Mara Tales

Things to like about Kinda and Snakedance:

• Christopher Bailey's scripts which contains some cracking dialogue.
• The direction by Peter Grimwade and Fiona Cumming (possibly one of the most underrated directors in Doctor Who's history).
• Janet Fielding giving her best performance as Tegan (in Snakedance she's a freaky as hell).
• Peter Davison. I don't think he gives a better performance as the Doctor until The Caves of Androzani.
• Simon Rouse's Hindle. Probably one of the most convincing mad men ever portrayed (next to John Simm's Master).
• Richard Todd's Sanders.
• Martin Clunes in what I believe was his first television appearance.
• The rest of the guest cast for both stories.
• The design work, especially in Snakedance. And I don't think the jungle in Kinda is that bad (but it probably should have been filmed at Ealing like Planet of Evil and The Creature from the Pit. But there's no way you could film it on location. Where in the Home Counties would you find a jungle anyway?)
• Peter Howell's music. I'm familiar with a lot of it from my mum's scratchy old Music of Doctor Who LP (yes, vinyl!), but I'd never heard the music from the last few minutes of episode four of Kinda and it's simply wonderfull!
• For once, in Snakedance, we see the Doctor as a normal person would see him; a raving madman with no justification for his wild prophesies of doom (of course until it's too late).
• Okay the giant snake isn't that great. But I still think it's better than the CGI alternative!

Two very different stories which proves how flexible Doctor Who's format is.

The Masque of Mandragora

The Masque of Mandragora is probably one of the unsung gems in this golden age of Doctor Who. It may not be in the same league as say Genesis of the Daleks or The Talons of Weng-Chiang but it's still a lovely story.

Live at The Roundhouse

In May 2009 "The Radiophonic Workshop" (aka Mark Ayres, Peter Howell, Paddy Kingsland, Roger Limb and and the legendary Dick Mills, all of whom had at some time or another composed the music and/or created the special sounds for classic Doctor Who) performed a special concert celebrating the history of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. The rich history of the Workshop was performed with Doctor Who playing a large part of the proceedings.

I never got the see the concert. According to Wikipedia the event was filmed, but has never been realised commercially. However amateur footage has surfaced on YouTube (where else?).

The first clip shows The Workshop performing, live no less, the original Delia Derbyshire arrangement and selection of special sounds and music. In the second clip they perform, again live, the Peter Howell arrangement concluding with a special arrangement of the theme.

It's performed live. It's astonishing and great testament to the work of all the people who worked for the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. And both versions of the theme music have never sounded so good!

The Seeds of Doom

When I posted on Planet of the Spiders, I said who great the title sequence was for Pertwee's last series and it got better when Tom Baker came along. Well, judge for yourselves.

Well, I like it!

Anyway, what of The Seeds of Doom? I can sum it up in one word: brilliant! Everything in this story works.

Where do we start? Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen were in their stride by this stage. They were always good in any story of this era, but if you combine a really good script and good direction (Robert Banks Stewart and Douglas Camfield respectively - arguably one of the best, if not the best, directors ever employed on the show) with actors of their talents you're in for a cracker. The guest cast are all impressive with Tony Beckley, John Challis and Sylvia Colderidge as the stand outs.

It's an example of Doctor Who at it's best. What more can I say?