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.

Snakedance Part Three

The one where everybody waits...

After two solid episodes that too often slip under fandom's radar, part 3 of Snakedance lets the story down terribly. It's not that it's bad, in any way, but so little happens that you feel somewhat cheated. People talk, people go from A to B, but the plot has barely moved on at all by the end of the 25 minutes.

The theme of the episode seems to be 'patience'. Everybody's waiting for something, and that includes the audience. On an intellectual level, writer Christopher Bailey has pulled off a bit of a coup by making this third episode so static, because one of the principal teachings of Buddhism is the search for patience and mental well-being. Buddha considered patience to be one of the mental states that an awakened person has perfected. It is an act of compassion toward ourselves, and also leads to peace and spiritual well-being. By making both his characters and audience wait for the 'next big thing' (in this case, the Manussan ceremony) Bailey is imposing his Buddhist creed onto Doctor Who. Clever, but not entertaining!

Snakedance Part Two

The one where the Mara makes slaves of men...

Peter Davison really nails his Doctor in this story. He brings out the Doctor's eccentricity, something each of his predecessors managed to portray quite organically, but which Davison has to work at. He's not naturally eccentric, and his youth works against him in this regard, but here he plays the Doctor as a scatty professor, his mind racing as he tries to connect dots and make sense of what's going on. His little routine with Sarah Sutton opening and closing the TARDIS doors is timelessly amusing. Davison really did find his mojo while making Snakedance.

I love how the Doctor comes across to everybody, including his best friend Nyssa, as a complete lunatic in this story. He races around from place to place making wild assumptions and demanding everybody agrees with him, but even the perception of the viewer is that this man is unhinged. It's the way Christopher Bailey writes it (he wrote similarly in Kinda) and the way Davison plays it: manic, desperate, breathlessly bonkers. Davison puts so much energy into his performance, hurtling about the screen with poor Sarah Sutton trying to keep up. Her frequent eye-rolling exasperation at the Doctor's dotty activities speak for the viewer!

Snakedance Part One

The one where Tegan gets possessed by the Mara again...

Tegan's only been back aboard the TARDIS for a heartbeat and already she's getting possessed by the Mara again! Yes, the Mara, the serpentine entity from Season 19's Kinda, is the returning element in Snakedance, one of Doctor Who's most overlooked stories.

We begin our newest adventure with Nyssa trying to flirt with Dr Who. Everybody thinks that companions having crushes on the Doctor is a 21st century thing, but here it's heavily suggested that Nyssa is desperate for the Doctor's attentions. "Well?" she demands, showing off her latest - and truly awful - outfit. The Doctor doesn't notice her apparel at all, in perfectly Doctorish fashion, and completely misses the fact she's literally pushing herself in front of him, squeezing between him and his TARDIS controls. Who knew that Nyssa had a thing for the Doctor? It's not surprising though, and actually quite refreshing, although I do realise that no such thing was intended by the production team at the time. It's supposed to be a humorous but innocent scene in which Nyssa tries to get the Doctor to notice her new clothes (and nothing more), but with these 21st century eyes, you can read a lot more into it. Nyssa luvs the Doctor!