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Nyssa in Logopolis

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« on: January 06, 2013, 01:49:12 pm »


Nyssa was a native of the planet Traken, the capital of the Traken Union. She was acquainted with the Fourth Doctor but was mainly a companion of the Fifth Doctor. She also adventured with Adric, Tegan and briefly Turlough and the Brigadier.

The daughter of Consul Tremas, Nyssa was a child of privilege on Traken. She was gifted with a brilliant intellect and specialised in bioelectronics. When Traken was destroyed, Nyssa became the last of her kind.

Nyssa first met the Doctor in his fourth incarnation when he was travelling with Adric. She was preparing to celebrate the marriage of her long-widowed father to Kassia. Unbeknownst to her, the Master had also come to Traken and was planning to exploit the tremendous power of the Keepership, to which her father was the only rightful heir. One of his purposes was to live beyond his last natural regeneration. The Doctor and Adric stopped the Master from taking over the Keepership, but could not prevent his killing Nyssa's new step-mother. They also did not stop the Master from "killing" Tremas by transferring his essence into Tremas' body. The Master lived and Nyssa was orphaned in her young adulthood.

Nyssa seemed at once more mature and more naive than her fellow travellers. She did not boast of her scientific knowledge nor believe it made her superior. She faced her challenges with the determination and serenity of her Trakenite heritage. She turned her sorrow as the last of her people into a desire to help others. Rarely did she mention any grief she suffered because of her great misfortunes. Perhaps most extraordinarily, she never sought to avenge herself on the Master despite her many good reasons to do so.

Her trusting nature sometimes made her less alert to deception than Tegan, but it also made her more adept at negotiating an effective balance between strong personalities. She had probably the closest relationship with the Fifth Doctor of any of his companions. Nyssa's near-royal upbringing and natural curiosity sometimes made it hard for her to relax and enjoy herself. Though her outlook usually tended to be serious, she displayed a dry wit on occasion, particularly when dealing with the Fifth Doctor's boyish idiosyncrasies.

She tended towards pacifism, though on one occasion she destroyed a Terileptil android and used the threat of violence to save the Doctor's life, shooting a pair of guards.

Even though her world and her people were vanished, she strove to live by their principles. Nyssa was one of the Doctor's most intelligent companions and was one of the few capable of assisting with TARDIS operations.

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.
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« Reply #1 on: January 06, 2013, 04:38:49 pm »

She's a bit wooden at times and isn't really given much to work with in this story, but as a character I quite liked her. Her speech about the Master taking everything away from her was also quite moving. She has lost a lot and they could have played on that a bit more than they did. At times it was though she had forgotten both her parents had just died and her planet was gone.
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« Reply #2 on: January 07, 2013, 12:24:57 am »

I've always found it interesting that so much stick has been aimed at characters like Adric and Mel over the years for not being the greatest actors, when Nyssa was probably the most wooden of the lot. I still love her though. I never let a bit of bad acting bother me. I wouldn't be able to watch half of the show if I did Grin

I think she was a bit of a late edition to this story which probably explains why she didn't have a lot to do for much of it, but she has her time to shine in others.
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« Reply #3 on: January 07, 2013, 04:22:32 pm »

I quite like Nyssa but I think the character suffers from being surrounded by too many other companions. She always worked well with Five and I think had she had more opportunities could have been a much stronger companion.
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« Reply #4 on: January 08, 2013, 02:04:59 am »

I always liked Nyssa, but she was possibly one of the most underused companions of the entire run.  In Arc of Infinity, where she's the only one with the Doctor for most of the time, I think she's excellent.
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« Reply #5 on: January 08, 2013, 10:09:37 pm »

I think Nyssa is pretty cool, but as Nyki says, she doesn't ever seem to be used to her full potential and so as a companion always seems a bit wasted.
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« Reply #6 on: January 09, 2013, 02:58:42 pm »

She could have been so much more, but just never was. She had her moments of awesome, like, as Nyki says, in Arc Of Infinity, but for the most part she was lost in the crowd
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« Reply #7 on: January 11, 2013, 01:48:31 am »

I like Nyssa but I think they really missed a good opportunity with her character. She barely gave her losses a blink in this story and it's something that they could have played with as it would be such a huge thing for anyone to deal with and go through. It's something that could have played out throughout her run but it was largely ignored
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