The costume designs in this were terrible in a funny way. Mara-Possessed-Tegan was such a a commanding presence. I like the festival set. I wish I could go there in real life, please.

1. The Doctor gets dismissed as a crazy fanatic who believes in fairy tales, but you get the sense everyone on that planet, at least deep-down believes it. I found myself wanting to know more about their mythology. It so rare when the world building for a one-off civilization is good enough that it makes me daydream afterwards.

What at times feels like it could and should be a clever follow-up to Kinda, instead I just kind of find both these stories underwhelming.  It's that same level of unfocused weirdness that plagues a lot of 80s Doctor Who that make these episodes feel like a noisy mess.  Production around this alien world of Manussa at first had me intrigued, but I never quite felt like I was given a reason to be invested in this planet or whatever was going on with Teagan.  It's too bad as I feel I just didn't happen to connect with Snakedance even if it felt like it could have had a lot of potential.  I struggled to take these characters seriously though and don't really feel like it is one of the stronger stories with the Fifth Doctor.

I liked this about as much as Kinda! I really like when Five is kinda ineffectual and struggles to take command of a room; I think it's a character trait very unique to Davison's incarnation and he always plays it flawlessly. The world felt well developed and fleshed out (better so than Kinda's for sure), with all the characters being interesting and having depth - especially Martin Clunes'. Clunes' performance is great! But the main standout - like Kinda - is Janet Fieldings as a possessed Tegan. She continues to excel in the role!

My biggest issue with this, like Kinda, is the pacing is very languid at parts. And the loss of the freaky dream sequences is a bit of a shame really.

Still, a good time!

I'd like to preface this by saying I've never seen Kinda, and I watched the standard effects on the Season 20 Boxset. I found this story went by quickly, and I did enjoy the Mara. I think it's a very clever villain, even if its motive is a bit patchy. Then again, everything simply wants to exist. I also find it unfathomably funny that Martin Clunes was in this one, even if he despises it. I liked the aesthetics of this story, and I do have to admit, I did enjoy this one.

This is part of a series of reviews of Doctor Who in chronological timeline order.

Previous Story: The Edge of the War

I'm going to say it, I expected more from this story. After the absolute fever-dream that was Kinda, I expected a sequel to be just as surreal and trippy and while this story did hit some of those notes, it ultimately couldn't capture the strangeness of Kinda. That's not to say it wasn't good though, I think this story is the more effective usage of the Mara, I enjoyed it's presence here a lot more.

The reveal at the beginning that the Mara has been lurking within Tegan since her last encounter with it is definitely a terrifying one. It recontextualises a lot of the audio stories I listened to in that gap. Speaking of Tegan, Janet Fielding's performance as the possessed Tegan/the Mara was just fantastic. She puts her all into this low-budget 80s sci-fi TV show and I appreciate that a lot.

The fictional world of Manussa is very well-realised. The culture and mythology surrounding the Mara all feels like something that would naturally develop from the events of Kinda. It's something I've praised before about this era of the show, but the worldbuilding is consistently very good.

A problem I've been noticing recently, that I've been somewhat blinded to by listening to the Big Finish audios alongside the episodes, is that the Doctor and Nyssa feel very flat. Nyssa less so, as she has somewhat of a character in this story but the Doctor is especially hit hard by this. Davison is a great performer, and still brings a great energy to the role that makes him entertaining to watch but his version of the Doctor feels very one-note and boring compared to say, Tom Baker's take on the Time-Lord.

I have heard he improves in his final season, and I know for a fact he improves in the audio dramas, so this doesn't change my opinions on the 5th Doctor but it is something that I think is especially apparent in this story. Besides that though, this story has a strong cast, a mostly strong script and a great sense of worldbuilding. I can see why a lot of people like this story and may like it more than Kinda, alas I'm not one of them.

Next Story: Pursuit of the Nightjar