History Recap / BigFinishDoctorWho091CircularTime

* BigDamnKiss: Nyssa gets caught off guard.

* ClarkesThirdLaw: The Doctor invokes this in the Tower.

* [[spoiler: DyingDream]]: Winter.

* EvilLaugh: Courtesy of TheMaster.
* FirstKiss: Nyssa with Andrew in Fall.

* FriendOrFoe: In Summer.

* JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind: Winter.

* OlderThanTheyLook: The Doctor mentions he's this, in Winter.

* [[RevengeByProxy Punishment By Proxy]]

* RogueAgent: The Doctor is tasked by the Time Lords to find one in "Spring".

* YearInsideHourOutside: The Doctor mentions [[spoiler: Winter is like this]].

* AndNowForSomethingCompletelyDifferent: Every story is in a different style. Spring is a straight up Adventure (albeit short), Summer is a Historical BottleEpisode and takes place in a cell, Fall is a character study, and Winter is a FeverDreamEpisode stylistically reminiscent of the weirder Fifth Doctor serials like "Kinda" or "Enlightenment".

Four standalone episodes staring Nyssa and the Fifth Doctor, themed around the seasons. "Spring" and "Summer" were written by Mike Maddox, "Autumn" and "Winter" by Creator/PaulCornell.

Four standalone episodes, themed around the seasons. "Spring" and "Summer" were written by Mike Maddox, "Autumn" and "Winter" by Creator/PaulCornell.

* JudgeJuryAndExecutioner: Two squabbling aliens get sentenced and condemned by one of their superiors. Later Zero fulfills the same role.

* AndNowForSomethingCompletelyDifferent: Every story is in a different style. Spring is a straight up Adventure (albeit short), Summer is a Historical BottleEpisode and takes place in a cell, Fall is a character study, and Winter is somewhere between Summer and Spring in "typical" Doctor Who ness.

* SherlockScan: Isaac Newton deduces a lot just by looking at money that normal people wouldn't think of. And leads to the conclusion that the Doctor can TimeTravel and he and Nyssa are HumanAliens. He even comes up with a theory regarding TheNthDoctor, then predicts UsefulNotes/EnglishCivilWar, UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution and the UsefulNotes/TheSpaceRace and even an AlienInvasion that hasn't happened to us yet!

* BattleInTheCentreOfTheMind: In Winter the Doctor is trying to help his regeneration by reaching out to his companions, however the Master is trying to prevent his regeneration.

* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler: Kamelion]] in Winter.

Off to the Tower of London ([[RunningGag again]]) in the 17th century for the Doctor and Nyssa, who've been arrested for ''forgery'', of all things. The Doctor absent-mindedly gave Nyssa a handful of future coins to pay with at a bar, and the arresting officer was [[Recap/DoctorWhoS16E2ThePiratePlanet the Doctor's old friend]], UsefulNotes/IsaacNewton. Sir Isaac is ''interested'' in the coins. ''Really'' interested. The Doctor is in no mood to try and explain that he's regenerated since his days of lobbing apples at Newton's head, and tries an appeal to kindness, then an appeal to religion (much to Nyssa's confusion). He also tries to wow the guard by quoting from Creator/JonPertwee's "Who is the Doctor?". It goes... badly. Newton, for his part, doesn't care much about the Doctor. But he does care about what's on the coins -- noticing the years, the Tudor symbols, the long life of Elizabeth II, the unification of Europe, the position of the Irish harp, the material of the futuristic metals, the wear and grease on the ancient ones... and, through a truly magnificent and very elaborate AwesomeByAnalysis sequence, correctly deduces everything there is to know about future Earth and the TARDIS. Realizing that the Earth will eventually fall victim to an extraterrestrial invasion, he initially concludes that the Doctor has travelled in time to gloat over the moments of human history. Following a very tense standoff, Nyssa steps in and talks cold science to Newton, and with a little help from the Doctor, is able to placate him with the wonders of the future and tales of Newton's own legacy. Unfortunately, the excitement brings on "one of his funny turns," and Newton then collapses, giving the Doctor the opportunity to send Nyssa back to the TARDIS while he does his best to keep Newton's seizure from becoming terminal. Mollified by the Doctor's honesty concerning the future, Newton allows him to go free - before passing out. The Doctor then returns to the TARDIS, saying that Newton will be fine in a few days, and will in fact will already be bored with what he learned of time travel.

Off to the Tower of London ([[RunningGag again]]) in the 17th century for the Doctor and Nyssa, who've been arrested for ''forgery'', of all things. The Doctor absent-mindedly gave Nyssa a handful of future coins to pay with at a bar, and the arresting officer was [[Recap/DoctorWhoS16E2ThePiratePlanet the Doctor's old friend]], UsefulNotes/IsaacNewton. Sir Isaac is ''interested'' in the coins. ''Really'' interested. The Doctor is in no mood to try and explain that he's regenerated since his days of lobbing apples at Newton's head, and tries an appeal to kindness, then an appeal to religion (much to Nyssa's confusion). He also tries to wow the guard by quoting from Creator/JonPertwee's "Who is the Doctor?". It goes... badly. Newton, for his part, doesn't care much about the Doctor. But he does care about what's on the coins -- noticing the years, the Tudor symbols, the long life of Elizabeth II, the unification of Europe, the position of the Irish harp, the material of the futuristic metals, the wear and grease on the ancient ones... and, through a truly magnificent and very elaborate AwesomeByAnalysis sequence, correctly deduces everything there is to know about future Earth and the TARDIS. Since he realises that Earth will one day be abandoned in favor of other planets, he concludes that the Doctor has travelled in time to alter the past. Nyssa steps in, and talks cold science to Newton, and she and the Doctor succeed in overloading his mind with the wonders of the future and tales of Newton's own legacy. While Newton succumbs to an epilepsy fit the Doctor sends Nyssa back to the TARDIS and helps Newton recover. He then returns himself, saying that Newton will be fine in a few days.

Nyssa, now many years older and happily married on [[Recap/DoctorWhoS20E4Terminus Terminus]], has a nightmare about the Doctor and realises that it's more than just a dream. Her husband, Lasarti, is a dream technology specialist, and Nyssa asks to be hooked up into his beta-stage experiment so she can replay her dream lucidly. In the dreamscape, she meets the Doctor -- also happily married, old and by now retired. He's got a beautiful farm together with Peri, his wife, and Tegan and Turlough, his two young children. They enjoy their quiet life and watch the Master once a week on the telly. And he's quite convinced that Nyssa is his dream, not the other way around. Nyssa and Lasarti coax him out of the dream by setting the farm on fire, and the Doctor realises what's really going on: he's regenerating, and his mind and body are unable to cope with [[Recap/DoctorWhoS21E6TheCavesOfAndrozani the spectrox poisoning]]. The entire dream is taking only a few seconds in real life, but the Master (with Kamelion's help) is trying to trick him into thinking he's a simple human who's happy living out his life with a family. Luckily, the TARDIS has created a [[Recap/DoctorWhoS19E1Castrovalva zero energy sanctuary]] for him, and seeing Nyssa makes the Doctor remember who he is: not even remotely suited for a quiet, retired life. He fondly remembers all his companions and gains the strength to complete his regeneration. While Lasarti takes care of Kamelion, the Doctor gently takes Nyssa's hands, kisses her forehead and dashes off towards his Watcher. He mentions how colourful and proud his next regeneration will be, and jumps right into his Watcher, colliding with it and dragging them both back into reality.

Off to the Tower of London ([[RunningGag again]]) in the 17th century for the Doctor and Nyssa, who've been arrested for ''forgery'', of all things. The Doctor absent-mindedly gave Nyssa a handful of future coins to pay with at a bar, and the arresting officer was [[Recap/DoctorWhoS16E2ThePiratePlanet the Doctor's old friend]], IsaacNewton. Sir Isaac is ''interested'' in the coins. ''Really'' interested. The Doctor is in no mood to try and explain that he's regenerated since his days of lobbing apples at Newton's head, and tries an appeal to kindness, then an appeal to religion (much to Nyssa's confusion). He also tries to wow the guard by quoting from Creator/JonPertwee's "Who is the Doctor?". It goes... badly. Newton, for his part, doesn't care much about the Doctor. But he does care about what's on the coins -- noticing the years, the Tudor symbols, the long life of Elizabeth II, the unification of Europe, the position of the Irish harp, the material of the futuristic metals, the wear and grease on the ancient ones... and, through a truly magnificent and very elaborate AwesomeByAnalysis sequence, correctly deduces everything there is to know about future Earth and the TARDIS. Since he realises that Earth will one day be abandoned in favor of other planets, he concludes that the Doctor has travelled in time to alter the past. Nyssa steps in, and talks cold science to Newton, and she and the Doctor succeed in overloading his mind with the wonders of the future and tales of Newton's own legacy. While Newton succumbs to an epilesy fit the Doctor sends Nyssa back to the TARDIS and helps Newton recover. He then returns himself, saying that Newton will be fine in a few days.

* SherlockScan: Isaac Newton deduces a lot just by looking at money that normal people wouldn't think of. And leads to the conclusion that the Doctor can TimeTravel and he and Nyssa are HumanAliens. He even comes up with a theory regarding TheNthDoctor, then predicts EnglishCivilWar, UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution and the TheSpaceRace and even an AlienInvasion that hasn't happened to us yet!

* GenteelInterbellumSetting: {{Invoked}} in Fall, although it could take place anywhere in the 20th century. PGWodehouse is name-checked.

The Fifth Doctor and Nyssa visit a paradise planet, on a mission from the Gallifreyan High Council. They're there to stop the leader of the bird-people, who's another renegade Time Lord... but he doesn't want to leave. The bird society has a system of punishment that involves harming the loved ones of criminals in their stead. The Time Lord, Zero, is well aware of who the Doctor is, and what here's there for -- and while the Doctor discusses the intricate politics of regeneration, and the fact that Zero's TARDIS isn't so much ''in'' the great lake as it ''is'' the great lake, Zero confesses that he needs his TARDIS in order to stay alive. The bird-people's language is much too complicated to work with the inherent Time Lord TranslatorMicrobes alone, and Zero's entirely dependant on his TARDIS' translation circuits (as well as some glued-on feathers) for survival. The Doctor, who's not happy with his job, confesses that he's been sent by the Time Lords to have a word with Zero about the conditions of his exile -- particularly, the fact that Zero hasn't done his forced regeneration yet. And isn't planning to, since regenerating would render him unable to keep the trust of the bird people. Nyssa is shocked to discover that the Doctor was exiled to begin with, let alone [[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E7TheWarGames that he was executed]] (a fact he'd neatly kept hidden from her). Zero has some rather more interesting plans: he frames Nyssa and the Doctor and makes it seem like they murdered him, and uses the process and some local poison to regenerate cross-species, into the mystical prophet of the bird-people. He plans to take them soaring into the skies again using zeppelins, to abolish their backwards laws of punishment and to become a God. Five and Nyssa high-tail it out of there.

* DreamWeaver: Nyssa's [[spoiler: husband's]] machine can give this to people.

Off to the Tower of London ([[RunningGag again]]) in the 17th century for the Doctor and Nyssa, who've been arrested for ''forgery'', of all things. The Doctor absent-mindedly gave Nyssa a handful of future coins to pay with at a bar, and the arresting officer was [[Recap/DoctorWhoS16E2ThePiratePlanet the Doctor's old friend]], IsaacNewton. Sir Isaac is ''interested'' in the coins. ''Really'' interested. The Doctor is in no mood to try and explain that he's regenerated since his days of lobbing apples at Newton's head, and tries an appeal to kindness, then an appeal to religion (much to Nyssa's confusion). He also tries to wow the guard by quoting from Creator/JonPertwee's "Who is the Doctor?". It goes... badly. Newton, for his part, doesn't care much about the Doctor. But he does care about what's on the coins -- noticing the years, the Tudor symbols, the long life of Elizabeth II, the unification of Europe, the position of the Irish harp, the material of the futuristic metals, the wear and grease on the ancient ones... and, through a truly magnificent and very elaborate AwesomeByAnalysis sequence, correctly deduces everything there is to know about future Earth and the TARDIS. Since he realises that Earth will one day be abandoned in favor of other planets, he concludes that the Doctor has travelled in time to alter the past. Nyssa steps in, and talks cold science to Newton, and she and the Doctor succeed in overloading his mind with the wonders of the future and tales of Newton's own legacy. The two quickly escape while Newton succumbs to an epilesy fit.

* BatmanGambit: Zero tricks [[spoiler: The Doctor into inadvertently killing him]].
* BigDamnKiss: Nyssa gets caught off guard.

* ForeShadowing: When the Doctor is trying to remember his wife's name, he thinks it's [[Recap/DoctorWhoS21E5PlanetOfFire Peri]], but he slips up and thinks it's [[spoiler: Kamelion]].

* JudgeJuryAndExecutioner: Two squabbling aliens get sentenced and condemned by one of their superiors. Later Zero fulfils the same role.

* HeyItsThatVoice: Creator/DavidWarner is Sir UsefulNotes/IsaacNewton.

* {{Cricket}}: The Doctor is observing a game, and waxes poetically.