Snakedance (TV story)

Snakedance was the second story of Season 20. A sequel to Kinda, it featured the return of the Mara.

Synopsis

Tegan falls once more under the influence of the Mara and directs the TARDIS to the planet Manussa. There the Federator's son Lon and his mother Tanha are preparing for a ceremony to celebrate the banishment of the Mara five hundred years earlier.

The Mara takes control of Lon and uses him and Tegan to obtain from Ambril, the Director of Historical Research, the 'Great Crystal' - the large blue stone that originally brought it into being by focusing energy from the minds of the planet's one-time inhabitants. The Mara now plans to use the crystal during the ceremony to bring about its return to corporeal existence.

Ambril's aged predecessor Dojjen in the wilderness.

The Doctor and Nyssa, aided by Ambril's assistant Chela, locate Ambril's aged predecessor Dojjen, who predicted the Mara's rebirth before wandering off into the wilderness. The Doctor allows himself to be bitten by a snake in order to enter a state of mental commune with Dojjen, who tells him that fear is the only true venom and that in order to defeat the Mara he must find the still point within himself.

The Doctor and his friends then return to the caves where the ceremony is being held. The Doctor, by concentrating his thoughts with the aid of a small replica of the great crystal, is able to find the still point and repel the Mara.

Plot

to be added

Cast

Crew

References

Astronomical objects

Manussa is in the Scrampus system, and is a colony of a Federation formed by one of Lon's ancestors (part of a network of former Earth colonies).

Races and species

The Mara was created on Manussa, and ruled, turning the former Manussan Empire into the Sumaran Empire.

Story notes

In 1995 Steven Moffat was a participant in a wide-ranging, public discussion about Doctor Who with Andy Lane, David Bishop and Paul Cornell. He ranted about the "crap" nature of the majority of the 1963 version of the show, but called Snakedance "one I couldn't really fault".^[1] He would build upon this opinion in a 1996 essay, in which he called Snakedance and Kinda "the two best Who stories ever".^[2]
Brian Miller, whose wife Elisabeth Sladen had portrayed the Doctor's companion Sarah Jane Smith, appears as Dugdale.
A Top Gear (2002-) episode breifly shows a photo of Martin Clunes portraying Lon during the "Star in a reasonably priced car" section, with Jeremy Clarkson using it to humiliate Clunes.

Ratings/Appreciation Index

Part 1 — 6.7 million viewers | 95th place | AI 65
Part 2 — 7.7 million viewers | 75th place | AI 66
Part 3 — 6.6 million viewers | 98th place | AI 67
Part 4 — 7.4 million viewers | 78th place | AI 67

Myths

Kate Bush wrote this under a psuedonym. She didn't.

Filming locations

BBC Television Centre (TC6), Shepherd's Bush, London

Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.

Lon claims that the fake crystal is made of glass. However, the practical effect of it being smashed does not convincingly confirm Lon's statement. It obviously shatters like plastic or polystyrene.

Continuity

The Mara previously appeared in DW: Kinda and reappear in BFA: The Cradle of the Snake.

Timeline

This story occurs after ST: Men of the Earth
This story occurs before DWM: Blood Invocation

Home video and audio releases

DVD releases

It will be released on DVD in a box set called Mara Tales with Kinda on 7th March 2011 in Region 2. The two episodes have been updated, with CGI Mara instead of the original puppets.

Mara Tales.jpg

Mara Tales region 2 cover.
DVD US cover
DVDGr10ab.png

The DVD's CGI Mara

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Video releases

Released on VHS in December 1994 in the UK markets, February 1994 in Australian markets and September 1995 in US markets.

VHS UK cover
VHS US cover

Novelisation and its audiobook

Main article: Snakedance (novelisation)

Novelised by Terrance Dicks in 1984.

External links

Sources

↑ "Four Writers, One Discussion" a record of a conversation held on 17 January 1995. Time Space Visualizer #43. New Zealand Doctor Who Fan Club. March 1995.
↑ Moffat, Steven. "Season 19 Overview". In-Vision #62. 1996. Posted to doctorwhoforum.com. Registration required.

Template:Season 20

[1] "Four Writers, One Discussion" a record of a conversation held on 17 January 1995. Time Space Visualizer #43. New Zealand Doctor Who Fan Club. March 1995.

[2] Moffat, Steven. "Season 19 Overview". In-Vision #62. 1996. Posted to doctorwhoforum.com. Registration required.

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