Howard Foster

Professor Howard Foster was an archaeologist and Peri Brown's stepfather.

Biography
Howard married fellow archaeologist Janine Brown shortly after the death of her first husband, Paul, in 1979. (AUDIO: The Reaping) He already had two children of his own from a previous marriage. According to one account, he sexually abused Peri when she was a teenager, cowing her into keeping his actions a secret; Peri indeed stayed silent, though she never forgave him. (PROSE: Shell Shock)(PROSE: Shell Shock)

Whilst off the coast of Lanzarote on 9 May 1984, he found an artefact from the planet Trion and briefly met the Fifth Doctor and his companion Vislor Turlough. After remotely took control of Kamelion, he briefly used the android's shapeshifting abilities to take the form of Howard, explaining his presence in the TARDIS control room as having followed Turlough and Peri in; having gotten close enough to the control console to set new coordinates, the Master dropped the disguise. (TV: Planet of Fire) After Peri left with the Doctor, Howard had the police on the lookout for her, thinking she had just gone on the run. (PROSE: When It Was Fun)

Several years later in his personal timeline, the Doctor — who had regenerated into his sixth incarnation in the interim — did not remember meeting Howard, much to Peri's surprise. He attributed this lack of memory on his part to the fact that since he had met so many people during his long life, he could hardly be expected to remember each and every one of them.

Soon afterwards, Peri learnt that Janine had blamed Howard of being at least partially responsible for her sudden disappearance from Lanzarote on the day that he found the artefact, which led to the collapse of their marriage by September 1984. (AUDIO: The Reaping)

Behind the scenes
The idea, posited in Shell Shock, that Foster abused a teenaged Peri was contrary to the intents of the actors and director, as relayed on the DVD commentary for Planet of Fire. Although never explicitly contradicted in any official narrative media, the idea went unmentioned by The Reaping and Peri and the Piscon Paradox, both of which reveal much about Peri's early family life.