The Cradle of the Snake (audio story)

 was the one hundred and thirty-eighth story in Big Finish's monthly range. It was written by Marc Platt and featured Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor, Sarah Sutton as Nyssa, Janet Fielding as Tegan Jovanka and Mark Strickson as Turlough.

It was the third and final Big Finish audio story in the 2010 Fifth Doctor season. It continued a series of stories starring Davison, Sutton, Fielding and Strickson, who were reunited as a TARDIS team for their first new Doctor Who stories since 1983. It was further notable for including the return of the Mara, a recurring enemy of the Fifth Doctor's era on television.

Publisher's summary
"The Mara is in all of us, deep in our minds. In our darkest thoughts, that's where it started. Some people call it a demon, but that's too simple. It's about temptation."

Tegan's nightmares have returned. Seeking to banish the snake-like Mara from his companion's psyche, the Doctor sets course for Manussa, the creature's point of origin. But the TARDIS arrives instead in the heyday of the Manussan Empire, where infotainment impresario Rick ausGarten is preparing to turn dreams into reality.

The sun is setting on the Manussan Empire... and it's all the Doctor's fault.

Part one
Nyssa manages to get Tegan to let her into their bedroom to talk about the Mara before realising that she is currently under the Mara's control. Tegan collapses after the Doctor and Turlough join them and the Doctor uses a Little Mind's Eye to enter her mind to drive the Mara out, but it refuses to leave without a new host and shows him the mark of the snake. Despite the Doctor's orders not to disturb him, Nyssa is distressed by his restlessness and wakes him up. The Little Mind's Eye is broken and Tegan's mark has disappeared.

Unsure of whether he has managed to drive out the Mara, the Doctor flies the TARDIS to Manussa to get Dojjen's help but lands several centuries early, long before the Manussan Empire's subjugation by the Mara and the decline of its advanced civilisation. The Doctor takes Tegan to the Faculty of Advancement to see Dr Honri Kerrem, leaving Turlough and Nyssa to wander around, and a scan finds only a small amount of tissue damage in her hippocampus.

At Sundown Studios, Rick ausGarten and his assistant, Baalaka, give a demonstration of a machine that makes dreams a reality to Yoanna Rayluss whilst Snakeherd Dadda Desaka protests outside. The machine does not create what she is imagining but a giant rose in which she can see a fair-haired man writhing and trying to get free, so she deems it dangerous and intends to recommend in her report that his project cease. At the Faculty, the Doctor talks to Dr Kerrem in private and shows him the mark of the Mara on his arm.

Part two
The Doctor gets Dr Kerrem to write him a list of Manussa's intellectuals and give him money before heading to Sundown Studios to meet ausGarten, sending Tegan back to Turlough and Nyssa. She finds them with a distressed Yoanna and is briefly harrassed by a snake which Dadda Desaka comes for, making a prophecy about a dark cloud swallowing Manussa which reminds Tegan of a dream of the Doctor taking the Mara upon himself. Whilst Turlough finds the Doctor nearby and agrees to go alone with him to Scrampus Park, Turlough, Nyssa and Yoanna are joined by more Snakeherds who send out their snakes to find the Mara.

Dadda Desaka identifies the Doctor as the host of the Mara and the Doctor leaves with Turlough for Sundown Studios upon seeing the snakes. They find deformed animals in hutches and the Doctor locks Turlough in an empty one before calling Dr Kerrem to ensure that Manussa's intellectuals are all paid to attend a dinner. He offers to fund ausGarten's project, of which he learns that the animals are byproducts, and to have celebrity guests endorse it. As Tegan, Nyssa, Yoanna and Dadda arrive outside of the studios, the Doctor frees the snakes created by the machine and declares that he is the Mara, the rightful heir to the world of chaos.

Part three
Turlough is released by Baalaka and runs into Tegan, Nyssa, Yoanna and Dadda before both he and the Doctor are arrested and taken away for public disturbances at the park. Tegan and Nyssa are now certain that the Doctor has been possessed by the Mara and theorise that the Mara intends to become real several centuries early using the now-confiscated technology built by ausGarten, who is also under the Mara's control. In their cell, the Doctor attacks Turlough with a snake and has Dr Kerrem, called in by Yoanna to run tests, free him, but Turlough manages to steal his TARDIS key.

Tegan and Nyssa wait at the TARDIS for the Doctor and Turlough and are joined by Dadda, who is taken over when the Doctor arrives. Tegan and Nyssa get into the TARDIS with Turlough and look for information on the Mara in the TARDIS library, but they find that the relevant pages in An Universal History of Fable and Demonology Written at the End of All Time have been removed by the Mara to help it in its goals regardless of the Web of Time.

Meanwhile, the Mara-possessed Doctor prepares to free itself but all the crystals used fail and he demands Kerrem get some more from an academic faculty. Having found the spare key, he then enters the TARDIS and ends up taking over Nyssa's mind as well. They tie up Turlough and Tegan and then start a studio broadcast using ausGarten's equipment which they recovered. They use the thought visualiser to bring the Mara back into existence right in the studio, as a giant snake appears...

Part four
ausGarten begins boasting about having brought the snake into existence out of pure thought energy on live television while Tegan and Turlough think of a way to escape. The Mara-possesed Doctor attempts to tell the viewers that the Mara is their protector and will make its first appearance at the midnight New-year festival while Tegan and Turlough try to convince Baalaka to help them as ausGarten treats him horribly and is not his friend. Turlough succeeds in getting through to him and they go off leaving Tegan behind and contact Yoanna, explaining the situation. However, they are found by ausGarten who learns of their plans and wants to put the Mara-possessed Doctor in his place for disgracing him earlier. Tegan finds a Mara-possessed Nyssa and tries to stay with her by taking advantage of the new-found possessed Nyssa's arrogance, since none of the Mara-possessed individuals seem to want to cooperate with each other and only do so under the Mara's influence. The Doctor comes in and Nyssa, surprisingly, doesn't give away that Tegan is hiding in the room, where the Mara-possessed Doctor suggests she find a more attractive outfit in the TARDIS wardrobe and that he has disabled the flight controls in case so no one can get away.

Turlough finds Tegan inside the TARDIS while Nyssa tries on outfits and they discuss their next course of action with Baalaka. She finds them and reveals that she believes the Doctor an imbecile who is not worthy to be the right-hand servant of the Mara and asks if the two will serve her instead, which they pretend to agree. Satisfied, she leaves and joins the Doctor and the others while Tegan and Turlough secretly discuss a way to get the crystal away from the Mara, which it is currently tightly wound around, and get rid of it for good to try save their friends. Yoanna finds them and tells them how the people are too terrified to reject the Mara and are about to become enslaved. Outside, the Mara-possessed Dadda prepares the crowd for the Mara's reveal, and claims that the Manussan empire will fall to make way for the Sumaran empire. The Mara begins to feast on the fear and subjugation of the gathered crowds but Tegan and Turlough try to trap the Mara-possessed Doctor in the studio and use the cameras and mirrors but to no avail. Suddenly, at the behest of Baalaka staring into the crystal, they are transported to the place of dreams where they find Dadda and an unpossessed Nyssa. They then find the Doctor and free him from the Mara's possession.

They return to reality with the Doctor and Nyssa freed from the Mara's possession, however the Mara is still alive and still has ausGarten and now Yoanna under its control. They go inside the TARDIS but the Mara swallows them whole, and Nyssa mockingly reveals she is still under the Mara's control and converts Turlough. Tegan attempts to sacrifice herself by taking the crystal out into the beast's belly but Baalaka stops her, explaining that he now realises that he is the reason the Mara is still alive, as they are one and the same (earlier Turlough and Tegan were wondering where he came from and where his family was, however he mentioned he had no memory of them or his birthplace and that he just sort of 'came-to-be'). He takes the crystal from an unwilling Tegan and sacrifices himself to destroy the Mara.

All returns to normal, despite the sad loss of Baalaka and the Mara is defeated. The Doctor is offered a chance to become a television presenter, with ausGarten insisting he's a natural, but he politely declines and he, Tegan, Turlough and a recovering Nyssa depart and Tegan asks if the Mara is finally gone for good, however the Doctor laments that it never will be, as it dwells within everyone deep down. It is also revealed Yoanna, who has also returned to normal, has started a "Mara helpline".

Cast

 * The Doctor - Peter Davison
 * Tegan Jovanka - Janet Fielding
 * Nyssa - Sarah Sutton
 * Turlough - Mark Strickson
 * Rick ausGarten - Dan Stevens
 * Dr Honri Kerrem - Hugh Fraser
 * Yoanna Rayluss - Madeleine Potter
 * Dadda Desaka - Vernon Dobtcheff
 * Baalaka - Toby Sawyer

History

 * Tegan's father owned a sheep farm with two thousand head of merino. He flew a Cessna Skyhawk.
 * The Manussan Empire is at its height in 2215; according to the TARDIS data banks, the rise of the Sumaran regime will occur in the Manussan year 2326, over a hundred years later.

Planets

 * Nyssa says the goodness on Traken is more robust and less forced than on some other worlds.

Continuity

 * The Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan encountered the Mara on two previous occasions. (TV: Kinda, Snakedance)
 * The Doctor mentions that he plans to catch up with Dojjen at a later date. (TV: Snakedance)
 * The Doctor reminds Turlough of his past coercion under the Black Guardian. (TV: Mawdryn Undead, Enlightenment et al.)
 * Tegan complains that the Doctor is always winding her up but then bringing her to the wrong place, when they land on Manussa in the wrong time period. He was often, often unsuccessfully, trying to get her back to Heathrow airport in their earlier travels.(TV: Logopolis, The Visitation et al.)
 * Turlough reminds the Doctor of their many adventures including Helheim and the Cractids as well as their oter adventures. (AUDIO: Cobwebs et al.)
 * The Mara-possessed Doctor curses bureaucracy. The Doctor often made jokes about bureaucracy. (TV: Castrovalva et al.)
 * Nyssa reminds Tegan, while under the Mara's influence, that she was born into royalty. She is a princess. (TV: The Keeper of Traken)
 * Tegan recognises the place of dreams from when they were on the Kinda world. (TV: Kinda)