Cressida

Vicki, as Cressida, with Troilus. (TV: The Myth Makers ^[+]Loading...["The Myth Makers (TV story)"])

Cressida was a cousin of King Priam on his father's side of the family. (PROSE: The Myth Makers ^[+]Loading...["The Myth Makers (novelisation)"])

Priam later gave the name to Vicki Pallister (TV: The Myth Makers ^[+]Loading...["The Myth Makers (TV story)"], PROSE: The Myth Makers ^[+]Loading...["The Myth Makers (novelisation)"]) because he thought she needed a "Trojan type of name" which wouldn't arouse comment. (PROSE: The Myth Makers ^[+]Loading...["The Myth Makers (novelisation)"]) Vicki parted ways with the Doctor at the end of this adventure to remain with Troilus, (TV: The Myth Makers ^[+]Loading...["The Myth Makers (TV story)"], PROSE: The Myth Makers ^[+]Loading...["The Myth Makers (novelisation)"]) continuing to use the name Cressida well into old age. (AUDIO: Fugitive of the Daleks ^[+]Loading...["Fugitive of the Daleks (audio story)"])

Cressida, also spelled Criseyde and Cresseid, went on to feature as a character in multiple stories which were set during or around the time of the Trojan War. Examples included Geoffrey Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, Robert Henrysoun's Testament of Cresseid, and William Shakespeare's The Noble Troyan Woman of Troy and Troilus and Cressida. (PROSE: Troilus and Cressida ^[+]Loading...["Troilus and Cressida (short story)"])

The original Cressida

Near to the end of the Trojan War, King Priam stated that he had "once" had a cousin called Cressida. When bestowing it upon Vicki, he noted that he had "always liked the sound" of the name. (PROSE: The Myth Makers ^[+]Loading...["The Myth Makers (novelisation)"])

As an alias

Main article: Vicki Pallister#Later life

As early as their very first travels together, the First Doctor was aware that Vicki's "destiny was mapped for her thousands of years before she was ever born". He once told Barbara Wright this but stopped himself from explaining further, feeling that he had said too much. (PROSE: Byzantium! ^[+]Loading...["Byzantium! (novel)"])

After the TARDIS was brought into Troy, Vicki emerged and claimed to be from the future. She was questioned about her claims but not before being given the Trojan name Cressida by Priam, as he considered the name Vicki "outlandish" while Cassandra called it "a heathen sort of name". Vicki thought Cressida was a "very pretty" name and accepted it for herself. (TV: The Myth Makers ^[+]Loading...["The Myth Makers (TV story)"], PROSE: The Myth Makers ^[+]Loading...["The Myth Makers (novelisation)"]) Homer later wrote that "from that instant she [Vicki] was lost forever, and at last found her proper place in Time and History". (PROSE: The Myth Makers ^[+]Loading...["The Myth Makers (novelisation)"])

Cressida and Priam's son Troilus quickly fell in love, with Cressida overcoming accusations of sorcery from Cassandra and Troilus's jealousy for her closeness to Steven Taylor, who had adopted the identity of the Greek soldier Diomede. Cressida chose to stay with Troilus instead of leaving with the Doctor and Steven after the fall of Troy. She hoped to build another Troy together with Troilus, assisted by his cousin Aeneas. (TV: The Myth Makers ^[+]Loading...["The Myth Makers (TV story)"], PROSE: The Myth Makers ^[+]Loading...["The Myth Makers (novelisation)"])

Vicki continued to be known as Cressida in her married life with Troilus (PROSE: Apocrypha Bipedium ^[+]Loading...["Apocrypha Bipedium (short story)"]) and long into her old age, even after Troilus's death. (AUDIO: Fugitive of the Daleks ^[+]Loading...["Fugitive of the Daleks (audio story)"])

Vicki's diaries, which she started to write after remaining in Troy, were known to later scholars as the Primary Cressida document and the Secondary Cressida document. (PROSE: Apocrypha Bipedium ^[+]Loading...["Apocrypha Bipedium (short story)"])

As a character

In Chaucer

Criseyde featured in Troilus and Criseyde by Geoffrey Chaucer. (PROSE: Troilus and Cressida ^[+]Loading...["Troilus and Cressida (short story)"]) It was well-known by William Shakespeare's time, who called Cressida's tale "part of tradition" at the age of eight. He was shocked to discover that the Eighth Doctor believed his future self to be responsible for inventing the story, telling him Chaucer had told it years before in disbelief at his ignorance.

Troilus and Cressida's love failed in this version. (PROSE: Apocrypha Bipedium ^[+]Loading...["Apocrypha Bipedium (short story)"])

In Henrysoun

Robert Henrysoun's story, Testament of Cresseid, was referenced in a variant version of Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida.

The Prologue, who was based upon the First Doctor, claimed to have met Henrysoun and questioned him on the appropriateness of Cresseid's fate. The Prologue believed that the nasty nature of the girl's demise was harsh, opining that the scars of leprosy which were visited upon her as punishment were for faults he believed were not her own. However, Henrysoun's mind was set and he did not change the ending. (PROSE: Troilus and Cressida ^[+]Loading...["Troilus and Cressida (short story)"])

In Shakespeare

The first play by William Shakespeare in which Cressida featured was The Noble Troyan Woman of Troy, a piece of juvenilia written after the young boy met the real Cressida in 1183 BC. It was an account of this encounter written in strict iambic pentameter composed entirely in rhyming couplets and detailed how the Eighth Doctor navigated meeting his former companion with a new face while also trying to protect Shakespeare from future knowledge.

The adult Shakespeare later wrote Troilus and Cressida based on Chaucer's story. In this play, Cressida ended up with Diomede instead of Troilus. The First Doctor, who had not read Troilus and Cressida, was not aware of this at the time of Vicki's departure from the TARDIS. Writing in their memoir Not Necessarily the Way I Do It!, a later incarnation of the Doctor recalled that he had only let her go away with Troilus at Troy's fall because he had assumed their romance was predestined once he heard she was calling herself Cressida. (PROSE: Apocrypha Bipedium ^[+]Loading...["Apocrypha Bipedium (short story)"])