Review of the Complete Story:
I groaned when I saw that SNAKEDANCE was the sequel to the previous DR WHO adventure KINDA, because I hated that serial. This one's written by the same guy, Christopher Bailey, who seems to have been some kind of academic. Thankfully he only handled this and KINDA, and I say thankfully because he seems to have absolutely no idea how to create a well-paced and interesting adventure.
Instead we're back in the world of pantomime and make believe, as the Doctor and his companions visit a tribal planet where they must stop an encroaching war between the human colonists and the jungle natives. It's all completely silly and wouldn't have passed muster back in the old days of Dr Who, but I guess anything went by this stage.
The ONLY thing that SNAKEDANCE has going for it is the cast, with no less than three familiar faces fleshing out the guest cast. Jonathan Morris, of TV'S BREAD fame, plays a young, dashing hero type, while John Carson (Hammer favourite and star of PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES) is the doddering elder. Most prominent of all is one youthful Martin Clunes in his first ever acting role, playing a snivelling villain who looks like something that was rejected from THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW. His acting is pretty awful too, so it's amusing to see how he went from this to TV fame in the 1990s. Elsewhere, the Doctor acts like a limp cabbage, the companions are once again irritating, and there's an almost entire lack of action and incident, making this one of the most boring serials out there.
I groaned when I saw that SNAKEDANCE was the sequel to the previous DR WHO adventure KINDA, because I hated that serial. This one's written by the same guy, Christopher Bailey, who seems to have been some kind of academic. Thankfully he only handled this and KINDA, and I say thankfully because he seems to have absolutely no idea how to create a well-paced and interesting adventure.
Instead we're back in the world of pantomime and make believe, as the Doctor and his companions visit a tribal planet where they must stop an encroaching war between the human colonists and the jungle natives. It's all completely silly and wouldn't have passed muster back in the old days of Dr Who, but I guess anything went by this stage.
The ONLY thing that SNAKEDANCE has going for it is the cast, with no less than three familiar faces fleshing out the guest cast. Jonathan Morris, of TV'S BREAD fame, plays a young, dashing hero type, while John Carson (Hammer favourite and star of PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES) is the doddering elder. Most prominent of all is one youthful Martin Clunes in his first ever acting role, playing a snivelling villain who looks like something that was rejected from THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW. His acting is pretty awful too, so it's amusing to see how he went from this to TV fame in the 1990s. Elsewhere, the Doctor acts like a limp cabbage, the companions are once again irritating, and there's an almost entire lack of action and incident, making this one of the most boring serials out there.