Nyssa's Mother (canon, schmanon)
Dec. 15th, 2015 03:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
circular_time“Enough, Trakens. Enough! Applause is heady, and I've already drunk more wine than a man of my responsibilities should. To be a consul and a father I thought were duties enough, but now once again to be a husband, and to Kassia.” — introduction of Tremas and Nyssa in Keeper of Traken
Wait, what about Nyssa's Mom? Did Nyssa even know her? Canon discontinuity alert....
‘The people of Earth — they are not my kind,’ Nyssa protested.
‘That much is true. We saw that in your mind.’
‘You wear my father's face and body like a mask.’
‘We took your memories, used them to recreate your father, your home.’
‘And my mother? I never knew her. She died giving birth to me.’
‘She was taken from the darkest place in your subconscious, spun out of your own fears and guilt. She was a mirror of your feelings.’
— Nyssa in Empire of Death, a Past Doctor Adventure by David Bishop
Yet we hear from Nyssa's, er, Sarah's own lips that Nyssa remembers her Mum:
“She smiled at the familiar comforting touch of her quilt. Her mother had sewn Nyssa’s initials into the silk, much to her father’s surprise and mild disapproval.”
...
“Life was so different now. How many hours had she wasted studying etiquette and courtly language that she would never use? How many friends might she have made in those long-lost days, had she been given the opportunity? How many hours might she have spent with her mother, her father, even Kassia?”
— Nyssa in The Toy, written by Nigel Fairs, read by Sarah Sutton
Nyssa: I know what it's like. My parents were taken from me too.
Thomas: Then you understand. Why I had to do it, to bring her back.
Nyssa: You can't bring people back.
Thomas: But you must want to! In your heart of hearts.
Nyssa: No, Thomas. You have to live your life. I remember my mother and father, and they wouldn't have wanted me to waste my life on grief, on wondering what might have been. They would want me to be happy, to make a future for myself. And I do that, not to forget them, but to honour their memory.
Thomas: At least you knew your parents.
— The Haunting of Thomas Brewster
So, er, exactly how and when did Nyssa’s mum die? I have this vague memory of her dying of an illness, but I can't track it down, so I may be misremembering. [ETA: It's mentioned in The Toy.] (And note that there's contradictory information about there being no disease on Traken, yet Nyssa's trained in medicine, and the audios call her "Trakenite" despite her father addressing his people as "Trakens," er... ah... right.)
If you dig around all the books, audios, and TV episodes, chances are, you're going to hit a contradiction. At which point you wind up weighing which author is the most trustworthy source, something I'm used to doing from my academic training. (I knew that classical studies MA would come in handy for something besides burger-flipping.)
My own inclination is to take the TV episodes as primary canon, the audios performed by the original actors as secondary canon, and books published during the wilderness years as ascended fanfiction, although the Past Doctor Adventures were at least nominally under BBC auspices (as opposed to being farmed out to Virgin).
On the other hand, the books and audios published during the wilderness years kept the flame alive and paved the way for Doctor Who to be rebooted. So, while the details weren’t subject to the same kind of peer, ahem, editorial review as the TV series and audios, I respect the spirit of them, even if I don't accept the parts that seem to me to flat-out contradict what I saw on TV growing up.
That said, I’m wary of SF’s tendency (in the hands of male authors) to develop a protagonist's relationship with his/her named father but to erase the unnamed mother, usually by having her die in childbirth or when the protagonist is young. It’s an alarmingly common pattern in all my favorite fandoms, to the point that I’ve handed out “Dead Mothers’ Society” membership cards to unnamed moms in my meta.
To avoid yet another example, I’m going to go with Nigel Fairs’ version: Nyssa's mother was alive long enough to be around when Nyssa was studying to be a scientist and a lady of court, but probably died before she finished her training. (Nyssa recalls having to pass some sort of test with the "formidable Consul Katura," after which her lady's maid gives her a gift. It sounds like her maid was a surrogate mother by that time, although it's hard to tell.)
Besides, I'm so chuffed that we finally hear Nyssa (I.E. Sarah) describing her home life— which is how The Toy starts— that I want to hold onto that canon.
Wait, what about Nyssa's Mom? Did Nyssa even know her? Canon discontinuity alert....
‘The people of Earth — they are not my kind,’ Nyssa protested.
‘That much is true. We saw that in your mind.’
‘You wear my father's face and body like a mask.’
‘We took your memories, used them to recreate your father, your home.’
‘And my mother? I never knew her. She died giving birth to me.’
‘She was taken from the darkest place in your subconscious, spun out of your own fears and guilt. She was a mirror of your feelings.’
— Nyssa in Empire of Death, a Past Doctor Adventure by David Bishop
Yet we hear from Nyssa's, er, Sarah's own lips that Nyssa remembers her Mum:
“She smiled at the familiar comforting touch of her quilt. Her mother had sewn Nyssa’s initials into the silk, much to her father’s surprise and mild disapproval.”
...
“Life was so different now. How many hours had she wasted studying etiquette and courtly language that she would never use? How many friends might she have made in those long-lost days, had she been given the opportunity? How many hours might she have spent with her mother, her father, even Kassia?”
— Nyssa in The Toy, written by Nigel Fairs, read by Sarah Sutton
Nyssa: I know what it's like. My parents were taken from me too.
Thomas: Then you understand. Why I had to do it, to bring her back.
Nyssa: You can't bring people back.
Thomas: But you must want to! In your heart of hearts.
Nyssa: No, Thomas. You have to live your life. I remember my mother and father, and they wouldn't have wanted me to waste my life on grief, on wondering what might have been. They would want me to be happy, to make a future for myself. And I do that, not to forget them, but to honour their memory.
Thomas: At least you knew your parents.
— The Haunting of Thomas Brewster
So, er, exactly how and when did Nyssa’s mum die? I have this vague memory of her dying of an illness, but I can't track it down, so I may be misremembering. [ETA: It's mentioned in The Toy.] (And note that there's contradictory information about there being no disease on Traken, yet Nyssa's trained in medicine, and the audios call her "Trakenite" despite her father addressing his people as "Trakens," er... ah... right.)
If you dig around all the books, audios, and TV episodes, chances are, you're going to hit a contradiction. At which point you wind up weighing which author is the most trustworthy source, something I'm used to doing from my academic training. (I knew that classical studies MA would come in handy for something besides burger-flipping.)
My own inclination is to take the TV episodes as primary canon, the audios performed by the original actors as secondary canon, and books published during the wilderness years as ascended fanfiction, although the Past Doctor Adventures were at least nominally under BBC auspices (as opposed to being farmed out to Virgin).
On the other hand, the books and audios published during the wilderness years kept the flame alive and paved the way for Doctor Who to be rebooted. So, while the details weren’t subject to the same kind of peer, ahem, editorial review as the TV series and audios, I respect the spirit of them, even if I don't accept the parts that seem to me to flat-out contradict what I saw on TV growing up.
That said, I’m wary of SF’s tendency (in the hands of male authors) to develop a protagonist's relationship with his/her named father but to erase the unnamed mother, usually by having her die in childbirth or when the protagonist is young. It’s an alarmingly common pattern in all my favorite fandoms, to the point that I’ve handed out “Dead Mothers’ Society” membership cards to unnamed moms in my meta.
To avoid yet another example, I’m going to go with Nigel Fairs’ version: Nyssa's mother was alive long enough to be around when Nyssa was studying to be a scientist and a lady of court, but probably died before she finished her training. (Nyssa recalls having to pass some sort of test with the "formidable Consul Katura," after which her lady's maid gives her a gift. It sounds like her maid was a surrogate mother by that time, although it's hard to tell.)
Besides, I'm so chuffed that we finally hear Nyssa (I.E. Sarah) describing her home life— which is how The Toy starts— that I want to hold onto that canon.
