![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
On Nyssa
I 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...
no subject
*HUGS*
no subject
I hope wou'll like them wehn you read them!
*hugs*