According to Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton hated the outfit she was wearing in this serial, which was dubbed the "Intergalactic Hamburger Waitress Uniform" by the cast and crew.
Two weeks prior to the start of production, Peter Davison was asked to film what he believed to be a promotional trailer for Australian television. In fact, this was a ruse concocted by John Nathan-Turner. In reality, when Davison arrived on location, he was surprised to find Matthew Waterhouse (Adric), Sarah Sutton and Janet Fielding already there in full costume. Davison was even more surprised to discover that they were accompanied by Eamonn Andrews, and that he was the subject of This Is Your Life (1955).
Brian Miller (Dugdale) is the husband of Elisabeth Sladen, who played the Doctor's companion, Sarah Jane Smith, on the series from 1973 to 1976. Their daughter is Sadie Miller, who took over the part of Sarah Jane in the Doctor Who audio productions by Big Finish.
As with Kinda, Christopher Bailey infused the names he chose for Snakedance with various hidden meanings. Buddhist terms again made an appearance, inspiring Manussa ("the human realm"), Tanha ("craving") and Dugdale (from duggati, "unhappy existence"). Dojjen was an homage to Dogen, a Zen master who lived in 13th-century Japan. Dugdale had earlier been called Duchan (a platform used by Hebrew priests), while Chela was named for a Hindi word meaning "religious disciple".