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Nyssa, played by Sarah Sutton
Being a man possessed of great charm, the Doctor operates as a classless being. So long as you’re not mean-spirited or judgmental, he’ll happily get along with anyone. And in looking back on his choice of companions, he’s attracted friends from all walks of life, from noble savages Leela and Jamie, up through working class Rose and Ben to the white-collar Ian and Rory and the more well-to-do Polly and Victoria. Nyssa tops the lot, however. She’s an aristocrat, the daughter of a high-ranking consul, in the Union of Traken, and young and precious with it.
Here’s her first meeting with the Fourth Doctor from The Keeper of Traken. If the fella in the beard seems oddly familiar, and the fact that he’s called Tremas is niggling at the back of your mind, let’s just say he’s about to run into an old friend.
In fact, his body is soon taken over by the spirit of the Master, who hypnotizes Nyssa and kidnaps her. She is taken to Logopolis by a strange white figure called The Watcher, where she learns the Master is responsible for the destruction of her home planet, and is running around the universe looking exactly like her dad (after an evil makeover). Orphaned and homeless, her aristocratic upbringing no longer worth a damn, she throws her lot in with the Doctor, Tegan and Adric. Only to bear witness to his regeneration, which of course goes awry (Castrovalva).
So by the time things settle down into the more regular travelling-and-meddling lifestyle that all TARDIS-dwellers are used to, she’s already been through an incredible series of traumas. What’s impressive is her ability to deal with all of this, given her tender years (Sarah Sutton remains the youngest actress to play a companion so far, unless you count Caitlin Blackwood’s astonishing turn as young Amy Pond).
So she’s posh and she’s young, and she’s tough, naively blundering into all sorts of situations, and then using her aristocratic bearing to deal with the any unfortunate circumstances. Her character may have been harder to define against the twin fires of stroppy Tegan and irritating Adric, but without them hogging the attention, she’s closer in spirit to the wide-eyed and inquisitive (and easily captured) Jo Grant.
Of course, the Doctor being the Doctor, her new home isn’t exactly a safe place to pull herself together, a fact which will have been brought home by the death of Adric, some five trips into her new life (Earthshock). It’s clear, after a while, that Nyssa felt swept up in the Doctor’s slipstream, and replaced the trauma of her losses with the excitement of adventuring, but once she realizes that she has to deal with everything that has happened to her (a process represented within the show when she contracts a form of space leprosy and has to wander around a space station in a slip and underskirt), she realizes it’s time to stop, and find a role for herself. So that’s exactly what she does.
Here’s a nicely potted skip through Nyssa’s final adventure, Terminus, in which she becomes infected, and is unfortunately labelled a “lazar” as a result (much to the giggly delight of teenage boys everywhere I’m sure). Her goodbye, when it comes, is tear-stained and noble, and shows once again that the women of Doctor Who may arrive amid accusations of eye candy, pandering to the male viewers, but they always leave having demonstrated spines of pure steel.
11 Comments
I just finished watching Earthshock…Nyssa is really interesting, actually. I can’t say why, but I really like her.
Well, they “may arrive amid accusations of eye candy, pandering to the male viewers”, but I’m sure you were about to add “but only by cretins who are prone to making unpleasant, women-hating assumptions” weren’t you, Fraser? Yes, you were.
Nyssa is one of my favorite companions. Beautiful and smart. And beautiful. Especially in the tight brown pants.
Nyssa was so much cooler then the whining stupid incompetent female companions of the new era. Except Donna. she was the only cool one. all the other women were so pathetic or in River’s case…..PSYCHOTIC! not to mention gross, and a total sociopath. though some idiots now days have no idea what a sociopath is.
Nyssa occasionally came across as a goody goody like in The Visitation but in other stories she was both smart and strong and like MOST of the female companions in the Pre-2005 ERA she had no problem talking back to the Dr. Even lecturing him about things he should do.
And she used weapons on occasion. I don’t recall her flying the Tardis THOUGH Tegan, Adric, Romana, Leela, Donna, have all flown the Tardis.
Funny Nyssa was a “last of a race” long before the Doctor was. And she didn’t go around feeling sorry for herself. This whole last of your kind is old and cliched. And Time Lord is the title NOT the race.
Watch ‘The Deadly Assassin’ and read the book. It states that The Master used to be a Time Lord. You can’t USED TO BE a member of a race. You CAN “used to be” a member of a group. Also in Invasion of Time Rodan makes it clear she is not a part of either the guards OR the Time Lords. I should think that makes it abundantly clear. At least to anyone with an actual working brain.
Next year I’ll be posting my own little 50th anniversary special on fanfic, and it will be a proper anniversary of ALL 50 YEARS and not just primarily the years since Moffat the moron started working for dr who.
And Nyssa is going to be in it. And in a rather interesting story, if I do say so myself. The end just might surprise some. even if it isn’t “canon” it’ll still be a lot more respectful to the entire Doctor Who universe then the crappy 2 or 3 part special moffat is planning. Now some have demanded “how do you know”. Yeah, and those morons probably have trouble figuring out that 2 and 2 is 4. Based on his past writing and interviews it is blatantly obvious to those of us with working brains. And yes, he will probably have the 5th dr is some little capacity and will make an occasional reference and then turn around and cheekily declare that he has respected all 50 years. RME
Which of course will be a load of crap. Not only do I respect all 50 yrs of dr who but also the spin-offs though they are more Dr Whovish then what they are normally like. And I take everything into account. who left. (doesn’t mean they can’t come back to a group within the show) who is dead, who is on an alien world. who is in the past or future. All of it. And unlike many, I watch the old tv episodes very carefully. So while a character or robotic character (not dalek or cybermen) says one thing, something else said in the same story suggests that this isn’t 100% true. LOL! and I take full advantage of that. Just like something in the story shows something which probably wasn’t intended BUT since it’s on screen, it’s fair game. This may sound like gibberish now, but next year, it’ll be crystal clear. If you read the story. but you will need to know your Dr Who history.
I fell for Nyssa, hard… didn’t know how old she was.
I remember writing a letter to her in the mid-80′s, care of the BBC. I’m sure it came across as spooky, and hopefully never made it to Sarah…
Nyssa’s name started out being spelled Nissa on the credits. I watched closely and named a dog after her. She was one of my favorite Doctor companions. Before that I named a dog Leela – totally loved her!! (They varied on that too – sometimes Lela, sometimes Leela) Had a Tegan too – who I loved for her spunk, but they turned her into a whiner too often. A top favorite of mine was Martha Jones – saved the Doctor so many times and was cast aside. Smart, beautiful and brave. Sorry I can’t name a dog after her as Martha is also people I know.
My parents actually named me after her and while I haven’t seen many of her episodes I do like her. I think my name has a lot to do with why I am a Doctor Who fan. Its like I was preprogrammed to like it.
I was under the impression she was a princess but I’ll take aristocrat too.
I too was quite taken by her. Much to my surprise we are born in the same year. I was really disappointed when they cut her character short and never let it fully develop. If anything they could have gotten rid of Matthew Waterhouse’s character. I guess when you have 4 companions you have to cut someone, but to this day never understood why her. She still looks great after all these years.
She is one of my favorite “classic” companions. She was severely underdeveloped by the writers, who were too focused on whiny Adric and ballsy Tegan (the Donna of the 80′s and one I did like) but was a perfect match for the Doctor as she was smart, tender and tough. At least she did get a good sendoff which made sense, using her scientific skills to create a cure for Lazar’s disease. As much as I enjoy the new series, the leaving scenes for the current companions have been really too melodramatic and they leave either because they can’t stay for some contrived reason, or they can’t take having the Doctor not wanting a romantic relationship. I would like to see a current companion leave simply because they feel they can do good somewhere else, or like Tegan, they just got tired of watching people die all the time. That’s a lot more realistic and easy to relate to. Not “you won’t date me so I’m done with you.” Save that for The Bachelor.
She was a class act all the way. She was very level headed and smart. She worked a great counter character for Tegan. Together they were a great combination of companions for the 5th Doctor.
One of my all time favorite companion goodbye. Very classy.