Doctor Who: 5 Best And 5 Worst Companion Send-Offs

The Worst

5. Peri

Yep, back again. You remember that wonderful departure scene I mentioned on the first list? The one that severely impacted the Doctor and nearly destroyed him? The one that led to one of the best moments of acting that Colin Baker had on the entire series? Yeah, that gets undone by the end of the story. See, the fourteen-part €œTrial of a Time Lord€ arc concluded with happy endings all around, and with the Sixth Doctor learning that Peri hadn€™t been killed. She was, in fact, living a good and happy life with warrior king Ycranos. Because why not. This is basically a big middle finger to the audience. It really serves no story purpose. It€™s a moment where we see that there are really no negative consequences to traveling with the Doctor. It€™s sad and terrible and severely annoying. It makes no sense story-wise, and really serves to undermine the daring approach the show was trying to take at this point. In fact the only good thing to come of this is that Big Finish has taken the whole "What EXACTLY happened to Peri?" concept and really ran with it. There are now, apparently, several different possible timelines, and it sounds like the Sixth Doctor will soon be investigating which one is true. Even if you don't agree with the fandom misgivings about Peri, you'd agree it's probably preferable that the timeline where she remains dead is the real one. After all, it's a far better conclusion to her character than running off and marrying a barbarian warlord.