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!!!