Day 548: The Keeper of Traken Part 3

Another new companion is introduced in this story. Her name's Nyssa, and the incredibly obvious question that comes up as we look at her character is 'why does she become a companion?'. Her role in the story is relatively minor. She spends much of the time running around with the Doctor, Adric and and her father Tremas in order to prevent the plans of the Melkur from bearing fruit, with most of the story going towards the work of the Doctor and Tremas, with Adric fulfilling an assistant's role. Nyssa is worth pretty much nothing in this story, only existing to be nice and help everyone else.

And here's the interesting thing. Nyssa wasn't originally going to be a companion. She was brought back into the series, because the production team felt that she was a good enough character to work well enough to become a regular, even though she's had virtually nothing to do in the entire episode. It's like if Princess Astra from The Armageddon Factor became a companion. They may have worked well as a side character in their own story, but you wonder whether they'd be suited to run off with the Doctor at the end of the episode.

But still, we mustn't pre-judge, and maybe the character will work well in the future. Only time will tell though, as the serial draws to a close.