasons that Davison fought hard against adding an American companion to the show. This idiosyncrasy of language did not end with the TV series, as it can be heard in several audio dramas also.

According to Nicola Bryant on the DVD commentary for *Planet of Fire*, there was an active effort to cover up the fact that she was not, in fact, American. She recounted there how John Nathan-Turner insisted she use her American accent when making public appearances or appearances that could have been monitored by the press. At least during the recording of her earliest serials, like *Planet of Fire*, she was even required to use the American accent when she broke character between takes.

It's unclear how long this obfuscation lasted, but evidence for the subterfuge can be heard on a clip from *Breakfast Time* broadcast the day the first episode of *The Twin Dilemma* aired. During the interview, the interviewer asserted that as a "little girl in America" Bryant used to watch *Doctor Who* and dream of being a companion. Bryant, who used only a very mild English accent during the interview, failed to correct the interviewer or to even look as though the interviewer had made an error. Near the end of the 1984 production block — which is to say after the recording of Season 22, but probably slightly before its airing — Bryant gave a radio interview in which she used her natural British accent. (AUDIO: *Doctor Who at the BBC Volume 3*)

## Appearances

### Season 21

* *Planet of Fire*
* *The Caves of Androzani*
* *The Twin Dilemma*

### Season 22

* *Attack of the Cybermen*
* *Vengeance on Varos*
* *The Mark of the Rani*
* *The Two Doctors*
* *Timelash*
* *Revelation of the Daleks*

### Season 23

* *The Mysterious Planet*
* *Mindwarp*
* *The Ultimate Foe*