Its been noticeable that as the BBC has gone through the Doctor Who adventures over the years and released them on DVD, the more recent offerings have often been what many consider the also-ran tales. That said, many of these lesser-known stories have actually been very good, with their reputation mainly having suffered from the likes of shoddy special effects, or because theyre very unusual Who stories that have divided fans. Both those issues have certainly affected the standing of the stories included in The Mara Tales.
The set contains two four-part adventures written by Christopher Bailey, both of which feature a strange, evil force called The Mara, which invades peoples brains and draws its power from them. The first adventure, Kinda (pronounced Kinder, like the eggs), sees Peter Davisons Doctor and his companions landing on a luscious, tropical paradise planet called Deva Loka. There they discover a group of human-looking aliens whove arrived on the planet as a scouting party to find out whether Deva Loka would be a good place to colonise. Understandably this has caused tension with the mute, seemingly ignorant locals, known as the Kinda, who the would-be colonisers believe are just unimportant primitives although the scientist amongst the group suspects they may actually be telepaths.
While the Doctor tries to deal with that (James Cameron probably took notes on Kinda and used them for Avatar) , he also faces the more pressing issue that one of the colonising officers, Hindle, is becoming increasingly unstable and potentially violent. Meanwhile companion Tegan falls into a sleep that takes her to a strange, bizarre realm. A malevolent force called The Mara is out to take her mind from her, and may have evil intentions that threaten the whole of Deva Loka.
Its a rather peculiar and somewhat confusing story, which often seems as if its trying to be deliberately obtuse, even if its simultaneously full of interesting ideas and has an awful lot of intriguing moments. The problems are dealt with in the excellent documentary Dream Time, where numerous members of the cast and crew talk about Kindas strengths and weaknesses. Writer Christopher Bailey discusses the Buddhist influences on the story and insists it all made sense to him, while others admit they did and still do find it rather confusing.
They also spend time talking about the rather rubbish special effects, most notably a giant snake which looks like it should be on top of a particularly cheap carnival float. Indeed its so bad and infamous amongst Who fans, that the BBC has gone to the expense of creating a CGI replacement that you can drop into the action if you want to. Although it is a bit odd to have CGI in old Doctor Who, its nevertheless fairly effective, especially as they do a good job of making the snake look like it was shot on 1980s video.
Its worth noting as well that the acting is top notch, partly thanks to great support from Richard Todd yes, thats right, Richard Todd from The Dambusters did a Doctor Who adventure Simon Rouse (best known for The Bill) and 80s mainstay Nerys Hughes.
With an interesting featurette about Doctor Who director Peter Grimwade and the usual sundry items the Beeb is always good at including on Who discs, its an excellent set of features for an exceedingly interesting if rather flawed Whovian adventure.
The other adventure included in the set is Snakedance, which is a sort of follow-up to Kinda. After her experience on Deva Loka, Tegan unexpectedly finds herself experiencing after-effects when she subconsciously causes the TARDIS to head to the planet Manussa. The residents of the planet have a legend about the defeat of an evil force called The Mara. With that creature still partly present in Tegans mind, it begins to grow in strength and starts to get those it touches to help it regain its former dominant position in the minds of all the people on the planet.
Although Snakedance makes more sense and is less surreal than Kinda (it has its moments though, particularly concerning a hermit living in the desert), its also less interesting the previous Mara tale. It just goes to show that sometimes logic isnt everything, as while the oddities of Kinda are kind of infuriating, they do allow it to go to places that are far more intriguing than the less weird Snakedance manages.
Its also noticeable that they seem to have learned from Kinda not to over-reach on the special effects front, so theres no stupid looking plastic snakes this time, instead relying on visions of reptile skulls and glowing crystals, as well as some decent production design. Its an ok adventure but far from a classic, and you can understand why the Mara only made it into two Who adventures, as while its a decent idea for a monster a mental force sucking you into a dark, malevolent world they never quite worked out how to deal with in on screen.
Indeed, perhaps the most memorable thing of all about Snakedance is the presence of a pre-fame Martin Clunes, strutting around in ridiculous clothing as a Manussan noble-man, who ends up in league with The Mara.
As with Kinda, the special features on Snakedance are good, with a very interesting retrospective documentary, a commentary, deleted scenes and a look at the creation of some of the effects.
The Mara Tales definitely arent classic adventures, but they are pretty interesting and Kinda in particular is something a little different to what old Who normally attempted. They may be flawed something the special features are thankfully willing to admit that, allowing for a fascinating discussion of both adventures but they perhaps deserve a slightly better reputation than they currently have.
Overall Verdict: Two interesting but flawed Who stories, backed by an excellent selection of special features.
Special Features:
Kinda:
Audio Commentary With Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Matthew Waterhouse and Nerys Hughes
Dreamtime Documentary
Peter Grimwade Directing With Attitude Featurette
Deleted and Extended Scenes
Optional CGI Effects
CGI Effects Comparison
Trails and Continuity
Gallery
Isolated Music
Trailers
Snakedance:
Audio Commentary With Peter Davison, Janet Fielding and Sarah Sutton
Snake Charmer Documentary
Deleted Scenes
In Studio Featurette
Saturday Superstore Segment
Photo Gallery
Isolated Music
Trailers
Radio Times Listings
Reviewer: Tim Isaac