#nyssa/tegan

[headcanonsandmore]

Some perfectly normal Doctor Who factoids

The Master is canonically Rasputin.

Time Lords can all levitate and fly. The Doctor seems to forget this.

The Doctor is canonically Merlin.

There are two different explanations for the Loch Ness Monsters.

The Doctor once had a talking penguin as a companion.

Vampires are a canon species.

Tegan and Nyssa have such a strong queer subtext to their friendship that there is a wiki page online dedicated to it.

Speaking of Nyssa, she once got turned into a vampire and became obsessed with eating Tegan.

Ace McShane once fell in love with a cat-girl.

The Doctor is both a semi-mythical figure in the founding of time lord society, as well as also being the reason for the time lords having regenerative abilities. They are also just a run-of-the-mill time lord who ran away from Gallifrey. All of these are equally canon.

The Doctor once broke the fourth wall to wish the viewers a Merry Christmas.

The Third Doctor knows various martial arts.

It's implied that Time Lords cannot get drunk on alcohol unless they drink ginger beer beforehand.

The Eighth Doctor was once sentenced to death and promptly demanded to die in the nude.

The Doctor effectively kidnapped their first companions.

Time Lords reproduce via a technology known as looms.

[commandermaxil]

the fics that come from this are going to be incredible I can’t wait

[nyssafromtraken]

woke up in bed next to Nyssa eh

[cringecompanionapologist]

Uh-Uh I Wrote an Essay About Turlough in Cradle of the Snake

So, after that “Turlough is easily dominated” post, I decided to do some analysis after all, because one of the tags reminded me of Cradle of the Snake, which I’ve posted about being interesting in terms of 5/Turlough (as well as Nyssa/Tegan but I’m pretty sure that essay has already been written), but there’s a bit more to explore here.

The Mara is a bit confusing as far as Evil Entities go. There’s this reoccurring theme of temptation and corruption, but it’s a little unclear what the rules are. It seems that the Mara possesses people by preying on their darkest desires and that the victim has to agree to be possessed, either because of temptation or being overwhelmed by mind games, in order to be possessed. But, in Cradle of the Snake, Nyssa eventually just gets possessed. It just sort of happens. Mara!Tegan tries to tempt her, but it doesn’t work. Then Mara!Doctor is just like “I’ma possess Nyssa” and it happens. Perhaps the Mara can just possess people but prefers to tempt or trick them into accepting possession because it’s more fun that way.

Once the Mara possesses someone, they don’t seem to be aware or in control of their actions. When Mara!Character is interacting with someone, it’s the Mara talking completely. The Mara probably has access to the knowledge and emotions of the person it’s possessing, but how it uses that knowledge isn’t influenced by the individual. That’s the vibe I got, anyway. The Mara can use the form of someone it’s victim trusts to gain said victim’s cooperation, but the Mara’s opionions about its victims probably don’t come from other victims. The Mara seems to have a sexual obsession with Nyssa while possessing the Doctor and I don’t think that’s coming from him. The Mara failed to seduce Nyssa while possessing Tegan and is bitter about it.

The first time we see the Mara interacting with someone in Cradle of the Snake it’s speaking through Tegan, trying to corrupt and possess Nyssa. This plays out as a failed attempt at seduction. If the Mara is trying to tempt Nyssa based on what it thinks Nyssa might want, the temptation is Tegan herself. Again, great story for Nyssa/Tegan. The only reason this doesn’t work is because Nyssa knows better and is able to resist. She knows it’s the Mara talking, not Tegan. The Mara then gets pissed off because of how “pure” Nyssa is and Nyssa is heavily sexualized while possessed.

But, this essay isn’t about Nyssa. This is just the first example of how the Mara works in this story. In other Mara stories, the rules might be a little different, but this is how it works here.

Anyway, the Mara transfers itself from Tegan to the Doctor. Instead of possessing both, it lets Tegan go and moves on to the Doctor, because the Doctor sacrificed himself for his companion, as he often does. The Doctor might’ve thought that is Strong Time Lord Mind might be better at resisting the Mara than Tegan’s Normal Human Mind, but he thought wrong. Though, there is a brief period of time where the Doctor seems to be at least partially in control. He tried to fight it, but he lost.

Now, Turlough enters the picture. Because of the Black Guardian, Turlough is often thought of as easily corruptible, so the Mara decides to go for the easy target, only for it to not work. Unlike Nyssa, Turlough isn’t aware of what’s going on at first, only that the Doctor is acting really weird. It’s scaring him, but he doesn’t run away. He actively tries to stay with the Doctor for as long as he can. You’d think he’d be quick to give up on him to save himself, but he holds out for a long time. 

This probably wasn’t what the Mara expected. Turlough is a troublemaker, so the Mara makes some trouble and tries to encourage him to participate. Turlough doesn’t. He isn’t a troublemaker for the hell of it. He’s introduced as a troublemaker in Mawdryn Undead, but that was at Brendon. Turlough’s troublemaking there was probably him lashing out at the school he hated. In the TARDIS, Turlough is more comfortable and doesn’t really have a reason to cause trouble at the moment. So, either the Mara didn’t really understand him, or he was going off what other people he’d already possessed thought of him and those people misjudged him. This doesn’t seem like a mistake the Doctor would make, so this might be from how long the Mara has been lurking around in Tegan’s head. She doesn’t trust him and sees him as a troublemaker who was easily corrupted by the Black Guardian and the Mara tries to manipulate Turlough based on that biased information.

But, the Mara doesn’t completely fail with Turlough. He convinces him to forget about Nyssa and Tegan for a while and join the Doctor on a “Boys’ Night Out”. Turlough gets upset by Mara!Doctor ruining their night out with his behavior. He wasn’t tempted by causing trouble, but he was tempted by spending an evening at a carnival with the Doctor. Turlough should know that the Doctor wouldn’t ditch Nyssa and Tegan like this, but even if it doesn’t make sense, this is something he wants enough to just run with and then be upset when it doesn’t work out. The Mara learns from this. Turlough isn’t just easily corruptible, but he wants to spend time alone with the Doctor. He wants the Doctor’s attention.

But, the Mara continues to struggle with Turlough. It straight-up asks him what he wants and he says he’s learned to be content with what he has. Turlough eventually decides that things have gotten too weird and tries to leave and it just snaps and just tries to get Turlough to take the Mark while giving generic offers of Wealth and Power. Turlough is mostly just confusing about where the snake tattoo came from. Meanwhile, they’ve broken into a building and can hear someone coming, so Mara!Doctor drags Turlough into a closet, leading to the amazing double entendre of “Don’t think I don’t appreciate the offer, but must you be so forceful?”.

Still, though he doesn’t let himself get possessed, Turlough goes along with Mara!Doctor, probably out of fear, since he got physical when he tried to leave. He still acts surprised and betrayed when he gets locked in a stall and left. After everything that happened, he’s still upset to be abandoned.

Then we get to the part where Mara!Doctor and Turlough get arrested, even though Turlough didn’t do anything but be present for Mara!Doctor’s antics. At this point, Turlough understands that the Doctor has been possessed and that the person talking to him is the Mara. He goes into I Know You’re in Here Somewhere mode, reminding the Doctor of a bunch of continuity, along with expressing gratitude that the he saved him from public school and the Black Guardian and that he owes him his life. It feels like an anguished declaration of sorts. To reach the Doctor, Turlough confesses just how much he means to him.

This is when the Mara gets it. Turlough isn’t easily corruptible because he’s loyal to the Doctor now. The Mara pretends to be the Doctor, having fought off the Mara’s influence. “The Doctor” is scared and ill and Turlough looks after him and tries to help him. He has Turlough remove his coat, exposing the Mara Tattoo, by acting feverish. Turlough wouldn’t surrender to the Mara’s temptation, so the Mara preys on his trust and loyalty. What Turlough really wants is for the Doctor to be there. It drops the act and tries to force Turlough to take the Mark, realizing that it can’t trick him into agreeing, only into getting close to the Doctor while the Mara is possessing him. 

Turlough resists and Mara!Doctor escapes. He only agrees to help in the fight against the Mara if it means help for the Doctor. He still wants to believe that he’s in there somewhere, after everything that happened. Later on, he gets the cynical “the Doctor might be dead and we’ll have to accept that” role to contrast Nyssa and Tegan, but it feels out of place after everything we’ve seen. We’ve seen just how much Turlough cares for and believes in the Doctor. But, when the companions we expect to have that attitude are around, he can’t express that anymore. I’m not sure if this is just a writing issue or something with Turlough’s character, that he might be uncomfortable expressing those sorts of emotions around others.

So, the supposedly easily corruptible Turlough is the one the Mara gives up on. It almost effortlessly possesses Nyssa, doesn’t possess Tegan again out of either boredom or Tegan having experience resisting it, and decides that it’ll have Turlough killed if he gets in the way instead of trying to possess him again. Pretending to be the Doctor won’t work twice and whatever quick possession trick it did with Nyssa apparently won’t work either. Although everyone is briefly possessed towards the end, Turlough spends the least amount of time possessed. We see Mara!Tegan in the beginning and lots of Mara!Doctor and Mara!Nyssa, but Mara!Turlough might as well not exist at all. Perhaps this was a writing decision. Turlough is morally ambiguous and has already been controlled by a Powerful Evil Entity before this, so it might’ve been decided that seeing the Mara possess him wouldn’t be very interesting. The Doctor, as the hero, and Nyssa, the most traditionally “good” of the group, would provide a sharper contrast while possessed. But, this means that Turlough stands out in how nearly impossible it is for the Mara to possess him compared to everyone else.

The general vibe that I get is that the Mara, searching for some suppressed desire to manipulate Turlough with, looking for something dark, instead finds that the only thing that works, the only thing he seems to want badly enough to act against his better judgement, is the Doctor’s attention and simple presence. Before he’s sure that something’s wrong with the Doctor, he wants his time and undivided attention, for them to just go somewhere fun together without the girls. When it’s clear that something’s wrong, he just wants the Doctor to be okay. These stories usually work with the Evil Entity finding a sort of Seven Deadly Sins desire: sex, money, power, fame, etc. Turlough’s Dark Suppressed Desire, since his dark side is already sort of out in the open, is the Doctor. You could say the same with Nyssa and Tegan, but the temptation there feels sexual. Turlough basically wants the Doctor to take him on a wholesome date.

It actually makes sense to for a character like Turlough. The main contrast is with Nyssa. Nyssa is outwardly light, presenting an image of goodness and purity. She suppresses whatever she considers impure about herself. But, Turlough is outwardly dark, openly unheroic. He suppresses softer emotions. Nyssa fears being bad, but Turlough fears being weak. Comparing Nyssa/Tegan and 5/Turlough, Nyssa suppresses her sexual attraction to Tegan, while Turlough suppresses how much he loves the Doctor. He’s spent years only looking after himself, so feeling something that intense towards someone else would be scary.

So, yeah, I overanalyzed the hell out of Turlough’s part of Cradle of the Snake. He just wants the Doctor to notice him and that scares him, though not enough that the Mara can really use it.

[rowanthestrange]

I’ll confess I'm an odd duck who actually prefers what Chibs did with Tegan and Nyssa to any ‘actually they’re wives’ ending, no matter how cute I find that idea.

A) It feels real - the old companions don't have space-time travel access, that’s the point, it’s why they all have so much unresolved trauma because so many parts couldn’t be directly addressed, Tegan wouldn't have seen Nyssa again. That’s a fairytale ‘winning lottery ticket’ ending that no one in the real world gets, and I generally prefer realism in my stories (though no shame to those who don’t).

But also because B) That makes her perfect to help Yaz, I think by very deliberate design. Tegan also lost her alien not-girlfriend. It probably took her a long time — or more likely implied to be never, with multiple failing heterosexual marriages — to process that. And here is Yaz is in such a similar position.

It gives her the chance for Tegan to support Yaz in not making the same mistakes she did, and in the process, maybe resolve her own feelings, which might not be so easy given the time she was raised in. And here is Yaz, who also didn’t know that what she was actually feeling was love, not friendship, for the longest time. Perhaps may not have even really examined her sexuality particularly prior to that, and while that’s far easier for a woman who grew up in a time where being gay is far less of an issue, she’s a muslim, she’s not ignorant to homophobia, and would certainly understand someone finding that difficult, if like her they’d never noticed, or perhaps not wanted to notice, the difference in those feelings for this person in particular.

They are both incredibly complementary to helping each other heal.

Which is what this has always all been about - healing. And it never being too late to.

I know it’s not as nice a story, but I think it’s a better story.

[circular-time]

I am afraid I neglected to take notes during Long Island Doctor Who panels this year, but one thing did stand out.

Chibnall called up both Janet and Sophie to ask how they saw their characters, particularly what they thought Tegan and Ace would've got up to since returning to Earth. So the backstory for Tegan and Ace in TPOTD was jointly brainstormed between Chibnall, who sometimes incorporates EU material but is by no means a lore geek, and the actors, who leave geeking to the fans!

Fandom isn't their job, so they don't remember every story, scene, and detail like we do. The only lore they care about is that which can help inform their onscreen performance. They've got to clear their head of last week's script to make sure they don't mix up the lines with this one. They certainly don't keep track of stories they weren't even there for, as actors.

So, while I'm pretty sure Janet heard about Nyssa and Tegan's unnamed cameo in RTD's short story tribute to Sarah Jane, she probably thought, "Huh. Interesting," And put it out of her mind.

Not because of homophobia— some of the regulars at Big Finish are gay, and she's a pretty outspoken social justice warrior as only Janet can be — but just because it didn't match what she thought she'd been acting with Sarah.

Yes, I know we can interpret certain scenes as Teh Gay, but most straight people see those same scenes differently. Janet and Sarah are BFFs, not quite to the same extent as Mandip and Jodie, but there's a kind of non-romantic BFF dynamic that's pretty darned powerful. That's clearly what the male writers back in the 80s were trying to convey.

Which has been reintroduced and reinforced in dozens of audiodramas Janet had recorded in person with Sarah before RTD penned his bit with total disregard for Nyssa's heroic future. Those stories established older!Nyssa's career as an epidemiologist and space Florence Nightengale with a husband and two kids, a later run-in with the Doctor and Tegan and Turlough, and many more brave adventures that saw her and Tegan team up again before an irreversible second parting.

TL;DR: The reason why Nyssa/Tegan didn't come up in TPOTD was because the actors created their character backgrounds, extrapolating from tv appearances, DVD/Blu Ray commentaries and Big Finish audios. In which they call one another Best Friends.

[73chn1c0l0rr3v3l]

Domaystic day 2! Secret stash, starring Nyssa and Tegan!

[rivriv03]

Bonus:

Tegan Jovanka & Nyssa

[therealjlrules]

My Doctor Who ships (in chronological order):

Ian/Barbara Nyssa/Tegan Amy/Clara Clara/Missy* Doctor/Yaz

Of note: 1) I've only seen the First Doctor's era, part of the Second's, and (obv) all of the Thirteenth's - so there might be (many!) more I haven't decided on yet. 2) You'll notice I only have one ship per character. That's because - and call me a hopeless sap - I prefer couples to be "true love/The One", for lack of better terms. That's why there's no Doctor/anyone-else-but-Yaz - because the Doctor is considered the same person through all incarnations, and I prefer Yaz as the love of their lives (sorry, Rose).

*This is a dark/one-sided/twisted ship: while Missy was clearly obsessed with Clara, in my personal fanon, Clara's love was Amy (sorry, Rory and Danny).

[giddyaunt425]

5 after starting the Great Fire of London:

Bonus

1 after starting the Great Fire of Rome:

[headcanonsandmore]

The Doctors react to "It's Raining Men" (1-13)

One: *covers Susan's eyes with his hand* My child, I think we ought to swiftly move on and leave these gentlemen to their business.

Two: *chuckles* I don't know, I imagine they think I'm rather handsome. Wouldn't you say so, Jamie?

Three: Fascinating! I wonder if they've been able to reduce the polarity, Jo. Come along, let's ask them-

Four: *cheerful shrug* These are handsome men, probably.

Five: Ah, hello! Would any of you gentlemen happened to have seen a pair of young women run past here? They may have been kissing, for some reason. Really? Thank you, I- Adric, stop staring at that man's muscles! Honestly, I can't take you lot anywhere!

Six: *gets complimented on the coat* See, Peri; I told you people would understand!

Seven: *Has to physically pull Ace away* Yes, thank you, gentleman. Ace, I really don't think you're their type.

Eight: *starts flirting and dancing along*

Nine: Fantastic! *successfully unionises the men* *gets snogged by a passing man, grins* Absolutely fantastic!

Ten: *gets flirted with, gets flustered, runs away before Rose sees*

Eleven: *adjusts bow-tie* How would I know, Amy? All human and private things, after all. *blushes red*

Twelve: *shreds on his guitar* Wicked! Reminds me of that time in Prague-

Thirteen: *looks bored and walks off to find Yaz*

[commandermaxil]

BREAKING: tegan jovanka tries to beat gay allegations (she’s losing)

[storekn1fe]

[buildoblivionthenwewilltalk]

a trinket from the tardis

[soupforsoup]

Some behind the scenes tidbits I feel normal about (classic who edition):

- apparently every story Matthew Waterhouse's hairstylist would say they were going to trim his hair and never did, resulting in all the variations from crusader triangle to fuck ass bob to shaggy mullet

-Peter Davison was unaware he was many people's sexual awakening in his dressing gown in black orchid

-Colin baker was mistaken for a runner by another actor in arc of infinity and asked to go fetch a coffee (which he did)

-he would also walk around making chicken noises on the set of arc of infinity (until he was told to stop)

-Matthew didn't know adric died in part four of earthshock until he read Peter's script whilst shooting, and was apparently more upset over the fact he was being killed off rather than just leaving

-a lot of the doctor who movie was filmed in the same building as the X-files

-Janet Fielding was told she was good casting for doctor who because she "looked slightly alien"

-Deborah Watling and Frazer Hines used to joke that she left the show because she got pregnant, as she left almost nine months after arriving

-Sylvester Mccoy once couldn't find a filming location until after the doctor who fans, who had been waiting there for an hour

-Paul Mcgann thought all the doctors companions were their kids

-Peter and Sarah Sutton had to stop Janet from accidentally prostituting herself in the red light district

-Sylvester once played the spoons on a guy that tried to menace him

-Paul had to wear a wig because he was casted with the long hair you see in the movie but cut it all off for another role a couple months before they started filming

-Janet called Matthew "matte-finish" and "boom-boom waterhouse" whilst filming earthshock

-the cast bought a prop gun for arc of infinity from a sex shop in amsterdam

(Just to stress I obviously don't know the validity of these I just sourced them from interviews and commentaries!! Please don't come for me if these aren't accurate! These are just some funny things I've heard and if anyone else knows any random facts or stories feel free to reblog/share!!)

[corallapis]