DVD Reviews

Doctor Who: Snakedance – DVD Review

By Jeff Swindoll May 3, 2011, 14:47 GMT

"The TARDIS makes an unplanned landing on Manussa, where preparations are underway to celebrate the defeat of the Sumaran Empire five centuries earlier. But the ancient evil of the Mara lives on, and Tegan, who has been haunted by disturbing dreams since her time under the Windchimes on Deva Loka, is now a pawn in its plan to re-enter the physical world and subjugate the Manussan people. Only the Doctor ...more

The second time is the snake charmer as the TARDIS crew encounters the slithering serpent from Kinda once again… and it also features Martin Clunes in a chicken suit. 

The Doctor (Peter Davison), Tegan (Janet Fielding), and Nyssa (Sarah Sutton) arrive on the planet Manussa but Tegan begins having visions of the Mara and a snake shaped cave mouth.  The planet’s culture is preparing for a celebration that denotes the banishment of the Mara five hundred years earlier and the Federator's son Lon (Martin Clunes) is to play an important role in them. 

Archeologist Ambril (John Carson) and Lon’s mother Tanha (Colette O’Neil) are very supportive of Lon taking part.   The Mara takes control of Tegan and Lon and goes in search of a mystical crystal that will return it to the real world.  The Doctor has to go in search of mystical snakedancer Dojjen (Preston Lockwood) to discover the secret of defeating the Mara.

Tegan is bitten once again by the Mara and the sinister serpent returns for a second go round.  This time around we have the Buddhist elements, but screenwriter Christopher Bailey also adds in some Native American shamanism and knows his production limitations and scales down his ambitions for the BBC studio. 

The TARDIS companions are down to a more manageable number so Nyssa isn’t sidelined by a headache.  Tegan once again gets to try on her malevolent voice as the possessed companion. 

Davison’s Doctor is dashing, youthful and grand, but still has that mysterious element.  Martin Clunes, in his television debut, sports a fine performance but gets saddled with a silly costume for some of the adventure as well as being the second possessed serpent. 

Carson and O’Neil are a bit over the top, but its nice to see the Doctor interplay with the haughty Ambril (the 6th face of confusion bit is amusing).  Lockwood has a wordless bit as the Shaman but also manages to do much with saying nothing onscreen.  It’s a worthy follow-up to Kinda.   

Snakedance is presented in fullscreen.  Special features include a commentary by Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, and Sara Sutton, the 24 minute making of “Snake Charmer,” 6 minutes of in studio behind-the-scenes, 3 minutes of deleted scenes (from the original ending of part four), the 14 minute “Saturday Superstore” with Davison guesting, an isolated music score, a photo gallery, info text pop up production notes, and a PDF of the Radio Times listing. 

Snakedance dances up to Kinda and is a worthy successor.  It’s a nice set with both (they were released in a box set in the UK) and some nice special features only add to the value of this sterling episode.

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