Hello everyone! 🙂
Welcome to ‘The Nyssa Challenge’!
I’ve been writing reviews on my Amazon.co.uk. profile on many ‘Doctor Who’ stories including TV stories, audios and books. My favourite stories are with the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa, which I’ve enjoyed watching and listening to.
I’ve done a ‘marathon’ challenge where I posted weekly reviews on the ‘Doctor Who’ stories featuring Nyssa in chronological order.
Nyssa (played by lovely Sarah Sutton) is my favourite ‘Doctor Who’ companion. Because Sarah has done plenty of Big Finish audios with Nyssa from the series and continues to do more, I like to share what goes on in her overall character journey from beginning to end.
Please feel free to take part in the discussions on each story featuring Nyssa and to comment on my reviews. I’d greatly value feedback on my reviews for these stories, so long as it’s positive and not too critical.
Here is a complete list on all of the Nyssa stories in chronological order and the weeks and starting dates for the reviews on these stories from February 2016 to July 2017.
Click on the images on the left of each story to access the review(s).
N.B. This list, as Nyssa would say in ‘The Haunting of Thomas Brewster’, is like time that is ‘subject to change’.
Enjoy!
Please click here to see ‘The Works of Sarah Sutton’.
Tim. 🙂
There are currently 5 phases of Nyssa’s life in ‘Doctor Who’ from start to finish
- Seasons 18-19a
- Season 19b
- Season 20a
- Nyssa after ‘Terminus’
- Season 20b
1. Seasons 18-19a
| Week 1 | ||
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The Doctor and Adric visit and meet Nyssa and her father Tremas on Traken. They fight against the Melkur who is the Master. |
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| Week 2 | ||
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Tegan stumbles into the TARDIS; Nyssa is rescued; the Master returns ; Traken is destroyed and the Fourth Doctor meets his end… |
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| Week 3 | ||
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The Fifth Doctor is born, but the regeneration is failing. Nyssa and Tegan help to save him whilst Adric is a prisoner of the Master. |
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| Week 4 | ||
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As the Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Adric get to know each other, they visit a space station that processes their thoughts and fears. |
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| Week 5 | ||
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The Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Adric visit a cold, icy world and meet the Seventh Doctor, Chris and Roz there. |
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The Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Adric face the Sontarans on an alien world in Chapter 5 of ‘Prisoners of Time’. |
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Adric becomes squire of Sir Keeyoht of la Koura to go on a quest and stop the Doctor. |
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| Week 6 | ||
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The Doctor tries to get Tegan back home, but they end up on the Urkbankan spaceship on its way to Earth and meet Monarch. |
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| Week 7 | ||
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Whilst Nyssa has to sleep inside the TARDIS, the Doctor, Tegan and Adric explore Deva-Loka. The Mara gets inside Tegan’s head. |
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| Week 8 | ||
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The TARDIS lands in 1600s England with the Black Death. The Doctor and friends meet Richard Mace and fight the Terileptils. |
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 ‘The Dark River’ (TS)
This story takes place during ‘The Visitation’. Adric and Nyssa try to take the TARDIS to the Squire’s house in 1666 but end up in the Mississippi River. |
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| Week 9 | ||
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The Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Adric meet Harry Houdini. |
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Adric feels like an outsider amongst the TARDIS crew and wants to be a statue. |
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| Week 10 | ||
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The Celestial Toymaker returns to menace the Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Adric, as their friendships and loyalties are put to the test. |
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The Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Adric face the evil Star Men in outer space. |
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The Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Adric visit a gentleman’s club in Victorian London. |
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The Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Adric face vampires on the planet Zaltys. |
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Nyssa, the Fifth Doctor, Tegan and Adric have a battle with the Ice Warriors. |
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A battle with Autons. |
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The kingdom of Cardenas is divided on the planet Cicero Prime. |
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A ghost tour and an ancient evil force returns. |
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A murder mystery takes place on the space station Argentia. |
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Nyssa makes a cameo in this story as the Doctor and Tegan meet Threll on Aronassus 49. |
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The Doctor rescues Nyssa and Tegan from Vi’Al on an unnamed planet. |
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The Doctor faces Voorvolika inside the TARDIS. |
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The Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Adric face giant termites on the planet Isopterus. |
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The Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan confront Carnak at the Haven on Planet 435. |
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The Doctor has a nightmare in the TARDIS. |
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The Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan face an early version of the Master at Heathrow Airport. |
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| Week 11 | ||
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The TARDIS team visit 1920s Earth and meet Ann Talbot, Nyssa’s double. A cricket match; a fancy dress ball and a murder take place. |
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| Week 12 | ||
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Nyssa meets the Dar Traders and deals with a deadly assassin. |
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The Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Adric visit the planet Lemaria where they see the Twelfth Doctor perform on stage. |
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| Week 13 | ||
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The Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Adric visit a house on an island in 1981 as a ghost mystery with mathematics occurs. |
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Nyssa gets called by a crimson crystal. |
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| Week 14 | ||
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The TARDIS team visit 26th century Earth and face the return of the Cybermen. This story features the departure/death of Adric. |
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| Week 15 | ||
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Following the death of Adric, the Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan help to save a Concorde plane. This story features the departure of Tegan. |
‘God of War’ (Audio)
‘The Auton Infinity’ (Audio)
2. Season 19b
| Week 16 | ||
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The Doctor and Nyssa travel alone and visit Earth in the 1800s. They meet Queen Victoria and deal with the afterlife in another dimension. |
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| Week 17 | ||
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The Doctor and Nyssa visit Alaska in the 1990s. |
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| Week 18 | ||
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The Doctor and Nyssa visit a 1960s girls’ school in the Swiss Alps. |
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| Week 19 | ||
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Nyssa meets the Daleks for the first time. |
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| Week 20 | ||
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Nyssa is dying and the Doctor takes her to Traken to save her. |
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| Week 21 | ||
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The Doctor and Nyssa visit Mondas where the Cybermen are born. |
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| Week 22 | ||
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An ecological disaster on Veln causes a matter of perspective. |
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| Week 23 | ||
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On the planet Cray, an brutal sports game called Naxy takes place. |
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| Week 24 | ||
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1. ‘Spring’ – The Doctor and Nyssa visit a bird-like alien planet |
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| Week 25 | ||
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Nyssa meets the Daleks for a second time. |
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| Week 26 | ||
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The TARDIS returns to the planet Vortis with Menopetra and Zarbi. |
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| Week 27 | ||
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A spooky, timey-wimey ghost story takes place in Dickensian London. |
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| Week 28 | ||
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The Doctor and Nyssa get zapped back in time where scorpions rule. |
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| Week 29 | ||
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‘Time Reef’ |
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| Week 30 | ||
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The Doctor and Nyssa visit Stockbridge in the Middle Ages. |
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| Week 31 | ||
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Time goes wrong in present-day Stockbridge. |
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| Week 32 | ||
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Stockbridge comes to its end, as the Daleks attack. |
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| Week 33 | ||
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1. ‘The Demons of Red Lodge’ – A creepy village story |
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 ‘The Deep’ (ST/Audio)
Nyssa tries to repair the chameleon circuit and it goes wrong. |
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| Week 34 | ||
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Nyssa tells stories to an angry Sultan to save the Doctor. |
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The Doctor and Nyssa visit Maine 1945 with two schoolchildren. |
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| Week 35 | ||
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In the 1960s, the Common Men take over and replace the Beatles. |
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 ‘Tweaker’ (ST/Audio)
A music record collector gets a visit from the Doctor and Nyssa . |
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| Week 36 | ||
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The 50th anniversary special of ‘Doctor Who’ by Big Finish. Eight Doctors with their companions have to deal with the Master. |
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| Week 37 | ||
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The Doctor and Nyssa visit Whitlock’s house in Suffolk, 1911. |
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| Week 38 | ||
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The Doctor and Nyssa visit a tomb ship in outer space. |
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| Week 39 | ||
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The Doctor and Nyssa visit France in 1770. But all is not as it seems. |
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 ‘Alien Heart’/’Dalek Soul’ (Audio)
‘Alien Heart’ |
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A chicken is put on trial in the medieval English village of Snittlegarth and the Doctor answers the second oldest question in the universe. |
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The Doctor and Nyssa visit Siobhan Matthews’ ship where it spirals towards something in the dark. |
3. Season 20a
| Week 40 | ||
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The Doctor and Nyssa visit Gallifrey before going to Amsterdam to defeat Omega. Tegan re-joins the TARDIS with the Doctor and Nyssa. |
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| Week 41 | ||
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The Doctor; Nyssa and Tegan enjoy Amsterdam until alien water creatures attack the city. |
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| Week 42 | ||
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The Doctor; Nyssa and Tegan visit the planet Florana. |
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| Week 43 | ||
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The planet Luparis looks like Tudor London. |
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| Week 44 | ||
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Nyssa gets sent to hell on Level 14 and it’ ‘death to Seth’. |
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| Week 45 | ||
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The Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan visit a moon of the planet Akoshemon that has a dark history and they face the ‘Dark’ itself. |
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Nyssa, the Fifth Doctor and Tegan have a battle with the Cybermen from the planet Telos. |
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| Week 46 | ||
 ‘The Sands of Time’ (Book)
Nyssa gets kidnapped in London 1896 and the Doctor and Tegan have to rescue her. This story is a sequel to ‘Pyramids of Mars’. |
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| Week 47 | ||
 ‘Zeta Major’ (Book)
The Fifth Doctor returns to the planet Morestra with Nyssa and Tegan. This story is a sequel to ‘Planet of Evil‘. |
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 ‘The Lions of Trafalgar’ (ST/Audio)
Lions come to life in 1800s London. |
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 ‘The King of the Dead’ (ST/Audio)
A mystery occurs at a 1980s London theatre. |
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| Week 48 | ||
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The Doctor; Nyssa and Tegan visit the spaceship Aquitaine. |
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| Week 49 | ||
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The Doctor; Nyssa and Tegan witness ‘The Peterloo Massacre’ in Manchester on the 16th of August 1819. |
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The Doctor; Nyssa and Tegan solve a whodunit murder mystery at Mistpuddle village. |
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The Doctor, Tegan and Nyssa travel back in time to meet Cicero. They’re joined by new companion Marc. |
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‘Interstital’ |
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‘Warzone’ |
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‘Madquake’ |
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The Doctor reunites with Nyssa, Tegan and Marc, but his plans to travel home to Gallifrey get cast aside when the TARDIS materialises on the Soresia. |
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The TARDIS crew meet journalist Nellie Bly on the final leg of her voyage to travel the world in less than eighty days. |
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The crew of a drilling rig on planet XB93 suffers nightmares caused by Daleks, but the Daleks’ own worst nightmare in the form of the Doctor arrives. |
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| Week 50 | ||
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The Mara returns to haunt Tegan again as the TARDIS takes them to Manussa. Will the Doctor and Nyssa be able to save Tegan’s life? |
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| Week 51 | ||
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A vampire baby attacks Nyssa and turns her into a vampire. Will she able to resist the bloodlust inside her as the age of the vampires commences? |
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The Fifth Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan face vampires again on Gallifrey. |
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| Week 52 | ||
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The Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan meet schoolboy Turlough and reunite with the Brigadier as they get involved in a timey-wimey mystery. |
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The Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan get used to Turlough. |
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Nyssa with the Fifth Doctor, Tegan and Turlough appear in ‘Ophiuchus’, the fifth story of ‘The Many Lives of Doctor Who’. |
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| Week 53 | ||
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Nyssa gets infected with Lazar’s disease aboard a space hospital at the centre of the universe. Nyssa leaves the TARDIS for the first time. |
4. Nyssa after ‘Terminus’
| Week 54 | ||
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Nyssa reunites with the Doctor with Ian, Steven, Sara and Polly. |
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| Week 55 | ||
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Nyssa meets the Fourth Doctor again before he meets her. Both have an adventure on Earth in 1278. |
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Nyssa meets the War Master in the third episode of ‘Killing Time’ called ‘The Orphan’. |
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| Week 56 | ||
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Nyssa, now married and a mother, meets the Fifth Doctor again. |
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Nyssa speaks to the Doctor in a dream during ‘Circular Time: Winter’. |
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Nyssa meets the Eighth Doctor during the Time War. |
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Nyssa gets help from the Tenth Doctor and K-9 to escape a Time War criminal’s scheme in a virtual world of a movie stuntman. |
‘The Stuntman’ (Audio)5. Season 20b
| Week 57 | ||
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Nyssa reunites with the Doctor, Tegan and Turlough after 50 years. |
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| Week 58 | ||
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The Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Turlough visit Purity Bay on Cherdor. |
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| Week 59 | ||
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The Mara returns to haunt Tegan for a third time. |
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| Week 60 | ||
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The Doctor and friends meet a platoon of ‘Dad’s Army’ Sontarans. |
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| Week 61 | ||
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A former flame of Turlough’s returns. |
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| Week 62 | ||
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Underneath London in 1983, there’s a pack of giant rants. |
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| Week 63 | ||
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The Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Turlough visit India in 1926. |
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| Week 64 | ||
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The TARDIS takes the Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Turlough to a comet. |
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The Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Turlough get caught in a ‘monkey house’ at a zoo on an alien world. |
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| Week 65 | ||
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Nyssa and Turlough go undercover to expose Magnus Greel’s crimes. |
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| Week 66 | ||
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The TARDIS lands on Earth in 2013 where Eldred must die! |
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| Week 67 | ||
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Tegan gets zapped back in time and becomes the Lady of Merica. |
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| Week 68 | ||
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Nyssa reunites with her son after missing 25 years of her life. |
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| Week 69 | ||
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The TARDIS slips back into E-Space and ends up on Alzarius. |
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| Week 70 | ||
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The TARDIS takes the Doctor and friends to the kingdom of Isenfel. |
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| Week 71 | ||
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At the end of this story, Nyssa gets trapped in E-Space. |
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Many of the Doctor’s companions including Nyssa and Tegan attend Sarah Jane’s funeral. |
| Bonus Week | ||
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Sarah Sutton stars as Nyssa in the 30th anniversary Children-in-Need special of ‘Doctor Who’ with Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor and Nicola Bryant as Peri. |
| Return to Doctor Who |
| Return to Sci-Fi |
Bradley's Basement 
Hello Tim.
I just thought I’d pop by to say that Nyssa being your favourite ‘Doctor Who’ companion made me want to appreciate her as much as you do. Once I have watched Seasons 19 and 20, as well as listened to any BF audios set during those seasons, I will be able to.
At the moment, the only two Nyssa BF stories I have heard are ‘The Mutant Phase’ and ‘The Peterloo Massacre’ and the only Nyssa tv stories I have seen are ‘The Keeper of Traken’, ‘Logopolis’ and ‘Castrovalva’. I will eventually watch/listen to more of her stories. One story I am interested in listening to is ‘Moonflesh’ since it is set in Suffolk which is where I grew up. The character of Hannah Bartholomew sounds interesting as well, so I will see how she interacts with the Doctor and Nyssa. Plus, Hannah is the name of Sarah Sutton’s daughter.
Take care. WF92.
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Hi WF92.
Thanks for dropping a line. I hope you’ll enjoy more of the Nyssa stories whether they’d be TV, audio, book, comic, etc. I’m looking forward to doing another set of ‘Nyssa Challenge’ reviews this coming December. I’m spoilt for choice with updating old reviews and adding new ones including on some of the upcoming Big Finish audios with Sarah Sutton/Nyssa. It’ll be something to enjoy venturing into and reviewing no doubt.
Many thanks,
Tim. 🙂
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Evening Tim.
I actually popped by here to get something else off my chest. It’s in regards to the older Nyssa arc. I am looking forward to listening to the entire arc in order from ‘Cobwebs’ to ‘The Entropy Plague’, preferably after I’ve seen ‘Enlightment’. The only story from the arc that will avoid will be ‘The Monkey House’. The reason for that is, I stumbled across your review of it which I regret doing. I regret it because it doesn’t sound like a story I would enjoy, especially from how your review has described it. It sounds more like a bad fanfiction and that it was made just to torture the Doctor and his companions especially since your review never said how long they’d been there for or if they even escape. I am hoping you can clarify me on both those points.
I was initially hesitant to make a comment on this and I even posted about this on the Divergent Universe but I deleted it. The Doctor and his companions just seem like guest stars and are there without explanation. It’s for those reasons and the fact that it doesn’t really add anything to the older Nyssa arc that I don’t consider it to be canon and plus, it’s not freely available so I can’t listen to it anyway. I hope to hear your thoughts on this.
WF92.
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Hi WF92,
It’s been a while since I reviewed ‘The Monkey House’ and I haven’t heard the story in a long time. I’m sure the Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Turlough escaped from being imprisoned. I can’t recall how long they’ve been there though. I’m not sure why the writer Nic Ford didn’t have the TARDIS characters feature prominently in the story as the focus is more on the alien girl who doesn’t even have a name. It is an official Big Finish Short Trip audio, but even then you would have to subscribe to Big Finish and include ‘The Two Masters’ in your subscription to get it, which I’m not expecting you to do. It’s a fun tale but it’s not necessarily a vital one to hear in the older Nyssa story arc. I decided to check it out for completion’s sake.
I feel a lot of the 1983 annual stories featuring Nyssa are like that especially when she and Tegan are sidelined compared to the Doctor. Short stories can vary depending on the writer who writes them as he or she might wish to focus on the main characters or focus on the supporting characters. Sometimes it’s balanced, sometimes it’s unbalanced. I was going to respond to your post on the DU forum with a link to my review before you deleted it, but it’s nothing to worry about and I can post it anyway on ‘The Monkey House’ thread.
Thanks for your comments. Hope you enjoyed my thoughts on this.
Tim. 🙂
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