Peri Brown
- For the mythological fairy, see Peri (mythological creature).
"Peri" (full name Perpugilliam, a name she rarely used) Brown was an American college student turned companion of the Doctor during his fifth and sixth incarnations.
Biography
Early life
Peri Brown was born 15th November 1966, to Paul and Janine Brown.
Peri's passport listed her as resident of Pasadena, California. (DW: Planet of Fire) The Doctor once pointed out that in Persian mythology, a peri was also the name of a kind of fairy which started off evil before turning good. (DW: The Twin Dilemma) As a girl, Peri used to read the comic book Swamp Thing. (PDA: Players).
When Peri was 13, her father Paul died in a boating accident. (PDA: Synthespians™) Her mother, Janine, re-married a man named Professor Howard Foster, who already had two children of his own. Foster subjected Peri to sexual abuse. Peri never forgave him. (TN: Shell Shock)
Travels with the Doctor
First meeting with the Doctor
Peri studied botany (DW: Timelash) and also had an interest in archaeology. (DW: Planet of Fire) Circa 1984, she encountered the Doctor and Turlough on the island of Lanzarote. The shape-shifting android Kamelion, controlled by the Master at the time, assumed the form of Peri's step-father, Professor Howard Foster, and later that of the Master himself, before seizing control of the TARDIS to take her to the planet Sarn to meet the real Master. After the destruction of Kamelion and the defeat of the Master, Turlough decided to return to his homeworld, Trion, and Peri joined the Doctor on his travels. (DW: Planet of Fire)
Further adventures
After a number of adventures, the Doctor and Peri met the ancient Egyptian princess Erimem, who went with them in the TARDIS. (BFA: The Eye of the Scorpion) After Erimem chose to remain on Peladon, she and the Doctor continued on alone.
After contracting spectrox toxaemia,and then getting accidentally getting involved in local politics on the twin planets of Androzani Major and Minor, Peri first got abducted by Sharaz Jek, and, upon her escape, began to die from the disease. The Doctor saved her but, not having enough bat's milk (which acted as an antidote) to save himself, regenerated into a very different new and unstable persona (DW: The Caves of Androzani). At the peak of his madness, the Doctor attempted to throttle Peri to death. Still, he managed to regain his wits enough that Peri accepted the change enough to continue to travel with him together. (DW: The Twin Dilemma).
Peri was a bright, spirited young woman, who travelled with the Doctor because, like many of his companions, she wanted to see the universe. Although she shared a more abrasive relationship with the Doctor, there was an undercurrent of affection in their verbal sparring. Peri alternated time traveling in the TARDIS with the Doctor, with time spent in the company of a second companion, Frobisher (a Whifferdill in the shape of a penguin) and occasional sabbaticals on Earth. Peri would encounter Sil, one of a race of capitalist despots known as the Mentors (DW: Vengeance on Varos). She met the Master a second time, now with an accomplice, the Rani (DW: The Mark of the Rani), and made the acquaintance of the Doctor's former companion Jamie McCrimmon at an earlier stage of his life (DW: The Two Doctors) and later as a much older man (DWM: The World Shapers). She also encountered the Doctor's greatest enemies, the Daleks. (DW: Revelation of the Daleks) Over time, Peri matured somewhat and her relationship with the Doctor became less combative.
Leaving the Doctor
- The authenticity of some following events remains uncertain, as we only have a distorted account presented by the Doctor's enemy, the Valeyard.
In the year 2379, on the planet Thoros Beta, home of the despotic capitalists known as the Mentors, Peri was separated from the Doctor. She met the warrior king Ycranos from the primitive planet Krontep, who took a liking to her. Kiv, a Mentor, had Peri abducted and taken to his laboratory. The Doctor and the TARDIS was removed from Thoros Beta thanks to the telepathic summons to the Space Station Zenobia, the High Council of Time Lords, so that he could not interfere. As the Doctor watched from Zenobia, Kiv transplanted his consciousness into Peri's body, whereupon Ycranos burst in and destroyed her body as a form of mercy-killing. (DW: Mindwarp). Despite the Doctor's horror at learning this, the destruction of Peri's mind and her death had never actually happened. After the defeat of the Valeyard, The Inquisitor revealed that Peri and Ycranos fell in love and she decided to spend the rest of her life with him. (DW: The Ultimate Foe).
Life on Krontep
Several contradictory accounts exist regarding Peri's future life on Krontep. According to one, Peri lived out the rest of her life there and had at least three grandchildren, a few of whom would meet the Doctor and Frobisher (though Peri had never been seen on-screen to interact with Frosbisher). (DWM: The Age of Chaos) Supporting this another account shows the Doctor (in an unknown incarnation) visiting Peri in her early forties, by which time, still bitterly unhappy with the Doctor, she felt resigned to her fate. (DWM: Reunion)
Another revealed that, although she did become Ycranos' queen, Peri blamed the Doctor for abandoning her. Following another one of his regenerations, the Doctor and Peri made peace with each other. The Doctor returned Peri to late 20th century Earth. (NA: Bad Therapy)
Possibly apocryphal information
Another account says that, while Peri and Ycranos stayed together, Ycranos made a career for himself in the late 20th century in the field of professional wrestling. (DWN: Doctor Who — Mindwarp)
Supposedly, Peri was also among the Doctor's companions drawn into a temporal trap set by the Rani. (DW: Dimensions in Time)
Mysteries and discrepancies
- During the Doctor's fifth incarnation, Peri spent a year of her life as a guerrilla fighter while separated from the Doctor, who meanwhile headed a military organisation known as the Alliance (PDA: Warmonger) (Where this falls in terms of Peri's personal timeline remains unknown.)
- As stated above, we do not know the exact circumstances of Peri finally leaving the Doctor and whether she chose to live out the rest of her life on Krontep.
- Peri's relationship with her stepfather, Howard, is laced with tension, and she later reacts with fear, recalling an event where he turned out the lights, suggesting some form of abuse may have occurred. (DW: Planet of Fire)
- The length of time Peri spent with the Doctor is unclear. Some accounts suggest her travels with the Doctor occurred over the space of months, however at least "a couple of years" passed (for her, anyway) between her first encounter with Jamie McCrimmon (DW: The Two Doctors) and the second (DWM: The World Shapers).
Behind the scenes
- Using her real English accent Nicola Bryant played "Miss Brown", an obvious analogue to Peri in three BBV Productions videos in the Stranger, Summoned by Shadows, More Than a Messiah and In Memory Alone. Later videos in the series would make clear that the Stranger series did not take place in the Doctor Who Universe and that Peri and Miss Brown had no connection with each other. Bryant also played Elenya "Ellie" Brown, the girlfriend of Colin Baker's character, in another BBV production, the non-Doctor Who The Airzone Solution.
- Counting audio and televised adventures together, Peri effectively shares the longest-serving companion title — both in terms of number of stories and recorded time — with Ace. As they are tied, the title essentially alternates as new stories are released. Her nearest rivals are Jamie McCrimmon, Charley Pollard and Nyssa. Of these, only Nyssa and Charley appears to be in active use past 2007, and so they represent the only potential threat to Peri and Ace's record-breaking number of appearances. While she clearly eclipses the amount of time Sarah Jane Smith has been seen or heard as a companion, Peri is easily outpaced by the character of Sarah, due to Sarah's latter-day appearances as a solo character.
Key Life Events
- Peri's father, Paul Brown, dies in a boating accident. (Mentioned PDA: Synthespians™)
- Peri meets the Doctor in Lanzarote and decides to go traveling with him. (DW: Planet of Fire)
- Peri spends a year as a guerilla fighter. (PDA: Warmonger)
- The Doctor regenerates. (DW: The Caves of Androzani)
- Peri meets Ycranos. (DW: Mindwarp). She decides to go to his home planet Krontep with him and spend the rest of her life with him. (Mentioned DW: The Ultimate Foe)
