'Snakedance' (4 Parts) Story Code '6D' by Christopher Bailey

Tegan is unaware that she is still under the Mara's control; the evil entity exerts its influence on her while she reads co-ordinates out to the Doctor, and the TARDIS arrives on the planet Manussa. Here, the Federator's son, Lon, his mother, the Lady Tanha and Ambril, the Director of Historical Research, are preparing a ceremony to celebrate the banishing of the Mara from the planet five hundred years ago. The Doctor places a dream-inhibiting device on Tegan to prevent the Mara from gaining control of her, but she panics in the city's crowds, and the machine is broken. She enters a hall of mirrors, an act that triggers the Mara within her, enabling it to finally possess her mind. She then takes over a carnival showman, and then, with his help, converts Lon to the will of the Mara. The Doctor discovers that the Mara was created by the Manussans with the aid of the Great Crystal, a large blue gemstone that was used to focus the minds of the planets' inhabitants - unfortunately, the evil inherent within their subconscious led to the creation of the Mara. The entity now plans to use Lon to steal the Great Crystal, which is used as part of the ceremony, in order to give itself corporeal existence. The Doctor, Nyssa and Chela, Ambil's assistant, locate the previous Director, Dojjen, who years ago predicted the Mara's return, and then left the city walls to live in the desert with the native Snakedancers. Dojjen shows the Doctor the Snakedance; when the Time Lord is bitten by a snake, he realises that fear is the only true venom, and that the way to defeat the Mara is to find the Still Point within himself. Returning to the caves where the ceremony is being held, the Doctor and his friends attempt to stop Lon from gaining possession of the crystal. The Doctor uses a smaller version of the crystal given to him by Dojjen to find his still point and repel and destroy the Mara forever.

Peter Davison (The Doctor), Janet Fielding (Tegan), Sarah Sutton (Nyssa), John Carson (Ambril), Collete O'Neil (Tanha), Preston Lockwood (Dojjen), Martin Clunes (Lon), Brian Miller (Dugdale), Hilary Sesta (Fortune Teller), George Ballantine (Hawker), Jonathon Morris (Chela), Barry Smith (Puppeteer), Brian Grellis (Megaphone Man)

Produced by John Nathan-Turner
Directed by Fiona Cumming

TX:
Part 1 - 18th January, 1983 @ 6.50pm - 7.15pm
Part 2 - 19th January, 1983 @ 6.45pm - 7.10pm
Part 3 - 25th January, 1983 @ 6.50pm - 7.15pm
Part 4 - 26th January, 1983 @ 6.45pm - 7.10pm

Notes:
*Featuring the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan

*Working titles: 'Snake-Dance' and 'Snake Dance'