Top Five Big Damn Hero Moments: Nyssa (Doctor Who)

I really enjoy Nyssa. She’s a different sort of companion, very steady and even-keeled. Especially compared to her much more outspoken fellow companions Adric and Tegan (and later Turlough,) she can come across as meek, even weak, but that doesn’t reflect who she really is. In truth, Nyssa has a quiet confidence and strength, weathering some extremely-heavy experiences and using her skills to help team TARDIS (spoilers.)

Flying the TARDIS (Series 19, Episode 2 – “Castrovalva:  Episode 2”)

Nyssa has a lot of great tag-team stuff with Tegan in this story. With Adric missing and the Doctor barely functioning post-regeneration, it’s up to Nyssa and Tegan to pull the TARDIS out of a collision course with the Big Bang. After Nyssa follows the Doctor’s instructions to reverse some of the adverse effects of their proximity to the Big Bang, she and Tegan prepare for an even bigger challenge: deleting a number of TARDIS rooms to gain enough thrust to get away. Tegan is all but paralyzed at the thought of accidentally jettisoning the console room where they’re standing, but Nyssa gives her the courage needed to go through with it, urging Tegan to “turn this ‘if’ into a fact.” Her calm in the face of grave uncertainty is a balm in the episode.

Destroying the Android (Series 19, Episode 16 – “The Visitation:  Episode 4”)

I love this moment: cool, smart, and compassionate. With the Tereleptils’ harlequin android after them (take a second to just think about how neat that is,) our heroes have decided that their best shot of defeating is with a sonic booster, a device that Nyssa builds. Once the android is lured into the TARDIS, she turns on her recently-completed machine and destroys it – gotta love a brainy badass. But I also love that, when Adric comes upon her afterwards, she admits that she feels sad about having destroyed the android. “It was such a magnificent machine,” she says, pointing out to Adric that the android, being programmed by the Tereleptils, was enslaved by them and had no choice in its actions. What a great big-picture moment from this young woman who takes time to empathize with and mourn this nonsentient thing she destroyed.

Seeing Through the Illusions (Series 19, Episode 24 – “Time-Flight:  Episode 2”)

Due to her psychic link with the Plasmatons, Nyssa is able to navigate her and Tegan’s way through “Kallid’s” Citadel in search of the Doctor. Along the way, Kallid sends an apparition of Adric to block their way, warning that he’ll be destroyed if they keep going (“The Five Doctors” totally rips off this move.) Tegan is swayed, but Nyssa urges her to press on, reminding her of the painful truth that Adric is dead. She also notices the flaw in Kallid’s illusion: the image of Adric is still wearing his badge for mathematical excellence, which was broken in “Earthshock.” This shrewd attention to detail on Nyssa’s part is what finally convinces Tegan that he’s a fake.

Destroying the Ergon (Series 20, Episode 4 – “Arc of Infinity:  Episode 4”)

After the Doctor and Nyssa find Omega’s secret base in an Amsterdam crypt, they’re attacked by its guardian, Omega’s monstrous Ergon. The Doctor grapples with it, and the Ergon drops its matter converter in the scuffle. Nyssa retrieves the weapon and shoots the creature with it. She’s plainly terrified, but she does it anyway – that’s my girl.

Helping the Lazars (Series 20, Episode 16 – “Terminus:  Episode 4”)

The place that nearly proves Nyssa’s undoing leads her to her purpose. When team TARDIS accidentally finds themselves on a leper colony ship, Nyssa is quarantined with the infected. There she learns that the cure for Lazar Disease is effective but unrefined, and after her own encounter with the illness, she decides to stay behind on Terminus and help develop a safer version of the cure. Furthermore, she gets the ships’ guards on her side by offering to make a synthetic version of the preventive drug that’s kept them bound to their unscrupulous company, allowing everyone on Terminus to work toward the same goal. Deciding to leave the TARDIS is never easy, but deciding to leave in order to help the sick and outcast, consigning herself to a difficult life, takes a lot of strength of character.