Snakedance Part Four

The one where the Mara is destroyed forever...

"Kill them!" Lon demanded at the end of part 3. Nyssa screams. "No!" interrupts Tanha at the beginning of part 4. "You can't do that." Oh, OK then. So that was one of those false jeopardy cliffhangers I dislike so much, where a very definite execution is halted by the sudden appearance of someone who disagrees. It's cheap melodrama, and Snakedance deserves better.

The inert nature of part 3 gives way to a burst of welcome action when the Doctor, Nyssa and Chela are confronted with Lon in Ambril's chambers. Lon requests that the Doctor see the Great Crystal before he's killed, asking Ambril to open the box it's kept in. Fittingly, the opening of a box sparks the Doctor into action, just as the opening of the Box of Jana in Kinda inspired terrible fear in those observing.

Fear is key to Snakedance part 4, as well as the other temptations of despair and greed. These are the three temptations one must resist during the ceremony commemorating the defeat of the Mara, and it is fear that everybody must confront in order to defeat the evil entity. The Doctor finds Dojjen in the wasteland, and communes with him telepathically using the little mind's eye crystal. The character of Dojjen has been glimpsed fleetingly throughout the previous episodes, but there's never been any reference to who he is, what he's doing and why we're seeing him. We needn't have seen him at all in parts 1-3, as his importance lies in the finale, to show the Doctor how to defeat the Mara.

Dojjen teaches the Doctor that he must find the still-point of safety, within himself, in order to defeat the Mara. The entity feeds on fear, but if the Doctor can find peace within himself, and reject that fear, the Mara will be unable to manifest. Dojjen's basically asking the Doctor to be at peace with himself, to forgive his past sins and misdemeanours and to embrace everything that he is and was. It's a good job he didn't ask the Ninth Doctor to do this, as his all-pervading guilt complex would surely have ushered the Mara in with open arms!

I like how the scenes in the wasteland and the ruins are shot on film, giving an otherworldly quality, an otherness separate to the videotaped studio of the rest of Manussa. And Preston Lockwood has such a fantastic face, his lines and wrinkles reminding me of the similarly ancient-looking Mary Morris in Kinda. Lockwood was 70 at the time, while Morris was 66. Both looked like they'd had hard lives!

A quick word here too for Jonathon Morris as Chela, a character that I really wish had joined the Doctor, Tegan and Nyssa aboard the TARDIS. Not to denigrate the work of Mark Strickson (Turlough), but Morris is such a solid, dependable, warm presence, and works really well with Peter Davison. There's a real connection between the two actors, particularly evident in the lovely scene where the Doctor helps Nyssa down a slope, she tartly responds: "Thank you, but it wasn't necessary", and Chela gives the Doctor an amused look to share the sting. A lovely actor.

Also lovely, but in a very different way, is Martin Clunes, who has to wear one of the campest, most ridiculous and downright embarrassing outfits ever seen in Doctor Who history in the form of the ceremonial costume. Clearly inspired by the ceremonial garb of the Aztecs (or the Inca?), the silky white toga decorated with baby blue clouds, open sandals, blood red gauntlets and sun-god head-dress combine to make Clunes humiliatingly camp. No wonder the poor man is embarrassed to talk about his Doctor Who appearance these days!

Costume designer Ken Trew's crushing mis-step undermines everything that follows, with Lon supposedly leading his people into the thrall of the returning Mara, but dressed as one of Pan's People. "You look splendid!" cries Tanha, but then mothers have to say that, don't they?

The grand finale, which sees the Mara-possessed Tegan make her entrance a full 18 minutes into the episode, is a nightmarish combination of hideous imagery and nail-biting tension. After Lon recalls the Mara from the dark places of everybody's inside, feeding on their fear and panic, the magic of Colour Separation Overlay (CSO) allows a well-crafted snake puppet to grow in size until it towers over the elfin Janet Fielding. There's a series of rapid jump cuts between the hissing snake head and Tegan, until Tegan's face appears inside the gaping serpent's mouth. It's a truly horrific image, especially for ophidiophobes, and I imagine gave most of the episode's 7.4 million viewers the creeps.

Every Manussan succumbs to the Mara's thirst, as well as Nyssa. Only the Doctor resists the fear by retreating to his still-point, his place of inner safety, resulting in the Mara being unable to fully manifest. Just one man's resistance can hold back the flow of evil, but then the Doctor isn't just any man, and he also has the sympathetic resonance of Dojjen to draw upon.

The Mara is defeated, illustrated by gallons of bright pink goo oozing from the dying snake's maw, the latest in a developing line of gooey moments in the Davison era (see also: the squished Snyder in Earthshock, the gunge-spewing Kalid in Time-Flight, and the melty-faced Omega in Arc of Infinity). It's another stomach-challenging effect which may well have sent kids behind the sofa!

The final scene is beautiful, a rare example of classic Doctor Who addressing the emotional fall-out of the moment, in the moment. Tegan is understandably traumatised by the whole experience, having feelings inside her that are alien, tormenting and deeply negative. And the Doctor does exactly what you'd want him to do: sit next to her, quietly reassure her, and put his arm around her for comfort. The Fifth Doctor is one of the most human Doctors, and shows here that he understands what his friend has been through (and blames himself, judging from his chat with Dojjen). Physical contact between the Doctor and his companion in this way was seldom shown in the 1980s. An arm around a companion's shoulders wasn't so rare, but a tender hug like this probably hadn't been seen in Doctor Who for a decade or more.

Snakedance is a triumph of style and substance, written intelligently and directed with empathy. The cast is excellent (as it was with Kinda) and the design (apart from Lon's awful ceremonial garb) lifts Manussa off the page to make it a bright, colourful and believable place. It's one of Peter Davison's very best performances so far, and I don't even mind Nyssa all that much. It's a highlight for Janet Fielding's Doctor Who career too. It doesn't quite sustain the quality across the four episodes, but one minute of Snakedance is worth the entirety of Time-Flight or Arc of Infinity.

First broadcast: January 26th, 1983

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: That final tender scene between the Doctor and Tegan.
The Bad: Lon's ceremonial costume.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★☆☆ (story average: 8.5 out of 10)

NEXT TIME: Mawdryn Undead...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Part One; Part Two; Part Three

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site.

Snakedance is available as part of the BBC DVD box set Mara Tales. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Tales-Kinda-Snakedance/dp/B004FV4R4K/