Talk:Peri Brown/Archive 1

American "cover up"
I added a bit about this to Behind the Scenes, but I'm trying to find further information. I clearly recall reading in with DWM or another source that back in 1983-84 there was an attempt by publicists to conceal the fact that Bryant wasn't really an American. Yet I just heard an interview with her from around that time on one of the Doctor Who at the BBC CDs and she clearly speaks with an English accent. If anyone can add to this, that would be great. I'm putting it here rather than in Nicola's article because it is pertaining to how the character of Peri was promoted and introduced. I am actually of the opinion this might be more myth than fact, but the fact it has been recorded in media means it's worth addressing. 23skidoo 16:40, January 14, 2010 (UTC)
 * Nicola herself says there was, indeed, an American cover up. Adding info from the Planet of Fire DVD commentary. What I'd like to know is whether the Doctor Who at the BBC stuff was actually released contemporaneously. I don't doubt it was recorded at the time, but I'm interested in when it was made available to the public. Also, Bryant doesn't say how long the cover-up lasted. It may not have been employed for her entire time on Doctor Who.  Czech Out  ☎ | ✍ 04:32, July 3, 2010 (UTC)
 * I added a note indicating that a BBC interview aired the day Twin Dilemma Part 1 was broadcast has Nicola speaking in her natural accent, so it mustn't have been very long at all. 68.146.64.9 20:38, February 9, 2011 (UTC)
 * The difference between producing Planet of Fire and airing Twin Dilemma 1 is over six months. So not quite the blink of an eye. Plus, the interviewer in the segment in question was asking questions which indicated she believed (or was pretending to believe) that Bryant was American.  And that's not her "natural" accent.  That's just how bad she is at doing an impromptu American accent.  Listen to the difference between her in this interview, and the way she sounds on commentaries.  She's clearly trying to do American Rs on most words, but kinda forgets on the word learn.

The passport thing
I'm not so sure that we should make so much of what her passport gives as her place of residence. That is, it seems more worthy of a behind the scenes mention, than a full-throated declaration as an in-universe fact. In American passports of this era, that information was added by the holder, and wasn't, therefore, "official" information. Yes, you can see "Pasadena, California" if you freeze frame, but its narrative significance is questionable. Of greater significance, perhaps, is the fact that the passport was issued by the New York passport agency — something that would've been unlikely for someone who actually resided in Pasadena. Besides, there are many other sources which place her hometown as nearer to Baltimore than Pasadena. I guess what I'm saying is that it smells like a Rory-ID-badge production error.  Czech Out  ☎ | ✍ 12:00, May 15, 2010 (UTC)
 * It is a Rory-Id-badge production error, according to the DVD commentary. Fiona Cumming says the passport was actually recycled from a part that Dallas Adams (Howard Foster) had previously played. Indeed, if you catch it at just the right moment, you can see the official information (that is, not hand-written) has the passport belonging to a "Sydney (indistinct)", who was born 15 November 1940. No way this thing can be used as reliable information for Peri. Her name doesn't appear anywhere on it. Also, the internal number doesn't match the clear number on the front. And, the internal Pasadena address is written in a way no American address ever is. It's even got an alphanumeric postcode, as in Britain and Canada, rather than a numeric Zip Code, as was certainly in use then in the US. Moreover, though the passport does claim Pasadena as the home address of whoever this passport was issued to, it's still unreliable info. According to the "next of kin" line, it's merely Howard's address, but that doesn't actually make it hers by default. It's common advice from the passport agency to put in the address of the closest relative as your home address before you get married, because, after all, the most stable address you have until you start your own family is that of your parents. We therefore can't divine anything from this rather shoddily-made prop. The best info on it is unreliable, but the bulk of it is simply a production error.  Czech Out  ☎ | ✍ 15:45, July 2, 2010 (UTC)
 * Peri and the Piscon Paradox brings the "California" aspect, though not the "Pasadena thing" into clarity. It finally canonically establishes that her home is Baltimore, but that she's attending Cal State, though she doesn't clearly state which campus.  If we assume Cal State Los Angeles, then, yeah, that's basically Pasadena.  PPP still doesn't explain why Howard is listed in her passport (according to the freeze frame) as being from Pasadena, or why the postal code isn't a ZIP code.  But still, it can be asserted that she was a student at a Californian university, but that her home was in Baltimore, at the time of Planet of Fire (which, if you've listened to the play, also means that's true of every version of Peri out there, because Lanzarote is the point of divergence for all the Peris).  16:54:34 Fri 25 Feb 2011

Harkness not a companion?
I fixed this obvious error, which might have been added by someone who didn't see the second half of the 2005 series! ;) 68.146.64.9 20:39, February 9, 2011 (UTC)