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.

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

 * The Doctor - Peter Davison
 * Tegan - Janet Fielding
 * Nyssa - Sarah Sutton
 * Lon - Martin Clunes
 * Ambril - John Carson
 * Tanha - Colette O'Neil
 * Chela - Johnathon Morris
 * Dojjen - Preston Lockwood
 * Dugdale - Brian Miller
 * Fortune Teller - Hilary Sesta
 * Hawker - George Ballantine
 * Puppeteer - Barry Smith
 * Megaphone Man - Brian Grellis

Crew

 * Assistant Floor Manager - Maggy Campbell
 * Costumes - Ken Trew
 * Designer - Jan Spoczynski
 * Film Cameraman - John Baker
 * Film Editor - Alastair Mackay
 * Incidental Music - Peter Howell
 * Make-Up - Marion Richards
 * Producer - John Nathan-Turner
 * Production Assistant - Rita Dunn, June Collins
 * Production Associate - Angela Smith
 * Script Editor - Eric Saward
 * Special Sounds - Dick Mills
 * Studio Lighting - Henry Barber
 * Studio Sound - Martin Ridout
 * Theme Arrangement - Peter Howell
 * Title Music - Ron Grainer
 * Visual Effects - Andrew Lazell

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". He would build upon this opinion in a 1996 essay, in which he called Snakedance and Kinda "the two best Who stories ever".
 * 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

 * 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.

Timeline

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

DVD releases
A DVD boxset with Kinda, entitled Mara Tales, is planned for release in 2011, as indicated in a trailer uploaded by Dan Hall, the commissioning editor of the classic Doctor Who DVD range.

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

Novelisation and its audiobook

 * Main article: Snakedance (novelisation)


 * Novelised by Terrance Dicks in 1984.