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.
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?
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.
She starts bitching at him immediately and leads to a lifetime of insecurity covered by bluster :( But he keeps her around and pulls her pigtails in a way that does make me wonder...
PERIIIIIIIIIIIIredcirceApril 12 2012, 02:02:52 UTC
I actually really, really love the Peri/Six relationship. I know there is some negative fan perception of Peri as a companion (and some really great quotes from Nicola about not really having a choice in being half dressed and screaming all the time) and Six tends to rank lower on the scale of popular Doctors, but I love them both quite a bit.
I find the specific combativeness of their relationship a nice change of pace from most of the other companion relationships, as well as fun and interesting. Specifically, I love how Peri is so Not Impressed with the Doctor a lot of the time, and how if he insults her she insults him right back without a second thought. And despite their constant sniping, I don't see it as real animosity- you can tell that underneath it all, they do care for each other and can be nice if they have to. Basically, I feel like Peri is a great foil for the Doctor at that point in time.
Donna and Ten actually remind me a bit of Peri and Six for those reasons.
(Disclaimer: I haven't seen the Twin Dilemma, so that
( ... )
I think Peri suffers really badly from "Caves of Androzani". In "Planet of Fire" she actually stands up to the Master quite a bit: "I'm Perpugilliam Brown and I can shout just as loudly as you can!". But a lot of the writers of S22 seem to have seen "Androzani" and not realised that Peri was actually seriously ill for most of it, and just write her as a helpless damsel for villains to sexually menace.
Also, if people here didn't see it, Eric Saward subsequently blamed the writing of Six-Peri in season 22 as too many writers independently going to the "conflict" place to give their story energy at the beginning. To which I'd say that as script editor it was an important part of his job to notice that happening and deal with it...
It goes beyond Seward. S22 is like watching a show implode. The background story is worthy of being turned into its own television drama. It was a point in time where elements of the production team were actively hostile with one another.
...whereupon Baker shows up with a rather clever idea for interpreting the Doctor, but he doesn't quite have the acting chops to pull it off on his own, which is not to fault the man, but without the backup of the rest of the show, the idea sort of turns into the sightly weird thing that is 6/Peri.
I intensely dislike the writing logic that went "Peri is pretty, Peri is in danger, therefore Peri is in sexual danger."
Peri is the one I think of as the classic negative interpretation of the "Who Girl" role. I can't imagine anyone writing it actually cared about her in any way beyond her ability to get in danger and advance the plot.
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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.
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I find the specific combativeness of their relationship a nice change of pace from most of the other companion relationships, as well as fun and interesting. Specifically, I love how Peri is so Not Impressed with the Doctor a lot of the time, and how if he insults her she insults him right back without a second thought. And despite their constant sniping, I don't see it as real animosity- you can tell that underneath it all, they do care for each other and can be nice if they have to. Basically, I feel like Peri is a great foil for the Doctor at that point in time.
Donna and Ten actually remind me a bit of Peri and Six for those reasons.
(Disclaimer: I haven't seen the Twin Dilemma, so that ( ... )
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...whereupon Baker shows up with a rather clever idea for interpreting the Doctor, but he doesn't quite have the acting chops to pull it off on his own, which is not to fault the man, but without the backup of the rest of the show, the idea sort of turns into the sightly weird thing that is 6/Peri.
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Peri is the one I think of as the classic negative interpretation of the "Who Girl" role. I can't imagine anyone writing it actually cared about her in any way beyond her ability to get in danger and advance the plot.
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