Classic Who Meta: the Doctor and Peri

[kilodalton]

Comments

[fannishliss]

If you can buy that the Doctor sometimes regenerates according to his companion's expectations, then the Sixth Doctor's explosive emotionality might be in response to Peri's expectations of him based on her history of abuse. I hope it's not triggery for anyone, but I read a really fascinating fanfic series where the Doctor's dark emotions and capacity for violence were actually kind of healthy for Peri, because it helped her to deal with things in her own past that were much worse -- with the Doctor in this fanfic series, she had a measure of control she hadn't had before, and that helped her open up and accept parts of herself she had previously locked away in shame.

In terms of canon, I'm not sure why the Doctor would try to throttle Peri unless he deludedly thought it were in self-defense. It is certainly a prickly personality for him.

Still, I've recently seen one ep, The Mark of the Rani, where they have a good working friendship after all.

[wake_the_dragon]

That sounds really interesting? I never heard of the theory that the Doctor's regenerations can coincide with companion expectations. Do you have a link to the fanfic series?

[kilodalton]

I'm not sure about fanfic, but companion expectations/desires was (supposedly) one of the things that was supposed to be in the 2005 Children in Need special: that was supposed to be the reason the 10th Doctor was so "in sync" with Rose, and even had a similar accent to hers.

[nostalgia_lj]

I batshitly believe that Five's apparent vulnerability is a leftover from Romana breaking Four's hearts :(

[kilodalton]

I don't think that's batshit at all! Granted it's kinda retconned-canon (about experiences/companions in one life influencing the next regeneration), but I totally think there's enough canon to back that up!

[nostalgia_lj]

I think to an extent each Doctor can be seen as a reaction to the previous one and what happened to him. Also it is a bit because I can't imagine Five/Romana being as awesomecakes.

[bloose09]

I second the fact that there this is very likely and not batchitly at all.

There is plenty of canon to support the theory of a knock-on effect when it comes to regenerations.

[philstar22]

But the Doctor is in sync with companions who aren't there at his regeneration as well, though. The Tenth Doctor and Donna are pretty in sync, though in a different way than him and Rose. Same with the Eleventh Doctor and Amy.

[fannishliss]

The story is by Sigyn: Facets. it is at Teaspoon. http://www.whofic.com/viewstory.php?sid=36788&chapter=1

It is Adult in nature and contains violence, possibly triggery. That said, I thought it was awesome.

[lizblackdog]

I should love to see that fic.

Six and Peri are possibly my favourite Doctor/Companion combo ever. I loved how they actually didn't really work well together and forced it anyway, and the real caring that grew out of that. I love Six precisely because he was so messed up and explosive. It did have a lot of abusive-relationship red flags - I think it only narrowly escaped being exactly that in the early stages and probably I shouldn't like that as much as I do. But I do. They had it in them to fix it, and if you include the audio canon it makes the whole arc of that relationship work better.

...that was a very rambly and confused comment. YAY SIX AND PERI, basically.

[redcirce]

Word to all of this.

YAY SIX AND PERI INDEED.

(Do you have recs for your favorite Peri/Six audios?)

[nostalgia_lj]

I think one of the PDA books (or maybe a NA?) implied that her father had abused her.

[lizblackdog]

Yeah, I can't remember where I read/heard/saw that but I know I have. And it fits Peri's overall narrative.

(why don't I have any Peri icons? That's just wrong)

[bloose09]

It was in the Telos novel Shell Shock where Peri recalls being sexually abused by her father. Here is a link to the synopsis in case you are interested.