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Tag: Nyssa

Retro-View #13: The Celery’s Fresh, But G’s Wilting

Castrovalva (Story #116, 1981)
Viewed 24 Jun 2013

Doctor/Companion: Five, Adric, Nyssa, Tegan Jovanka
Stars: Peter Davison, Matthew Waterhouse, Sarah Sutton, Janet Fielding
Preceding Story: Logopolis (Four, Adric, Nyssa, Tegan)
Succeeding Story: Four to Doomsday (Five, Adric, Nyssa, Tegan)

I had high hopes for this story going in. G seems ready to try a new Doctor, and despite the fact that my kids are home on summer break from school, they have plans for how to occupy themselves while the grown-ups are involved with their silly videos.

And it starts out well. The regeneration scene is recapped, and the action continues on right from that point. The guards catch up to our heroes and drag them off. Tegan huffs, “Take your hands off me. This is an official uniform!”, causing G to chuckle and declare “I like her the best.” Finally—someone who shares my fondness for the Mouth On Legs!

G asks some good basic questions, too. “Why did the Master do that?” she wonders when he materializes in middle of the fray, then seems to go running, allowing the Doctor to escape into his own TARDIS, and leaving Adric behind to be rescued. “So he’d still have a good adversary?” Now if she’d take her speculation to the next level, we might make a Fan of her yet…

I’ll admit that I still enjoy the whole regeneration regression part (as the Doctor does impressions of himself) far more than G does; I don’t even bother to pause and explain when he spouts “reverse the polarity of the neutron flow” and she doesn’t laugh with me. Then again, maybe she didn’t even hear it. After several moments that I’d expected to get a reaction from her get none, I realize she’s left me.

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Retro-View #12: Melancholy Moment

Logopolis (Story #115, 1981)
Viewed 03 Jun 2013

Doctor/Companion: Four, Adric, Nyssa, Tegan Jovanka
Stars: Tom Baker, Matthew Waterhouse, Sarah Sutton, Janet Fielding
Preceding Story: The Keeper of Traken (Four, Adric, Nyssa)
Succeeding Story: Castrovalva (Five, Adric, Nyssa, Tegan)

It seems to me that by the time Logopolis rolled around, Tom Baker was more than ready to leave his role as the Doctor. He just seemed tired, pensive, and like he simply wasn’t having very much fun any more. Luckily, it fits well with the story, and doesn’t translate into any sort of loss of quality.

G is immediately intrigued by the way the police box and (Master’s) TARDIS merge, and in on alert when Tegan and Auntie Vanessa pull up next to it with their flat. “Ooh dear. And they’re by the box.” Then when the Doctor’s TARDIS turns them all into dimensionally transcendental matryoshka dolls, she catches onto the danger right away. “This is serious. It’s like he’s ingested poison by materializing that guy in there.” She proceeds to make an analogy with holding mirrors up to each other to make an infinite regression, well before the possibility is mentioned on screen. G’s all over it.

The Watcher has her fooled, though. She reads it as all first-time viewers are meant to: a slightly creepy threat. I can’t help but think of it as the precursor to Ten’s departure, though in this case it’s only the Doctor, rather than the whole audience as well, who anticipates what’s to come. We both enjoy this particular conceit, though. When the Doctor tells Adric that “nothing like this has ever happened before,” G declares that “that’s the fun part.”

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Worth Visiting

Review of The Visitation: SE (#120)

DVD Release Date: 14 May 13
Original Air Date: 15-23 Feb 1982
Doctor/Companion: Five, Adric, Nyssa, Tegan
Stars: Peter Davison, Matthew Waterhouse, Sarah Sutton, Janet Fielding
Preceding Story: Kinda (Five, Adric, Nyssa, Tegan)
Succeeding Story: Black Orchid (Five, Adric, Nyssa, Tegan)

I’ve never quite been able to put my finger on why I like this story so much, but it’s high enough on my list that I chose it to show to the Ladies two years ago. Maybe it’s because, crowded as it made the TARDIS, this particular crew really epitomizes Five’s tenure for me.

It’s kind of typical classic fare. The Doctor steers the TARDIS wrong, then his curiosity gets the better of him, then everyone’s in trouble. There’s some lovely character development at the beginning as Teagan and the Doctor get angry with each other and then apologize, and later when Adric complains of feeling useless.

And, of course, there are some wonderful lines. A long-time favorite of mine is the Doctor’s jibe at the Terileptil about his attitude on war, but the one that jumped out at me this time was this conversation between Nyssa and the Doctor:

“So, what are you going to do if we find them?” she asks.
“Oh, twist their arms a bit to let me take them back to their own planet.”
“I hope they have arms to twist.”
“I’ll find something.”

The revelations about the man’s darker nature in the Series Seven finale put this exchange in a new light. Maybe Five isn’t a totally warm, fuzzy, sweet kind of guy after all.

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Retro-View #11: Winding Down, or Just Wound Up?

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The Keeper of Traken (Story #114, 1981)
Viewed 29 Apr 2013

Doctor/Companion: Four, Adric, Nyssa of Traken
Stars: Tom Baker, Matthew Waterhouse, Sarah Sutton
Preceding Story: Warriors’ Gate (Four, Romana II, Adric)
Succeeding Story: Logopolis (Four, Adric, Nyssa, Tegan)

It’s been a while since G has seen the Fourth Doctor. Not only has it been a month and a half since we were last able to sit down and watch together, but he’s cycled through a Companion or two since our last story, which was broadcast nearly two-and-a-half years before this one. So I guess I can’t blame her when her first reaction at the start of the story was, “Oh my gosh! Look at the question marks on this collar!” And later, “He’s got a new scarf!”

I have to pause and explain about Adric, too. The whole E-Space thing kind of goes over her head, but truth be told, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to me either, and I’ve seen all the relevant trilogy. She doesn’t comment on his pajama-esque costume, though, and declares that she rather likes “the little guy.” More than once. And why, do you suppose, she thinks so highly of him? “Because when the women used to tell [the Doctor] he was full of ****, he’d get upset, but when this guy does it, he doesn’t care.”

The story is right up her alley, too. Halfway through Part One, she’s already sussed out (well before we see it happen) that “ol’ Melkur’s marching around in the nighttime.” When his presence leads to the Keeper (apparently) declaring that the Doctor and Adric are “Eviiiiiil!” she can hardly stand it. “I really hate misunderstandings.” (Somehow, I’m thinking she doesn’t watch many sitcoms…)

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Nu-View #3: Foray Into Five

The Visitation (Story #120, 1982)
Viewed 19 Apr 2011, 21 Jun 2011

Doctor/Companion:   Five, Adric, Nyssa, Tegan
Stars:  Peter Davison, Matthew Waterhouse, Sarah Sutton, Janet Fielding
Preceding Story:  Kinda (Five, Adric, Tegan)
Succeeding Story:  Black Orchid (Five, Adric, Nyssa, Tegan)
Notable Aspects:

  • demise of the sonic screwdriver, which would not be seen again until The Movie in 1996

I found it difficult to decide at what point in his tenure to trot out Five for the Ladies’ viewing. Eventually, I decided I wanted one that involved the classic trio of Adric, Nyssa and Tegan, and settled on The Visitation because it gave a good sense of the three of their personalities. I’d have used Castrovalva, but I wanted to save that as the denouement of the whole regeneration arc for another time.

Due to various scheduling conflicts, the Ladies had to watch this one in shifts. Each time we had at least one n00b and one veteran (here I include myself). Among other things, it was entertaining to hear the first impressions of appearances. One initiate commented that she wasn’t sure about Five’s outfit (to which jE immediately responded, “wait’ll you see the next one!”). The other thought he reminded her of Chevy Chase. Everybody commented on the ’80s-ness of the episode, from make-up to hair to costuming (jO thought Nyssa “would have looked so amazingly cool in 198[2]”) to the TARDIS herself. There was also some consternation – coming from those accustomed to the modern “just swap ’em out” era – that the poor sonic screwdriver would disappear from the Doctor’s toolbox for nearly a decade and a half after its destruction at the hands of the Tereleptils.

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