Snakedance

4 episodes
Aired between 18th January 1983 and 26th January 1983

Written by Christopher Bailey
Produced by John Nathan-Turner
Directed by Fiona Cumming

Synopsis

Even though she's safely back on the TARDIS, Tegan begins to have awful dreams.  The Doctor's curiosity is piqued and he begins to investigate. 

Tegan dreams of a cave with a snake head carved into it.  She's somehow sleepwalked into the console room previously and changed the course of the TARDIS to go to a planet called Manussa, once home of a barbaric Sumaran Empire.

Concerned that it's the Mara somehow directing her thoughts and actions, the Doctor rigs up a hypnotic device that stops Tegan from dreaming until he can figure out if the cave in Tegan's dream is on Manussa.

It just so happens that the Manussan people were formed as a society when 500 years previous, a man came and overthrew the Mara, leader of the Sumaran Empire.  The Manussan's celebrate this overthrowing annually and this years celebrations (very soon to take place) mark the 500th anniversary. 

On this planet, there is a nobility - it is part of a federation of three planets, and Lon, son of the Federator is visiting with his mother, Tanha, to enjoy the festivities.  Lon is bored however and only reluctantly agrees to go to visit the old Sumaran sites with the chief professor of history on the subject. 

Meanwile, the TARDIS arrives in the city and whilst the Doctor goes off looking for the cave, Nyssa and Tegan mingle in the streets.  Tegan is eventually taken into a fortune tellers booth and loses her hypnosis headphones, giving the Mara opportunity to take possession of her after appearing inside the crystal ball.

The now possessed Tegan begins running and hiding from Nyssa and starts to put her / it's plans together to reincarnate. Nyssa spends her time trying to find Tegan.

The Doctor meanwhile finds the cave and sees Lon, Tanha and Ambril, the Professor inside it, speaking of a great crystal that was once placed in a carving of the Mara.  The Doctor tries to warn them, but is thrown out. 

The Doctor goes to the palace and tries to convince Ambril again, but is thrown out.  Ambril's assistant, Chela however is curious and passes the Doctor a blue stone and is convinced it's a miniature version of the great crystal. The Doctor  tries it back at the TARDIS and finds that it is receptive to mental energy. 

Meanwhile, Tegan / The Mara takes control of a showman called Dugdale and uses him to go to the palace and fetch Lon to it.  When Lon arrives, he is curious enough to approach the Mara, who then possesses him too.  All three of them go to the cave and open a secret entrance, available only to the Mara.  It contains lots of dead artefacts from the Sumaran race. 

Convinced everything is in danger, the Doctor goes to the palace again, interrupting a dinner.  He is thrown in jail for his efforts, leaving Nyssa alone to do the running around.  Chela visits the Doctor and hands him an old diary from the previous Professor - Dojjen.   He says Dojjen went mad and went into the foothills to join a bunch of religious fanatics who do something called the snakedance that was outlawed by the federation centuries ago.

As the Doctor is studying the diary, Lon returns to the palace and brings Ambril down to the secret entrance, showing him some of the "priceless" artefacts.  He and the Mara promise Ambril that they will allow him credit for the discovery if they hand over the great crystal and use it in the ceremony the next day.  Ambril's greed gets the better of him and he agrees.

Having read the diary, the Doctor is convinced that Dojjen knew the mara would return, and he would use the crystal somehow to stop it. 

Nyssa tries to help the Doctor escape, but they are caught by Tanha, and placed in jail again. 

Ambril and Lon return to the palace and announce that they will use the great crystal, something forbidden even for the Federator's son. 

Chela is so alarmed that he goes and frees the Doctor and Nyssa.  They all try to flee but Lon and his guards capture them again.  He orders them executed but his mother disagrees.

As they debate, the showing of the great crystal provides enough of a distraction for the Doctor, Nyssa and Chela to escape.

Once outside the city, near the cave opening, the Doctor muses that Tegan is in great danger and they travel into the wastes to use the small crystal so they can summon Dojjen.

They do so and through psychic connection, Dojjen tells the Doctor that the only way to beat the Mara is to find the stillness within himself.

Back in the city, Lon and Ambril prepare for the ceremony, and the population begin a winding march towards the cave. 

The ceremony continues until, by using the actual great crystal, Lon allows the Mara access to the physical world and it leaves the carving on the wall and becomes a giant snake again, subjugating everyone.

The Doctor and co. burst onto the scene, just in time to see Tegan mind-melding with the snake.

Everyone is forced into submission, but the doctor calms his mind enough to become immune to it's power.  He removes the great crystal and destroys it, thereby killing the Mara.

Everyone is grateful that the Mara is dead and they are free of it's influence.

Trivia

• This was the last televised story that Chris Bailey did for Doctor Who

• This was also the first TV role that Martin Clunes ever had. In future years, numerous talk shows would wheel out the pictures of him in the ceremonial outfit and embarrass him

• There were rumours in the Doctor Who magazine for many years that it was in fact Kate Bush who wrote Kinda and Snakedance as a pseudonym. 

The Review

I have to hold my hands up here and say that I was pleasantly surprised by how good Snakedance was.  I remember watching it for the first time around 2007, and I was as frustrated with it as I was with Kinda and other kitsch Doctor Who stories.  It just didn't do it for me. 

Eleven years on, and I can say that time's definitely changed my viewpoint.  Snakedance for the most part, goes away from the heavy metaphors and suggestions and replaces them with some great world building on a par with the excellent background provided in The Ribos Operation.  The people of Manussa have a rich history and culture. You can see epoch's and traditions embroiled in the story in a way that doesn't detract, but enhances it.

If that wasn't enough, the acting is great here, with Martin Clunes clearly stealing the show, even though it's his first appearance.  Ambril does a great job here too and in any other story, he would be the highlight.  A tip of the cap should also be given to the Henry Gordon Jago-esque conman, Dugdale.

When you watch it, although it's super camp, this rich environment and good acting all come together to show something akin to Raiders of the Lost Ark, especially the ending with everyone cowering before the all powerful release of the artifact. 

If there's a downside to be had, it's mainly the costumes which do detract from the story, and perhaps the stupid rubber snake on Tegan's arm.  Other than that, this is a pretty good one to watch.

Rating

8 out of 10

Rewatchability Factor

5 out of 10

Watch this if you liked...

• The Mind Robber

• Planet of the Spiders

• Kinda

• Turn Left (Doctor Who, Series 4)

• Rings of Akhaten (Doctor Who, Series 7)

Kinda

Four episodes
Aired between 1st February 1982 and 9th February 1982

Written by Christopher Bailey
Produced by John Nathan-Turner
Directed by Peter Grimwade


Synopsis

The crew land on a jungle planet called Deva Loka. Whilst everyone explores it, Nyssa stays behind to recover from a series of fainting spells she's been having.

As they explore, the Doctor and co. find a bunch of crystal structures that make musical sounds. 

Tegan is enthralled by them an falls asleep near them.  As she rests, she has something of a nightmare, encountering a bunch of spectre-like figures that all bear the mark of a snake on their arm.  One of the spectres, Dukkha, tries to get Tegan to let him use her body to spend some time outside of the dreaming world.

He does so by trapping her in the nightmare, reflecting herself and making herself doubt what is real and what is fake.

Meanwhile, the Doctor and Adric find a human recon team who are looking at Deva Loka for colonisation.  They've found a bunch of natives called the Kinda, who are totally silent (well, the males are), and have subjugated themselves.  During there time on the planet, some of the recon team have gone missing and one of the soldiers, Hindle, is slowly losing his mind.

The commanding officer, Sanders believes that the Doctor and Adric are responsible for the latest person going missing and they keep them locked up whilst he investigates in an environment suit called the TSS. He leaves the unstable Hindle in charge of the base whilst he's gone.

As Sanders is out, he encounters female Kinda who present a wooden box to him that turns him child like.  When he returns, he is content to let Hindle be in charge and he does whatever anyone tells him. 

Back in the clearing, Tegan eventually lets the Dukkha take control of her, and she awakens, quickly taking control of a Kinda male called Aris who then goes off to rally the Kinda together to destroy the recon base.

Hindle in the meantime has somehow made two of the Kinda follow his orders and he has set explosives around the base with a threat to blow them up if he feels like it, or if anything from the
outside tries to get in. 

The Doctor makes friends with the scientist from the recon base (Todd) and together, they manage to make a run for it, but Adric is caught and forced to stay and buy into Hindle's insanity.

Whilst they are in the jungle, Todd and the Doctor come across the two Kinda females - Panna and Karuna - and they tell them of the fact that great destruction and evil is coming. They share a vision that shows a sort of cycle of time, where disastrous events happen once every few thousand years.  It becomes clear that Aris is the centre of all this and he  is possessed by an evil spirit called a Mara.

Aris turns up and hypnotises Karuna, removing their ability to stop him from killing the humans.  She is eventually freed of the hypnosis, but is possessed by the life force of Panna to do so, effectively killing Panna's old body.

Together. they find Tegan, wake her up and explain what's happened and what she's unleashed.

Back at the recon base, Adric has had enough and tries to escape in the TSS.  This coincides with the Kinda marching on it. 

Adric is unaware that the TSS responds to thought waves and it ends up firing its gun in all directions, wounding many of the Kinda, and Aris.  The natives flee and Aris is left on his own to run into the jungle.

The Doctor shows up and helps Adric out of the machine.

Together they go into the recon base and overpower Hindle, eventually making him look into the box which somehow restores his sanity.

The Doctor figures out that the Mara doesn't like to see its own reflection and he recruits the restored Kinda tribe to use solar panels from the recon base to trap Aris in a ring of mirrors.  The Mara slithers from his arm and manifests as a giant snake.  With the mirrors reflecting it and each other, the Mara is effectively banished to the dark realm where it came from. 

In the aftermath, Todd decides to leave the planet when human supplies arrive. The Doctor encourages her to register the planet as unsuitable for colonisation.  Sanders and Hindle decide to stay. 

Nyssa emerges from the TARDIS fully rested, just in time to head off again on their next adventure.

Trivia

• Ok, let's get the most referred fact out of the way - Much like The Planet of the Spiders, Kinda is a story based around Buddhist concepts. 

• The character of Nyssa had to be cut out of this story whilst contract negotiations were taking place, along with royalty issues from the writer who created her.

• This story was originally commissioned by Christopher Bidmead, but had gone through so many re-writes that by the time it came around to being filmed, Antony Root (script editor from Castrovalva up to this story) took it on.  

• In fact, I believe the script editor job was under a bit of a fight between Antony Root and Eric Saward who were both being tried out for the role.

• Supposedly during the filming of this, Matthew Waterhouse was trying to tell Richard Todd (Sanders) who is an Oscar nominated actor, how to act.  Waterhouse defends this by saying he was sort of poking fun at himself for accidentally doing exactly what he was telling Todd not to do.  I'll let you decide if he's telling the truth or not

• As noted before, this was the third story of season 19 to be filmed, done before Castrovalva 

The Review

More than a few years on, Kinda is now regarded as a classic by the Doctor Who fandom as a whole.  They say it is daring and inventive, to be applauded for trying to be abstract and moving past the monotony of running down corridors and having hammed up villains.  These people claim that Kinda sticks out from the lacklustre bunch of stories from Season 19 (with the exception of the Visitation).

Whilst I can personally agree that it is an unusual story, it's only unusual in the same way that Warriors Gate was, but for me, maybe a bit less entertaining. 

This is one of the very few Doctor Who stories that has a supernatural bad guy that's not just a futuristic alien.  It deals with concepts and other intangible stuff, which is not bad in itself, but as a result the narrative threads make very little sense.  It could be just me that's not intellectual enough to truly appreciate the story, but I don't think so.  I understand that it's about temptation and the cycle of history and other concepts of enlightened living, okay, I get it.  What happens in Kinda however is that it's told in a very...boring way.

The concepts are left vague and open to interpretation but as Eric Saward himself said, you can't have an open ended narrative and expect everyone to extrapolate the story from it themselves - it's just boring TV.  Hindle, whilst providing entertaining viewing for his over the top reactions and memorable quotes, is just a sideshow and the kinda in pith helmets just show how absurd it all is.

The TSS is no better, being appallingly realised, along with the original version of the mara snake.

The Doctor is reduced to the role of a companion for much of this story, having to ask all the questions and not really being pro-active until the end, and Adric seems to have retained all the annoying traits he picked up from Four to Doomsday.

The best thing about this story, is Tegan's dream sequence which is actually quite effective and the Durrkha is chilling. Other than that, this is unfortunately a quite forgettable story for me that does not deserve the attention it often receives.

Rating

4 out of 10

Rewatchability Factor

3 out of 10

Watch this if you liked...

• The Mind Robber

• Planet of the Spiders 

• Planet of Evil

• Face of Evil