The 6th Doctor and Peri

[SiHart]

Our regulars for the season are the 6th Doctor and Peri. What do you think of this TARDIS team? Do they work well together? Are they a favourite of yours?

[Andrew Curnow]

I think we probably all like Colin & Nicola more than we do the Doctor and Peri. Oddly, I think in The Twin Dilemma they do it quite well, there's disagreement but also some consensus between them, and certainly some warmth in the final playful exchange...

...then season 22 keeps wanting to make them a bickering couple. The better scripts make it work more a banter than actual arguing, and I was interested when reading the 'notes' on the Attack of the Cybermen DVD to see just how many exchanges were 'toned down' to make them seem less argumental than they actually were in the original script. It's not always easy to see why Peri would stay with the Doctor, and to be fair poor Nicola isn't really given the best set of scripts in season 22 anyway.

But when they work well, they work really well, presumably because (as with the best Doctor/Companion teams) the actors got on so well with each other. But, as with so much of season 22, you come away thinking it could & should have been so much better.