Top Ten Stories of Doctor Who With Religious Elements and Themes

6. Snakedance

The sequel to the story, Kinda, has the Fifth Doctor, Peter Davison, with companions Tegan and Nyssa dealing with the ramifications of that previous story.

Tegan, it is shown, is under control of the psychic entity, the Mara, who is trying to reestablish itself in physical form in the universe in order to take control and create a new empire for itself. It had existed and ruled in the past but was exiled and forced to exist as a psychic parasite trying to assert itself through those it could possess. On the planet the TARDIS lands upon, Manussa, taken there by the possessed Tegan, there was a prediction that the Mara would come back, but the prophecy had not been taken seriously.  Through Tegan, the Mara plans to use the ritualistic remembrance of its banishment to return and take control of the people of Manussa using Tegan and a descendant of the one who banished it to bring it back.

The Mara is the distillation of the evil psychic impulses of the people, often seen in the form of a snake, though it can and also find itself in other forms based upon the people it possesses. To overcome the Mara, the Doctor has to go on an ascetic journey, taking a snakebite to put him in a trance which allows him to come in contact with the monk like Dojjen, the one who predicted the return of the Mara, and be told the means by which the Mara can be defeated (for, as is now clear, the Doctor was only partially successful in the past). The Mara gains strength from fear, and the means to defeat it requires finding the “still point”which transcends the fear and blocks the power of the Mara.  If the Doctor is able to attain that in himself, then he will be able to use the great crystal which enhances mental energies and use it to send the Mara back into exile.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ib6R1HM7bZA

Snakedance is one of several Buddhist inspired stories, and unlike its predecessor, Kinda, this Buddhist element is allowed to remain true to itself without much integration with Western mythology. It is in some ways a parallel story to the overcoming of the Mara by the Buddha, with the Doctor having to find the proper center of being in order to defeat the impulses of the Mara.

The Mara (or Maras) in Buddhism represent the spiritual forces which rule the world of desire, making most people attached to the world, stuck in the cycle of reincarnation (samsara). This cycle is used to explain the defilement and sorrow, the pain and unsatisfactory nature of life itself. If we blindly give in to our desires in pursuit of the pleasures we think they will bring, we will create our own sorrow which forms as the consequence of our pursuit. To overcome the Mara, the Eightfold Path was established by the Buddha, where we detach ourselves from our desires, so we can find ourselves leaving the cycle of samsara. To overcome the Mara is to overcome our own defilement and to go beyond his control.  In the Buddhist legend, the Mara tried all kinds of means to make the Buddha stop his pursuit of Enlightenment, and in his victory over the Mara, he transcended the Mara’s influence and achieved nirvana.

The depth of its embrace with Buddhist lore is what makes Snakedance one of the most religious stories in the whole history of Doctor Who. While there are several defects in the story which make it inferior to its predecessor, Kinda, it remains a classic story which is enjoyable not only for its religious elements, but for its plot as well.