Doctor Who: The Sixth Doctor and Peri reunited – The story so far…

Last week saw the release of a brand new Doctor Who box set focused on the Sixth Doctor and Peri. And it’s a box set that we’ve been waiting an extremely long time for…

I can’t even begin to describe how long I’ve waited for Doctor Who: The Sixth Doctor and Peri Volume 1. It’s not that the pairing is one of my favorite TARDIS teams, not exactly. It’s more the fact that this new audio box set continues a thread that began six years ago…and hasn’t really been addressed since.

In 2014, Big Finish released a trilogy of stories focused on the Sixth Doctor and Peri. But these stories were just a little different from their usual appearances. Because they were all set after Peri had originally left in the TV series. Long after, in fact.

Let me explain. Over the years, Big Finish has told many stories with this particular pairing, and it’s not surprising – on television, while she shared a couple of stories with Peter Davison’s Fifth Doctor, Nicola Bryant’s character shared a much longer relationship with Colin Baker’s Doctor. It wasn’t always the easiest of relationships – in fact, at times, it was often rather antagonistic. However, by their final TV season, they had clearly become close friends.

When the Doctor was placed on trial in The Trial of a Time Lord, he was initially lead to believe that Peri had first been possessed by Lord Kiv before being assassinated by his own people. As you can imagine, he was completely devastated by her death. So he was rather relieved when he found out that she was still alive and married to the warrior king Yrcanos. But that’s just the beginning of the story…

The Sixth Doctor never got to say goodbye to his old friend when they parted ways in The Trial of a Time Lord. Unsurprisingly, Big Finish were keen to explore what happened next.

Image Courtesy: BBC Studios, BritBox.

After the trial

It eventually occurs to the Doctor that, while it might not be quite as bad as death itself, being married to a highly temperamental warlord might not exactly be a happy ending for Peri, either. So, in The Widow’s Assassin, he decides to visit his old friend to check up on her. Eventually, after the sudden death of her husband King Yrcanos, he finds out that Peri was still possessed. After freeing Peri’s mind, the pair decided to resume their travels together.

We only got two more stories of the Sixth Doctor and Peri. Masters of Earth saw them arrive during the Dalek occupation as originally depicted in The Dalek Invasion of Earth, while the final story of the season featured the return of an old enemy in The Rani Elite.

So what happened next? Nothing. Well, nothing for six years, anyway.

Why the long wait?

We have had many Sixth Doctor stories since The Rani Elite. In fact, we’ve even had a few Sixth Doctor and Peri stories since then. But – until last week’s release – we’ve had no stories featuring both that were set after The Rani Elite.

So why the long wait? Well, the Sixth Doctor’s 2015 season of audios decided to jump ahead a little and introduce a new companion: Mrs. Constance Clarke, a WREN from World War II. This storyline continued the following year, which also saw the reintroduction of Flip.

The pairing of the radically different companions Flip and Constance was unsurprisingly an exciting prospect to explore, so 2017 saw a trilogy of stories that focused on this particular TARDIS team. However, even they were given a significant break for a while: in 2018, we saw the Sixth Doctor traveling on his own, while 2019 focused on his travels with Peri.

Now, the latter sounds exciting, right? Especially for fans who had been wanting to know how their story continued for five years already. Unfortunately, we had to wait a little longer: the trilogy of stories was set (mostly) during their travels together on television.

Recorded back in 2018, The Sixth Doctor and Peri is a box set that’s been a long time coming.

(Photo credit: Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions.

Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)

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The Sixth Doctor and Peri

We got to find out why their earlier travels were being focused on rather than the post-Trial period: a box set of stories featuring the Sixth Doctor and Peri, explicitly after their reunion in The Widow’s Assassin, had been recorded already. We just had to wait a year before finding out about their brand new adventures together.

But why is the idea of their post-Trial adventures more exciting than stories set during their original travels together? Well, in The Widow’s Assassin, the Doctor had learned something about Peri. Something that she has no idea of and that he’s keeping from her. And it’s only a matter of time before she finds out. (Ideally, in a Nev Fountain story.)

So as you can see, The Sixth Doctor and Peri Volume 1 has definitely been a long time coming. Has it been worth the wait? Well, you can expect to find that out in our upcoming reviews for the set. One thing’s for sure, though: it would be awful if we had to wait even half as long for the next set of Six and Peri stories!

Are you a fan of the Sixth Doctor and Peri? Do you think Big Finish should have explored the pairing post-Trial sooner? What would you like to see in future stories with these two? Let us know in the comments below.