The Cradle of the Snake is the final story in the Richter trilogy of stories. It sees the return of the Mara to the series. The Mara first appeared in Kinda back in 1982 and was followed by a return the following year. I have to be honest, I was never a big fan of those stories or the Mara and when I found out that the Mara would be appearing in this story I must say that my heart sank a little. Also the author of this story got me slightly worried. Marc Platt is a good writer but at times his stories have been a bit inconsistent. Ghostlight was just bizarre, Spare Parts was brilliant, Skull of Sobek was bad and Loups-Garoux was just odd.
I was waiting for the story to get complicated. It starts of with Tegan being possessed by the Mara and the Doctor going into Tegan's subconscious to try and draw the Mara out. This doesn’t work and the Doctor is forced to bring the TARDIS to Manussa. During this time the Mara has jumped from Tegan to the Doctor and at this point I was wondering when the complicated stuff was going to rear its ugly head. At what point was I going to find the story complicated and uninteresting. Well that point never happened. At no point during these four episodes did I get confused or find the plot complex. It was a nice simple story about the Doctor being possessed by the Mara and the Mara trying to start its rule of Manussa. The story was filled with a lot of action and the drama never slowed down. One thing that I noticed in The Whispering Forest was how the crowded TARDIS issue was evident in that story. In TCOTS, I never noticed that. The characters were all well rounded enough for that crowded issue to be evident.
Of the regular cast, I think that Peter Davison stole the show. I thought that his Mara/Doctor role was well done and was probably the most refreshing moment in the Fifth Doctor stories that I can ever remember. I thought that the Mara/Doctor was believable. I thought that Janet Fielding put in her best performance of these three stories. I thought that she was very good as the Tegan/Mara and I also liked how she was the trying to save the Doctor. Sarah Sutton puts in another good performance especially as the Mara/Nyssa. Though she also put in a good showing as the sheep in Tegan's subconscious. Mark Strickson put in a good performance but was kind of over shadowed by his three co-stars.
The story is not perfect. I thought some of the characters were a bit annoying; in particular Dadda Desaka who's way of talking became instantly annoying after about four words. I stopped caring about his character or what he was saying. I also found the ending to the story a bit weak. After all the build up and the great characters (all but one), I just felt that the ending deserved better. That said I thought that this was a far better story than I was expecting. It wasn’t as good as Cobwebs because I just found that story to be very good. I think that this story is just behind that story with a few weaknesses. Overall this series has been very good. It’s been great to hear the Fifth Doctor with Tegan, Nyssa and Turlough. Janet Fielding's return has been a success and hopefully when the second series of adventures featuring these four characters returns in 2011, it will build on the success and enjoyment of these three stories.
I was waiting for the story to get complicated. It starts of with Tegan being possessed by the Mara and the Doctor going into Tegan's subconscious to try and draw the Mara out. This doesn’t work and the Doctor is forced to bring the TARDIS to Manussa. During this time the Mara has jumped from Tegan to the Doctor and at this point I was wondering when the complicated stuff was going to rear its ugly head. At what point was I going to find the story complicated and uninteresting. Well that point never happened. At no point during these four episodes did I get confused or find the plot complex. It was a nice simple story about the Doctor being possessed by the Mara and the Mara trying to start its rule of Manussa. The story was filled with a lot of action and the drama never slowed down. One thing that I noticed in The Whispering Forest was how the crowded TARDIS issue was evident in that story. In TCOTS, I never noticed that. The characters were all well rounded enough for that crowded issue to be evident.
Of the regular cast, I think that Peter Davison stole the show. I thought that his Mara/Doctor role was well done and was probably the most refreshing moment in the Fifth Doctor stories that I can ever remember. I thought that the Mara/Doctor was believable. I thought that Janet Fielding put in her best performance of these three stories. I thought that she was very good as the Tegan/Mara and I also liked how she was the trying to save the Doctor. Sarah Sutton puts in another good performance especially as the Mara/Nyssa. Though she also put in a good showing as the sheep in Tegan's subconscious. Mark Strickson put in a good performance but was kind of over shadowed by his three co-stars.
The story is not perfect. I thought some of the characters were a bit annoying; in particular Dadda Desaka who's way of talking became instantly annoying after about four words. I stopped caring about his character or what he was saying. I also found the ending to the story a bit weak. After all the build up and the great characters (all but one), I just felt that the ending deserved better. That said I thought that this was a far better story than I was expecting. It wasn’t as good as Cobwebs because I just found that story to be very good. I think that this story is just behind that story with a few weaknesses. Overall this series has been very good. It’s been great to hear the Fifth Doctor with Tegan, Nyssa and Turlough. Janet Fielding's return has been a success and hopefully when the second series of adventures featuring these four characters returns in 2011, it will build on the success and enjoyment of these three stories.
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