Things I've Learnt from Watching My Favourite Doctor Who Stories: Part 38 - Snakedance

 38: Snakedance

Stay away from snakes... 

I've never liked snakes, which is a great disappointment to my eldest son who is fascinated by them and wants one as a pet! You might be wondering why I've included a story that sets off my ophidiophobia. Well both Snakedance and Kinda are two of the finest Fifth Doctor stories you'll find. I like Peter Davison's Doctor, and these two stories show him at his best. And as a child, I found them quite scary but not for the reason you might imagine. 

I also found Tegan slightly annoying when I was younger, at least in her first few stories. Always whining and complaining about not getting to Heathrow. It's only from Black Orchid onwards, Tegan seems to start enjoying herself and becomes a team player. Of course there is Kinda. Tegan doesn't exactly enjoy her time living la Deva Loka (sorry!) becoming possessed by the Mara. Her nightmarish time in the dark leads to her being taken over but she then passes on the possession to that bloke from That's Life and she falls back to sleep. 

It's Snakedance where she takes a more active role and is in essence the villainess of the story. And it's Janet Fielding's finest hour, although Enlightenment and Power of the Doctor come pretty close!. Janet seizes the opportunity to do something more than being a mouth on legs and she's terrifying. Those early scenes in the TARDIS, and the way she shouts "Go away!" unnerved me as a child far more than any monster. 

JNT wanted the Doctor to be more fallable and as a consequence, so are his companions. Which means Adric gets blown up, Nyssa contracts a life-threatening disease and Tegan becomes possessed by an evil snake. To see the companion, who's our identifying character become the baddie is inspired. Of course in the next story we're introduced to a companion who's trying to kill the Doctor himself and we all know how well that turned out... 

The society on Manussa is well crafted and looks alien enough to convince us we're on another world and familiar enough that we can associate with it. The characters are well defined, and given life by some very good actors. John Carson is convincing as the fussy officious Ambril, who on the surface looks unimpeachable but soon shows his greedy side. Colette O'Neill is excellent as Tahna; she's a bored apathetic housewife, which is quite unusual for Doctor Who, at that time, when a lot of female characters are either a space captain, villainess or scientist, and sometimes a villainous scientist. Jonathon Morris as Chela is in what could be a thankless role, but has a nice bit of chemistry with Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton. 

However, it's Martin Clunes who impresses me the most as Lon. Yes, he looks like a big girls blouse and starts off the serial behaving like one. The way he's tricked into being possessed shows his narcissistic tendencies, he's basically seduced, albeit very chastely, by Tegan. Once he's possessed, Tegan takes a step back, but at least this time she has more prominent role in the finale.

Interestingly while Lon is seduced by a pretty woman and a victim of his own lust, Ambril is a victim of his greed and Tahna a victim of her own apathy in her relationship with her son, failing to bring him up properly in the first place! 

In all of this, the Doctor is desperately trying to warn them all of the Mara's return and everyone ignores him. He cleverly runs rings around Ambril, in the scene with the six faces of Delusion, although I wished he'd walked out calmly at the end of the scene though, rather than run out. It would have shown a more confident side to his Doctor. A lot of the time this Doctor is racing to save the day, almost in a panic. Here, the solution is he does the opposite and be still, as Dojjen instructs him. It's a far more powerful ending than everything getting blown up. 

Both Kinda and Snakedance deserve a place in anyone's top 60, but I chose Snakedance because it's a better vehicle for Janet Fielding. Just don't ask her to do the Mara laugh... 

Next Time : Appearances can be very deceiving...