The Children of Seth (2011)

The Children of Seth is the third story to come from Christopher Bailey. Bailey had written twice for Doctor Who on TV with ‘Kinda’ in 1982 and ‘Snakedance’ the following year. The thing that those two stories have in common as well as having the Mara in them is that they are very experimental adventures, especially for their time. I’m more of a fan of Kinda than Snakedance but I was curious to see how this one would pan out. Marc Platt has taken responsibility of adapting Bailey’s story and bringing the Fifth Doctor series of Lost Stories to a close. The story takes place on the Archipelago of Sirius after receiving a message containing the word Idra. When they arrive they discover that all is not well as the society is on the verge of breaking down. It appears to be quite a strict society where people who are bothersome are sent to ‘Level 14’.

It’s not an easy story to follow and to be honest I did lose my patience with it at times. I’m not against stories that test the listeners patience so I’m not going to be totally harsh to it because there were things in it that were quite good. The casting was mainly it and there were two that stood out for me. The first being Honor Blackman. The former Bond Girl who had previously appeared in ‘The Trial of a Timelord’ back in 1986 appears as Anahita and her character is well written and fits in well with the whole tone of the story. Another fine piece of casting was that of David Warner who quite frankly could play anything and be magnificent. He was the only good thing in ‘Circular Time’ back in 2007 and as Siris he continues to impress but could have done with being in it a bit more. Another good performance was from Adrian Lukis as Byzan, it was a clever little performance which like Blackman’s fitted in well with the tone of the story.

Of the regular performances, Sarah Sutton is poorly treated yet again in these stories. She starts the story off by her experiment being the reason why the TARDIS goes to where it does but besides that she does very little. Janet Fielding is on the other hand is given far more of the story. Considering she was the emotional force of ‘Hexagora’, it would have been fairer to give Nyssa the dramatic parts instead of Tegan. Peter Davison’s performance is perhaps the oddest. It does seem for large chunks of this story like he’s just going through the motions and its only when he starts seeing numbers that he steps up a gear.

It sad to say that this story is the weakest of the Lost Stories for the Fifth Doctor. It didn’t grip me in the way that I hoped it would. Out of the three stories we have had its easy to say that ‘The Elite’ was the best and ‘Hexagora’ is second. It’s nice that these stories have been made and this story probably would have gotten a better result on TV.

Snakedance (1983)

The twentieth season of Doctor Who was meant to celebrate by having something from the Doctor’s past in every story in the season. In Arc of Infinity we had Omega who had previously appeared in ‘The Three Doctors’ (1972/73) and this theme continued with the Mara. Snakedance is the sequel to the 1982 adventure ‘Kinda’ which having recently rewatched it as part of my ongoing Doctor Who Marathon, I was looking forward to this story. Yet again written by Christopher Bailey, it’s noticeable for the appearance of Martin Clunes who would later appear in such shows as ‘Men Behaving Badly’ (1992-98) and ‘Doc Martin’ (2004 – Present). Bailey wrote this story knowing the limiations of a BBC budget and more importantly, the Doctor for whom he was writing for. There were certainly flaws in ‘Kinda’ but the question would remain as to whether the production team had learnt and would be able to handle what Bailey had written for them this time.

This story is set 500 years after the events of ‘Kinda’ which would explain why there is an almost Roman feel to the way that some of the sets and people are dressed. The story was made first in the production order and as a result it benefits from having a high number of extras for the market scenes and some very good set designs. The story also sees Nyssa get her first new costume since ‘Castrovalva’ (1982) however it’s not a particularly nice costume as it just screams 80’s which for a show that isnt suppose to be set in a particular time is a problem. Another thing that troubles this production just as it did in ‘Kinda’ were the snakes. The main problem in ‘Kinda’ was the giant Mara but in ‘Snakedance’ it was pretty much every snake in the who show. Only the Punch and Judy style snake and the one the puppeteer appears with in the market were convincing.

Sarah Sutton is starting to get some good stories for which she can show her talents. After being lumbered in the TARDIS for several stories in season 19, she finally gets to become involved in the story and there was one scene in particular where Nyssa is talking to the Doctor in the TARDIS that I realised why I thought that Nyssa is one of the best companions and the Nyssa/Fifth Doctor combination is one of the best in the classic era. I actually quite like Peter Davison’s performance in this story as it is far more stronger than in ‘Kinda’. He has to work to try and get people on his side and even then he isnt entirely successful.

The stand out performances from the guest cast come from Colette O’Neil and Martin Clunes. Ok so some of the costumes that Clunes has to wear are a bit silly and will forever haunt his career, but as the lazy and power hungry prince he plays the part very well. It seems inevitable that he would end up where he does. O’Neil does a similary impressive job as his mother Tanha. She commands attention everytime she is on screen I find that the scene picks up. She plays the role as someone who is concerned with power and dresses so. Some of her costumes look very impressive and help to create the auroa of some who is quite respectable but has to deal with a troublesome son.

Snakedance benefits from having just the two companions. After Adric demise in ‘Earthshock’ (1982), just having two companions meant that Sarah Sutton and Janet Fielding could shine and have far more of the action. This story allows Janet Fielding to yet again play Tegan differently to how she would normally be allowed to play the role. It’s quite similar to her performance in ‘Kinda’ but she is better in this one.

‘Snakedance’ isnt as good as ‘Kinda’ but there are things to like in this story. I think that that this story doesn’t quite have the same impact as ‘Kinda’ and I have only just realised that I prefer the primiative setting of Derva-Loka as opposed to the crowded setting of Manussa. That said, ‘Snakedance’ is one to watch as it has some interesting things going for it.

Kinda (1982)

Kinda is a highly regarded story to some. I must admit that I have never been incredibly fond of it, partly due to the subject matter. I’m not someone who goes in for all that spiritual stuff. Give me aliens and invasions any day. That said, as part of my marathon and in keeping with every other story that I have watched in my marathon, I watched Kinda with an open mind. The story is the first of two to be written by Christopher Bailey who’s story takes place on Derva-Loka where Nyssa is resting after fainting at the end of ‘Four to Doomsday’.

The crowded TARDIS as this period of the show was called is the most blatant example of the problem that there seemed to be. Sarah Sutton appears for a moment at the beginning of episode one and briefly at the end of episode four. This is so that Janet Fielding can take centre stage in the first half of the story.
The story is a spiritual one where on Derva-Loka there are the ‘primitives’ and then there are the humans led by Sanders. But the colonists are disappearing which is a lovely excuse to get around the low number of characters that are in the story. The character of Sanders is quite like most military figures in television and films at this time. Thankfully the balance switches quite quickly so that Sanders is the reasonable character (of sorts) and Hindle is in charge (of sorts). Despite this story being studio bound Peter Grimwade does fantastically well managing to make the story move at such a pace that it at times doesn’t feel like a Doctor Who because at times it feels original. In the scenes in Tegan’s mind for example there is a nice solid segment where you’re not quite sure what’s going on (or that might just be me). The story moves along at a nice pace and then it goes wrong when we get to the Mara. For a good portion of the story the Mara is made out to be this evil and horrible thing that has passed over into this reality and then when we see the Mara all big the effect is rather disappointing. On the DVD version you can see a much better effect but watching it minus the special effect the Mara looks naff and ruins the belief. I think to be fair to Christopher Bailey he probably would have written something different had he known the limitations of the show and the budget.

Janet Fielding is one of the best things in this story. Her performances when she is being controlled by the Mara are some of the best that I had seen for sometime in these stories. It’s possibly her best performance of her time on the show. She will never again be allowed to give this sort of performance. Another strong performance comes from Simon Rouse who holds the story together and gives and absolutely bonkers performance. It’s quite fun watching as his character Hindle goes slowly mad. Due to Fielding and Rouse’s performances everyone else’s pale into comparison. Richard Todd’s performance could be seen as hammy but I have to say that I think he pitches it just right. There’s no way that you could say an actor of Todd’s caliber (Dambusters etc) could be poor and I think that Todd provides some much needed comedy relief. Nerys Hughes performance as Todd was rather a disappointment. I think that she’s a very good actress but the problem was that her role seemed to be very poorly thought through and she is there to act as the Doctor’s female side kick as Nyssa has been exiled to the TARDIS and Tegan. Todd is portrayed as a scientist but doesn’t really get to do much of that and as a result she isn’t given the best dialogue.

My opinion of Kinda has changed over the years. Five years ago I would have totally slated it and used the giant snake as a stick to beat the story with. But recently (since the DVD was released), I have found a more sympathetic view of it. Ok it’s not a fantastic story but I can see why people like it and that’s an improvement on five years ago. Having watched them in order, I would go so far as to say that Kinda is the best Davison story so far and wouldn’t rate it as the worst story of the 19th season like readers of Doctor Who Magazine did in 1982.