REVIEW OVERVIEW: WHICH DOCTOR IS THE BEST AT VISUAL COMEDY? PART TWO: NEW WHO DOCTOR

At last, we reach our final installment in this very comprehensive REVIEW OVERVIEW. I've explained the stipulations of this particular essay as clearly as possible (including why I excluded Tom Baker from the analysis). I examined the works of two of the Doctors from the Classic Series who made visual comedy a core element of their performance. And now, I'm looking at the one Doctor from the New Series that I think qualifies for this level of scrutiny. 

Who is this Doctor? 

Who else could it be?

 

Matt Smith - The Eleventh Doctor

"The Manboy Doctor", as he is sometimes referred to, reveals his main trait through behavior and physicality. Can we really envision any other Doctor bouncing away on young Kaszran Sardick's bed during A Christmas Carol like a bigger child than the one he's visiting? Or rescuing Victorian-era Clara  Oswald and the two children she takes care of by creating a puppet show (still one of my favorite sight gags in the whole history of the show!)? Or doing a Pete Townsend Windmill in his final moments as he takes out Daleks with regeneration energy? Matt Smith delighted in making his incarnation of the Time Lord as visual as possible. 

But how well does he rank against the other two incarnations that we've examined? Two performers who hailed from a bygone era where actors were allowed to be much "stagier" when they performed on television...

How Well the Jokes Land                                                                                        7

When it comes to visual comedy, Matt Smith does seem to almost suffer from a certain level of timidity during a large part of his reign as the Doctor. Had he been a bigger fan of the show when he got the role, he might have been better aware of the fact that you can "get away with a lot more" when it comes to creating visual comedy with the character. That, thanks to the efforts of Troughton and McCoy (and all the previous Doctors, really, because they all used this style of humor from time-to-time) the audience will accept a Doctor looking downright silly. 

Instead, he tends to hold back quite a bit during the better part of his first two seasons. I'm not saying that there aren't any times where he "really goes for it" during his early days. But there are a lot more times where his gestures almost seem a little too understated. Where, if he had just exaggerated things a little bit more, the behavior would have gotten a much bigger laugh. Which is why his score is a bit lower than his predecessors. 

I will say that, once he does get comfortable with making his character a complete buffoon, he really does pull out all the stops. In his last season, he is especially impressive with this. He is at the top of his game during Series Seven. Which helps him to gain some points back and go out with a bang. 

How Well it's Counterbalanced Against the Drama                                                10

This is where Smith is truly amazing. One of my favorite traits of this incarnation, in fact, is the way he "turns on a dime" from silly to deadly serious. Sometimes several times in one scene. Look at the way he confronts the Silence at the end of Day of the Moon. He flip-flops a few times, there. Looking the creepy aliens dead in the eye one moment as he threatens them, then flirting with River Song a moment later. Then back to mean face. Then back to goofing off. The way he bounces back and forth between intense drama and sheer comedy is a work of art. 

I almost thought about deducting him a point just because he's almost a little too serious too often. He could have injected a bit more comedy to help with the juxtaposition. But I couldn't bring myself to do it. It is just too enjoyable watching him be almost bi-polar with the way he swings between the two temperaments. He deserves his perfect score. 

Room for Improvisation                                                                                               7

Here, again, I'd say Smith's near-shyness gets the better of him for a good part of his tenure. Admittedly, it is much tougher to throw in improvisation during modern-day shooting methods. During Classic Who, rehearsals were much more extensive. So there was real time to discuss opportunities for visual embellishments of what was written on the page. With the way TV is made today, if an actor starts making a lot of suggestions, it can really gum up the works and slow down production. 

Still, as his seasons move on, Smith does start adding more and more little bits in that weren't there, initially. It's harder to spot because editing is so much smoother. But you can, eventually, learn about it. The spontaneous kiss he gives Rory during Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, for instance, was completely improvised. It even became "a thing" for the Doctor as he decides to reward other characters with kisses during Series Seven. The joke being, of course, that none of the people he kisses ever seem to want one from him! 

But the impromptu kissing was what made me realize how little he was improvising. When I heard about it, I legitimately thought to myself: "That's the first time I hear about Smith doing something like that." I did, eventually, learn that there were some other things in earlier seasons that he did create on the spot. But, compared to other Doctors on this list, it was not a lot. This does seem to be another case where it seemed to take him most of his first two seasons to really get comfortable with himself. Only in Series Seven does he really start adding visual comedy that wasn't originally there.

Overall Aesthetics                                                                                                         9

I must give him a high score, here. As reserved as he might have been in his earlier days, he is still this mass of wild flailing limbs and ridiculous postures. While he does allow his body language to get a little looser as he progresses with the role, the basic template was always there. And it was always incredible to behold. 

Just look at something like Amy's Choice where he is stumbling around trying to grapple with reality. He takes such a simple gesture and makes it look so outlandish. Movement was crucial to how he interpreted the part. And, even if he did seem a little shy with visual comedy at first, he still created a delineation that lent itself to the process. So that when his confidence does grow, it doesn't seem incongruous. Like the other two incarnations that made it into the selection, we see that body language was a huge priority for him. And it really shines through in the final product.   

Personal Taste                                                                                                                 8

This one's a bit tricky. I really do like that the other two incarnations have a much more "classic comedy" feel to them. Particularly McCoy, who incorporates a lot of vaudeville into what he does. 

But it is equally-impressive that Smith really does his own thing, here. We don't see him, necessarily, borrowing a lot from the past. There's some traditional slapstick that happens here and there Those first few minutes of Eleventh Hour where he is struggling not to fall out of the TARDIS look like something out of a silent film. When he walks into a tree after meeting Amy Pond, there's a bit of a Three Stooges vibe happening. But even as that first episode progresses, we are already seeing Smith rely less and less on this sort of thing. And, instead, he creates a visual style that is completely his own. 

Because of this, I still want to give him a fairly high score. I like my visual comedy to have a more traditional feel, but I can't deny that Smith really does do something amazing with the part.  

FINAL TALLY 

This next bit should be easy. We just take all the points I came up with in each category for each Doctor and come up with an ultimate sum. Whoever has the highest points wins the contest. Simple stuff, right? 

I find, in life, that I'm never happy with anything unless I find some way to make things more complicated than they need to be!    

Both Sylvester McCoy and Matt Smith site Patrick Troughton as having a huge influence on their performances. It's believed Smith chose a bow tie for his costume because of his love of the Second Doctor. I think, regardless of the score he got on his own, that Troughton deserves bonus points for this. So I will give him one point for each Doctor in this REVIEW OVERVIEW that he's influenced. 

With this in mind, then, let's put together a final score for each Doctor: 

PATRICK TROUGHTON - (including the bonus points)                                                   45

SYLVESTER McCOY -                                                                                                     46

MATT SMITH                                                                                                                    41

As you can see, competition was pretty fierce. Everyone finished within just a few points of each other. There were no huge gaps. As I do feel all of these actors excelled at what they did. But, even with his bonus, Troughton loses by a hair's breadth to McCoy. According to my system of evaluation, at least. 

You might have a different opinion on the matter (in fact, if there's one thing we Who Geeks excel at, it's having different opinions!). You might even use this exact same system that I did and come up with radically different scores to mine. In the end, there is always a certain level of subjectivity to these things. But, for me at least, Doctor Seven does the best job with visual comedy. 

RECOMMENDED VIEWING

Well, it looks like we have a little room left. So let's bring up a story for each Doctor that I feel really shows off their talent for visual humour. Some were already given a bit of an honorable mention when I was doing my analysis. But I'll do a deeper cut, here. 

Seeds of Death 

As I mentioned in the previous entry, this particular tale helped to give Troughton that reputation that he was "Chaplinesque". In truth, this really only happens in a few key scenes. But I am always intensely amused by all of them. 

As if Fury from the Deep wasn't enough, the production team decides to have more fun with foam. Unlike Fury, there is less of an attempt here to imply horror and a stronger concentration on humor. Troughton gurns up a storm during various scenes involving the stuff. Most importantly, while he struggles through these perilous situations, he proclaims some of our favorite Second Doctor exclamations like "Oh my giddy aunt!" and other great quotes of that nature. Even when Zoe eventually gets to the door of the weather control station and lets him in, he looks utterly hilarious with foam all over him. It's great that Wendy Padbury has an accidental slip on the mess he's made and that they leave it in. It's a wonderful flourish to the whole moment!  

As fun as all the foam foolery is, it still doesn't compare to that utterly wonderful chase scene through the corridors of the moonbase when the Second Doctor first runs into the Ice Warriors. This is, essentially, a sci-fi version of a Chaplin film. It might even qualify as my favorite visual comedy moment in the whole history of the show. I even love how it goes surreal for just a shot as we watch Troughton run past multiple reflections of himself. 

Some may argue that Seeds of Death should have taken itself a little more seriously. That we're laughing at it rather than with it. That may be the case. But, for sheer visual comedy value, this is pure gold. 

Greatest Show in the Galaxy 

It was really hard to pick a Seventh Doctor story for this. So many of them are magnificent spectacles of visual humor. Admittedly, some are less funny than others. Delta and the Bannerman, for instance, seems to see a Sylvester McCoy who is not going so much for the site gags. And some of the visual moments that he does create in the three-parter only land so well. You also have stories like Curse of Fenric where the plot is just so serious that there really isn't much room for silly behavior. 

But then you also have a tonne of stories that play out like Silver Nemesis, where the Doctor actually uses some of his greatest foes for a hasty game of live chess. Or Survival, where the Doctor spends the better part of Episode One chasing stray cats. Hell, he's even quite hilarious in Time and the Rani. It may not have been the greatest of scripts, but McCoy constantly has me laughing. I lose it every time I watch Kate O'Mara slap away the spoon-like devices that he's playing across her chest.

Ultimately, the prize of most visually funny story must go to Greatest Show in the Galaxy. I already went on a bit in the previous entry about how great he is as he entertains the gods of Ragnarok in the final part. That whole moment is utter brilliance. The sequence seems to be tailor-made for him. I actually really love when Doctor Who has a story that truly only works for that particular incarnation. In much the same way, (but in a total opposite sense) Six was best suited for Trial of a Time Lord. He was the Doctor who relished his own oratorical skills the most. So courtroom drama was perfect for him. 

There are, of course, all kinds of other really great moments of visual comedy in Galaxy. Lots of gorgeous little touches. Like the way McCoy barks at the robot clowns after Mags snarls at them. Or how he gets the crap scared out of him when he almost bumps into one of Bellboy's androids. Even the way he dives through a hole made in the Big Top is utterly hilarious. He really is amazing in this tale. And not just during his act at the end. His actions, gestures and expressions evoke heavy laughter from me all the way through.

Day of the Doctor 

I do feel this story does have a bit of a rival for best visual comedy. Smith is absolutely hilarious as he darts about through time with his vortex manipulator in The Big Bang. Especially since this is the first time he dons a fez. Big Bang, however, does only qualify as part of a story. The first half of the tale has some nice site gags too. But, in the end, the complete story just doesn't get me laughing at the visuals as much as Day of the Doctor does. 

Part of what gets Eleven's silly mannerisms to stand out is contrast. These other incarnations seem quite static compared to the way he's dashing about like a madman. The place we really see it, of course, is when the War Doctor has to ask: "Can you actually talk without flapping your arms about?!" And Eleven has to admit he can't! We realize, in that moment, that this incarnation really is a whole lot more visual than a lot of other versions of himself. 

There are subtler contrasts that show this off. When they both sit down and put their feet up on the table in the Black Archive, look at how Tennant plays it more seriously and Smith goes for a slightly more comedic flare. I have often remarked how Ten and Eleven (and Thirteen, for that matter) have very similar personalities. But it's a moment like this that shows one of their big differences. Smith's interpretation moves around in a much sillier way!

Like McCoy in Greatest Show, the devil is in the details. It's the little things that make a big difference. Eleven saluting the soldiers outside the museum and suddenly realising he's not sure why he's saluting them. Or the very mocking bow and tip of the hat that he does to the twin versions of Queen Elizabeth. Or the way he starts doing "finger guns" as he works out a way to save Gallifrey from the Time Wars. Those small gestures accomplish so much. 

There are, of course, bigger moments too. Like hanging from the underside of a police box as it is carried through the air by a helicopter! I'm guessing part of that sequence was still done by a stunt person. But I love that they remember to kicks their legs in a wild comedic fashion to establish that this is definitely the Eleventh Doctor hanging for dear life!

And that is our final conclusion on which Doctor is best at visual comedy. It should be noted that no Doctor ever scored lower than a Seven in any category. That is because I felt that, even in their weakest areas, these actors are still quite good at what they do. It should also be noted that those Sevens did not appear very often. 

I'll also say one more time that, even though I do try to make a REVIEW OVERVIEW a bit more objective than just a straight review, there's still a lot of personal opinion at play, here. You may not rank these Doctors in the same order I did. You may even feel that that there should have been more incarnations included in the analysis. That's all perfectly fine. Feel free, in fact, to use the same criteria I did and do your own version of this to determine which Doctor you think does the best job of being visually funny. Or even come up with criteria of your own if you really want!  

Just in case you missed the previous parts, here they are:   

The Prologue

 https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2021/04/review-overview-which-doctor-is-best-at.html

Part One

https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2021/04/review-overview-which-doctor-is-best-at_23.html

 

  

REVIEW OVERVIEW: WHICH DOCTOR IS THE BEST AT VISUAL COMEDY? PART ONE - CLASSIC DOCTORS

That intensely-long Prologue is done (if you didn't read it, you probably should. It lays down some pretty important stipulations: https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2021/04/review-overview-which-doctor-is-best-at.html). We can, now, get to the actual topic-at-hand.  

Sort of. 

JUST ONE MORE IMPORTANT EXPLANATION

While I am having fun keeping you in suspense about which incarnations are the "True Visually Comedic Doctors", I do think I should get something important out of the way. Some of you may have a hard time accepting a choice that I've made so I want to explain my reasoning behind it. Let's just break it to you:   

Tom Baker won't be on this list. 

As stated in the Prologue, I am only looking at actors who made visual comedy a core element of their performance. Yes, there is a period during Tom's time as the Doctor where he is using sight gags all over the place. But there are also parts of his era where we don't see him being all that visually funny at all. He's still, in some instances, being quite silly. But it was more with dialogue than actions. 

The Fourth Doctor's period of extreme visual comedy, in my opinion, starts up somewhere during Season Fifteen (right around The Sunmakers, if you want to get really specific) and keeps building up as he goes on. During the seventeenth season, it comes to a climax. I'd even go so far to say that no Doctor acts more like a buffoon than Tom Baker does during that particular series. 

Seasons Twelve, Thirteen and Fourteen do have a Fourth Doctor being silly. Both with speech and action. Right in his first season, we have tales like Robot and Revenge of the Cybermen, where Baker is going quite hard for the laughs. But we also have stories like Terror of the Zygons, Pyramids of Mars or Seeds of Doom where, for the most part, he's playing things pretty straight. He's even quite grim, in places. This strikes me more as an actor who is actually trying to bring out equal measures of comedy and drama in his portrayal. In Tom's case, he almost seems to be picking entire stories where he keeps things serious. And then deciding to just be a big goof during other adventures. 

Feeling that Tom had gone too far with the humor during his penultimate season, the new production team that rolls in at the beginning of Season Eighteen consciously choose to reign him in. Again, there are fun jokes here and there. Some are even quite visual. But, overall, he is a much more stoic Doctor with only hints of whimsy. Rather than the huge clown he had been in the previous season. 

For over four of the seven seasons that he played the role, Tom Baker only seemed to pay so much attention to creating sight gags. There were even conscious efforts to inject more comedy into the dialogue during those "more serious" seasons. But the visual stuff wasn't so important. 

Which means that, to me at least, he does not truly qualify as a visually comedic Doctor. There are too many gaps in his tenure where he just didn't rely that much on this style of humor. 

I hope my elimination of him doesn't incense some of you. 

FINALLY! SOME PROPER REVIEWING!   

All right, we really have made things as clear as possible. Time to start revealing who did make it onto the list. We'll go in chronological order: 

Patrick Troughton - The Second Doctor

This one seems pretty obvious. Particularly since his use of visual comedy stands out in such harsh contrast to the man he has just replaced. Also, the fact that we had no idea the Doctor even could regenerate makes us notice how silly he is all-the-more. Like Ben and Polly, we are in a near state of shock and are almost wondering if this really is the same character. He really has changed radically from the more serious portrayal that Hartnell gave for more than three seasons. 

Okay, let's start using the Points of Criteria to see how well he does: 

How Well the Jokes Land                                                                                              8

First and foremost, we need to factor in a certain handicap. One that will decrease as we move on in time. Patrick Troughton's era took place in the late 60s. Back then, the ability to re-shoot things was kept to a bare minimum. We can see this clearly with all the "accidental visual comedy" that occurs during this period. Props fail to work (like that sliding panel in the opening shot of The Krotons) but the camera just keeps rolling. This means, of course, that poor old Patrick did not get the opportunity to try to re-do a lot of his attempts at comedy that didn't succeed so well. A mistimed gesture will often remain immortalised on film. 

With that in mind, however, we should still be impressed with his score. Because, most of the time, the man would just nail the joke magnificently. Particularly when he had Frazer Hines backing him up. Moments like when the Doctor and Jamie accidentally hold each others' hands during Tomb of the Cybermen are, pretty much, gold. 

How Well it's Counterbalanced Against the Drama                                                7

This is an area where I think the Second Doctor does suffer a bit. Patrick does create some gloriously subtle moments of real drama. His speech about fighting the evils of the Universe during The Moonbase or the quiet talk he has with Victoria during Tomb of the Cybermen are a few really striking examples that come to mind. But I do think that, in the greater scheme of things, he should have found more moments like these. There are periods in certain stories where the actor chooses to be too comedic for too long. Which can actually wear an audience down and make us less appreciative of the jokes being made. This doesn't happen too often. Which is why he's still at a "Seven" for his score. But they happen enough to make it noticeable. I would even say that this is one of the few substantial flaws that exist in the performance of this incarnation. 

Room for Improvisation                                                                                             10

If he lost some points in the previous category, he makes up for it here. 

Adding all these extra little bits of visual comedy to his scenes was an almost constant desire for Troughton. He made a supreme effort to liven up every second he was onscreen in any way he could. Even if you don't normally recognize when something is being improvised by a performer, it was still pretty damned easy to spot these moments. Most of the time, you could just sense that something spontaneous seemed to be happening. 

Learning the stories behind all these moments is actually quite entertaining. Troughton actually had a whole system in place to get a lot of his ideas approved. He would come up with a visual bit during rehearsal. When presenting it to the director, he would make the sequence far more outlandish than he truly intended. He would then get reigned in to the level where he actually wanted to be at. Finally, because it felt like a compromise between him and production, they would let most of his extra bits stay in. After all, he had been quite reasonable about the whole thing! 

It was quite brilliant, really. And it made so many scenes that could have been much duller shine. 

Overall Aesthetics                                                                                                         9

A near-perfect score, here. Troughton gets his character delineation down pretty quickly and gives us very curious posture and mannerisms. While there is very little video evidence left of the earliest part of his era, we do see him going a bit too big in some of the footage that still exists. As he collects scraps for analysis during The Moonbase or becomes some sort of tambourine-playing gypsy during that awful chase scene in Underwater Menace, he does seem to almost be trying a bit too hard. Whereas he does start becoming more confident with what he wants to with his body language by the time he reaches The Faceless Ones. Things do feel much less forced as his first season comes to a close. After that, I can't think of a time where the physical disposition that Troughton chose in any given moment didn't seem to work. How he holds himself as he gets ready to veer into a visually funny moment (or take things in a more serious direction, for that matter) is sheer brilliance. He truly is a master of body language. Oftentimes conveying so much more by what he does than what he is says. Which, if you're going to rely heavily on physical comedy, is a talent you need in abundance. 

Personal Taste                                                                                                                9

And now, at last, a moment to purely express my own blow-hard opinion. How do I feel about the visual comedy of Doctor Two? 

It's hard not to laugh at Troughton's onscreen shenanigans. He just does so well with it. It's especially impressive how he actually manages to steal the show a lot when he reprises the role for the first time in The Three Doctors. The way he just sort of traipses about like a fool throughout the whole adventure is absolutely hilarious. 

Some fans do argue that referring to his performance as "Chaplinesque" is a bit of a misnomer. I tend to agree with the sentiment. I do adore Chaplin's work and have studied him quite thoroughly. About the only time Troughton truly seems to emulate him is during some parts of Seeds of Death. Otherwise, I find he's doing more of his own thing. While I would have loved a Chaplin impersonation, what we do get is equally-magnificent. 

Sylvester McCoy - The Seventh Doctor

Created through a behind-the-scenes Baptism of Fire, the Seventh Doctor stayed with the show til its bitter end in 1989. Because of the energy he brought to the role, Sylvester McCoy helped to make the show go out in style rather than fizzle out in shame. Much of that energy was seen through all the fun that he had with physical comedy. Like Troughton (who he openly sites as a source of inspiration), he always looked for opportunities to inject extra little bits of visual humor into everything he could. 

It was because of that ongoing effort that Sylvester becomes our second candidate in this Review Overview.    

How Well the Jokes Land                                                                                            9

With Doctor Seven, we will reduce that "not able to do re-takes" handicap slightly. The show was still made somewhat-hastily in the 80s, but conditions were much better than they had been during Troughton's time. Some of McCoy's worst fumbles were probably fixed. But some lesser ones remained and will be, ever-so-slightly forgiven. 

Having said all that, I do feel McCoy's timing was near-impeccable. There were a few moments during Season 24 where things felt a bit forced or ill-timed. Particularly during Time and the Rani (but this is also where he is forgiven the most since the story must have been an absolute nightmare to make!). Which is why he doesn't quite get a Perfect Ten. But, for the most part, McCoy's delivery is truly amazing. His very unique career prior to Doctor Who definitely honed his skills immeasurably. 

How Well it's Counterbalanced Against the Drama                                                 9

Again, a near-perfect score that is only marred by some of the Season 24 stuff. During that period, things did seem a tad too skewed in the comedic direction and it does feel like McCoy makes a few bad choices with how he plays certain moments. 

Some fans have remarked on how Seven doesn't seem to deliver an appropriate level of seriousness when he yells. They even feel it's a shortcoming on the ability of the actor. I actually think the gesture was intentional. That he was actually trying to show that, when this Doctor is reduced to yelling, he becomes ineffectual. If you watch, he's usually only doing it when he's losing control of a situation. Whereas we have other dramatic scenes where he doesn't bother to raise his voice and delivers to perfection. Talking the Supreme Dalek into destroying himself during Remembrance is a great example that shows Seven can deliver intensity when he needs to. He is wholly confident in what he's doing in that scene and it comes through clearly. Whereas his shouts seem to be more of a moment where his confidence his wavering. and the actor is trying to convey that by being slightly more comedic in the interpretation. So, for me, he doesn't lose points for this. 

Room for Improvisation                                                                                                  10

Like Troughton, I do believe he merits a perfect score. He tackled all his scenes with that same sort vigor. Any little opportunity he had to spice things up with a visual gag was taken. And, like Doctor Two, he had a good little partner-in-crime. In this case, it was Sophie Aldred. The two loved creating fun little moments. That shot of them during Silver Nemesis where they are resting on the side of a hill listening to the jazz music that is confounding the Cybermen cracks me up every time. That scene could have been so much simpler and still be mildly amusing. But the way McCoy chooses to do that crazy backwards flip to get back on his feet creates such a great little effect. 

It's constant little additions of visual humor or even acrobatic dexterity that make him do so well in this category. In fact, I'm almost tempted to give him an Eleven for this! 

Again, we often get clear impressions that such moments were not in the original script. But, rather, something that was made up to enhance the performance. 

Overall Aesthetics                                                                                                             8

This will be his weakest score. And, even then, he's doing pretty damned good! 

Season 24, once again, hurts him a bit. McCoy does flounder for quite a while as he's trying to truly find the character. Some of this, of course, is reflected in the mannerisms he assigns to the character. There are a few significant times where his entire delineation does seem a bit off. 

But in his other two seasons, he is so perfect in the way he holds himself that he makes a few points back. There is this great sort of nervous energy that he gives to the character (again, inspired partly by the same sort of vibe Two had) that is beautifully counterbalanced by a sense of grace or even elegance. It's very symbolic of the Seventh Doctor's emotional traits. He seems very bumbling most of the time but can suddenly become almost super-human in the way he defeats his enemies. The very way in which he moves conveys so much about who this incarnation is. 

I would even go so far to say that very few actors can deliver body language as effectively as Sylvester McCoy does. He is truly a master at it. 

Personal Taste                                                                                                                10

Another perfect score, here. I really do think the visual comedy of Sylvester McCoy is a legitimate work of art. 

Admittedly, it helps him a lot that I am a huge fan of vaudevillian comedy. Which is something Seven excels at. I have even gone to the trouble of finding some of his old performances on stage (the easiest one to dig up is The Secret Policemen's Other Ball - it's utterly hilarious!) which has deepened my appreciation of him all-the-more.  

All the extra little talents that he brings to the role are what truly get me to fall in love with him as a visual comedian. His love of spoon-playing and performing magic tricks or even his light acrobatics are such wonderful little touches. I particularly adore Episode Four of Greatest Show in the Galaxy where they really allow him to show off those abilities. Doctor Who becoming a legitimate vaudeville act for the better part of an episode was so delightfully surreal!!   

Once more, our word-count is starting to get up there. So this seems a good place to end things, for now. We have one more Doctor to cover and then a final tally to take. Also, if I haven't droned on for too long, I'll recommend a story for each of these Doctors that I feel does the best job of showing off their talents at visual comedy. 

Stay tuned for Part Two....

REVIEW OVERVIEW: WHICH DOCTOR IS THE BEST AT VISUAL COMEDY? PROLOGUE: BASIC GROUND RULES

...And we're back into REVIEW OVERVIEW essays. For some reason, I've been having quite a few ideas for this topic, lately. So we're probably going to do a large number of these over the next little while. I will try to intersperse them with other topics just so this doesn't turn into a blog that does nothing but reviews. The internet has plenty of those, already!   

LAYING THE GROUND RULES 

There are a few things we should probably clearly establish before analysing our candidates. The first should be what actually constitutes visual comedy. Let's go with one of those dictionary-style dissertations (The dictionary! Anybody remember that thing?!):

Visual Comedy: (origins: Greek)  A style of humor that is conveyed with little or no dialogue accompanying it. The joke lies in what you are seeing rather than words that are spoken. Gestures from the actors involved in the comedy are usually crucial to the success of the joke. But all sorts of banal imagery can also be created around them as they react to it in a manner that elicits laughter from the audience.  It should be emphasised that there still might be dialogue involved in a visual gag. Some of that dialogue might even contain jokes. But the real laugh stems mainly from what is shown rather than told.    

Okay, dictionary-style definition has been composed. On  to the next important point: 

It should be noted that, overall, the Doctor and visual comedy have been friends for a long time. We see a great example of it right in the very second story, ever. During a later episode of The Daleks, the Doctor sabotages some important equipment and then spends too long congratulating himself on how clever he was. As he finally decides to run off, a whole gang of Daleks glide in and capture him. Hartnell makes a bit of a goofy expression as he realizes the consequences of his vanity. It's a very nice little tonal shift in a story that is mainly focused on being an intense drama. 

This sort of thing continues throughout the era. It even takes a center stage in certain stories like The Romans or The Gunfighters. That scene within Nero's palace where Doctor Who turns into High Farce for just a bit still elicits a chuckle from me every time I watch it. I love that moment where several key characters that need to meet keep narrowly avoiding each other at a cross-section of corridors. It's great stuff! Farce is, in fact, one of my favorite forms of humor. It can be quite clever while still remaining very simple. And, of course, it's extremely visual. 

Having said that, I would still not consider the First Doctor to be highly comedic. Yes, he had moments of lightness. Even told a few a jokes ("What's this, then?! A space helmet for a cow?!" - is still one of my all-time favorites!). But, overall, Hartnell hits a lot more dramatic beats with the character than he does humorous ones. He's not overly serious. There's still lots of charm in the portrayal. Or, as many point out, he often delivers his lines with a twinkle in his eye. But I still wouldn't say he's a "funny Doctor". 

The most current incarnation would be a much better example of someone who is going a bit harder for the laughs. Of course, she still has some very powerful speeches that she delivers in a very dramatic tone. But, more times than others, she likes to be silly. Just look at how she behaves at the beginning of Part Two of  Spyfall. There she is, trapped alone in the sinister dimension of the Kasaavins. Within seconds of arriving, she's talking about being in peoples' livers! I can't quite see Hartnell doing that sort of dialogue in the same situation! 

STILL JUST A BIT MORE GROUND RULES

While there are Doctors who are more serious and other incarnations who behave in a more comedic fashion, there is still a need to narrow things down more. To, essentially, create one more category of Doctor. 

The "funny versions" of this Time Lord can break down into two forms: 

1) Those that are just amusing, in general. 

2) Those that rely more heavily on visual humor. 

Again, if we go with Jodie's portrayal, this is a Doctor that is funny but doesn't really use visual comedy. It's not to say we don't get such sequences at all. Getting rid of Ryan's Hopper Virus in Orphan 55, for instance, is definitely a sight gag (although, really, it's more Tosin Cole that's creating the comedy in this instance than her). But, overall, the jokes she delivers are done more through verbal means. 

Again, every actor that has taken on the role will have, at least, a few scenes that use this style of humor. Whether they are "serious Doctors" or not. Twelve, for example, really does look like a giraffe with his ass on fire when he runs! But Capaldi gets far more laughs from the things he says than his mannerisms and actions. Especially since a lot of what he does say drips with sarcasm. While I wouldn't quite label him a full-on "funny Doctor" (he is one of those portrayals that sits somewhere in the middle with equal measures of comedy and drama), when he is going for laughs - it's more of a verbal thing. 

But, among these Doctors who are very funny or even just mildly funny, is a breed of incarnation that truly bases their performance on visual humor. They, literally, move around in a very silly way. When they can incorporate a little slapstick into a scene, they will. They will look for funny ways to handle a prop they have to use. And so on.... 

They will still reveal their serious side from time-to-time (usually when standing up to a villain), but their default setting is to make us laugh. And much of that amusement is elicited through what we see of them rather than what we hear. 

There are, in my opinion, three incarnations that fit into this very specific category (and a fourth that nearly does). These will be the three that we will submit to the rigors of this Review Overview to determine who used this style of comedy best. 

Which incarnations are they? You'll find out later! Right now, we have to establish how we will be rating them. 

FINAL GROUND RULE: CRITERIA 

So, we've gone to great lengths to explain what exactly constitutes a visually humorous Doctor. That was actually quite important to do before moving forward so that we're all on the same page. There can be a huge range of opinions on what a "funny Doctor" might be. Some fans even believe all actors play up the role mainly for comedy. So we needed to be clear on how I define it.  

Having done that, we need to move on to the REVIEW OVERVIEW essay, itself.  As usual, I'm not just going to base things purely on my own opinion. That would make for a short entry. At this point, I would simply say: "This Doctor is the funniest at visual comedy. This Doctor is the second funniest. This Doctor is third."  And, for the most part, we'd be done with it! 

A REVIEW OVERVIEW is always meant to have a bit of a scientific process behind it. A system of checks and balances that I go by to reach my final conclusions. So that it's not just completely my own feelings on the matter. There's some measure of objectivity involved!

For this particular pursuit, we're going use five basic points of criteria. On a scale of one to ten  (one being the worst, ten being the best) we'll rate how well each of our Doctors met those points. We'll, then, tally up those scores and see who did the best. 

So the last thing we must do before we get started is enumerate and explain the criteria. Here goes: 

1) How well the jokes actually "land"

Ever hear someone tell a really funny joke that gets a great laugh?! A few days later, you try to say the same joke to a different group of people and you can hear the crickets chirping! What happened?

Comedy is about delivery. You can use the exact same words that the last person used, but if you don't say them in the right way - the joke doesn't work. The same goes for visual comedy. The actor's reactions and mannerisms have to be done in just the right way or it doesn't actually come across as funny. 

"Prat falls" are great examples of this. An actor can trip and fall with limbs flailing in a wild manner and a certain type of look on their face and we will laugh hysterically at the situation. Change the action and expression ever-so-slightly and, maybe, add a little bit fake blood to their forehead when they get back up, and the whole thing looks disturbing, instead. 

With this point, then, we will look at how often the visual humor these actors created succeeded. In the cases of all three candidates, there are times when their attempts at comedy landed well. And other times when it wasn't so good. We'll try to come up with a rating based on the frequency of successful landings. 

2) How well it's counterbalanced against the drama

The Doctor being fun and silly is a great way to interpret the character. It is nice when the hero of a franchise doesn't take themselves' too seriously. But there are times when we still need some drama in the mix. How well the actor can shift from one polarised tone to the other can actually enhance the comedy significantly. It throws those humorous moments into a sort of sharp relief and makes them stand out all the more. Whereas if the actor isn't so good at playing up the darker sides of the character, the funniness feels less effective. 

Levels of silliness also fall under this criteria. Sometimes, a performer can really go far with their range of expression. Making an intensely goofy face at just the right moment works for the scene. Other times, they need to hold back a bit. Ultimately, they are still trying to get a laugh, but the effort shouldn't seem quite so concerted. How and when the actor makes these choices is also crucial to how well the visual gags come across. 

3) Room for improvisation

This seems to have always been an integral element for creating comedy in Doctor Who. There have been so many occasions where the script didn't have any kind of joke written into a certain scene but the actors involved decided to put one there. Oftentimes, the suggestion still needed to be approved by the director. But it was still a joke that was created, very much, on-the-spot. 

Visual comedy was inserted even more frequently in such a fashion. Particularly since it would often have no bearing on what was actually written on the page. Performers would still be saying the dialogue they had been given, there would just be some sort of sight gag thrown in on top of things. 

A trained eye is capable of spotting when such a thing occurs in a scene. But it does help that I have done a large amount of behind-the-scenes research, too. Learning about how the show was made has revealed to me where most of this little add-ons have occurred. 

How well these little improvisations were put together and executed will be a special category that will add to the overall score of each candidate. 

4) Overall Aesthetics 

Part of what can make comedic timing effective is the "flow" an actor creates with body movement and mannerisms. Even if they are not actually trying to execute a sight gag, a good comic still moves in a certain way. Their body language almost indicates that they are ready, at any given moment, to "become funny". In the very way that they stand or walk around, we can see visual humor waiting to come out of them. 

How our "Funny Doctors" hold themselves during their various scenes is yet one more category that will be allotted a specific point system to determine just how good they are at visual comedy. 

5) Personal Taste 

While there is a certain level of subjectivity to any of these categories, this one will be based the most on my own personal opinion. 

The truth of the matter is: a Doctor might be great at making his visual gags "land". But their humor, in general, might not appeal as much to my tastes. I just find certain styles of comedic performance to be funnier than others. So I've reserved one item of criteria to be solely about how amused I am by what the actor does to make me laugh. 

Well, laying out all those ground rules took far more word-count than I had, initially, imagined. But, when it comes to comedy, it's important to be clear about these things. The subjectivity of humor can cloud issues very quickly! 

So, I've decided this entry will be the "Prologue" to the REVIEW OVERVIEW. We'll actually start picking things apart in the next essay. 

Of course, I still haven't revealed which three incarnations are the true "Visual Comedy Doctors". For that, you'll just have to wait and see....    

 

FIXING CONTINUITY GLITCHES - WHY DIDN'T PERI JUST LEAVE THE DOCTOR AFTER HE REGENERATED?

A few different Doctor Who Vloggers that I enjoy have been bringing this up, lately (yes, I watch Vloggers, even thought they're "the Competition"), so I thought I'd try to tackle the issue.

I really did think I was, pretty much, done with FIXING CONTINUITY GLITCHES essays. At best, I might do a few more "Quick Fix" entries. But all of the bigger inconsistencies in the show's lore had been reconciled (except maybe UNIT dating - but I still think I'll just never go near that one!). Chris Chibnall, for all the discontent he has bred among some fans, is actually writing a fairly tight show. So no new problems with canon have been recently created for me to deal with. He's even going to the trouble of fixing some older issues, himself. He has, essentially, disqualified the whole "Those faces in Brain of Morbius are not the Doctor's" Theory. I also think he'll be resolving some other old plot holes along the way as his version of the show continues. 

But an interesting point has been recently raised by some fans about Peri and the Sixth Doctor.  Truthfully, I never gave it much consideration. But it is valid... 

The basic point is: when Peri first met the Doctor in his fifth incarnation, she quite liked him. He was a mild-mannered stereotypical English Gentleman who liked his cricket and, oddly enough, wore a decorative vegetable. He was very easy to get along with and even allowed Peri to bully him just a little bit (it's so cute when he passive/aggressively adds "And I'm not a pain!" in Caves of Adrozani).

As the Doctor regenerates, the relationship between them changes radically. Gone is that friendly celery-wearing fellow. The Doctor is now a rude, cantankerous and arrogant mess of mismatched colors and character traits. This is not the co-traveller she signed up for. It doesn't help that she has a bit of a domineering personality, herself. So they are frequently at odds with each other. Both of them are constantly vying to feel like they are the one in control of things. This leads, of course, to a fair amount of bickering (it is cute the way the Sixth Doctor answers "Argue, mainly" to the question he is posed at the end of Mark of the Rani). 

On top of that, this new version of the Time Lord goes through some serious mental trauma from his latest regeneration. Resulting in some genuinely abusive behavior during his very first adventure. He lashes out at her verbally quite a bit. And, of course, there's the highly controversial scene where his sanity seems to completely desert him for a moment and he attempts to strangle the American girl to death. Had it not been for a well-placed hand mirror, Poor Peri would be no more!   

So the big question is: why does Peri keep hanging around after the regeneration? She not only doesn't get along with this new incarnation, but there's a legitimate safety issue at play, here. Would you want to keep associating with someone who tried to legitimately throttle you? Even if he can offer you all of Time and Space to explore? 

By all rights, Peri should have probably said: "Drop me back off on Earth in 1984. I'm outta here!" sometime shortly after Twin Dilemma. 

MORE COMPLICATIONS

I've always felt that this incarnation takes a very long time to recover from his regeneration. He seems to be suffering from its ill effects even during the first half of Vengeance on Varos. He's still experiencing fits during that adventure that are just a little uncharacteristic for even his volatile personality. 

I'm going to guess that the two of them have probably been travelling together for a week or two by the time this particular story begins. Can anyone put up with someone that psychologically damaged under those kind of conditions for that long? I mean, if the Doctor had committed himself to a sanatorium and she was just visiting him regularly, she might have been capable of sticking through it. But to be just hanging around in a trans-dimensional time vessel while a madman lurks about doing all sorts of wildly unstable things seems like a bit too much to handle. 

It doesn't help, of course, that we do see a similar dynamic in the New Series. Clara is quite unhappy when the equally mean-spirited Twelfth Doctor emerges onto the scene. Like Peri, she was used to his much friendlier predecessor (who also allowed himself to get bullied around a bit by her). Unlike Peri, however, she takes a more realistic option: she elects to leave the Doctor at the end of Deep Breath. Only as Eleven pleads with her from the past, does Clara decide to stick around a bit longer. There should have, at the very least, been a similar moment for Peri (the Fifth Doctor uses a special cross-temporal pay phone to contact her?!)

Peri deciding to stay for another season-and-a-half after the regeneration seems so unlikely that it does come off as a legitimate continuity glitch. Something that is just too inconsistent to properly fit in with a believable sense of canon. Can we get this problem to seem a bit more coherent and realistic? 

THE REAL REASON

Before we even try get all this to reconcile, we should probably examine the actual mentality that was going on in the television industry at the time that allowed such a dysfunctional pairing to prosper. During those days, TV production teams created characters who, to all intents and purposes, should have absolutely no friends. They were just so intolerable to be around that no one would put up with them. And yet, they still had a whole host of family and friends who would endure their constant abuse. Much of it even seemed to be done to a sort of comedic effect. We actually laughed at how horrible these characters were. And, even though the people around them suffered all sorts of humiliation, they kept coming back for more. 

The popular American sitcom: All in the Family is one of the better examples of this. Its protagonist, (Archie Bunker) was not only a horrible racist full of narrow-minded opinions, but he tended to treat his entire family with all sorts of contempt. And yet, everyone suffered Archie. The show lasted for eight seasons and developed a spin-off (Archie Bunker's Place) that lasted another four. 

Other American sitcoms used a similar formula. George Jefferson, a black version of Archie Bunker, had his own popular show for the better part of a decade. His wife and various wacky neighbors endured his nonsense the whole time. Sanford and Son featured the intensely-abusive junkyard owner Fred Sanford. An absolutely horrid father who referred to his son regularly as "dummy". And his son tolerated the abuse the whole time (I know Sanford and Son was inspired by the British show Steptoe and Son but I don't actually know how similar their formulas were to each other). 

A misanthropic character who never seems to truly experience the social consequences of his or her behavior was a fairly common trope in television by the time the Sixth Doctor emerged onto our screens. We would continue to see this dynamic occurring well into the New Millennium with programs like House. It seems likely that the creative team at the time of Sixie and Peri were going for this sort of motif. 

It should be noted, however, that many of these shows had a strong emphasis on family in their core premise. This did make things slightly more realistic. A good abusive personality can, oftentimes, condition their family to tolerate them. Peri and Six, of course, don't have this sort of dynamic. Not only are they not related, but they've only just met. So this does seem to make it more difficult to believe that she would keep hanging around. 

THE POPULAR THEORY

Most fans, when confronted with this paradox, like to claim that Peri stuck around for as long as she did after the regeneration because she was suffering from a case of Stockholm Syndrome. That she, somehow, became conditioned to depend on her abuser and felt she couldn't live without him. This particular phenomenon has been known to happen with people who were abducted by sociopaths and imprisoned by them for extended periods of time. They will, sometimes, not wish to leave their captors when they are finally presented with the opportunity of freedom. 

I find that, for several reasons, Peri doesn't fit the mold of this condition. First and foremost, Stockholm Syndrome takes some time to build up. She hasn't been with the Doctor that long for such a thing to happen. Some try to argue that, perhaps, because the Doctor is highly advanced and possesses low levels of telepathy, he might have been able to accelerate the process. But I still find this highly unlikely. 

In general, I just can't see the Doctor creating this sort of dynamic with a companion. Yes, some incarnations aren't quite as pleasant as others, but he is still a person who champions the causes of justice and fairness. A personality that cultivates Stockholm Syndrome is a clearly malevolent one. The Doctor has too much respect for the free will of all other sentient beings to abuse someone to the point where they feel dependent on him. That's just not who he is. So, even if he has the ability to somehow create Instant Stockholm Syndrome, he wouldn't use it. Or, if he did it because he wasn't thinking clearly from his regeneration, he would take it upon himself to reverse the condition once the side effects of the regeneration wore off. His ethics are just too strong. 

A MORE FEASIBLE EXPLANATION 

Now that we've dismissed the Stockholm Syndrome Theory, let's try to construct something that might actually apply to the situation. In fact, if you look closely enough at the dynamic going on between Six and Peri, you will see hints of what I describe. It's just never displayed too prominently or stated too explicitly. 

I think the first thing that gets Peri to stick around is sheer shock. Some companions who witness a regeneration have been properly braced for it. When Six transforms to Seven, for instance, Mel actually says: "I know about regeneration, of course." (or words to that effect) and this makes it far easier for her to accept the new Doctor. But Peri had no idea that the Doctor could do this. She is going to spend, at least, a bit of time trying to process things. Which will, more than likely, make her not want to leave the TARDIS. A huge transformation has just happened in front of her. She's not going to want to introduce an even greater change in her life. When we have a lot to process, we prefer to keep everything else around us stable. The current pattern in Peri's life was to travel in the TARDIS. So she would be inclined to maintain that status til she truly adjusted to this new Doctor. As erratic as he might be. 

Another important factor that may have caused her to stay was how quickly she understood that the Doctor's strange behavior was a side-effect caused by the regeneration. It's very fortunate that the first breakdown that the Doctor has is not specifically directed at her. The Doctor just shouts out how there's no rhyme for time or place for space and then cackles evilly as he tumbles into a clothing rack. When he stabilises, he explains to her what happened and she now understands what's going on with him. 

If the first outburst had been the attempted strangulation, things could have played out very differently. She probably would have just said: "This is too nuts! Let me off!" But, because she now knew why he was behaving the way he was, she understood not to take the attack so personally. It's a bit like knowing that a person with a mental health problem can lash out, sometimes, at the people they care for. They aren't really trying to specifically hurt you. It's just something the disease causes them to do. Peri, I think, understands this and is trying to detach from the whole thing. Particularly since the Doctor has explained to her that his manic episodes aren't really part of his actual personality. That they will diminish over time and, eventually, stop. Peri is willing to accept this and give him a chance. So she hangs in there with him rather than just kicking him to the curb. 

Another huge factor that may have increased Peri's sense of loyalty is one we really don't stop to think about. It gets brought up quite nicely in an old Missing Adventure novel from the 90s, but it's never mentioned on the show itself. But it's a very good point. 

The Doctor may be very different from his sweet last incarnation, but he is still, ultimately, the same man he was when she first met him. Which means that, at the end of Caves of Androzani, he sacrificed his life for her. Yes, he is very difficult to deal with after the regeneration, but this is still the same person who just died so that she could live. 

As intolerable as he might be, can she really just walk away from someone who made that sort of gesture for her? She has to, at least, try stick around for him for a bit now that he's in a state of vulnerability. 

She owes him that, at least.

EXAGGERATED RUMOURS

One of the biggest issues with this whole problem is that fans do have a tendency to exaggerate things rather than actually look at what really happened onscreen. "Oh my God!" they might proclaim in fangroups, "I haven't watched their stories in fifteen years, but I remember how the Sixth Doctor was absolutely terrible to Peri the whole time she travelled with him. He was attacking her constantly for the whole season-and-a-half that they were together! Why would she put up with it?! It's unrealistic!!" 

The truth of the matter is: if you bother to properly watch their episodes, you see a very different dynamic than the one just described in italics! 

Admittedly, the Doctor treats Peri horribly during Twin Dilemma. There are probably a good half-a-dozen occasions where he verbally abuses her (berating her for not wanting to investigate the crashed ships on Titan Three, yelling at her for turning off the torch at the wrong time while exploring the underground tunnels on Joconda, and so on...). There are also a few times where the Doctor does some very cruel things to her, too (throwing her to the mercy of the Jocundans who discover them in the service shafts on Titan Three, trying to strangle her). I've already enumerated in the last section, three good reasons why Peri tolerates this behavior. They all relate to what might have been going on in her during the events of Six's introductory story. But, according to the cheating memory of many fans, he continues being a jerk towards her. For what probably amounts to about a year-and-a-half, he keeps making her feel like garbage every chance he gets. 

But if you actually bother to sit down and watch even Attack of the Cybermen and Vengeance on Varos, you will see that he is behaving better towards her, already. He still appears to be having fits that were caused by a rough regeneration. But they are frequently directed to no one in particular (yelling about how he's a man of passion in Attack of the Cybermen). Or, if he is specifically addressing Peri, the moment is short-lived (shouting at her for indulging in casual conversation at a bad time during Varos). As we move past the first two stories of Season 22, we will see the Doctor still "snark" at Peri from time-to-time, but it's usually more in the tone of good-natured banter than a full-on attack. 

ANOTHER PROBLEM 

Before we move along too far into their relationship, there is one more important thing to address. Although the Doctor does still seem to be suffering from the side effects of regeneration for the first two stories of Season 22, it doesn't usually manifest itself in emotional outbursts, anymore. Now he seems more scrambled than anything. Peri notes in Attack of the Cybermen, for instance, how he keeps calling her by the wrong name. We actually see him do it as he discovers he's returned to the scrapyard on Totter's Lane. At the beginning of Vengeance on Varos, Peri also expresses a whole litany of absent-minded mistakes  that he's been making, of late. These "slips of the mind" seem to be the much bigger problem, now. 

The question that now begs itself to be asked is: why would Peri want to keep hanging around with the Time Lord while he is in such a mentally-unstable state? She does seem genuinely concerned for her safety while they fly alongside Halley's Comet. Like the Doctor is incompetent enough, at this point, to cause some sort of destructive collision with it. How do you keep enduring that sort of uncertainty with such a fragile personality? During these two adventures, I feel this is a far greater motivation for her to leave than the flashes of temper he still seems to display. 

My guess would be, however, that Peri is now feeling some sort of "duty of care" for the Doctor. Yes, he's very erratic and unreliable - but she can't just leave him to his own devices. She feels that she owes him too much to just abandon him in his time of need. 

She also doesn't know if there's much of anything that she can do for him beyond continuing to tag along. This man is a legitimate alien. She has no idea if there is some sort of medical attention that she can get for his problem. Nor does she think she can ask him about it without insulting him too much and not getting an answer, anyway. The best she can do is just stay with him and keep an eye on him. It does help that she is seeing a progression. The post-regeneration side effects do seem to be decreasing with time. 

BANTER

As we start rolling into Mark of the Rani, the Doctor does really seem to be settling down. Yes, he's still tetchy here and there. He does snap at Peri a bit towards the beginning of the story. This sort of thing happens quite often in their first scene of a new adventure. After twenty-two years of "Where are we now, Doctor?", the writers liked this new way of disclosing the setting of the latest tale. Peri was, at the core of things, still asking the Doctor where and when they were. But, at the same time, they would give the characters a bit of an argument to indulge in. It was a nice change of tone that authors liked to use at the start of their scripts for this pair. 

I think it's safe to say that these two characters would always be a bit combative. But this is due to the fact that both of them do have dominating personalities. So clashes are bound to happen. But I would hardly consider this to be the sort of thing that would push someone to the point where they would genuinely abandon the relationship. 

The truth of the matter is, we all tend to have people in our lives that we are a bit "spiky" with. We only gel so well with them. In order to soften the impact of them, we will take the occasional potshot. And they will do the same thing back, of course. Some psychologists would even have you believe that it is quite healthy to have people like this in our lives. They help us to remain accountable and keep us from becoming too self-indulgent. 

Much of what we see between Peri and Six for the rest of Season 22 is this sort of behaviour. Yes, the Doctor still gets a little rude and condescending with her (ie: the way he actually tells her she has a small brain during The Two Doctors) but she is plenty happy to give back. Look at how they pick on each other for their poor eating habits during Revelation of the Daleks. Both take some pretty decent jabs at each other. The dynamic has definitely shifted to something where Peri really isn't much of a victim, anymore. She gives as good as she gets.

If anything seems a little unlikely at this point, it's the fact that people that only get along with each other so well often keep themselves at a bit of a distance. They don't usually elect to be constantly travelling together. But, one must admit, there is a bit of a trade-off happening, here. Peri is enduring this new Doctor's more abrasive personality because he is offering her all of Time and Space. I think I would be willing to do the same if I were in her situation. Especially since she did enjoy a kinder version of him for the first little while. 

We should also point out that, underneath it all, she does still see that the Doctor genuinely cares for her. He will still display degrees of tenderness and concern for her from time-to-time. When he finds her lying unconscious in the mine shaft towards the end of Mark of the Rani, for example, he is just happy to see that she is relatively unharmed. He doesn't berate her for losing two of the most dangerous Time Lords in the galaxy. He tells her not to be concerned. What's important is that she's all right. We see little moments like this all over the place. Look how, in Revelation of the Daleks, he takes a moment to comfort her over the death of the DJ. In the thick of a confrontation with one of his greatest enemies, he will still reach out to a grieving companion. Yes, his coat is ugly and his temper is mean, but he's not such a bad bloke after all!

THE ROAD IS STILL BUMPY, BUT IT DOES SMOOTH OUT

While most of the rest of the friction in Season 22 can be chalked up to "friendly banter", we do see the Doctor getting just a little too hostile with Peri at the beginning of Timelash. His third repetition of "Bad?!" as they are having a discussion is so loud it actually gets her to jump. She does almost look to be experiencing flashbacks from Twin Dilemma. 

More than likely, however, this is just a case of  Six having a bit of an "off moment". He's a little crankier than normal for a bit. He does, however, seem to get over it fairly quickly. Even during all that awful padding they have to put in near the end of the second part of Timelash, the Doctor handles Peri much better during this moment of tension. She is insisting she stay aboard the TARDIS when he desperately wants her to leave. But his tone does not come across as abusive like it did at the beginning of the story. He is deeply frustrated with her, but does take a gentler approach than he did earlier. This would indicate to me that he will still have his moments of extreme tetchiness - but he gets over it quickly. The First Doctor could be, very much, the same way. Particularly with Ian and Barbara during Season One. But they also saw how he settled such moods quite fast. Because of this, they were willing to continue a friendship with him. I think Peri makes a similar judgement. 

Which gets us, at last, to Season 23. It's almost amusing how the BBC Executives made a big deal of telling the media how they ordered that the creative team tones down the hostility between Six and Peri. JNT is diplomatic enough not to mention that this had been their plan all along. That they were building an arc into the Sixth Doctor's character where he becomes more likeable as his seasons continue. Part of this arc is displayed in how he is treating Peri much better during Trial of a Time Lord. Instead of engaging in the usual "opening scene argument" that we got throughout most of Season 22, the two of them seem much more chummy with each other as Mysterious Planet opens. They even walk arm-in-arm for a bit. 

Of course, there is still a bit of spikiness here and there. It would seem too jarring if they suddenly got on perfectly. He does berate Peri slightly at the beginning of Mindwarp when she doesn't seem that interested in investigating the disruptors that were sold to a warlord of Thordon. But the tone is definitely less harsh than it was before. He has definitely softened. 

Although, quite honestly, even during Season 22 - the Doctor becomes friendlier and friendlier with Peri as things progressed. Which I think is what motivates her the most strongly to weather this whole storm. The Doctor she first became enchanted with during Planet of Fire is still there, somewhere. Slowly but surely, he's coming back out. 

She just needs to be patient with him. 

And that is my official take on why Peri puts up with Sixie's nonsense as much as she does. Some of it does require a bit of an explanation. But a lot of this issue is resolved by just taking a proper look at the stories they shared and realizing that certain liberties were taken with how many of us recall the dynamic between these two. 

Rumours of the death of the Doctor and Peri's friendship have been greatly exaggerated. 

Come to think of it, rumors of Peri's death have been greatly exaggerated!!!