Nyssa as in Earthshock
Name:
Nyssa
Main Aliases:
Nyssa Jones
Nyssa the Destroyer
Claudia
Species:
Trakenite
Vampire
Place of Origin:
Traken
Affiliated With:
Family Smith
Mother:
Lucina
Father:
Tremas
Children:
Neeka
Adric Traken
Grandchildren:
Neeka’s child
Spouse:
Lasarti
Partners:
First Seen In:
Latest Appearance:
Other Appearances:
Main Actor:
Sarah Sutton
Other Actors:
Lucy Baker
click on images to enlarge
source TARDIS Wikia
Nyssa, also known as Nyssa of Traken, was a companion of the Fourth and Fifth Doctors.
A genius scientist, Nyssa assisted The Doctor in their fourth incarnation before joining him, Adric and Tegan as a travelling companion after becoming the last of her kind. Following Adric’s death, a period of time alone with The Doctor and travelling alongside Brewster, Hannah, Marc and Turlough, Nyssa left the TARDIS to assist in the curing of those with Lazar’s disease.
Nyssa assisted those harmed by the Time War and rejoined The Doctor, Tegan and Turlough before remaining in E-Space. She was eventually able to return and entered into a relationship with Tegan on Earth.
EARLY LIFE
Nyssa was born on Traken (Primeval) circa 1961 (Cobwebs; Logopolis) as the daughterof Consul Tremas and Lucina. (The Keeper of Traken) Both of her grandfathers had died by the time she was born (The Toy) and her mother died in childbirth (Empire of Death) or when she was young. (The Haunting of Thomas Brewster)
Having grown up in the harmony of the Traken Union, Nyssa was shielded from the horrors of the universe. (1001 Nights) She was brought up to be altruistic and to always put others before herself, a rule that she abided by. (The Entropy Plague) As Trakenite nobility, Nyssa learnt the manners and behaviours expected of her, including dance, which she considered herself quite good at, (Black Orchid) whilst the servants’ children were able to share rooms and play in the grounds. (The Toy) Due to her father’s position, Nyssa spent most of her time amongst older people and was starved of company of her own age. (Doctor Who and the Keeper of Traken)
Tremas entered into a romantic relationship with Kassia (The Keeper of Traken) and would play her a piece of Trakenite music when she was feeling low. Nyssa remembered the piece fondly. (The Entropy Composition) She had a number of teddy bears, namely a talking one called Big Bear who “guarded” her when she slept. (Divided Loyalties)
Nyssa inherited her father’s love of science. (Doctor Who and the Keeper of Traken) She was a genius, with bioelectronics (Castrovalva) and cybernetics as her strong points. (Four to Doomsday) However, she knew very little about telebiogenesis. (Castrovalva) She assisted in a minor role with surgical operations, meaning that blood did not tend to make her nauseous. (Goth Opera)
She enjoyed tending a grove (Masquerade) and was once stung by a Lime Grove Wasp. (The Mutant Phase) She was able to let loose during the Autumn Festival, when her people hung paper lanterns on all the trees in the garden and carried all the fruits in, followed by singing and a food fight which included the consuls. It was undignified, but Nyssa loved it. (Spare Parts)
She recognised that she was very fortunate in her upbringing and had everything in her life handed to heron a plate. (The Peterloo Massacre)
ENCOUNTER WITH THE FOURTH DOCTOR
Nyssa attended Tremas and Kassia’s wedding, after which she met the Fourth Doctor and Adric. Unbeknownst to her, the Decayed Master planned to exploit the tremendous powerof the Keepership, which her father was to inherit, by manipulating Kassia. Nyssa helped The Doctor and Adric prevent The Master from gaining the powerof the Source, but was unable to prevent him from killing Kassia.
Afterwards, Nyssa and Tremas bid farewell to The Doctor and Adric. Nyssa told her father that he had to put everything back together again following The Master’s actions, but did not witness her father being killed and taken over by the decayed Time Lord, (The Keeper of Traken) although she did think she heard a distant echo of mocking laughter. (Doctor Who and the Keeper of Traken) She sent a message to the TARDIS telling The Doctor of the Master’s escape and Tremas’s disappearance. (Logopolis)
FIRST TRAVELS IN THE TARDIS
JOINING THE DOCTOR
After the Trakens’ message had been received by The Doctor, Nyssa met the Watcher who took her to Logopolis to find The Master, as she wished to know what he had done to her father. She was reunited with The Doctor and Adric and met Tegan Jovanka before The Master enslaved her mind and used her in his complex plan to conquer N-Space. The Doctor was able to break The Master’s control over her and she learnt that he had killed and taken over her father’s body.
Whilst The Doctor, Tegan and the Master went to Earth in the latter’s TARDIS, Nyssa and Adric remained in The Doctor’s TARDIS on Logopolis. The Watcher helped Adric pilot the TARDIS and take them to Earth. However, during the journey, Nyssa witnessed the apparent destruction of the entire Traken Union thanks to an entropy wave, leading her to believe that she was the last of her kind. She witnessed The Doctor’s regeneration into his fifth incarnation, (Logopolis) after which she helped get him back to the TARDIS. (Castrovalva)
WITH ADRIC AND TEGAN
Nyssa helped The Doctor get to the Zero Room, which she accidentally jettisoned in order to save the TARDIS from being destroyed in Event One. Arriving at Castrovalva for The Doctor’s benefit, Nyssa found it was a secondary trap by The Master to get rid of the Doctor by using Adric to make block transfer computations. However, they managed to escape Castrovalva with Adric and the Doctor stabilised. (Castrovalva)
Upon leaving Castrovalva, the TARDIS materialised in the Psychodrome, which created four competing kingdoms based on each of the travellers’ individual perceptions of one another and their own backgrounds. Nyssa’s perception proved to be the most dangerous due to her trauma causing her to associate The Doctor with The Master, resulting in the creation of King Magus. They were able to leave after acknowledging their flaws and shortcomings and affirm that they accepted one another despite them. (Psychodrome)
In 2592, after the four travellers were locked out of the TARDIS, Nyssa and Tegan booked rooms at a hotel and met Chris Cwej, from whom Nyssa learnt that Serenity had survived the entropy wave that wiped out the Traken Union. Nyssa escaped from Adjudicators with Chris and assisted in his investigations into corruption within the force, disarming fusion bombs and eventually meeting up with The Doctor, Tegan and Patience. (Cold Fusion)
The TARDIS landed on Isopterus, where the crew saved the humanoid survivors from giant termites. (On the Planet Isopterus) Nyssa lost consciousness in the 1950s due to the presence of an intelligence which she and the Doctor later took to Otho. (First Born)
On Monarch’s spacecraft, Nyssa was, unlike Adric, appalled by the Urbankans’ plans and was determined to oppose tyrants following her encounters with The Master. Because of this, she was taken away to become an android. She was rescued by The Doctor and Bigon but, after the TARDIS dematerialised, she fainted (Four to Doomsday) due to Kwundaar afflicting her with evil. (Primeval) Whilst The Doctor initially believed that she had suffered a mild mental disorientation, he later believed that it was a sign of post-traumatic stress resulting from the death of her father. (
After Nyssa collapsed a second time, The Doctor built a delta wave augmenter. Although she claimed that she was alright, she admitted that she was having difficulty concentrating and used the augmenter, sleeping for days and eventually waking up apparently fully recovered. (Kinda)
In 1666 London, Nyssa found evidence of the use of an alien weapon inside Sir John’s house and headed to the TARDIS to build a sonic booster to defeat the Terileptils’ android, something that she did with some assistance from Adric. She successfully used it to destroy the android, after which the pair tried to use the TARDIS to travel back to the house. (The Visitation)
Nyssa and Adric instead arrived in the future, near the Mississippi River. They helped James escape his slave masters and restored power to Doc Ashberry’s TARDIS (The Dark River) before returning to 1666, where they were reunited with The Doctor and Tegan and attempted to extinguish what would become the Great Fire of London. (The Visitation)
The Celestial Toymaker gave Nyssa dreams of Traken, her father and the consuls. She was angry with The Doctor when he agreed to help separate the Toymaker from Rallon, not understanding why he could not have done the same for her father and the Master. Whilst she remained unhappy, the two discussed the matter and she remained strong, something that Tegan admired. (Divided Loyalties)
Believing Udilf’s people to be threatened by aliens, Nyssa and Tegan assisted them in making weapons and armour. However, they learnt from The Doctor and Adric that the aliens were actually U’thai’s people, after which Nyssa preferred a peaceful solution, something that Tegan and Adric disagreed with. (The Immortals)
Due to a communication node disguised as a toy, Nyssa had recurring nightmares of her fatheron Traken. The telepathic call led her to a room where she saw a vision of the First Doctor and the Masteron Gallifrey, The Doctor later telling her that the node had been locked away so that it could not be used to track himself and Susan. (The Toy)
Whilst The Doctor and Tegan left Gallius Ultima to investigate the Larger Magellanic Cloud, Nyssa and Adric stayed behind and watched the autopsy of the crew of the previous expedition to the cloud. She saw Rovus begin his attack and, when the Star Men invaded, she was sent to their universe for a time. (The Star Men)
At the Contingency in 1864, Nyssa escaped from Edward with Adric and encountered Marjorie Stonegood, who helped them leave via the tube tunnels. They discovered an underground bathhouse, within which grew a number of Edwards. (The Contingency Club)
Nyssa and the Doctor traced Adric and Tegan to Zaltys after they disappeared from the console room. Gevaudan detected Nyssa’s psychic capabilities and used them to magnify his own, allowing him to defeat the vampires. (
In the 1920s, Nyssa encountered The Master again and was taunted about the destruction of her planet by him. He hypnotised her, something that Tegan sympathised with after being controlled by the Mara and the Terileptils. (Smoke and Mirrors)
On Cicero Prime, The Doctor was mistaken for the Scorpion and Nyssa for his assistant, taking on the alias of “Nyssa the Destroyer” to avoid being imprisoned and executed. The two eventually reunited with Adric and Tegan and helped protect Miranda from the real Scorpion. (Kingdom of Lies)
Nyssa and Adric were attacked by an invisible force in 17th century Yorkshire. Using a displacement generator, The Doctor sent Nyssa to 1738 where she was accused of being a witch before being saved and cared for by Matthew Doyle. However, her rejection of his love caused him to side against her when the villagers demanded that she be drowned, a fate that she was saved from by The Doctor. (Ghost Walk)
Nyssa disliked Argentia, finding it excessively decadent. She was tasked with finding out the species of the snake which attacked Galgo whilst he was investigating the murderof Angelo Mazzini. (Serpent in the Silver Mask)
On a Rutan weapon test field, Nyssa, Adric and Tegan were kidnapped by Adam Mitchell. (In Their Nature) They and numerous other companions of the Doctor were saved from death by Frobisher and later rejoined their Doctor. (Endgame)
In 1952, Nyssa met and befriended her doppelgänger,
The travellers celebrated Christmas in the TARDIS, but Nyssa was angered when Adric and Tegan’s antics resulted in their Christmas tree falling over. She stuffed the pudding that Adric had created using Block Transfer Computation up Tegan’s nose. (In the TARDIS: Christmas Day) According to Iris Wildthyme, she once spent Christmas aboard the TARDIS with the four travellers. (Excelis Dawns)
Nyssa and her companions watched the Freedom Day celebrations on Lemaria, including a reenactment of the rescue of the planet by the First Doctor and Susan. After the actor playing the First Doctor took out his sonic screwdriver to defeat the Megrati, Nyssa realised that the actor was himself an incarnation of the Doctor. (The Constant Doctor)
Nyssa was told by the Dar Traders that she should be dead, which was later revised to her having a strange connection with death due to being a Traken. She was stabbed and died for three minutes, after which she awoke in Tegan’s arms having been brought back by the Dar Trader. (The Darkening Eye)
Working with Adric, Nyssa attempted to fly the TARDIS, which resulted in the ship materialising on Fleming’s Island, the TARDIS falling off a cliff after the four left. Nyssa found herself briefly overwhelmed by the psychic presence of the I Predator, which they later managed to trap. (Iterations of I)
Nyssa and Adric played chess outside of the TARDIS, but she got fed up of his grumbling and left him on his own. She was able to coax him out of his bedroom days after The Doctor saved him from becoming a Melkur-like statue on a lifeless world, promising him that he could return to the planet in a matter of months as she knew that he would not wish to do so. (Hearts of Stone)
Following another argument between The Doctor and Adric, Nyssa spoke to the both of them. She remained in the TARDIS with Professor Kyle after they saved her from Cyberman androids and destroyed a lieutenant when the Cybermen entered the ship. With The Doctor and Tegan, she watched Briggs’s freighter crash into Earth with Adric aboard. (Earthshock) She asked The Doctor if the TARDIS could go back and save him, but The Doctor refused. (Time-Flight) Otherwise, she showed little reaction to Adric’s death, something that The Doctor later believed was due to post-traumatic stress. (Empire of Death)
The crew returned the freighter’s personnel to their own time and, instead of landing at the the Great Exhibition as the Doctor intended, landed at Heathrow. Nyssa, The Doctor and Tegan investigated the disappearance of a Concorde and found themselves transported to 140, 000, 000 BC where Nyssa’s psychic powers came to the fore. Upon defeating The Masteronce more, Nyssa and the Doctor left Tegan at Heathrow in a hurry to avoid providing an explanation to Douglas Sheard, unaware that Tegan wished to remain with them. (Time-Flight)
ALONE WITH THE DOCTOR
After Adric’s death and leaving Tegan at Heathrow, Nyssa began to keep a journal which she entitled Observations and Analysis, A Journal. The Doctor told her that he would take her to the Great Exhibition as he had originally intended, but they encountered what claimed to be the ghost of Adric and instead went to 1863. She eventually broke down and admitted to The Doctor and to herself that, on some level, she blamed him for the deaths of her father, her world and Adric. (Empire of Death)
Nyssa and the Doctor put Tegan’s possessions into storage. (The Elite)
Nyssa remained in the TARDIS, mourning Adric whilst The Doctor had an adventure at a school. (Long Term) At some point, the two met P. G. Wodehouse. (Autumn)
In 1945 Maine, Nyssa and the Doctor investigated the phenomenon of the Truth Tellers and met Jonny Heftklammern and Nettie Washington, who declined The Doctor’s offer to join them in the TARDIS. (Tip of the Tongue) In Wales in the 1980s, she suggested that she and the Doctor visit Tegan and found herself trapped in Ellen Carter’s games. (Past Reckoning)
Nyssa and the Doctor were rescued from the ocean of Lethe by the crew of the Lung of Heaven. She was later taken captive aboard the Parliament of Rats before being rescued by The Doctor and Constantine. (The Parliament of Rats) On Earth, Nyssa and the Doctor ran from one of Nicholas Carnon’s creatures to his manor, where she cried for the first time since the death of her father and the extinction of her people. (The Eternity Contract)
After losing the lottery, Nyssa and the Doctor went to Monitoring Base XL-7 on a planet that The Doctor had once won. They met Sebastian Musgrove, who tried to sacrifice them to Telxzana. Upon learning that Telxzana was dying, the travellers promised to send a survey ship to the base to pick up Sebastian. (Lonely Days)
The TARDIS materialised above Alaska in 1964 before almost colliding with a light aircraft, after which it travelled to the same spot in 1994. Nyssa experienced headaches and encountered the Permians, whom she helped kill by burning down the house built by Monica Lewis. (The Land of the Dead)
Nyssa was transported to Switzerland by The Doctor’s Spillager detector, where she became embroiled in poltergeist activity at a boarding school. When The Doctor arrived, she reluctantly helped him investigate and they discovered Spillager scouts using the pupils’ psychic abilities to open a gateway for an invasion. Nyssa was forced to use her nascent telepathic powers to close the gateway. (Winter for the Adept) Unbeknownst to her, her growing abilities were due to Kwundaar’s manipulations. (Primeval)
Whilst Nyssa was repairing the TARDIS, it was thrown into a time corridor to Kansas in 2158 where she met The Daleks for the first time and helped research and avert the Mutant Phase. She questioned The Doctor about why he was able to use time travel to save The Daleks but not to save Adric. (The Mutant Phase)
On a mission for the Time Lords, Nyssa and the Doctor went to convince Cardinal Zero to rejoin the High Council of Gallifrey. Nyssa interfered in Redklaw’s trial and, after being taken before Cardinal Zero, learnt from him of the fact that The Doctor was exiled from their planet. (Spring) An attempt by Nyssa to repair the TARDIS’s chameleon circuit resulted in the craft turning into a whale, which the pair then had to recover. (The Deep)
Having succumbed to Kwundaar’s influence, Nyssa collapsed and was taken by The Doctor to Traken in the Primeval Times to be cared for. She befriended Sabian whilst she recuperated and was cured as part of a deal between The Doctor and Kwundaar, who died after he took control of the Source and Nyssa cleansed it of corruption. She elected not to remain on ancient Traken but to continue travelling with The Doctor, her psychic powers once again dormant. (Primeval)
The TARDIS landed on Mondas where Nyssa met Yvonne Hartley and helped save her father. She had an affection for the Hartleys and was frustrated when The Doctor told her that they could not interfere in events as they were pivotal to the creation of the Cybermen. Nonetheless, they attempted to improve the future of the Mondasians by pouring wine into the nutrient feed of the Central Committee. (Spare Parts)
Nyssa and the Doctor continued their repairs to the TARDIS which proceeded to drift into the Veln system and have an accident with a Koteem ship, causing the dyestrial poisoning of Veln. Nyssa waited with the TARDIS as the Doctor went off to warn the people of the dangers of using dyestrial, but she heard a scream and found Veline’s body. She was charged with her murder and was to be executed before she was saved by The Doctor, Quain and Forleon. (Creatures of Beauty)
Nyssa and the Doctor were locked in the Towerof London after The Doctor gave her incorrect currency to pay their tavern bill. Isaac Newton deduced that they were time travellers and eventually let them go after they told him tales of the future and of his continued legacy, although Nyssa could not understand why The Doctor would admire the man. (Summer)
Maya gave Nyssa and the Doctor an illusionary adventure at the end of which The Doctor told Nyssa that he would not be going with her, telling her that she would have to be The Doctor from then on. In tears, she returned to the TARDIS and entered the code that The Doctor gave her to remove his telepathic link from the TARDIS, which she then learnt actually strengthened his connection to the ship and rescued him from Maya. (Confabula)
Nyssa took issue with Surrender, Earthlings! and was appalled when The Doctor became addicted to it, later joining with the Provisional Wing of the National Viewers and Listeners Association to attack the BBC and end the transmission. Meeting up with The Doctor, they ensured that the programme received zero ratings, defeating the Xyz. (Not So Much a Programme, More a Way of Life)
On Cray, Nyssa found Darzil Carlisle for The Doctor and, after learning that he had been taking credit for The Doctor’s peacekeeping efforts, chose to leave the TARDIS and stay with him in order to help him use his influence to do good. However, following Carlisle’s death and the escape of Morian and Faye Davis, she left with The Doctor, asking him not to meet Carlisle again until she had left his company. (The Game)
Nyssa and the Doctor interviewed the team members of the fifty-seventh Fraternity research station after the appearance of a duplicate of Ian Bird, for whom Nyssa felt sympathetic due to his status as the sole member of his kind. The Doctor suggested that he take Nyssa for a holiday after the duplicate killed Stuart Gorey before vanishing, his fate uncertain. (The 57th)
The Doctor took Nyssa to Saturn where they met Hel and Keet in a café. Nyssa went with the couple after The Doctor was deported to Titan and was saddened by the Saturnites’ society, being reminded of her own planet and missing her family. She and the Doctor were eventually reunited and left the planet, with Nyssa remaining unaware of why Hel and Keet would accept never meeting their son per the Saturnite customs. (Saturn)
Nyssa and the Doctor met a tribe of gypsies in 12th century Lebanon and learnt of a superstition stating that the dead appeared in the church to those responsible for their deaths. Nyssa and Ioanna sneaked into the church, where Nyssa saw an apparition of her father. She and the Doctor escaped from the church after the villagers and gypsies set it alight with them inside, believing that they were to blame for the manifestations. (The Church of Saint Sebastian)
For a holiday, The Doctor took Nyssa to Stockbridge where she began writing a novel about Traken. She shared her first kiss with Andrew Wittaker, who took her to Traken Village under the belief that that was where she came from. She contemplated living on Earth after finding that she had fallen in love with Andrew, but she realised that she did not like his lack of regard for consequences and departed, leaving him her completed novel. (Autumn)
For a short while, Nyssa undertook a solo expedition to 13th century Rhodes whilst The Doctor visited Stockbridge in the 20th century. During that time, she communicated with The Doctor across time and space through a pocket interocitor. Due to the Daleks’ manipulation of time and space, she and a knight called Mulberry were transported to the middle of the American Civil War. Following her rescue by The Doctor, (Renaissance of the Daleks) the pair visited Vortis where they helped the Menoptera against the Zarbi. (Return to the Web Planet)
WITH BREWSTER
During a power cut in the TARDIS caused by temporal phenomena, Nyssa was sent to 1867 London by a Death Wraith but was soon reunited with The Doctor, who had arrived in the TARDIS twelve months earlier. She was kidnapped from 107 Baker Street by Thomas Brewster, who stole the TARDIS key that The Doctor had given her and left in the ship, leaving Nyssa and the Doctor stranded until they were able to find a version of the TARDIS from an alternative timeline created by the Wraith. After averting said timeline and removing Brewster’s psychic link, Brewster stole the TARDIS a second time. (The Haunting of Thomas Brewster)
Nyssa and the Doctor were stranded on Earth for five months before they tried to use Block Transfer Computation to bring back the TARDIS, an attempt which transported Nyssa to the City of Excellence where she encountered an aged Adric. She rebuffed him, denying having loved him and refusing to become his bride, but Adric ended up joining her and the Doctor and ended his plans for revenge. Returned to 1868, Nyssa mourned Adric when he died once more and returned to the TARDIS after he helped Brewster pilot it back to them. (The Boy That Time Forgot)
Although Nyssa initially believed that she and the Doctor had merely got themselves lost in the TARDIS, they learnt that Brewster had sold some of the ship’s parts, including the conceptual geometer. The Doctor traced the parts to a time reef where Nyssa and Brewster saved a Rukh and the removed instruments were recovered from Commander Gammades, allowing them to restore the TARDIS. (Time Reef)
Per Brewster’s request, The Doctor piloted the TARDIS to 2008. Nyssa believed that Brewster might have changed time to bring about a utopia, a suggestion that The Doctor gave no credit as he could not believe that any alteration to the timeline could bring about such universally benign effects. When they learnt that reality had been altered by Phil and Trev, Nyssa asked them if they could put things right, after which she was surprised by Brewster’s decision to remain in 2008 with Connie Winter. (A Perfect World)
CONTINUED ADVENTURES ALONE
Nyssa and the Doctor went to Stockbridge to celebrate Christmas, choosing to go to 1899 so as to avoid bumping into Andrew. After watching a play about The Doctor, the pair went to 1199 and encountered the Rutans, who attempted to absorb Nyssa’s knowledge and for whom she supplied unlimited energy knowing that it would prove to be their undoing. They returned to 1899 and boarded a Rutan ship to end its influence over Osbert’s descendants, initially unaware that the ship was in poor condition and about to explode. (Castle of Fear)
Awakening in a time bubble created by the ship’s explosion, Nyssa met a possible future version of herself known as the Lady of the Manor. She and the Doctor stopped the bubble from expanding to include the whole of Earth, preventing them from becoming the Lord and Lady, but they were unable to escape from the bubble in time as it exploded. (The Eternal Summer)
Nyssa and the Doctor found themselves in 45th century Stockbridge where she, Lysette Barclay and Rinxo Jabbery were taken captive by The Daleks. The two travellers attempted to save Lysette as Stockbridge was destroyed, but to no avail. Following Stockbridge’s destruction, Nyssa attempted to comfort The Doctor and suggested that they go off to happier times and places. (Plague of the Daleks)
Upon receiving a distress call, Nyssa and the Doctor arrived on the SS Hermes and met Ailsa and the ship’s crew, learning of their ancestors’ arrival in the Ardelban system a hundred years previously. (Curiosity)
Nyssa and the Doctor attended a Christmas party in 1539 at which they were taken prisoner by Norfolk due to Henry VIII’s attraction to Nyssa rather than Katherine Howard. The two women became friends and ladies-in-waiting until The Doctor got Nyssa back to the TARDIS, after which they travelled forward in time to ensure that Henry fell in love with Katherine and that he would marry her after Anne of Cleves. (God Send Me Well to Keep)
Helping The Doctor locate all copies of Ronnie D. Clinton’s Listen To The Beat on Royal Hospital Street but unaware of why, Nyssa met Alan Collins. The two managed to get him to swap his copy for The Doctor’s copy of Ain’t Got No Home To Go To, one that Nyssa knew that The Doctor would miss, and she finally learnt that they had been hunting the vinyl down due to them containing a hypnotic track by The Master. (Tweaker)
In 1665, Nyssa and the Doctor arrived in Red Lodge and were attacked by the Speera who took their forms and attempted to absorb them. Nyssa was able to trick the Speera into adopting The Doctor’s form, resulting in fatal anomalies which killed them due to their belief that The Doctor was a human and had only one heart. The two travellers then remained in Red Lodge, as the Speera attempt to replicate her had brought the subject of Traken to the forefront of her mind for the first time in a long while and she wished to watch the sunrise. (The Demons of Red Lodge)
To try to cheer Nyssa up, The Doctor took her to the Concordum to hear Traken music and thwarted the Time Siren Erisi after travelling to 1968 and learning that she had planned to use Ge off Cooper’s “White Waves, soft Haze” to feast on entropy. (The Entropy Composition)
When The Doctor was arrested and imprisoned on Folly, Nyssa attempted to get herself arrested as well in order to join him but was unsuccessful. She got a job as a lab assistant at Folly’s university hospital with Nathan Dask’s help and was eventually imprisoned by Noreen Chaplin due to a conversation that Nyssa had with Janson Hart. (Doing Time)
Nyssa posed as a European actress under the name “Nyssa Traken” and appeared in The Devil’s Whisper, a section of Doctor Demonic’s Tales of Terror, as a character named Felicity. (Special Features)
Nyssa and the Doctor visited the Miaxa’s prison, first encountering his Prisoner aspect and attempting to free him from his Warden aspect. Nyssa was captured by the Warden and forced to wear a compliance collar until The Doctor told both aspects the truth of their existence, after which she and the Doctor departed. (My Brother’s Keeper)
In 1892 Norwood, Nyssa was infected with the Interplanetarian. She was saved by The Doctor, who used an ancient language including the word “Tremas” to defeat it. (The Interplanetarian)
On Fabula where tales were currency, Nyssa and the Doctor found themselves in a tavern where they had to tell stories. (Smuggling Tales)
A sultan forced Nyssa to tell him stories of her adventures, leading her to tell him about her visits to the Miaxa’s prison, Norwood and Fabula. She and the Doctor eventually learnt that he was trying to steal The Doctor’s identity and steal the TARDIS, but The Doctor’s memories made him break down. (1001 Nights)
Nyssa was taken by The Doctor to 1963 to see the Beatles and the two became aware of Lenny Kruger’s changes to the timeline, using the Common Men to gain power. By means of a blood test on Korky Goldsmith, she learnt that the Common Men were non-humans from Byulna and helped to defeat Lenny, restoring the timeline. (1963: Fanfare for the Common Men)
On 23 Novemberof the same year, Nyssa and the Doctor visited Bob Dovie’s house, pretending to be police officers. There, Nyssa found Bob’s parents corpses shrunk by the Decayed Master inside of a dollhouse. (The Light at the End)
Nyssa and the Doctor landed on Traxana’s moon, where Nyssa was kidnapped by the Cell-Spiders. She met Theebe and learnt that the spiders had been made by The Daleks for their war against the Movellans. Nyssa and the Doctor were both captured by The Daleks (Alien Heart) and taken to Mojox, but they quickly managed to escape. Unbeknownst to her The Daleks created a duplicate of her. (Dalek Soul) They later visited Snittlegarth in 1357. (The Second Oldest Question)
WITH HANNAH
Visiting the hunting grounds of Nathaniel Whitlock in 1911 Suffolk, Nyssa and the Doctor met Hannah Bartholemew and became aware of the presence of Vartas on the planet. Nyssa stood guard whilst The Doctor and Silver Crow entered the Ghost Dance to trap Vaatus once again and later departed with him in the TARDIS, (Moonflesh) unaware that Hannah had stowed away on board.
The TARDIS landed on an Arrit tomb ship where Nyssa, The Doctor and Hannah defeated the Arrit-Ko. Although The Doctor set the coordinates to return Hannah home following the adventure, he said that that would most likely be the last place that the TARDIS would land. Thus, Hannah was accepted as a companion. (Tomb Ship)
On SORDIDE Delta, Nyssa was trapped in a virtual reality where The Doctor was her guardian and Hannah was her 18th century tutor. Hannah was able to save both Nyssa and the Doctor but lost all of her emotions in the process, prompting her to leave the TARDIS and remain on the space station to help the survivors. (Masquerade)
WITH TEGAN
In the Arc of Infinity, after listing off all the things that The Doctor had to repair in the TARDIS, Nyssa witnessed Omega link himself to The Doctor’s biology and later stood up to the High Council on Gallifrey in an attempt to save her companion’s life, holding Borusa at gunpoint. She and the Doctor escaped Gallifrey and travelled to 1983 Amsterdam where they were reunited with Tegan, who helped them stop Omega from returning and rejoined them aboard the TARDIS. Nyssa told her that she had missed her and that it was wonderful to have her back. (Arc of Infinity)
Nyssa, The Doctor and Tegan remained in Amsterdam and went to the Rijksmuseum where they discovered that Rembrandt had drawn functional spacecraft. This led to the team learning of and defeating the Nix, in the course of which Nyssa met Rembrandt and spoke to him of his wife’s death, understanding how it felt to lose a loved one. (The Waters of Amsterdam) After Nyssa and Tegan spent some time together holidaying in Amsterdam, The Doctor returned for them. (The Elite)
According to one account, the reunited crew first went to Akoshemon’s moon after the Dark used its influence on Nyssa and left her concussed. She had a heart attack caused by the Dark but was revived by The Doctor, who hypnotised her in order to make use of the connection between the two of them. She later vomited out the Dark as it became corporeal and helped to defeat it before leaving the moon, mourning Captain Lawrence, Jyl Stoker and everybody else that died. (Fear of the Dark)
According to another account, the three travellers first went to Florana as the Doctor knew that Nyssa was taken with the tulips of Amsterdam and would like the scenery. They instead landed in its early history as a barren planet, where Nyssa was brainwashed by Educator Stemp into serving the High Priest as a recruit for the Elite. The Doctor eventually reversed the conditioning and she was returned to normal, leaving Florana after Thane killed the High Priest. (The Elite)
Nyssa thought about leaving The Doctor after Florana, but realised that the fate of the universe outweighed what had happened on that one planet. (The Children of Seth)
To recover after their experiences on Florana, the trio spent several days relaxing near Brisbane before Nyssa insisted that The Doctor help Tegan investigate the disappearance of Mike Bretherton. Their search took them to Luparis, where Nyssa agreed to help Lord Jezzavar with his coup in order to gain access to the Hexagoran palace after initially refusing his suggestion that she should be installed as queen. (Hexagora)
Whilst Nyssa was conducting an experiment in the TARDIS, the ship was directed to the Archipelago of Sirius by a message picked up on the scanner. There, Nyssa was arrested and sent to Level 14 with her mind wiped, briefly believing that she was the Doctor. She was eventually able to remember enough about herself to plan a successful escape from Level 14 and a reunion with The Doctor and Tegan. (The Children of Seth)
Nyssa remained in the TARDIS whilst The Doctor and Tegan explored Aronassus 49, but did meet Threll when her companions brought him to the ship. (Danger Down Below)
During a thunderstorm on an alien planet, Nyssa and Tegan were abducted by pirates who were attempting to steal the North Tribes treasures. The pair were rescued by The Doctor, as were several tribespeople who had also been captured. (The God Machine)
Nyssa and Tegan were in the TARDIS when it was attacked by Voorvolika, who learnt the three travellers’ names from Nyssa. (The Armageddon Chrysalis)
On Planet 453 in 2330, Nyssa, The Doctor and Tegan realised that Carnak was taking control of bodies in cold storage and were locked away by him and his minions. Nyssa and Tegan returned to the TARDIS pushing a trolley on which lay The Doctor, who used his telepathic abilities to thwart Carnak. (The Haven)
Nyssa and Tegan were inside the TARDIS when The Doctor suffered from nightmares due to Ponassan germs. (The Penalty)
At Heathrow Airport in 1982, Nyssa, The Doctor and Tegan encountered The Master and saved a plane of people from being sent through a portal by him. (Night Flight to Nowhere)
The TARDIS team encountered dinosaurs and a number of other creatures in the Sahara Desert, (Great Snakes!) the TARDIS, (Crocs!, ‘Gators, Caimans and Gavials, The Great Irish Elk, Horses Through the Ages) Siberia, (Woolly Mammoth) Kenya, (Elephant Hunt, Face to Face with Early Man, On Safari, Elephant Dance) Los Angeles during the Ice Age, (Sabre-toothed Tiger, The Great Irish Elk) Loch Ness (The Loch Ness Monster) and Dorset, where they witnessed Mary Anning’s discovery of the Ichthyosaurus. (Amazing Fossil Fish)
During another argument between The Doctor and Tegan over the impossibility of saving Adric, Nyssa interrupted to ask where they were. They went on to find that they were on the Hardy Station and saved the universe from being destroyed by a cyclotron. (Lackaday Express)
Sadan Rassul and his men kidnapped Nyssa at the British Museum in 1896 and sent her back in time 4000 years using a lodestone. Rassul placed her in a coma to become the host for Nephthys, but The Doctor saved her and defeated Nephthys by employing the help of Ann Cranleigh to confuse the goddess. (The Sands of Time)
When The Doctor suffered from visions and worried that his mind was destroying itself, Nyssa and Tegan looked for help on Morestra and found themselves frustrated by the sexism they experienced from the Morestran Orthodox. Nyssa infiltrated the Sorenson Academy in search of information on the Zeta Project but was found out by the dean, whose advances she spurned, and sent to Zeta Major as a lab specimen. She was experimented on with anti-matter crystals and succumbed to the contamination before being saved by the inhabitants of the anti-matter universe. (Zeta Major)
Nyssa, The Doctor and Tegan visited the Necropolitan to remember Adric, placing a small metal star in an alcove, and heard of the murderof a funeral director. Nyssa spoke to Verin about it and helped her companions solve the murder, after which they were thanked by the Most Honourable Solemn One. (Wake)
In 493 Ravenna, Nyssa met Flavius Theodoric and introduced Tegan to him as “High Queen of Brisbane”. She, The Doctor and Tegan were accused by Princess Ariadne of stealing the Crown of Byzantium, but it was eventually revealed that Prince Leo had stolen it. (Goths and Robbers)
As they were not human, neither Nyssa nor The Doctor were as affected by the psychic phenomena that caused Anna to appear to them as Tegan. They went looking for Tegan and found her just after she had escaped from the apparition of Anna. (Soul Mate)
On F-four, Nyssa and the Doctor carried out biological tests, causing Tegan to feel left out. Nyssa’s work was invaluable to the colonists and she promised them that she would tell their story to anybody who would listen. (No Exit)
Both Nyssa and Tegan were chased by Endovorms disguised as stone lions in Trafalgar Square in 1843. (The Lions of Trafalgar)
Nyssa found herself a part of the King of the Dead in 1982 and spoke with Patrick about how she had managed to forgive The Master for killing her father and how he should follow suit. (The King of the Dead)
In Mistpuddle, Nyssa and Tegan solved a series of murders committed by Pricklethorp and learnt that the talking animals that inhabited the village were engineered by Lindsay Wood. (The Mistpuddle Murders)
WITH TEGAN AND MARC
The Doctor, wanting to meet Cicero, took Nyssa and Tegan to 63 BC Cumae where they dressed in togas and pretended to be The Doctor’s sisters; Claudia and Claudia. Whilst there, Nyssa came to believe that The Doctor was still struggling to come to terms with Adric’s death, having originally interpreted his silence on the matter as him being cold-hearted. She and her companions were put through a series of tests by Tartarus, in the course of which she lured a bull into a pit, and she later invited Marc to join them in the TARDIS, an offer that he accepted. (Tartarus)
Nyssa visited Marc in his bedroom and was concerned by how difficult he found it to adjust to being a freedman. After the TARDIS landed on Proxima in the 30th century, she and Tegan found themselves in a separate time zone to The Doctor and Marc due to interstitial time, but were able to help their companions and Christopher Jennings defeat Kalu. (Interstitial)
In 19th century Ireland, the Spae Wife took control of Nyssa’s mind in an attempt to gain control of the TARDIS. To free her from the Spae Wife’s control, The Doctor attempted to remind her of Traken and Marc reminded herof their previous adventures together, but it was Tegan telling her how she would be affected by the loss of her best friend that restored her. She apologised to Tegan for her actions, but she told her that she understood due to her own experience with the Mara. (Feast of Fear)
Nyssa, The Doctor, Tegan and Marc found themselves drafted into the race on Samotis, during which Nyssa ran alongside Morris, whom she assisted and befriended. When Marc became partially cyber-converted, Nyssa and Morris put an end to the race by tying up the Commentator and disabling the course’s fail-safes, forcing the system to shut everything down. (Warzone)
Nyssa cared for Marc in the TARDIS and was, with The Doctor, able to hack the mainframe and reverse all mental programming, restoring each Cyberman’s memories and restoring Marc’s. Afterwards, the upset Doctor left his companions on Callanna with a great deal of money, an action that Nyssa could not understand as she could not see how it helped anybody. (Conversion)
Unlike Tegan, Nyssa enjoyed the tranquillity of Callanna and was not concerned about the planet’s relaxing effects. She, Tegan and Marc worked with Steppa Westma Cotter-Thatch Slitheen to stop Bella and Grumma, after which The Doctor returned for them, telling them that they needed to talk. Nyssa was somewhat upset, believing that the three of them could have been happy living on Callanna. (Madquake)
The Doctor attempted to take Nyssa, Tegan and Marc to Gallifrey to have a talk mediated by a Time Lord, but they instead arrived at Welkin Sanatorium on Soresia where they saw an apparition of Adric. Once the ghostly phenomena was ended, Nyssa reminded The Doctor that they still needed to talk but, instead of going to Gallifrey, he apologised to the three of them for avoiding them and his emotions concerning Adric’s death and Marc’s conversion. (The Lost Resort)
The TARDIS arrived on RMS Oceanic, aboard which Nyssa found that she suffered from seasickness and explained that there were no seas on Traken. She was, however, cured when The Doctor gave her tablets of his own making, and she was able to assist in ensuring that Nellie Bly completed her journey. (The Perils of Nellie Bly)
AFTER MARC
Nyssa, The Doctor and Tegan intended to visit Prague but arrived several hundred kilometres below the city. They were given a tourof the Svarozhich Project by Dr Jane Flora and found the corpses of project workers, finding that Szlth’TOK had killed them to avenge his people inadvertently killed by the project. After returning to the TARDIS, The Doctor tried to teach Nyssa and Tegan to read the star charts and asked that one of them read out coordinates for their next destination. (Men of the Earth)
Using a reference book, Nyssa found that Tegan had given them the coordinates for Manussa and later asked The Doctor if it was really necessary to hypnotise her. They learnt that Tegan was being influenced by the Mara and went in search of the scenes of her dream, in the course of which Nyssa lost Tegan in a marketplace and was unable to find her. Nyssa stole Ambril’s key to free The Doctor after he was imprisoned and fell victim to the Mara’s power before The Doctor defeated it. (Snakedance)
In 1993 Tasmania, Nyssa was bitten by the Child – beginning her transformation into a vampire – and found herself unable to tell The Doctor and Tegan what had happened to her, even after finding that sunlight hurt her and realising that she was craving blood, for which she attempted to synthesise a substitute. She attacked Tegan but was able to stop herself at the last moment from feeding on her and fled, eventually being returned to normal with the Child’s death. (Goth Opera)
The trio were summoned to Gallifrey by Cardinal Hemal, ostensibly to solve a murder. After Hemal infected Tegan with his bite and took The Doctor’s TARDIS, Nyssa altered the coordinates so that he would arrive in London at ten o’clock in the morning, exposing him to sunlight which destroyed him, freeing Tegan. (Blood Invocation)
Nyssa was infected by a plant that she was inspecting on HMS Aquitaine and was subsequently taken to the medical bay by Hargreaves. Shortly afterwards, she met Dr Sergei Akunin who sedated and restrained her before she was able to escape using her newfound strength gained thanks to her transformation. She asked Hargreaves to amputate her arm but was ultimately saved when The Doctor, Tegan and Hargreaves aborted the timeline. (Aquitaine)
The TARDIS landed in 1819 Manchester where Nyssa joined Cathy Roberts in attending the protest which ended with the Peterloo Massacre, during which she witnessed the death of Cathy’s son, Peter. Nyssa, upset and angry, blamed Mr Hurley for Peter’s death. (The Peterloo Massacre)
WITH TEGAN AND TURLOUGH
After the TARDIS encountered interference from a transmat capsule aboard a spacecraft, Nyssa and Tegan found Mawdryn’s burnt body and assumed that it was the Doctor going through another regeneration. They soon realised that this was not the case and were infected by Mawdryn’s disease, making it impossible for them to travel through the Time Vortex without rapidly ageing or de-ageing and forcing The Doctor to help Mawdryn. Whilst The Doctor was prepared to give up his remaining lives to save Nyssa and Tegan, they were restored by the Blinovitch Limitation Effect caused by Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart.
Vislor Turlough joined the TARDIS crew on their travels, something that Nyssa and Tegan were both unsure about. (Mawdryn Undead) In the Gardens of the Dead, Nyssa told Turlough, whom she decided to give a chance, how her father had been taken over and killed by The Master. She learnt that Turlough was working for the Black Guardian but, after hitting her head, she forgot about this. (Gardens of the Dead)
Nyssa, The Doctor, Tegan and Turlough met Opiuchus in the Cloisters of the Capitol. She and Tegan convinced The Doctor to save Opiuchus rather than letting him die, saying that he was not a monster like The Master was. After Ophiuchus regenerated into a woman, The Doctor explained Time Lord gender to Nyssa. (Ophiuchus)
DEPARTURE
Nyssa was trapped in her room when the destabilised TARDIS attached itself to Terminus and she was forced to pass through onto the space station to survive. The Doctor found her and the two explored the station, with Nyssa contracting Lazar’s disease and eventually being left by the Vanir for the Garm, who successfully cured her.
Appalled by the treatment of those who suffered from Lazar’s disease and being aware that she could synthesise, and even improve upon, hydromel, Nyssa chose to stay aboard Terminus in order to help the Garm and the Vanir cure the disease and make the station a proper hospital independent of Terminus Inc. She gave The Doctor a kiss on the cheek as she said farewell, telling him that she was adamant that she would stay, and told Tegan that she would not die easily as, like Tegan, she was indestructible. (Terminus)
LIFE AFTER LEAVING
Nyssa worked tirelessly to cure Lazar’s Disease and to create a vaccine against it, one which she helped to distribute. In the course of doing so, she travelled from laboratories to makeshift clinics to election meetings and had a number of lovers, after which she proceeded to leave Terminus in search of other challenges. Venturing out into the galaxy, she embarked on microbiological research to defeat a deadly fungus, diplomacy to avert a war and fundraising for medical supplies following a flood. (Asylum)
Some time after leaving The Doctor, Nyssa was transported to the Death Zone where she met Ian Chesterton, Steven Taylor, Sara Kingdom and Polly Jackson and was reunited with the Fifth Doctor, who had already travelled with herolder self in his personal timeline. (The Five Companions)
Following the destruction of Exanos, Nyssa decided to find a place free from war and became a technography lecturer at a university. There, she was reunited with the Fourth Doctor, who had not yet met her, and joined him in an adventure in the 12th century, in the course of which she fought back against a killer and realised that she needed to once again choose to enjoy her life. The Doctor returned her in the TARDIS, promising that he would pretend not to recognise her. (Asylum)
During the Time War, Nyssa operated a hospital ship known as the Traken and assisted planets that became caught up in the war. She met a man who called himself Dr Foster and became her assistant, although she came to suspect him of being a Time Lord saboteur. In truth, the saboteur was Dr Isherwood. Dr Foster departed after giving Nyssa a kiss on the cheek, reminding herof how she had said goodbye to The Doctoron Terminus. (A Heart on Both Sides)
Aboard the Varnomium, Nyssa attempted to cure the plague threatening the Stagnant Protocol and was joined by the War Master, whose identity she realised only after helping him develop a deadlier strain. The Master left her trapped aboard the quarantined ship with no apparent way of escaping. (The Orphan)
Nyssa married Lasarti and had two children: Neeka (Winter) and Adric, whom she told stories of her travels in the TARDIS. (Prisoners of Fate) She was reunited with the Fifth Doctor once more when she assisted with his regeneration into his next incarnation. (Winter)
Nyssa set about attempting to find a cure for Richter’s Syndrome. She had an android called Loki whose hard drive she once had to erase after it was corrupted by his fear of his own shadow. (Cobwebs)
LATER ADVENTURES IN THE TARDIS
REUNION WITH THE DOCTOR, TEGAN AND TURLOUGH
Nyssa was visibly older when she rejoined the TARDIS crew. (Heroes of Sontar)
In 3530, after losing contact with the Helheim facility attempting to cure Richter’s Syndrome, Nyssa travelled to the planet with her android Loki. She was reunited with The Doctor, Tegan and Turlough, whom she had not seen in fifty years, and joined them on the condition that they take her home so that she could dispense the cure. She accepted, however, that that might take some time and went to find herold bedroom. (Cobwebs) She had to keep from The Doctor her knowledge of his regeneration into his sixth body. (Heroes of Sontar)
Following the trail of Richter’s Syndrome, the TARDIS landed on Chodor in the 28th century. Nyssa and Turlough were split up from The Doctor and Tegan and fled from Mertil, getting lost in the forest and having to fight against the current of the river. (The Whispering Forest)
The TARDIS returned to Manussa, this time during the reign of the Manussan Empire, after Tegan confided in Nyssa that she had the mark of the Mara on her arm. (The Cradle of the Snake)
Nyssa encountered the Sontarans again on Samur, but did not remember previously meeting them in the Death Zone. (Heroes of Sontar)
Nyssa helped defeat the Trion Rennol, his mercenaries and the Morass on Vektris. (Kiss of Death)
Nyssa helped defeat a Rat King on 1982 Earth which attempted to exploit Nyssa’s anger for The Master. She was tempted to help the rats create a non-lethal plague in return for help with curing Richter’s Syndrome. (Rat Trap)
Further adventures took Nyssa to the comet Eight slash Q Panenka, (The Jupiter Conjunction) a monkey house in a zoo (The Monkey House) and 51st century Earth where she and Turlough spent a year training in Reykjavik and helped defeat Magnus Greel. (The Butcherof Brisbane)
She also helped defeat Eldrad (Eldrad Must Die) and had an adventure in Mercia. (The Lady of Mercia)
During an adventure in India on 31 December 1926, Nyssa was rejuvenated and had her youth restored, making her look physically similar to how she had during heroriginal adventures in the TARDIS. (The Emerald Tiger)
This meant that Adric, whom they came across on Valderon, believed that she was a past version of his mother. Nyssa learnt that twenty-five years had passed since her mission to Helheim and that she was presumed dead, whilst Lasarti was dead and Neeka was in suspended animation after being infected with Richter’s Syndrome. She and Adric managed to develop a cure and planned to meet in one month’s time to cure Neeka, but Adric never saw her again. (Prisoners of Fate)
E-SPACE AND DEPARTURE
Shortly after leaving Valderon, the TARDIS was diverted into E-Space when it passed too close to a Charged Vacuum Emboitment. Whilst searching for a way out, the TARDIS landed on Alzarius where Nyssa and Turlough were almost killed by Alzarian spiders. (Mistfall) They then visited the ice world of Isenfel where she was interested in why the society wanted to be in equilibrium. (Equilibrium)
The TARDIS crashed on Apollyon where Nyssa began dying due to entropy. She also had the rejuvenation that she experienced in India removed due to making contact with the Sandmen, returning her to herolder appearance. She chose to remain in E-Space in order to power a portal back to N-Space for her friends to use to return home. (The Entropy Plague)
LATER LIFE
Nyssa lived for at least another decade, spending a number of years treating the sick and teaching others how to do the same before retiring to tend a garden, much as she had on Traken in her youth. Despite The Doctor’s concerns about entropy, Nyssa saw a new star emerge in the sky, hinting that there was still new life in E-Space. (The Entropy Plague)
According to one account, Nyssa eventually came to live in 21st century Australia with Tegan. The pair attended Sarah Jane Smith’s memorial one spring day where they mingled with other companions and friends of the Doctor’s, as well as assisting them in fighting the Jackals of the Backwards Clock to foil the Trickster. Clyde Langer described them as being a couple. (Farewell, Sarah Jane)
UNDATED EVENTS
At some point, an image of Nyssa was obtained by UNIT and kept in the Black Archive as a record of her having been a companion of the Doctor. (The Day of the Doctor)
ALTERNATIVE TIMELINES
At some point, while she was travelling alone with the Fifth Doctor, they visited Bob Dovie at 59A Barnsfield Crescent in Totton, Hampshire on 23 November 1963. There, she and the Fifth Doctor discovered Bob’s odd behaviour, including him talking on a phone that was disconnected from the wall. After finding Bob’s family killed by The Master using a Tissue Compression Eliminator, Nyssa and the Doctor took Bob into the TARDIS causing The Master’s conceptual bomb to explode. This timeline was eventually erased when The Doctors’ other selves were able to render the conceptual bomb useless. (The Light at the End)
PERSONALITY
Nyssa was pleasant, friendly (Doctor Who and the Keeper of Traken) and selfless, with Tegan remarking that she was “too good for this world” (Aquitaine) and the Fifth Doctor describing her as “terribly nice”. (Alien Heart) Her gentle and trusting nature meant that she was not adept at detecting deception, (Mawdryn Undead) but she was skilled at negotiating an effective balance between strong personalities. (Earthshock, The Game) Tegan noted that Nyssa preferred to “care and share.” (Goth Opera)
Despite her gentleness, Nyssa was willing to use and threaten violence where necessary, destroying on separate occasions a Terileptil android (The Visitation) and a CyberNeomorph (Earthshock) in addition to threatening to shoot Time Lord guards. (Arc of Infinity) She was driven to rage after the death of Cathy Roberts’s son in the Peterloo Massacre (The Peterloo Massacre) and initially wanted to kill The Master for the murderof her father, although she managed to forgive him. (The King of the Dead) She also argued on occasion with The Doctor, such as when he broke her trust on Valderon. (Prisoners of Fate)
She considered Tegan to be her best friend (The Emerald Tiger) and Tegan held her in the same esteem. (The Waters of Amsterdam) However, she also “never quite understood” why so many of the Doctor’s friends were human. (The Boy That Time Forgot)
Nyssa generally did not use a surname, referring to herself only as Nyssa. (Castrovalva, Four to Doomsday, etc.) The Doctor introduced her to the Time Lords as “Nyssa of Traken”, (Arc of Infinity) a name that she sometimes used herself. (Spare Parts, etc.) Whilst posing as a human actress, she used the name “Nyssa Traken”. (Special Features)
APPEARANCE
Nyssa was a slender (Doctor Who and the Keeper of Traken) and beautiful (Creatures of Beauty) girl with brown curls, a pale face, serious, round eyes (Logopolis) and fine features. (Kinda) She had an unearthly quality of remoteness and aristocracy (Castrovalva) but she had a hardness in her face that bespoke experience. (The Parliament of Rats)
During herearliest travels in the TARDIS, she wore a flowing, gauzy dress (Doctor Who and the Keeper of Traken) but later started to wear a plum-coloured velvet trouser-suit with elaborately puffed sleeves. (Four to Doomsday, Earthshock) She eventually stopped wearing Traken clothes, wearing a blouse with a striped skirt and knee-length shorts on Manussa (Snakedance) and a blue mini-dress until her departure on Terminus. (Terminus) Following Adric’s death, she took to wearing a bracelet of Trakenite gold. (Goth Opera)
Tegan believed that Nyssa looked very good for her age when she was about seventy, something that Nyssa credited her Traken heritage for. (Cobwebs) In India, she was rejuvenated and looked as she did during her first stint in the TARDIS. (The Emerald Tiger)
BEHIND THE SCENES
Nyssa was originally meant to have appeared only in The Keeper of Traken as a supporting character. She was, therefore, the sole creation of writer Johnny Byrne, to whom royalties had to be paid when the character was used. Like the Brigadier and K9, she is a rare example of a series regular to whom the BBC does not enjoy sole copyright.
Peter Davison was known to have preferred Nyssa over any of his other companions. He intervened on several occasions when John Nathan-Turner attempted to write the characterout of the series.
Perhaps in deference to Davison’s affection for Nyssa and in part because of Janet Fielding’s long reluctance to appear in audio dramas, Big Finish Productions greatly expanded Nyssa’s role. They built a network of stories in the televised gap between Tegan’s departure in Time-Flight and her return in Arc of Infinity which was very much greater than it had appeared on television. Starting with The Land of the Dead, the Fifth Doctor began a long series of audio adventures with Nyssa as his sole companion. Consequently, Nyssa is one of the most frequently appearing companions in the history of performed Doctor Who stories.
Like the Fifth Doctor, Adric and Tegan, Nyssa was given a “costume” rather than a basic “look” by producer John Nathan-Turner. Nyssa’s original costume narratively originated on Traken. It suggested her highborn status. It consisted of a maroon velvet jacket, a diaphanous, iridescent skirt and multi-pastel, high-heeled shoes. It was accessorised with an ornamental hair comb and a woolly purse. This look persisted through the end of part two of Castrovalva. However, long before this episode was filmed, it was determined the actor needed more practical clothing for the physical demands of her now-co-starring role. She exchanged her skirt for a pairof maroon trousers, lost the purse and began wearing lower-heeled shoes. According to production notes on the DVD release of the preceding story, Logopolis, the second iteration of Nyssa’s “royal Traken” look was inspired by a rehearsal in which actress Sarah Sutton wore Nyssa’s top, but her own corduroy trousers. She also lost her hair comb. She completely abandoned the “royal Traken” look in Snakedance and changed her look every story thereafter until her departure in Terminus. Famously, her costume for her final story was mostly just the slip she had been wearing under her Mawdryn Undead dress.
Images of the older version of Nyssa on cover images for the audio arc in which she rejoined the TARDIS crew were based on contemporary photos of Sarah Sutton.
Discounting the ambiguous status of various UNIT personnel, Nyssa is the first companion to be introduced in one story and established as a companion in another.
She is the first companion to kiss The Doctoron-screen.
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