Nyssa is a supporting protagonist in Season 18 and a major protagonist in Seasons 19 and 20. She was portrayed by Sarah Sutton, who has reprised the role for Big Finish.
Biography
Nyssa was one of the inhabitants of Traken, a planet kept in harmony by the willpower of its Keeper. Both her father Tremas and her stepmother Kassia were Consuls, the group that ruled immediately below the Keeper. Tremas was chosen as the dying Keeper's successor, sparking off a chain of events that led to the Master, on Traken posing as a statue named Melkur, to manipulate Kassia into discrediting him. Nyssa ended up joining up with the Fourth Doctor and Adric as the Master killed Kassia and took over as Keeper in an attempt to steal the Doctor's body. Nyssa and Adric's sabotage of the Source helped defeat his scheme.
When Tremas disappeared immediately afterwards, Nyssa went to the Doctor and Adric for help, being taken to them by the Watcher, an avatar of the Doctor's future self. She quickly learned that Tremas had been killed by the Master, who now possessed his body. Nyssa helped out as the Doctor solved an entropy field unleashed by the Master, but not before it destroyed Traken, and witnessed the Doctor's fourth regeneration after he fell from a radio telescope. Nyssa and Tegan Jovanka took the Doctor to safety in the TARDIS but Adric was captured by the Master and used to create Castrovalva, a citadel that was slowly collapsing which the travellers became trapped in. They eventually escaped after freeing Adric, who guided them out.
Nyssa rejected the dictatorial plans of the Urbankan leader Monarch and nearly had her mind placed in an android as a result. She helped defeat the Terileptils' plan to wipe out the human race with a plague, building a device to destroy their android servant. On a visit to 1920s England, Nyssa was found to be the exact double of aristocrat Ann Talbot and found herself kidnapped by Ann's insane and disfigured former fiance George Cranleigh.
The travellers' subsequent encounter with the Cybermen saw Adric die, while Tegan was left behind on Earth during another battle with the Master. Nyssa accompanied the Doctor back to his home planet Gallifrey, where the Time Lords wanted to execute the Doctor to stop the renegade Omega using him to transfer from a universe of anti-matter. Nyssa and the Doctor tracked Omega to Earth, where they were reunited with Tegan. Nyssa was glad to have her friend back aboard the TARDIS and helped out when she fell under the influence of the Mara.
Nyssa subsequently became involved in a timeslip that saw her and Tegan accidentally infected by a virus by the renegade scientist Mawdryn. The Doctor was prepared to sacrifice his remaining regenerations to cure them, but ultimately they were saved by a release of energy when versions of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart from two different time periods met. The incident saw them gain another new travelling companion, Turlough, who later sabotaged the TARDIS, causing Nyssa to have to escape onto a liner carrying the victims of Lazar's Disease to Terminus. Nyssa contracted the disease but recovered, showing that the promised cure worked but was unregulated. She helped free the Terminus staff from control by the corporation and decided to stay there to help them.
According to the novel Asylum, an older Nyssa later met a younger version of the Fourth Doctor and accompanied him on a trip to Medieval England that helped her rediscover her zest for life. The Big Finish range revealed she eventually married and had two children, a fact she revealed to the Fifth Doctor when encountering him in a vision during his final moments. She rejoined the Doctor, Tegan and Turlough for a series of adventures that ended with her stranded in E-Space.
Trivia
- The novels continuity shows Nyssa eventually went to Earth in her older years and married Tegan. This is slightly references in Tales of the TARDIS, where Tegan mutters that she said goodnight to Nyssa before going to bed.
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