You blind male fool! Mara Tales on DVD - Out Now!

[SiHart]

The Kate Bush theory wasn't mentioned in the production subs either. I know it's apocryphal and all, but it was a huge fandom myth and deserved a mention. Maybe they do on Snakedance?

Si xx

[SiHart]

No metion on the first two episodes of Snakedance, but what we did have was a commentary that made us laugh a lot. Janet, Sarah and Peter are a pretty good team, as noted before, comfortable enough to take the piss out of each other and make comments that are worth listening to. well worth having a listen to.

These are both rare stories that i actually want to go and watch properly afterwards. That doesn't always happen- mostly I get round to watching the stories a while after they've been released, but these ones I feel I want to watch.

Si xx

[Lissa]

A rare example of a commentary not pointing out before-they-were-famous people is Bob 'Millsy' Mills of "In Bed With MeDinner" and "The Bob Mills Show" fame as the dark haired guard non-speaking extra chap.

[Rob McCow]

Although the Kinda commentary was quite good, I think they were behaving themselves because Nerys Hughes was there. On Snakedance Janet and Peter really let rip! Highlights so far include Peter digging himself into a deep hole, the unveiling of the I-Pod and Peter talking about being in a car with J-NT on the way to This Is Your Life.

Also, Janet has been 'on a course' and now seems to know more about direction than any director of Doctor Who! (apparently!)

[SiHart]

Oh and Janet not knowing the sex of the set designer. And the gossip that cuts out during the credits of pt2!

Si xx

[Si Hunt]

Typically, there's a really great feature on the "Snakedance" DVD and it's not really been trumpetted. There's an alternate end to the story, and for once it's a cut scene worth seeing - it probably wouldn't have been a better ending than they used, but you get to see Tanna and Lon and Ambril apologise to the Doctor and everything. And they answer the question of why Dojen didn't destroy the crystal, which if you were paying attention you might have noticed gets asked twice in the story by various characters but never answered in the edit they used.

Si.

[SiHart]

It does get answered at the start of Mawdryn Undead though. They moved the dialgue over as there wasn't room in the overruning pt 4 of Snakedance.

Si xx

[Si Hunt]

The trouble with having a good theory is that someone smarter than you always comes along and ruins it.

Si.

[SiHart]

Aww, sorry Si.

Si xx

[Si Hunt]

It's ok Si! I'm sure there were plenty of viewers who, a week later, were really glad to know why Dojen didn't destroy the great crystal when he had the chance.

Si.

[brandynigma]

I managed to snag this (discs only) for £7.

It has cemented my love, as an adult, for the Fifth Doctor's era. Whilst Sixie's era may have been labelled as more 'adult' for its use of violence, this is the era that is more for adults, with its intellectual content.

A common complaint against this era is that the Doctor is constantly locked up, but Davison plays it just right here. Sure, he's frustrated at being unable to act, but he soaks up all the information around him, as Holmes or Poirot would do. Thus, when he can act, he gets straight to the source.

Despite some dull scripts in his second season, Davison is given some truly heroic moments. Choosing to kill Omega reluctantly; 'sacrificing' his regenerations for Tegan and Nyssa; giving Turlough the right to choose; and Snakedance, allowing himself to be poisoned in order to save his friend.

All in all, his Doctor has a very unreliable bunch of companions: Adric gets sucked into any scheme going; Tegan is brainwashed into a deadly force at least four times; Turlough is hired to kill him. However, it's strength, not weakness, that means that the Doctor forgives each of them, without so much as a word. It makes his embarrassed reaction to Tegan's gratitude in Mawdryn Undead such a great character moment. The Doctor doesn't forgive because he's bound to by any moral code; he forgives because that's what he wants to see in the universe.

I thought the Fifth Doctor was weak and uninvolved as a child- but Snakedance proves that there is strength in acting only when there is a clear course of action to take.

It's also why the Master never stands a blind chance after he manages to kill the Fourth Doctor.