Peri Brown

Perpugilliam Brown, also known as Peri, was a companion of the Fifth and Sixth Doctors, as well as a temporary companion to the Second Doctor during an encounter with Dastari.

She was an American college student who accidentally joined the Fifth Doctor during his visit to Lanzarote in 1984. She then elected to remain with him for the rest of her vacation time. She remained with the Doctor after his regeneration into his sixth incarnation, but found it harder to get along with him because of his now brash and arrogant personality. However, as time went on, the Sixth Doctor's personality mellowed and Peri's friendship with him improved, especially after he returned to comfort her after the death of her mother.

Peri was separated from him by the Time Lords so that they could cover up the Ravolox conspiracy. According to, Peri fell in love with King Yrcanos and married him, but that was just part of the truth. As it turned out, there were several future versions of Peri's life due to interventions of various Time Lord factions. At least one of these versions of Peri eventually rejoined the Sixth Doctor on his travels after Yrcanos died, though she returned to Krontep once a year to pay tribute to her late husband.

Perpugilliam was an old family name (PROSE: Players) that meant, according to her, "she who lives in the hills" (AUDIO: The Bride of Peladon) or "by a handful". (PROSE: A Handful of Stardust)

Peri had limited contact with other companions, although she did encounter a few. She spent a significant amount of time alongside the uncrowned Egyptian Pharaoh Erimem, developing a deep sister-like bond. As well as this she had a series of adventures with Frobisher. She was also acquainted with Jamie McCrimmon, meeting him and the Second Doctor during an encounter with the Sontarans. She also very briefly met Vislor Turlough who left the Doctor's company just prior to her joining. She also met Kamelion briefly before his destruction. She also briefly met Ace, accompanied by the Seventh Doctor, at the Factory.

Early life
Peri was born in 1966 as the only child of archaeologists (PROSE: Blue Box) Paul and Janine Brown, who had married on 21 November 1962. She also had an aunt named Mona who lived in a trailer park. (AUDIO: Peri and the Piscon Paradox)

Peri was raised in Fell's Point, Baltimore, Maryland, where she enjoyed a stable life and was best friends with Kathy Chambers, whose brother Nate she fancied. (AUDIO: The Reaping) She travelled the world with her parents due to their careers (PROSE: Blue Box) and was raised a Baptist, although she would later consider herself not to be religious. (AUDIO: The Council of Nicaea) According to one account, she came from New England, (PROSE: The Mark of the Rani) or more specifically Boston. (PROSE: The More Things Change)

As a girl, she read the comic book Swamp Thing (PROSE: Players) and read about the Philadelphia Experiment. (AUDIO: The Macros) Her father also took her out hunting and they had a dog called Whiskey. (AUDIO: Peri and the Piscon Paradox) She saw AC/DC and the Who at Wembley Stadium and visited Kew Gardens, (PROSE: The Church of Football) although she would later tell the Sixth Doctor that she had never visited London. (TV: Attack of the Cybermen) She had the opportunity to take horse-riding lessons, but chose not to. (AUDIO: The Church and the Crown)

Paul taught Peri how to use a gun, although she did not like handling them (PROSE: Attack of the Cybermen) and was not confident in her ability to use them. (TV: Attack of the Cybermen) When she was thirteen, her father died in a boating accident. (PROSE: Synthespians™) Janine married Professor Howard Foster, another archaeologist, who already had two children. One account claimed that Howard sexually abused Peri and that Janine never forgave him. (PROSE: Shell Shock)

In high school, Peri was a "straight A" student. She studied Christopher Columbus in great detail. (AUDIO: Trouble in Paradise) Her first boyfriend was called George Stewart, whom she nicknamed "Curious George". (AUDIO: Peri and the Piscon Paradox) Whilst living in Baltimore, Peri would sometimes go to the graveyard and read inscriptions upon the tombstones. (AUDIO: Emissary of the Daleks) Peri was top of her class in botany, and dreamed about discovering a new plant species, or even having a flower named after her. (AUDIO: Paradise 5)

At some point, Peri lived in a college town in Pasadena. She said it was an easy weekend drive from Pasadena to Las Vegas, a place she had only been once. (PROSE: Something Borrowed) She began studying Botany at California State University in 1983 (TV: Timelash, AUDIO: The Mind's Eye, Peri and the Piscon Paradox) whilst maintaining an interest in archaeology thanks to her parents and Howard. (PROSE: Blue Box) According to another account, she studied at Boston University. (PROSE: Burning Heart)

On campus, Peri was a sports star, enjoying playing tennis, hockey and lacrosse. (PROSE: The Two Doctors) She dated Chuck (PROSE: Attack of the Cybermen) and Davey Silverman, who was possessive and abusive towards her but whom she stayed with. (AUDIO: Peri and the Piscon Paradox)

First meeting
On a vacation to Lanzarote on 9 May 1984, (AUDIO: The Reaping) Peri met three Englishmen and decided to go with them to Morocco before returning to college in the autumn, cashing in her return ticket to New York. However, Howard stopped her from making it to the airport on time by stranding her on a boat.

Peri was saved by Vislor Turlough from drowning and was taken by him into the TARDIS where she met the Fifth Doctor and Kamelion, who assumed Howard's form and, later, 's. Kamelion seized control of the TARDIS and took Peri to Sarn where she met the real Master. Following his defeat and Turlough's return to Trion with his brother, Peri joined the Doctor on his travels with the intention of returning to finish her degree. (TV: Planet of Fire)

After Lanzarote
On N'Tia, Peri began to regret joining the Doctor but decided that she had made the right choice upon seeing the planet's beauty. (PROSE: Light at the End) To recover from her experiences with the N'Tians, the Doctor took her shopping in London where they watched Les Misérables. (PROSE: Black and White)

Peri and the Doctor went to Astroville Seven in the 31st century where they met a number of different races and were caught up in a quest for the legendary treasure of Rovan Cartovall. (PROSE: The Ultimate Treasure) On Earth, she watched Len Skeggs die after stealing the Eye of Gaar. (PROSE: Hot Ice)

On Mars in the 2000s, Peri and the Doctor encountered the Ice Warriors and met the crew of the Argosy. When the Argosy crash-landed, Peri went with Paul and Tanya Webster to Izdaal's tomb. (AUDIO: Red Dawn) A week into her adventures, she once again met the Master, this time in 1880s California. (PROSE: A Town Called Eternity) A week later, the Doctor took her to watch a football game and she encountered Edward Grainger (PROSE: The Church of Football) before going to 2099 Prague. (PROSE: Leap Second)

Peri was, for a time, separated from the Doctor on a World War I battlefield in 1914. (PROSE: Never Seen Cairo) She later met the Valethske and narrowly avoided becoming a meal. Despite understanding how she felt, the Doctor disapproved of the visceral hatred she developed for Veek's people. (PROSE: Superior Beings)

After Peri was badly injured, the Doctor took her to Karn where she was kidnapped by Morbius. However, she was able to trick him into putting her into an escape pod and escaped to Sylvana where she became a guerrilla leader against his regime. She eventually rejoined the Doctor after he became the general of an army of Draconians, Sontarans, Cybermen and Ice Warriors against Morbius. (PROSE: Warmonger)

Peri helped the Doctor stop the Valtor from invading Beadledom 3 (AUDIO: Rulebook) and to save a group of human colonists beset by the carnivorous Farakosh. (AUDIO: Exotron) She also pretended to be a waitress in an alien restaurant to figure out why three different gourmets wanted to kill the Doctor. (AUDIO: Urban Myths) The two met an Essex priest who was hiding alien bodies in his church crypt in 1953 (PROSE: The Canvey Angels) and Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart before encountering the Arix. (PROSE: A Life in the Day)

With Erimem
After travelling alone with the Doctor, they met Erimem, a princess of ancient Egypt, who joined them in the TARDIS. (AUDIO: The Eye of the Scorpion)

The Doctor intended to drop Erimem off on the Braxiatel Collection so that she could have an education. Instead, they arrived in 17th century Paris. There, Peri was kidnapped by the Duke of Buckingham, who believed that she was Queen Anne (a look-alike of Peri). After this adventure, the Doctor invited Erimem to join them travelling in the TARDIS. (AUDIO: The Church and the Crown)

By this time, Peri had found one of Leela's skins in the TARDIS wardrobe and considered wearing it on one occasion. (AUDIO: No Place Like Home)

Peri grew exceptionally close to Erimem and hoped her feelings for Erimem were like those she had for a sister. (PROSE: Blood and Hope) She helped teach Erimem to read English. (AUDIO: The Axis of Insanity)

The three battled Jarra To in the Axis, (AUDIO: The Axis of Insanity) defeated the Great Old Ones in the Himalayas (AUDIO: The Roof of the World) and prevented the Khellians from preying on a vulnerable Earth colony. (AUDIO: Three's a Crowd)

The trio next visited Nicaea in 325 AD, where they found themselves in the middle of a religious conflict. (AUDIO: The Council of Nicaea)

Peri and Erimem were stranded in 15th century Earth when the TARDIS separated them from the Doctor, having to work as serving wenches. They were eventually reunited with the Doctor after coming into conflict with William Shakespeare. (AUDIO: The Kingmaker)

As part of a scheme with his seventh incarnation, the Doctor left Peri and Erimem in Monte Carlo in 1966 to stop the theft of the Veiled Leopard at a party. They discovered the thief was Lillian Hawthorne and stopped her getting away, returning the jewel to its safe. (AUDIO: The Veiled Leopard)

Later, Peri and Erimen corrected a change to the timeline caused by the Doctor's former companion Tegan Jovanka. The three women proceeded to go out and get drunk afterwards. (PROSE: Graham Dilley Saves the World)

In a hallucination induced by the plants of YT45, Kyropite, she believed that she had a boyfriend with a stepson, Kyle. She had to deal with Kyle's unruly behaviour. She was eventually found being ingested by the plants. Inside the dream her stepson caught Meningitis, this corresponded to her health deteriorating in the real world. As it got worse she imagined her partner cheating on her and then she was run over by a car. Takol wanted her to die for his experiment. She didn't recognise the Doctor when he went into her dream. As her dream became a bad drama, the Doctor asked her to choose. As she awoke the plant removed itself from her. Both Erimem and the Doctor took her back to the TARDIS to escape. (AUDIO: The Mind's Eye)

The Doctor, Peri and Erimem visited Peladon after answering a distress call from the Ice Warrior prince and ambassador Zixlyr in the 41st century. King Pelleas proposed to Erimem, and she accepted, parting with Peri and the Doctor to stay to rule Peladon. The Doctor and Peri departed for the TARDIS, still in orbit around Peladon with the help of Alpha Centauri's ship. (AUDIO: The Bride of Peladon)

After Peladon
Soon after Erimem's departure, Peri and the Doctor went to the planet Grallista Social for a spot of relaxation but found themselves in the midst of a viral decontamination effort by the Viyrans. She was infected with a virus which turned anyone she came into contact with. The Viyrans were getting her to remember each time this happened, first with the Doctor, then with Chris and finally Lawrence as a way to remove her memories as part of the cure. Her memory wouldn't be erased as easily so the Viyran wanted to kill her. She realised that her memory was returning as her memory was trying to work out what had happened and why it was happening. (AUDIO: Mission of the Viyrans) Soon after this, Peri was intentionally separated from the Doctor on an unnamed world. During this separation, the Doctor travelled briefly with a tracer named Amy whom he helped find the Key to Time. Peri was reunited with the Doctor after his second attempt at finding the Key to Time concluded. (AUDIO: The Judgement of Isskar, The Chaos Pool)

Peri and the Doctor went to the village of Sair during the Middle Ages, where a young man named Tablibik used a form of magic to make her fall in love with him. The Doctor swiftly broke his spell. (PROSE: Fascination)

Peri then met a future version of herself in Los Angeles in 2009, whom she distrusted. She was aghast when she witnessed her older self seemingly execute a Piscon named Zarl, and after the adventure, whilst the TARDIS travelled towards Androzani Minor, contemplated how she wasn't sure if her relationship with the Doctor would ever be the same again. (AUDIO: Peri and the Piscon Paradox)

Whilst exploring Androzani Minor, Peri and the Doctor contracted spectrox toxaemia and became caught in the conflict over spectrox between Androzani Major government forces and Sharaz Jek’s insurgency. They were arrested by government forces and sentenced to execution, but were abducted by Sharaz Jek who claimed to be captivated by Peri’s beauty, to her discomfort. They escaped with the aid of fellow prisoner Salateen, however the Doctor became sepasted from them. Salateen took her back to the soldiers, however she was abducted by Jek again. In his custody she began to die from the disease, and the Doctor returned to her side. Telling Jek to care for her the Doctor retrieved bat's milk, the antidote to spectrox toxaemia, and came back for her. Carrying her back to the TARDIS, the Doctor discovered he only had enough bat’s milk for her so was forced to save her at the cost his own life. She awoke as he was beginning to regenerate, with him managing to say a brief goodbye. (TV: The Caves of Androzani) While in his mindscape during his regeneration, the Doctor told his former companion Nyssa that she would like Peri but then reconsidered, saying "or possibly not." (AUDIO: Winter) The Doctor regenerated into a new incarnation to Peri’s astonishment. (TV: The Caves of Androzani)

Early adventures with the Sixth Doctor
Peri immediately challenged the sixth incarnation to prove he was still the Doctor. He got her to believe it was still him despite his new face and personality. Despite having stabilised physically, he suffered initial personality and mental issues which caused him to lapse into extreme paranoia. He challenged her on her unusual name and believed her to be an evil spirit. At the height of his paranoia, he tried to strangle Peri. When he caught his reflection in a mirror, he was horrified at his behaviour. He decided to exile himself on Titan III as punishment until he had attained appropriate humility, but soon got involved with stopping Mestor and his gastropods. On Titan III, he met another Time Lord, his old friend Azmael, whom he last met in his fourth incarnation. (TV: The Twin Dilemma)

According to one account, Peri and the Doctor spent a week frozen inside of a glacier on Vespod Eight shortly after the Doctor regenerated. Otherwise, Peri, demanding that she and the Doctor discuss terms for her remaining on the TARDIS, spent time studying in case she returned to university. (PROSE: Attack of the Cybermen)

The Doctor and Peri worked to stop the Neomorph Cybermen from trying to destroy Earth with Halley's Comet and save Mondas, which was destroyed by the First Doctor and keep the Web of Time from being damaged by their carelessness. (TV: Attack of the Cybermen)

After the TARDIS ran out of Zeiton-7, the Doctor landed on Varos in the late 23rd century for more to resupply the TARDIS. The society on Varos nearly forced him to participate in their deadly "games" when he attempted to free those trapped in the Punishment Dome. The Doctor and Peri stopped Sil, the swindler behind the "games", and obtained Zeiton-7 for the TARDIS. (TV: Vengeance on Varos)

Tracing a time distortion to 19th century England, the Doctor and Peri found the Master and a female renegade Time Lord called working together for one of her monstrous experiments and for the Master's plan to accelerate Earth technology beyond its normal level. The Doctor sabotaged the Rani's TARDIS and had her and the Master thrown off into the Time Vortex. (TV: The Mark of the Rani)

When Peri was arrested for the apparent murder of quantum flux technology professor Mis'Kin Karac, the Doctor represented her in her trial. After hearing the testimony of Karac's assistant, the Doctor was able to bluff the assistant into a confession, clearing Peri's name. (COMIC: The Forgotten)

Attempting to make up for some of their recent rough journeys, the Doctor tried to take Peri to London in 1899 for a more elegant, relaxing trip, but unintentionally arrived in Africa during the Boer War, where they narrowly saved Winston Churchill from an assassination attempt. After a brief stint in a Boer prison, the Doctor, Peri and Churchill all made their separate escape attempts, the Doctor telling Peri about his previous meeting with Churchill in 1915 in his second incarnation before travelling on to 1936 to make sure Churchill was safe, posing as the children of their 1899 selves. During this time, Peri was briefly captured by Nazi officer Joachim von Ribbentrop, but was able to escape and uncover evidence of a conspiracy of high-ranking British citizens with Nazi sympathies, simultaneously preventing the would-be Edward VIII from dismissing the government so that he could marry Wallis Simpson, part of a complex plan by the mysterious Players to change history for the sake of it. (PROSE: Players)

After the Doctor and Peri went on a fishing trip, the Doctor felt a time slip in his subconscious where he saw his second incarnation being executed. Upon Peri's suggestion to see a doctor, he went to Space Station Camera to see the station's head of projects Joinson Dastari. When they arrived, they found there had been a massacre there, with no signs of life. In the service ducts, they found Jamie McCrimmon, who claimed that the Doctor he was travelling with, the Second Doctor, had been executed by the Sontarans during a battle on board the space station. After letting Jamie rest, the Sixth Doctor deduced that the Second Doctor's supposed death was an illusion created by the Sontarans. The Sixth Doctor used telepathy to track the Second Doctor to a hacienda near Seville, where he was being held captive while Dastari tried to isolate the symbiotic nuclei in a Time Lord's cells so that the Sontarans could be given the secret to time travel. Peri Brown distracted the new occupants of the hacienda, including Dastari and the technologically augmented Androgum Chessene, at the front entrance, while the Sixth Doctor and Jamie found a way into the cellars through a secret passageway.

Knowing there was another Time Lord present, Chessene changed the plan into having Dastari alter the Second Doctor into Chessene's Androgum consort. Chessene also betrayed the Sontarans. The effect on the Second Doctor was not permanent, however, as the condition was not stabilised. The Sixth Doctor, Peri, and Jamie followed the Second Doctor to Las Cadenas restaurant in Seville. Dastari and Chessene had the Doctors and their companions brought back to the hacienda. Dastari then freed the Second Doctor and Peri upon realising his mistake in augmenting a primitive Androgum and was shot by Chessene for betraying her. With Peri's help, the Sixth Doctor deceived Chessene into using the faulty prototype TARDIS, and Chessene was killed by molecular disintegration. (TV: The Two Doctors)

The Doctor dropped Peri off at a botany symposium whilst he responded to a distress call. (AUDIO: Davros)

The Doctor and Peri visited Bob Dovie at 59A Barnsfield Crescent in Totton, Hampshire on 23 November 1963. (AUDIO: The Light at the End)

The Doctor and Peri accidentally became caught in a time corridor and arrived at Karfel, where the sinister Borad ruled. The Doctor, discovering that the Borad was, in reality, a scientist he had known named Megelen, stopped him from mutating Peri into a form biologically compatible with his own and, with the help of new companion H. G. Wells, sent the dictator through the Timelash. (TV: Timelash)

Whilst in the TARDIS, Peri and the Doctor were contacted by the Eleventh Doctor who asked him to obtain an omniparadox for him, store it in the TARDIS for him as he would need to save the universe in the future. For this, he sent them to the Santa Maria on 12 October 1492. When arriving they met Christopher Columbus; while the Doctor was impressed to meet him, Peri had studied him at school and was disgusted by him. Columbus showed him a member of the crew who was sick with TB. While the Doctor could cure him he said he wouldn't as he didn't want to alter history. Peri, upset by this, screamed that she wouldn't travel with him any more and went to pretend to throw herself off the ship, but she actually did fall off the ship.

Peri washed up on a nearby island and was captured by the Bovine Herd Leader who planned to use her fatty deposits to power his time machine. The Doctor and Columbus rescued her. Then the Bovine Herd Leader from the future appeared to try to tell the present version that their scheme wouldn't work. However, before he got the chance, Columbus tried to kill the Doctor. Peri screamed, which warned him, and Columbus' attack hit the time core of the Bovine's time machine. After getting back to the Santa Maria the Doctor and Peri collected the omniparadox after the Doctor explained that Peri was a key component of the omniparadox and that she was instrumental in the development of the United States of America that she knew. (AUDIO: Trouble in Paradise)

The Doctor and Peri went to the planet Necros, where the "Great Healer" was trying to kill him. The Great Healer was, in fact, Davros, who had arranged for the Doctor to be killed at a funeral home. Davros was eventually taken to Skaro to have a trial by the Dalek Emperor. (TV: Revelation of the Daleks) Afterwards, the Doctor took Peri to Blackpool, where they encountered the Celestial Toymaker. (AUDIO: The Nightmare Fair, PROSE: The Nightmare Fair)

Amicable travels with the Sixth Doctor
When Peri tried to convince the Doctor to take a holiday, they went to Tranquela, where she encountered Locas and learnt that she had a resemblance to his recently deceased fiancée Marina. She later went travelling with him using his abilities but they were arrested for landing in the armoury. She discovered Dwarf Mourdant was in orbit around the planet. (AUDIO: The Ultimate Evil)

Taking Peri to Earth's Moon in 1872, the Doctor and Peri discovered an advanced relay station on the Moon, prompting them to travel to Sussex, England to find the source of the signal. This led to them learning of the existence of the Kaveetch, the true creators of the Sontarans to oppose the Rutans. During this crisis, Peri was briefly taken hostage by a Kaveetch who had allied herself with the Rutans, but she swiftly turned against the Rutans when their true agenda was revealed. Believing at one point that Peri had been killed by the Sontarans, he described her as "the bravest of souls". Fortunately, Peri had managed to escape the ship using the transmat, allowing her to reunite with the Doctor and the last of the Kaveetch after destroying the Sontaran fleet in a confrontation with a Rutan fleet. (AUDIO: The First Sontarans)

When the TARDIS landed on Esselven Minor, Peri and the Doctor were separated when Peri fell into a haha and was captured by the robotic Gardeners. Escaping her captivity with Kel, one of the local Scavengers, Peri fled to the planet's dark side but was nearly forced into marriage to Kel before the appearance of Dexel Dynes gave her a chance to take on an authoritative role for the Scavengers. Reuniting with the Doctor in the palace, Peri learned the truth about Esselven Minor's unique temporal situation, allowing them to trap Dexel Dynes and Glavis Judd five centuries in their future while the Scavengers rebuilt their society. (PROSE: Palace of the Red Sun)

During a trip to the Gogglebox, the Doctor and Peri learned of the death of her best friend Katherine Chambers' father Anthony Chambers. They went to her hometown of Baltimore, Maryland on 24 September 1984, where they met Peri's mother, Janine, and Kathy. They also learned that the Cybermen were at work converting dead people. Anthony, now a Cyberman, rose from the grave and attacked them. The Doctor tricked the Cyber Leader by taking him to Mondas. He left and found that Nate, Katherine's brother, had been brutally attacked and paralysed by Anthony. Peri, feeling the weight of all the deaths, decided to leave the Doctor after a teary goodbye. Peri began to settle back into normal life, enrolling at a local college, however an explosion caused by the remains of the cyber-technology claimed the lives of her mother and one of her friends. The Doctor rushed back to Earth, having learnt of the explosion upon returning to Gogglebox, but arrived too late. After a sad reunion, Peri returned to the TARDIS, now with no family left on Earth. (AUDIO: The Reaping)

The Doctor and Peri visited a galactic fair and took part in a virtual immersion experience that played out as a fantasy. Peri became trapped, while the Doctor tried to convince her virtual self of the danger. An alien parasite using the name Mr Darcy asked Peri to marry him, knowing that if she accepted, he'd be able to take over her mind. The Doctor intervened but fell prey to Darcy who had planned on taking him over from the very start. Peri woke up in the immersion room and supplied the system administrator – Crompton – with her own story to feed into the fantasy before returning to help the Doctor and defeat Darcy. (AUDIO: A Most Excellent Match)

Arriving in what appeared to be botanical gardens, the Doctor and Peri discovered it was actually the prison ship of deposed Empress Safira Valtris. When a rescue crew arrived to liberate her, Safira took Peri hostage to ensure her escape however Peri persuaded her not to run away. (AUDIO: Breaking Bubbles)

The Doctor and Peri became caught in a temporal disaster centred on the detonation of an experimental chronon bomb, until the Doctor managed to resolve the crisis despite his own chronological infection. (AUDIO: Of Chaos Time The)

Whilst she and the Doctor were investigating alien energy readings at St Ursula’s College on the eve of World War II, Peri was mistaken for crime novelist Sarah Perry. They were invited for tea and Peri was asked to investigate poison pen letters being sent to Ruth Horwitz. In investigating they discovered Ruth possessed an alien eye, the source of the energy, and that Maria Backhouse was the source of her intimidation, having been trying to acquire the eye for the Nazis. After she disappeared, the Doctor set off in pursuit of Maria, however Peri quickly realised she had used the stolen eye to hide at the College. She pursued her with the college professors until Maria began to destabilise due to the eye and fell off the roof. Afterwards Peri was asked to address the college to explain what had happened, but made an excuse to return to the TARDIS with the Doctor. (AUDIO: An Eye For Murder)

The Doctor and Peri investigated the presence of Llangragen on Earth, being helped by Michael Jennings. (AUDIO: The Curious Incident of the Doctor in the Night-Time)

Learning of the abilities at the mind farm, Peri wanted to use it to remember her late father, but became worried when Garius Moro recognised her. She helped him to remember his past. After the Doctor was imprisoned, she was determined to defend him and noticed that things had been changed. (AUDIO: Memories of a Tyrant)

With Joe
The Doctor once took Peri to a recording of Top of the Pops and encountered Joe Carnaby, who Peri became enamoured with. He took them to Naxios where the Doctor and Peri found a group of religious people whose religions were based on works from ancient Earth, a set of Shakespeareans Cordelia and Iago who oppressed the Earth Animals (who worshipped the Wind in the Willows). Wanting to go back to Joe, she found a dead Father Christmas. She helped the Doctor to free the slaves and went to then find Joe. (AUDIO: Blood on Santa's Claw)

Going to the Ishtar institute to investigate what was happening there, she didn't like what was happening as it sounded like Eugenics. She became attached to Paul and Janey and didn't know how to choose between which one to discard to allow the Doctor to track their DNA through the system. Taking the children to adolescence she saw them become monsters. She tried to calm the children down. (AUDIO: The Baby Awakes)

The Doctor landed at a party in the 59th century and was reluctant to visit until Peri noticed that people weren't looking at the TARDIS. She removed the Mistletoe to chase Joe around the party trying to kiss him but was warned against it. When the TARDIS was taken to the cloakroom, she tried to find a backdoor to get to it. Joe tried to convince Peri to stay in the 59th Century. She fought with him about that and ended up running to the bathroom and crying. She discovered from Selene that Joe wasn't after her as he reminded her of her brother. (AUDIO: I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day) She worked out that Joe was the reason that the were lords could escape. Deciding to kill Joe by evacuating the airlock she was transmatted to the Nursery where she met Ratty and Mole and was run over by Toad. She met Cordeline who showed her Paul and Janey who were now in their human forms after Shreela's message. The Doctor and her confronted Joe. She saw Paul sacrifice himself for her. (AUDIO: Brightly Shone The Moon That Night)

Temporarily leaving
Peri soon became homesick for 1980s America. (PROSE: CHAOS) She left the TARDIS to pursue a life in New York City in 1985, though she grew frustrated at her job as a skivvy there and soon quit before gratefully rejoining the Doctor and Frobisher. (COMIC: Kane's Story)

With Frobisher
In the TARDIS, Peri and Frobisher were cleaning until they found an alien family in one of the rooms. When the Doctor refused to help them, Peri convinced him to help them. When the family left, the Doctor decided to go to their planet, Sylvaniar. (COMIC: Exodus)

As soon as they arrived, they were imprisoned. The Doctor was allowed freedom and after he defeated the Cybermen, he came back for them. When they left Peri discovered that her new travelling partner had mono-morphia. (COMIC: Revelation!  / Genesis!)

At one point, Peri enjoyed a baseball match. (COMIC: Time Bomb) When she came back, she forced the Doctor on a diet. (COMIC: Salad Daze) When the TARDIS was invaded, Peri and Frobisher went to help the Doctor. However, they were separated in the memory vaults and Peri ran into the invader who took her form. She was rescued by the Doctor and Frobisher. (COMIC: Changes)

During a visit to Antarctopolis in 7214, the Sixth Doctor was kidnapped by the Autons, allied with the Master; Peri and Frobisher helped him escape. As part of a plan with the Tenth Doctor, Frobisher disguised himself as Peri so was kidnapped in her place by a disguised Adam Mitchell, equipped with a vortex manipulator, (COMIC: Façades) however Adam later captured her anyway. (COMIC: The Choice) She was freed after eleven incarnations of the Doctor confronted Adam and the Master. (COMIC: Endgame)

Further adventures
The Doctor and Peri arrived on a colossal spaceship and became separated after Peri fell through a ventilation shaft. The Doctor discovered that the ship's computer was planning to cause the Big Bang and avert man's creation into such a violent race. Before he could intervene, a Time Lord drew him, Peri and his TARDIS away and informed him that this event was always destined to occur. Angry at almost averting the existence of the universe, he and Peri took off. When asked where they were going, the Doctor commented that he was going to find the biggest library he could and study up on his history. (AUDIO: Slipback)

Peri helped the Doctor rescue Davros from his trial before the Dalek Emperor on Skaro, as part of a plan with the Doctor’s future self. (COMIC: Emperor of the Daleks!) After their series of stressful adventures, Peri was taken to the planet "Ravolox" to relax due to its similarity to Earth. However, they soon learned, to Peri's horror, that Ravolox was indeed Earth, moved light years from its original position. They met the primitive and dimwitted descendants of humans, whom they barely avoided being killed by multiple times, and faced the egotistical machine Drathro. The Doctor also learned Ravalox had been moved to protect secrets stolen from a higher species. The identities of those responsible remained a mystery. (TV: The Mysterious Planet)

When he was summoned to a medieval castle by his first incarnation, the Doctor told Peri to stay in the TARDIS. She eventually went looking for him and encountered the Fifth Doctor, leading to him realising his next regeneration was soon as she was in the company of his next incarnation. (PROSE: Five Card Draw)

The Doctor and Peri witnessed Primus Cyberman 9.9P-VIV being destroyed when it overheated to the point of combustion while "raging at the final vestiges of its own humanity". (PROSE: Ghost in the Machine)

The Doctor took Peri to Omnia as it was a remote planet. She noticed that there was no writing on the gravestones. She was taken to a forbidden zone where she learnt that the planet was invaded by the Daleks. Hingus Steen helped her when she was caught out during curfew. She was appalled that the main way of resistance was listening to the forbidden texts. Steen betrayed her to the Daleks. She escaped with the Doctor into the mines, but was eventually recaptured. She was then subjected to Truth assessment. (AUDIO: Emissary of the Daleks) Peri posed as Percy Blakeney's wife whilst the Doctor investigated how the Scarlet Pimpernel existed in the real world. She wanted to pose as the Scarlet Pimpernel, as she was sure that they were a real person. She managed to persuade the Doctor to let her go with Oliver. Whilst in France she was attacked by Z22, and on coming home she learnt that Blakeney was an alien fugitive from the future. She was appalled at seeing the effect of what she thought the Z22 did but then learnt that Blakeney was the one who had caused it. Peri left the estate to Oliver as thanks. (AUDIO: Plight of the Pimpernel)

Arriving on the planet Thoros Beta in 2379 to investigate the distribution of dangerous weapons to the Warlords of Thordon, the Doctor and Peri found the Mentors were back at work, trying to make deals with a savage king named Yrcanos through a failed attempt to manipulate his mind. Peri was particularly displeased to learn that Sil was present, and began to wonder if it was time for her to leave the TARDIS, as she was feeling homesick for her own time.

After a failed attempt to probe the Doctor's mind to see if the Time Lords had sent him to intervene on their behalf, Peri got separated from him after a failed attack on the slave Induction Centre. While the Doctor pretended to be on the Mentors' side and helped Mentor Kiv transplant his mind to a deceased Mentor, Peri joined forces with Yrcanos and the Alphan resistance to fight against the Mentors. During this time, Peri began to fall in love with Yrcanos, who reciprocated her feelings. When Peri was captured with the rest of the resistance, she was selected to be the new host body for Lord Kiv, a process that would completely erase her own memories and personality. Found to be a perfectly fit and healthy candidate by Crozier, Peri was strapped to an operating table and gagged, and her head was then shaved completely bald by Matrona Kani in preparation for the mind transfer. The Doctor attempted to reach the laboratory and stop the operation, but he was taken out of time by the Time Lords before he could rescue Peri. (TV: Mindwarp)

Fate
Despite her apparent death, a number of varied fates for Peri existed, due to the temporal manipulations of various competing factions of Time Lords who each devised different ways to rewrite her life. According to a Time Lord who visited the Sixth Doctor and a version of Peri living in Los Angeles in 2009, at least five versions of Peri were removed from the timeline prior to the death of the original. (AUDIO: Peri and the Piscon Paradox)

The original
The mind transfer experiment was successfully completed, resulting in Peri's original mind being erased in order for Lord Kiv's own consciousness to be transferred directly into her brain, something the Doctor viewed during his trial. With all memory of who she once was gone, the Kiv-possessed Peri was delighted with the results of the mind transfer and she revelled in the sensations of her body. However, she was subsequently killed by a horrified Yrcanos. (TV: Mindwarp) The Time Lord encountered in 2009 likened this to an assassination, strongly implying that it was orchestrated by the Time Lord faction behind the trial as a way of removing a potential witness who could contradict the altered recordings played at the trial. (AUDIO: Peri and the Piscon Paradox)

Another account suggests that Peri survived the assassination, and continued to be possessed by the mind of Kiv, until a new host body would eventually be selected. What happened to Peri after Kiv's mind is transplanted into another body is unknown. (PROSE: Sil and the Devil Seeds of Arodor)

The warrior queen
A rival Time Lord faction, feeling the assassination unwarranted, pulled Peri out of that timestream at some moment before her death, enabling Yrcanos to rescue her. This allowed her to, as the Time Lords put it, "live out her days" (AUDIO: Peri and the Piscon Paradox) as a warrior queen alongside Yrcanos, whom she married. These events were revealed to the Doctor at the conclusion of his trial. (TV: The Ultimate Foe) The Doctor was satisfied to know she would be happy and initially left her to enjoy that life undeterred. (PROSE: Bad Therapy, AUDIO: Peri and the Piscon Paradox) Since marrying Yrcanos and settling on Krontep, Peri became known as 'The Warrior Queen', leading with steel and compassion, and bringing peace and prosperity to her subjects, who regarded her as being mightier than her husband. (WC: The Eternal Mystery)

According to one account, later in his life, the Sixth Doctor visited Peri on Krontep often, on one visit bringing a "huge rabbit". (COMIC: The Age of Chaos) At some point, Peri became pregnant and bore Yrcanos three children: two sons and a daughter, just as she had always wanted. (AUDIO: Peri and the Piscon Paradox) The daughter was called Yrcanthia. Peri and Yrcanos had at least three grandchildren, including Actis and Euthys. (COMIC: The Age of Chaos)

By the time the Sixth Doctor visited Krontep again, the two children had found it impossible to work together, as each thought that the other had made a pact with aliens, and Peri left the kingdom, vowing to not return until the twins could work together again. She watched the Doctor from afar during his visit, never revealing her identity. Despite this, the Doctor knew it was her and called out to her as he prepared to leave. (COMIC: The Age of Chaos)

Later, the Seventh Doctor would wrongfoot the Gwanzulum when their 'dead companions' included Peri, someone he knew was still on Krontep. (COMIC: Planet of the Dead)

Another account stated that Peri was later visited by an older incarnation of the Doctor when she was in her early forties. Still bitterly unhappy with the Doctor, she refused to reconcile with him, feeling resigned to her fate. (PROSE: Reunion) Yet another account suggested that, after encountering her on 1950s Earth, the Seventh Doctor returned Peri to her native time in the late 20th century. (PROSE: Bad Therapy)

A final account suggested that Peri and Yrcanos were both taken out of time by the Time Lords and they settled on Earth at some point after their marriage, with Yrcanos becoming a professional wrestler and Peri his manager. With her memories of her ordeal on Thoros Beta vague, Peri was happy to be back in her original time and place, and was content with her life with Yrcanos. (PROSE: Mindwarp)

Home with memories wiped
Feeling that forcing Peri to spend her days with Yrcanos was a fate worse than death, a Time Lord president arranged for another permutation of Peri to be removed from the timestream and returned to Earth in the mid-1980s with all her memories of travelling with the Doctor erased, except for her first encounter. Although the president's intentions were good, this version of Peri faced great challenges over the next quarter century. After returning to the United States of America, she married her childhood sweetheart Davey Silverman, who proved to be extremely abusive to her, ultimately injuring her so badly that she could not bear children and required reconstructive surgery to her face.

After this Peri decided that she wanted a job where she could help people. She became a relationship counsellor and, later, the host of the hit TV series Dr. Peri Brown: Worrier Queen. In her late forties, she reunited with the Doctor on an adventure that saw her interact with her younger self — she pretended to be an alien expert working for the government in order to protect the Web of Time, not revealing her future to her past self. She unintentionally appalled her earlier self by seeming to kill Zarl, despite the fact that he was actually the Sixth Doctor in a monster costume, and was teleported away rather than killed. Ultimately, she learnt about her other selves, and the Doctor apologised profoundly for how his people had tampered with her life. Offered a chance to travel with the Doctor again, she declined and returned to her life in Los Angeles in 2009. (AUDIO: Peri and the Piscon Paradox)

Overcoming the mind parasite
Another version of Queen Peri, visited by the Sixth Doctor on Krontep, was revealed to have become a pawn of Mandrake, the Doctor's childhood imaginary enemy that became a mind parasite, transferred to Crozier's computer when the Doctor was connected to the machine, and then to Peri's body instead of Kiv. Oblivious of the fact, Yrcanos died seven days after the wedding, having been poisoned by Mandrake.

When the Doctor came to attend Peri's wedding, Mandrake had him thrown into the cells, where he remained for five years as Mandrake used Peri's body to prepare for a coup of the various kingdoms. However, since Peri was sterile due to her spectrox poisoning, none of the other rulers would marry "Peri" as she would be unable to continue the royal line. After five years, Mandrake poisoned Peri's own body, wanting to force the Doctor to transfer his mind to the body of princess Dirani of Hurn in exchange for a cure.

Eventually, after swapping bodies with Peri in order to force the mind parasite into submission with his greater strength of will, the Doctor managed to restore her real consciousness and save her life with an antidote he had prepared during his imprisonment. Following this, Peri rejoined the Doctor on his travels, (AUDIO: The Widow's Assassin) having come to believe that "Krontep didn't need a figurehead anymore". (WC: The Eternal Mystery)

One of their first trips together in the TARDIS again was to Scotland during the 22nd century Dalek invasion. She wanted to stop the stoning of Ross Nicolson. The Doctor told her not to get involved in what was happening and accidentally got chosen to work in the Daleks' refinery. On board, Peri met Moira Brody who told her more of the situation. Whilst escaping the complex she met up with the Doctor as he broke in.

Peri and the Doctor joined Moira on her way north to the Orkneys. Walking by foot, she was infected by a Varga plant. She started to be influenced by the Varga and wanted to kill her friends. After being captured by the Daleks, Moira started testing her blood and Peri was cured in a Dalek facility. She then helped Moira and Curbishly to stop the Roboman Elite as Moira used the same technique she used on Peri to remember her past. (AUDIO: Masters of Earth)

Further travels
The Doctor and Peri visited the College of Advanced Galactic Education so that the Doctor could get an honorary degree. She helped Lizzo when they encountered her after she was experimented on. After attending one of Professor Baxton's lectures, she followed her to the medical facility and she realised that Baxton was in fact the Rani in her new incarnation. Peri was subjected to another body-switching experience when an elderly Countess was transferred into her body, but listening to an audio diary Peri had made earlier forced the Countess to realise that what she and others were doing was wrong. Peri later gained an honorary degree in Botany. (AUDIO: The Rani Elite)

Joined by Rex
Despite having left of her own free will, Peri missed her late husband Yrcanos and retained nostalgia for her time as queen on Krontep. After resuming her travels with the Sixth Doctor, she took to having him drop her off once a year at a temple dedicated to Yrcanos, so she could pay her respects and remember, as well as to make sure that her former subjects were coping well in her absence.

On one such visit, she was caught by the young palace guard Rex, to whom she revealed she had disappeared as she realised Krontep didn't need a figurehead any more. She invited Rex on board the TARDIS when he told her that he wanted to travel the universe. Before leaving, she cast a final fond look at Yrcanos' statue. (WC: The Eternal Mystery)

Other
The other permutations of Peri and the reasons for their creation were not specified by the Time Lord. (AUDIO: Peri and the Piscon Paradox)

Undated events
While travelling with the Sixth Doctor, Peri encountered the Fielding brothers in an adventure involving an exiled Draconian prince. (AUDIO: The Avenues of Possibility)

At some point, Peri was taken to the Black Archive by UNIT to have her record as a companion of the Doctor taken, her memories of the visit were subsequently erased and she was sent on her way. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)

In March 2005, Peri wrote on the website Doctor Who? asking if anybody had information on the Doctor as she was interested in getting back in touch. (PROSE: Have You Seen This Man?)

Mysteries and discrepancies
During the Doctor's fifth incarnation, Peri spent a year as a guerrilla fighter while separated from the Doctor, who meanwhile headed a military organisation known as the Alliance. (PROSE: Warmonger)

The length of time that Peri spent with the Doctor was unclear. Some accounts  suggested her travels with the Doctor occurred over the space of months, whilst others stated that at least "a couple of years" had passed for her between her first encounter with Jamie McCrimmon and her second. (COMIC: The World Shapers) As noted above, she was also separated from the Doctor for as long as a year on one occasion (PROSE: Warmonger) and two years on another. (AUDIO: The Kingmaker)

Alternative timelines
In a parallel universe, the Valeyard accidentally killed the Fourth Doctor by time-ramming him, the Fifth Doctor was erased from existence, and thus Peri's first meeting with the Doctor was altered or dissolved. (AUDIO: He Jests at Scars...)

In an alternate timeline created when Rassilon joined forces with the Cybermen, the Fifth Doctor and Peri landed on Skaro, the home planet of the Daleks, only to find it conquered by the Cybermen. (COMIC: Supremacy of the Cybermen) Realising that the Cybermen had grown powerful to wipe out the Daleks, the Doctor led Peri away, (COMIC: Prologue: the Fifth Doctor) only for this timeline to be undone when a remorseful Rassilon joined forces with the Twelfth Doctor. (COMIC: Supremacy of the Cybermen)

The Doctor and Peri were almost forced to land at the Big Bang due to mysterious coordinates being sent to the TARDIS which the Doctor tried to investigate. Escaping the explosion, the Doctor and Peri arrived at a Vess warehouse, and learnt the full magnitude of the situation with the Seventh Doctor and Ace. The Seventh Doctor was melancholy when he saw her again, telling his younger self that he had never gotten used to time travel leading to his being reunited with old friends. However, Peri got along well with Ace. She was surprised that Ace referred to the Seventh Doctor as "Professor" but was amused when she referred to the Sixth Doctor as "Joseph," a reference to the musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. The Sixth Doctor and Peri went to investigate the higher levels where they found a delegation of Time Lords, however Peri vanished due to the Doctor’s travels being undone by the Master’s conceptual bomb. These events were erased when the detonation of the conceptual bomb was prevented by the Doctors and the First Doctor disabled the emergency system that had drawn some the Doctors to the Vess pocket dimension. (AUDIO: The Light at the End)

Personality
Peri enjoyed playing tennis, hockey and lacrosse. (PROSE: The Two Doctors) Peri was often exasperated with the Doctor's sixth incarnation (TV:Vengeance on Varos), but still cared for him. (TV: Attack of the Cybermen, The Two Doctors, Revelation of the Daleks, etc.. ) Over time, the two of them became more amicable with each other, (TV: The Mysterious Planet) especially after the death of Peri's mother. (AUDIO: The Reaping)

Although she typically relied on the Doctor, she showed that she was intelligent, such as when she figured the poison must own a cure, (TV: The Caves of Androzani) and when tricked a Paradise 5 computer into giving her food and drink. (AUDIO: Paradise 5) She showed such courage when standing up to enemies. (TV: Planet of Fire, Attack of the Cybermen, Revelation of the Daleks) She also showed compassion on many, even on aliens and on some opponents such as Lytton. (TV: Attack of the Cybermen) She mourned the death of Kamelion even though he was an android, (TV: Planet of Fire) proved a capable one as a big sister figure to Erimem. (AUDIO: The Veiled Leopard), and also felt remorse on killing a mutant victim of Davros. (TV: Revelation of the Daleks) She was remembered by Krontep as leading with iron and compassion, and was regarded as being mightier than her husband. (Webcast: The Eternal Mystery)

Peri began to develop fond and romantic feelings for the warrior king Yrcanos, whom she subsequently fell in love with. (TV: Mindwarp) Following her rescue on Thoros Beta, Peri married Yrcanos in a least one timeline, (TV: The Ultimate Foe) and later bore his children. (COMIC: The Age of Chaos) After the warrior king's death, Peri would regularly visit a temple dedicated to Yrcanos, once a year, to pay tribute to her late husband. (WC: The Eternal Mystery)

In one timeline, (AUDIO: Peri and the Piscon Paradox) Peri's mind was erased and replaced with Lord Kiv's. This made her personality more ruthless and dictatorial, although she seemed to retain her original personality's dislike for the physical form of the Mentors. (TV: Mindwarp)

Appearance
Peri had dark, shiny hair which she usually wore short and straight (PROSE: The Mark of the Rani) but later wore long and curled. (TV: The Mysterious Planet, Mindwarp) During her time on Krontep, she wore her hair short again, (AUDIO: The Widow's Assassin) presumably due to having to regrow it after being shaved bald by Matrona Kani. (TV: Mindwarp) In her later years, she styled her hair long and straight. (Webcast: The Eternal Mystery) She had a trim young figure (PROSE: The Mark of the Rani) and was considered beautiful. (TV: The Caves of Androzani, Timelash)

She often wore shorts with a low-cut top whilst travelling with the Doctor, (TV: Planet of Fire, Attack of the Cybermen, The Two Doctors, etc.) but donned a royal yellow gown in 19th century Killingworth (TV: The Mark of the Rani) and a blue ensemble on Necros. (TV: Revelation of the Daleks) In her later adventures, she wore more conservative clothes. On Ravolox, she wore a flaxen and black blazer, a gold-coloured silk blouse and silver-grey slacks, (TV: The Mysterious Planet, PROSE: The Mysterious Planet) while on Thoros Beta, she was attired in pale blue culottes, a sleeveless pink wrap blouse and a short loose-fitting kimono-style jacket in pink, white and blue. (TV: Mindwarp) Whilst visiting the temple dedicated to her late husband, an older Peri wore a black ensemble, including a cloak with a hood. (Webcast: The Eternal Mystery)

Name
When asked about the name "Perpugilliam" in a 1986 interview, Nicola Bryant said: "I never warmed to the name Perpugilliam, but I like Peri as a name. John [Nathan-Turner] found it in a book. Apparently, in the Sixties, mothers in America were naming their children with particularly long ostentatious names. Obviously, John was using this to typify the kind of background that Peri had had, and the kind of mother she had."

- Nicola Bryant

The 1995 Cornerstone trading card misspelt her name as "Perpugillium". The same typo was made in Dalek Combat Training Manual in 2021.

Perpugilliam is an old family name (PROSE: Players) and a family tradition. (PROSE: A Town Called Eternity)

In the audio story The Bride of Peladon, Peri claims her name means "she who lives in the hills".

In the short story A Handful of Stardust, Thomas Digges says that Perpugilliam is Latin for "by a handful". Digges ends A Perfit Description of the Caelestiall Orbes with the inscription "Per Pugilliam Pulvis Sidereus", which Peri translates as "by a handful of stardust".

BBV Productions
Using her actual English accent, Nicola Bryant played "Miss Brown" (who was never actually referred to by name on-screen), an obvious analogue to Peri, in three BBV Productions videos in the series: Summoned by Shadows, More Than a Messiah and In Memory Alone. Later videos in the series would make clear that the Stranger series did not take place in the Doctor Who universe and that Peri and Miss Brown had no connection with each other. Bryant also played Elenya "Ellie" Brown, the girlfriend of Colin Baker's character, TV weather forecaster Arnold "Arnie" Davis, in another BBV production, the non-Doctor Who The Airzone Solution.

Longevity
Counting audio and televised adventures together, Peri effectively shares the longest-serving companion title — both in terms of number of stories and recorded time — with Ace. As they are tied, the title essentially alternates as new stories are released. Her nearest rivals are Jamie McCrimmon, Charley Pollard and Nyssa. Nyssa's appearances are considerably more frequent than Jamie's so she represents the only potential threat to Peri and Ace's record-breaking number of appearances.

While she clearly eclipses the amount of time Sarah Jane Smith has been seen or heard as a companion, Peri is easily outpaced by the character of Sarah, due to Sarah's latter-day appearances as a solo character.

Peri was also incredibly prolific within the Sixth Doctor's era on television. Terror of the Vervoids is the only television story of that era in which she does not appear, though within that story, she is still mentioned.

American accent
While Peri is supposed to be an American, her English accent often slips and her American accent wanders between different regional accents. She sometimes uses phrases and pronunciations that Americans would not use, such as "lift" instead of the American "elevator".

Indeed, the Attack of the Cybermen DVD commentary maintained that it was mandated that Peri only use British slang to avoid confusing the audience. This may have worked for the British audience but, as Peter Davison pointed on on the DVD commentary for Planet of Fire, it had the opposite effect on American viewers. They could spot Bryant's fake American accent — or, really, any British actor's attempt at American — with ease. This was one of the principal reasons that Davison fought hard against adding an American companion to the show. This idiosyncrasy of language did not end with the TV series, as it can be heard in several audio dramas also.

According to Nicola Bryant on the DVD commentary for Planet of Fire, there was an active effort to cover up the fact that she was not, in fact, American. She recounted there how John Nathan-Turner insisted she use her American accent when making public appearances or appearances that could have been monitored by the press. At least during the recording of her earliest serials, like Planet of Fire, she was even required to use the American accent when she broke character between takes.

It's unclear how long this obfuscation lasted, but evidence for the subterfuge can be heard on a clip from Breakfast Time broadcast the day the first episode of The Twin Dilemma aired. During the interview, the interviewer asserted that as a "little girl in America" Bryant used to watch Doctor Who and dream of being a companion. Bryant, who used only a very mild English accent during the interview, failed to correct the interviewer or to even look as though the interviewer had made an error. Near the end of the 1984 production block — which is to say after the recording of Season 22, but probably slightly before its airing — Bryant gave a radio interview in which she used her natural British accent. (AUDIO: Doctor Who at the BBC Volume 3)

Relationship with her stepfather
The idea of Howard Foster sexually abusing Peri is one never considered by the production team on Planet of Fire and does not have resonance in audio and print literature beyond the novel Shell Shock. Nicola Bryant says that the idea, as envisioned by Fiona Cumming, Dallas Adams and her was to suggest that she and her stepfather had an appropriate but friendly relationship. Indeed, according to Bryant, Peri much preferred the company of Howard to that of her mother. (DCOM: Planet of Fire) However, the character of Peri (or at least one aspect of Peri) was still destined for an abusive relationship as revealed in AUDIO: Peri and the Piscon Paradox.