Snakedance
Doctor Who - Snakedance
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Snakedance |
Target novelisation Doctor Who - Snakedance |
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| Author | Terrance Dicks |  |
| Published | 1984 | |
| ISBN | 0 426 19457 8 | |
| First Edition Cover | Andrew Skilleter |
| Back cover blurb: The TARDIS arrives on the planet Manussa - much to the Doctor's surprise, because Tegan has mysteriously set the co-ordinates. But Tegan, once again a member of the TARDIS crew, is not her own boss. An unsuspecting medium for the sinister Mara, she enables the evil exile to return to his home planet. On Manussa the ten-yearly celebration of the Mara's banishment is about to take place. Only the Doctor realises that this could in fact mark the spectacular revival of the reign of terror - but no one will heed his warning. |
My Dinner with Terrance by Jason A. Miller 17/9/22
Similar to his novelization of Kinda, Terrance Dicks' work adapting However, even in a slim book lacking extra insights into the script, it's fun to see what Dicks does in adding his own novelization tools to the story. He never misses an opportunity to comment on, or to gently lampoon, an obvious plot device. When the TARDIS lands off-course on Manussa -- and just about every episode of Season 20 involved the TARDIS being drawn off-course or otherwise attacked -- Nyssa "felt no great surprise. In [her] experience, the TARDIS was very seldom where it was supposed to be". And, after describing the Doctor's customary outfit, Terrance uses an uncharacteristic segue to show off Nyssa's new TV outfit: "At the moment, it wasn't the Doctor's appearance but Nyssa's own which concerned her"... and contrasts that with Davison's characteristic TV impatience: "The effect of the new outfit was both colourful and striking but it didn't make the slightest impression on him". Ha! Later on, Nyssa knows she has to look for the missing Doctor in captivity because she could assume that he was "(a) in trouble and (b) probably locked up".
Once we get to Manussa, Dicks has as much fun as he can with have the TV characters. Lady Tanha, the bored wife of an interplanetary dignitary, seems to have much of Dicks' sympathy, although his calling her "handsome", in the book that slots in sequence right after Arc of Infinity, where a Gallifreyan Time Lady was also "handsome", seems a bit lazy. But that's made up for with a lengthy description of how she has to spend her days, punctuated by: "Tanha was frequently bored to extinction by her official duties, but over the years she had learned not to show it". Or be being told that, even after falling on the floor, she still "managed to look dignified". Anytime Terrance chooses to set a scene from Tanha's point of view, you know you're in for good stuff.
Ambril, too, benefits in the book from Dicks' observational eye. We learn that, as Director of Architecture on Manussa (and the only government official that we meet on the planet), he "could have resisted bribes or threats", but that "to watch the wanton destruction of irreplaceable antiques as more than he could bear". Dicks also makes several allusions to a death penalty, or other forms of cruel and unusual punishment, on Manussa which is perhaps his own political-realist way of suggesting that the Star Trek-ian Federation of this story is not nearly as utopian as it might seem.
Dicks has his usual flair for words, and his criminally underrated ability to describe a good action scene (here, in the aftermath of a fistfight, "the room seemed full of a sprawling pile of bodies"). He's also expert at taking a tight budget and explaining why, say, in the universe of Doctor Who, prisoners have to be held captive in a corridor or in a kitchen: "Ambril's work was his life and he spent most of his waking hours in [his] office. At the far end of the room was a dining area and a table, upon which a servant was laying dinner". Only on a TV budget would a government official host a dinner party in his office, but Dicks makes it seem like a conscious choice by the character himself. That's a pretty remarkable feat for one short sentence.
Terrance also has a particular skill at inventing mini-cliffhanger moments to end chapters. Unlike Eric Saward, who in The Visitation used more literary styles, by ending chapters at offbeat moments and sarcastic reaction shots, Dicks is more of a page-turner, creating a moment of tension where there was none on TV. So Chapter 1 ends with: "The battle for Tegan's mind was about to begin", while Chapter 2 ends with "Only by finding and confronting the Mara once again, could he free Tegan's mind from the evil within". OK, that's the same ending as Chapter 1, but it's more interesting than the corresponding TV shot of three actors approaching a painted Styrofoam cave mouth.
One thing missing from the book is the rest of Part Four. We know now from the DVD release, with its production notes and deleted scenes, that Part Four was scripted to run a lot longer than it did, and that much material had to be cut for television. Dicks restores a few cut lines to the manuscript, and adds a few paragraphs on to the final televised scene, which ends so abruptly on screen. But the DVD contains an additional final scene, really an extended three-minute edit, showing us that Dugdale survived (it's left ambiguous in the book), and with a delightfully awkward ceremony honoring the Doctor and Nyssa, while a recovered Lon and Ambril both try to apologize to the Doctor while still saving face, and with Davison getting one last moment of charm in the final shot. I can see why this was cut from TV, both for time and pacing, but it would have made a wonderful Epilogue to the book, especially with Dicks having fun explaining both Lon's and Ambril's conflicted mindsets.
Snakedance is a highly competent book, with Terrance's usual expert technical skills as a writer, but it's strictly run-of-the-mill product for him. We never did get our definitive book about the Mara, but this still isn't a bad way to spend 90 minutes.