Companions: Fifty Years of Doctor Who Assistants (25 page)

As with Turlough and Peri, Erimem gets her own story in the 2005 novel,
The Coming of the Queen
. It’s a pre-Doctor adventure which sees the Pharaoh’s daughter, who has lived a protected and luxurious life in her father’s palace in Thebes, approaching her sixteenth year, a year that will plunge Erimem and her three half-brothers into a dark world of death, betrayal and tragedy.

Erimem’s departure from the TARDIS comes in the 2008 audio tale,
The Bride of Peladon
, in which she makes a decision to stay with King Pelleas. Erimem has a signet ring bearing the emblem of Sekhmet which she uses as a talisman to protect her from the gods, once again revealing that she has moved away from her previous agnostic leanings.

Big Finish are not the only company to create non-television companions for the Fifth Doctor, indeed no sooner has he appeared on television, he receives his first ‘exclusive’ companion in the shape of Sir Justin, in the pages of
Doctor Who Magazine
. A knight from medieval England, Sir Justin gave his life to stop Melanicus. Another part-time companion created for the comics is Shayde, a Gallifreyan construct placed in the Doctor’s TARDIS without the Doctor’s permission. He returns on occasion to assist the Doctor, later appearing with the Eighth Doctor and merging with future companion, Trey Truscott-Sade. As previously mentioned, the Fifth Doctor also travels for a time with Thomas Brewster, a street urchin from Victorian London who first appears in
The Haunting of Thomas Brewster
. He remains on Earth in 2008 to pursue a romance with Connie, however she is hit by a car and falls into a coma. He re-enters the Doctor’s life, now in his sixth incarnation, and demands to be taken back to his own time, holding Evelyn Smythe at gunpoint to convince the Doctor. Another companion created by Big Finish is Amy (later called Abby to distinguish her from the Eleventh Doctor’s companion), a tracer given human form to help the Doctor track down the Key to Time in
The Judgement of Isskar
. During her travels she becomes fully human. She later enters the Time Lord Academy, and joins a Zara (her ‘twin sister’) on further adventures in
Graceless.

The Si
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ctor

Colin Baker

‘In all my travelling throughout the universe, I have battled against evil, against power-mad conspirators.’

The Doctor
– The Trial of a Time Lord

Perpugilliam ‘Peri’ Brown
–
Nicola Bryant
continued... (
Planet of Fire
to
The Trial of a Time Lord
)

From the moment the Doctor sits up, fresh from his regeneration, one thing is abundantly clear – he is not the man that saved Peri’s life. As she later states in
The Twin Dilemma
, she finds him rude, self-obsessed and ignorant – it is a wonder why she remains with him really, since it is very clear she no longer likes him. This is not surprising; she is distraught and confused by his change of appearance, but the new Doctor is very dismissive of her emotional state, simply waving it away saying she will get used to it. Gone is the man she considered sweet, replaced by a dangerously unstable stranger. One who even attempts to kill her! The Doctor finds it hard to believe that he would even think of something like that, but when she cowers away from him in fear he realises that she is not making it up, that something has gone dangerously wrong with the regeneration (almost certainly a consequence of the Fifth Doctor having actually died, before the regeneration kicked in).

A short time later, when Peri believes the Doctor had died in a safe house explosion on Titan Three, she breaks down in tears which, on the surface, doesn’t really make sense since she has shown nothing but distaste for him since his regeneration – and with good reason. Even the Doctor doesn’t understand why she would be so upset. She explains it away as compassion, but it fails to ring true. It seems more likely that Peri’s emotional state is heightened; she is more distraught than she realises, being stuck with a man who might kill her at any time. Nonetheless, she remains defiant and refuses to be bullied by the unstable Doctor. Just as they leave Jaconda, the Doctor tells Peri that he is now fully stabilised, and Peri points out that he could do with a crash course in manners. But when he adds, ‘I am the Doctor, whether you like it or not’, Peri finds his smile infectious and cannot help but return one of her own. And that is all it really is, an infectious reaction, since between then and the next time we see them in
Attack of the Cybermen
things have not improved much. They have spent much time in the TARDIS, although what Peri’s been doing to occupy her time is unclear, and she is quite clearly bored out of her mind while the Doctor goes about repairing systems. She is finding it very hard to relate to the Doctor now, and doesn’t think he understands her, a far cry from the closeness that had been developing prior to his regeneration.

She is clearly worried about his state of mind; he has called her a number of names, including Tegan, Zoe, Susan and, at one point, Jamie. He calls her Susan once again while they stand outside the junkyard on Totter’s Lane, although Peri fails to understand the reason for this slip up. She is merely frustrated that he forgets who she is – again. She bemoans the fact that her first visit to London is to search for a distress call the TARDIS picked up, and wishes she could just visit like a regular tourist, which is perfectly in keeping with the reason why she remained with the Doctor in the first place. She spends most of her time in London on edge, which is not helped by the appearance of the Cybermen, or their threat to kill her if the Doctor doesn’t take them to Telos. Still in a state of distress, Peri is initially horrified by the Cryons, but soon overcomes such terror when she realises they are peaceful, although fighting for their very survival. She learns that Lytton, a man they all thought was working for the Cybermen, is really working against them on behalf of the Cryons. It takes her some time to convince the Doctor that Lytton is actually one of the good guys. After Lytton sacrifices himself to save the Doctor, Peri is surprised, although heartened too, to see his remorse. Perhaps there is some hope for this Doctor after all. If nothing else it is a hint of the man she once knew.

Although American, Peri oddly fits into London very well, seemingly something of an expert on British slang. It may be that she learned key phrases in preparation for travelling to the UK at some point, but it is a strange thing that she rarely uses American slang, indeed more often than not she tends to use British pronunciation. For instance, when the Doctor talks down to her she tells him to not ‘
pat
-ronise’ her, instead of saying ‘
pay-
tronise’ as would be expected from an American.

When the TARDIS is out of Zeiton-7 ore in
Vengeance on Varos
and the Doctor explains that they have barely got enough power to reach Varos, she tells him she would rather be stuck there than in the TARDIS, since unlike the Doctor she doesn’t have many lives to live, she only has one and doesn’t want to spend it alone with him. This is perfectly understandable, since their level of bickering would only worsen after endless hours of being in each other’s company. On Varos she meets Sil, an almost slug-like alien from the planet Thoros Beta, and finds him as repulsive as he finds her. When she is put under the transmogrification beam, Sil is delighted to see her start to turn into some bird-like creature. She recovers from the ordeal, but the Doctor jokes much later (in
The Trial of a Time Lord
) that after leaving Varos she cost him a fortune in birdseed – a joke Peri doesn’t appreciate. When the Doctor appears to die in the punishment zone, Peri expresses real grief, almost guilt, at his passing, and wonders what she is going to do if she is stuck on such a horrible world. Although still they bicker and squabble, during their time on Varos there are a few moments of levity between them that suggests that somehow they are bonding.

When the TARDIS takes them to the mining town of Killingworth in the 1820s, Peri expresses an interest in ecology, a perfect companion to her botany studies. On the short walk from the TARDIS to the town itself, there is actual banter between her and the Doctor, showing a steady growth in their friendship – despite their continuing bickering. Indeed at the end of
The Mark of the Rani
, when asked what it is he and Peri do in the TARDIS, the Doctor replies, ‘Argue, mainly’. She is shocked by the Master’s return, having witnessed his death on Sarn. As you would expect, the Master is quite intent on doing her a great deal of harm; after all she did not lift a hand to save him on Sarn. Nonetheless, even though he wishes her dead, he still has a lot of respect for Peri, referring to her as ‘Miss Brown’.

She is saved by the Rani, another Time Lord, but not out of compassion rather because she wants to use the chemicals in Peri’s brain. After both the Master and the Rani are defeated, it is nice to note that the Doctor and Peri walk away, with the Doctor putting his arm over her shoulders – a level of closeness not seen between them before. They still have a long way to go though, as shown when they are fishing in
The Two Doctors
, but by this point Peri is giving as good as she gets, a tactic that begins to have an effect on the Doctor. Even though there have been several times she could have easily left him, Peri clearly thinks it is worth sticking it out.

Having already heard of Jamie, Peri gets to meet him and is rather charmed. Initially Jamie is not completely on form, having been stranded alone on the deserted Space Station Camera. Peri doesn’t quite understand how two Doctors can be in one period, nor how the TARDIS can be in two places at one time.

Despite seeing a holographic image of the Second Doctor on the space station, she still fails to recognise him when he is wheeled out before her by Chessene. Evidently, when in danger, Peri thinks of the Doctor, as witnessed when she is confronted by Chessene, who she feels is a threat. As they leave Spain, the Doctor decides that from now on (after the cannibalistic nature of the Androgums) it is a strict vegetarian diet for both of them – which appears to carry on at least until they arrive on Necros much later in
Revelation of the Daleks
at which point Peri’s ‘enjoying’ one of the Doctor’s nut-roast rolls.

After these recent events, at the start of
Timelash,
Peri simply wants to go somewhere to relax and the Doctor suggests the Eye of Orion. But Peri wants to go somewhere else, somewhere fun. The Doctor offers to take her back to 1985 but Peri insists she doesn’t want to go back; despite everything, she does appear to enjoy her travels with the Doctor or, at the very least, is not ready to give up on him yet. She doesn’t care much for Karfel, and is especially not impressed by the Borad, yet another mutated creature who wishes to make Peri his mate. But she is very impressed, when she later learns that Herbert is the young HG Wells.

Although she has heard of the Daleks, by the time they arrive on Necros (
Revelation of the Daleks
), she cannot have seen one as she fails to recognise a Dalek on sight. We also learn that while on her travels she has been collecting exotic alien plants, since she has to wow her teachers with something as her grades certainly will not – either suggesting she has been away longer than the planned three months, or that she has little faith in her academic ability. When a mutant, the result of Davros’ experiments, attacks the Doctor, Peri accidentally kills it in her attempts at a rescue. It is the first time she has killed anyone, and she feels overwhelming guilt, especially since the mutant thanks her before dying. During their long walk to Tranquil Repose, the Doctor and Peri engage in much banter which includes such topics as the American’s monopoly on bad taste, and the Doctor’s weight. She even, while scaling a wall, unintentionally breaks the Doctor’s much treasured fob-watch. She promises to buy him a new one, but the Doctor brushes it away with sarcasm, leaving Peri feeling more than a little guilty. When the Doctor is apparently crushed by his own gravestone, Peri is ‘consoled’ by the grotesque Jobel. She finds him both repellent and weird, and is comforted when the Doctor climbs from beneath the gravestone unharmed. While the Doctor exposes a plot to create a new army of Daleks by Davros, he leaves Peri in Jobel’s care, thinking she will be safer with him than whatever else is on Necros, but Peri is not so convinced and gives him the slip at the first opportunity, instead enjoying the company of the DJ. At first she thinks he is really from America, and is a little disappointed to discover that his accent is false, indeed that he has never even been to Earth. Nonetheless she does find him amusing, and is horrified when he is later killed by a Dalek. After the slaughter at Tranquil Repose she decides she needs a holiday, and the Doctor agrees to take her to...