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scripsiI have been thinking a lot about Nyssa lately. I started out writing Sweet Nyssa more for the smut, but it is growing more serious, I find and it has also spilled over to two more fics that tackles Nyssa in another ways. She is one of my favourite companions, I Always like the brainy ones, and also one that is seriously underused. I was delighted with her character in The Keeper of Traken, Logopolis and Castrovalva, but then her storyline was basically destroyed.
She starts out being quietly smart and resourceful and she is also the character in Old Who who has the most traumatic experiences ever. The Master doesn’t just kill her father, he steals his body. And if you ever doubted that the Master is evil, in these three episodes he really proves it. First he manages to not be affected by the goodness of Traken in the slightest, kills off not only Nyssa’s father, but her step-mother as well, a woman that Nyssa clearly loves. Then he manipulates Nyssa and forces her to do his bidding and he does it in such a gleeful manner that you really get that he just loves doing it. And tops it all of with destroying Traken completely and killing the Doctor.
Up until New Who no one suffers a loss like Nyssa's. New Who is basically built upon the Doctor’s trauma of losing his whole world, with the added bonus of being the destroyer, but Nyssa’s loss is just forgotten. When she first turned up I thought we would be getting a nice story arc where she somehow would come to term with the things that happened to her, but we never get there. The next time we see the Master is in the pretty abysmal Time Flight instead.
I blame the writer’s and how the producers used the companions in the early 80’s. I think both Anthony Ainley and Sarah Sutton were aware of the tension between them and they have a nice chemistry, but it is never really used! So frustrating! I would have loved an episode where Nyssa would get the upper hand over the Master and get some kind of closure. She must have rather complicated feelings for him, after all. He has destroyed her whole world but he is also living in her father’s body and clearly has Tremas memories. This means that the Master is the only other being that actually remembers Traken. It must be terribly lonesome to have lost your whole world and then add that the only person who actually know Nyssa through her whole life and know her culture, is the one person she least would want to talk with. And that is never, ever addressed in Doctor Who!
There were so many possibilities with Nyssa’s storyline that never came through, but I feel that for all companions at the period. We have Adric who basically just complains and Tegan who bitch. Actually, Tegan has also had a very traumatic experience with the Master, he has killed her aunt after all, but the writers ignore that and only let her bitch about her missing her flight at Heathrow. She is so plainly there to be pretty and never really gets a personality that develops. For example, she and Nyssa becomes close friends, but we never get to see them bond over things that matter, like losing a beloved relative? Turlough only get interesting in his last episode when he suddenly gets rather dominant and displays some nice leader tendencies. I think he would have played off really well like that against the mild-mannered Five, instead of having to be the coward up till then.
I guess Nyssa’s gentleness is one reason she was underused, I can imagine that it was felt that she was too like Five, but I actually really like their relationship a lot. The Doctor trusts her and I read somewhere that she was David Peterson’s favourite companion and that it was he who insisted on keeping Sarah Sutton on the show longer.
So now I’m finding myself writing three Nyssa-fics at the same time… One that deals with her feelings against the Master, which is currently rather dark, but has no sex in it as opposite to Sweet Nyssa. And one where a shell-shocked Nine turns up on her doorstep just after his regeneration. Because, really, isn’t that were he is most likely to turn up? If my whole world had gone up in smoke I would want to turn to a friend who has been through the same? It is shaping up to be pretty dark as well...
She starts out being quietly smart and resourceful and she is also the character in Old Who who has the most traumatic experiences ever. The Master doesn’t just kill her father, he steals his body. And if you ever doubted that the Master is evil, in these three episodes he really proves it. First he manages to not be affected by the goodness of Traken in the slightest, kills off not only Nyssa’s father, but her step-mother as well, a woman that Nyssa clearly loves. Then he manipulates Nyssa and forces her to do his bidding and he does it in such a gleeful manner that you really get that he just loves doing it. And tops it all of with destroying Traken completely and killing the Doctor.
Up until New Who no one suffers a loss like Nyssa's. New Who is basically built upon the Doctor’s trauma of losing his whole world, with the added bonus of being the destroyer, but Nyssa’s loss is just forgotten. When she first turned up I thought we would be getting a nice story arc where she somehow would come to term with the things that happened to her, but we never get there. The next time we see the Master is in the pretty abysmal Time Flight instead.
I blame the writer’s and how the producers used the companions in the early 80’s. I think both Anthony Ainley and Sarah Sutton were aware of the tension between them and they have a nice chemistry, but it is never really used! So frustrating! I would have loved an episode where Nyssa would get the upper hand over the Master and get some kind of closure. She must have rather complicated feelings for him, after all. He has destroyed her whole world but he is also living in her father’s body and clearly has Tremas memories. This means that the Master is the only other being that actually remembers Traken. It must be terribly lonesome to have lost your whole world and then add that the only person who actually know Nyssa through her whole life and know her culture, is the one person she least would want to talk with. And that is never, ever addressed in Doctor Who!
There were so many possibilities with Nyssa’s storyline that never came through, but I feel that for all companions at the period. We have Adric who basically just complains and Tegan who bitch. Actually, Tegan has also had a very traumatic experience with the Master, he has killed her aunt after all, but the writers ignore that and only let her bitch about her missing her flight at Heathrow. She is so plainly there to be pretty and never really gets a personality that develops. For example, she and Nyssa becomes close friends, but we never get to see them bond over things that matter, like losing a beloved relative? Turlough only get interesting in his last episode when he suddenly gets rather dominant and displays some nice leader tendencies. I think he would have played off really well like that against the mild-mannered Five, instead of having to be the coward up till then.
I guess Nyssa’s gentleness is one reason she was underused, I can imagine that it was felt that she was too like Five, but I actually really like their relationship a lot. The Doctor trusts her and I read somewhere that she was David Peterson’s favourite companion and that it was he who insisted on keeping Sarah Sutton on the show longer.
So now I’m finding myself writing three Nyssa-fics at the same time… One that deals with her feelings against the Master, which is currently rather dark, but has no sex in it as opposite to Sweet Nyssa. And one where a shell-shocked Nine turns up on her doorstep just after his regeneration. Because, really, isn’t that were he is most likely to turn up? If my whole world had gone up in smoke I would want to turn to a friend who has been through the same? It is shaping up to be pretty dark as well...
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Date: 2015-03-09 05:45 pm (UTC)*HUGS*
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Date: 2015-03-09 06:10 pm (UTC)I hope wou'll like them wehn you read them!
*hugs*
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Date: 2015-03-16 08:41 pm (UTC)Classic!Who ftw ;)
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Date: 2015-03-16 09:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-03-27 08:14 pm (UTC)I can't wait to read your Nyssa & Nine story. That sounds amazing.
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Date: 2015-03-27 08:50 pm (UTC)Funnily enough I like Tegan a lot more on re-watch. The first time around I just found her bitchy. But her character also suffer the same as Nyssa's- a total lack of even trying to dig into things that seems blatant. You kind of have to look at her side-ways to see that she is kind and caring and really hate violence. Plus she suffers from having been cast to "be something for the dad's".
But Nyssa is still a favourite. :) And The Keeper of Traken and Logopolis are great stories, I think.
I hope you like it when it's finished then! :)
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Date: 2015-03-27 10:07 pm (UTC)Tegan has such a shit time the first couple of Five's episodes, though. So frustrated and stressed out trying to start the TARDIS on her own! Then she gets her mind taken over by creepy Alice in Wonderland dude from hell! And the Doctor can't even get her home for work! Poor kid. I hope it gets better (I'm mid-"Visitation" at the moment).
But yes--I'm enjoying Five very much, and hoping to get to Six (and some Four) sometime soon. I totally see why people slash Nyssa and Tegan, too, and even the Five/companions makes sense (I'm picky about Doctor/companion usually). Adric...well...I never hated Wesley Crusher but Adric is a bit of a dick sometimes. Not always.
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Date: 2015-03-28 04:07 pm (UTC)No, I don't think she has it easy! She'll get some better episodes, though.
I get Tegan/Nyssa and at any rate they are great friends- Another of those things I would have liked to see evolve a bit more. Have you seen castrovalva? They spenda lot of time alone together, but a lot of them is just Walking around, which is rather tedious. I so wish the writer's had spent some of that time to show how they become friends!
For me five is probably the Doctor I have the easiset to see paired with a companion. Perhaps because he is such sweetie? Usually I don't ship the Old Who's Doctors with anyone in particular, except the Master. It's muct be my contrary streak showing, because I have, obviously, no problem at all shipping the Master with a variety of companions, when most fics about him seems to be slash. :)
I must confess to disliking Adric the most of all companions. I guess he was supposed to be an approchable viewer substitute to contrast with Romana, but I think they did the job of doing him like a real teenager a bit too well.
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Date: 2015-03-28 11:09 pm (UTC)This! Hah. I have several very dear younger brothers who have recently been teenagers, and...yes. Heh.
I did see Castrovalva! I really loved all the stuff with Tegan and Nyssa cooperating to schlep Five around in his Zero Cabinet. That was hilarious on one level, and pretty great to see them working together on the other hand. But of course there could always be more development. In the one I'm on now, Tegan thinks she's going back to Heathrow (does she ever make it back???) and gives Nyssa a huge hug, which was pretty sweet.
(I also love how Nyssa is this pretty fluffy gentle princess...but also bloody brilliant in a science way. None of this "you can only be pretty OR smart!" going on. That was nice for once.)
I ship Three with everyone, possibly because I'd climb the man like a tree myself, but I often feel like Doctor/companion het is a bit like reading other people's personal feelings about the Doctor, which seems a bit vicariously embarrassing. Or maybe it's just that I have to care about both the Doctor and the companion to want to ship them? (Like, Nine/Rose or Nine/Rose/Jack worked for me, but because I wasn't into Ten as much, Ten/Rose didn't really. This may be why I ship a lot of cross-era stuff like Eight/Sarah Jane or whatever.) (Male companions is a different thing but there are so few of them anyway.)
Also, with companions, even if I adore them I can never truly believe that they are the Doctor's one true eternal love...it just doesn't work that way. If the Doctor has one true forever love, it's the TARDIS or maaaybe the Master. Everyone else...is sharing him. That's just how it works when you love a Time Lord. So even though I believe he'll always remember and love them, I can never get into "River/Clara/Rose is his soulmate 4eva!" I think Classic Who ships are less likely to do this (maybe Sarah Jane gets a bit of it?).
But yes, Five is more approachable or something than some of the others. Seems younger and a little more human, maybe? In some ways like the new Doctors, in some ways not.
Master/companion has the fun little frisson that you just know the Doctor would go completely spare. :D (Unless it's someone like River, where he'd want to join in.) So you get the push and pull of that aspect, whether it's darkfic/noncon or just the Master coming on all polite and seductive and trying to lure the companion away that way or whatever.
But that's the joy of this fandom, really, there are so many options! :D
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Date: 2015-03-29 12:13 am (UTC)Spoilers. ;)
I also love how Nyssa is this pretty fluffy gentle princess...but also bloody brilliant in a science way. None of this "you can only be pretty OR smart!" going on. That was nice for once
Yes, I agree. And she looks so fragile and sweet, and she is super sweet, but she is really tough too.
I ship Three with everyone, possibly because I'd climb the man like a tree myself,but I often feel like Doctor/companion het is a bit like reading other people's personal feelings about the Doctor, which seems a bit vicariously embarrassing. Or maybe it's just that I have to care about both the Doctor and the companion to want to ship them?
LOL. I totally get you there. He was a nice specimen of a man. Er, alien. :)
I think you are right there, the Doctor/companion feeling a bit embarassing. Perhaps because very little, if any, effort goes into making the companion into the character Rose/Martha/whoever, so you don't really recognize them.
But yes, I think you have to feel for all parties to enjoy them together.
Also, with companions, even if I adore them I can never truly believe that they are the Doctor's one true eternal love...it just doesn't work that way. If the Doctor has one true forever love, it's the TARDIS or maaaybe the Master
This! Happily ever after is a very hard habit to shake, I think. Which just doesn't work with the Doctor and the majority of his comapanions because humans have a tendency to die of old age. And regardless if you want to think that the Doctor doesn't sleep with his companions, or with a few select or all of them- when it comes to feelings he is certainly not monogamous. I don't feel any need at all to pair the Doctor off for life, though I could probably tolerate him being paired off with just about anyone, if it was just written in the right way.
River Song works so well for me just because she doesn't see the Doctor as her happily ever after, she doesn't even want to travel with him for more than brief periods, even if she loves him dearly. I don't think she is the slightest bothered of the ones before or after because she knows that any relationship with him never can go on for long.
Master/companion has the fun little frisson that you just know the Doctor would go completely spare. :D (Unless it's someone like River, where he'd want to join in.) So you get the push and pull of that aspect, whether it's darkfic/noncon or just the Master coming on all polite and seductive and trying to lure the companion away that way or whatever.
Indeed. I highly doubt that I would enjoy a story were the Master finds True Love with a companion- that seems utterly unlikely. But then I enjoy imagine that even if he go for the seductive route he would do it because it suits his particular purpose, not because he is in any way nice.
But that's the joy of this fandom, really, there are so many options! :D
Oh yes! And that we can all find a corner were our particular ideas about it fits!