Nyssa quickly finds out the Mara is still in full control, the Doctor performs a Psychic Link to try and save Tegan. When this goes awry, the Doctor decides to take the crew back to Manussa, but accidentally end up a few hundred years early.
But Manussa is where the Mara had its empire, and it's travelled with the Doctor and his companions, and one by one, it's starting to warp history of the planet for the worse. And can the Doctor fight off The Corruption within himself?
Forms a loose trilogy that started in Cobwebs and continued in The Whispering Forest. Also forms a trilogy with the TV episodes "Kinda" and "Snakedance"
The Cradle of the Snake contains examples of:
- Adaptation Amalgamation: The cover art for this story features the CGI Mara created as an optional insert for the "Kinda" DVD, rather than the embarrassing puppet used in the original TV story.
- The Baroness: Nyssa acts like this once she is possessed by the Mara.
- Batman Gambit: The Mara wants the Doctor, so it goes through Tegan. When the Doctor mind links with an unconscious Tegan, she begins smiling.
- Break the Cutie: Tegan doesn't deal well with being possessed by the Mara yet again. Even worse considering that the last few canonical stories from both television and audio ("Mawdryn Undead" through "Enlightenment", "Cobwebs" and "The Whispering Forest") happen almost immediately after each other, meaning that "Snakedance" only happened a week or two ago for Tegan at most, and she has to go through it all again so soon.
- Call-Back:
- Nyssa mentions having been there on Manussa, and suggests going to Terminus.
- The Doctor mentions he's defeated the Mara twice before.
- Nyssa mentions Traken to be less good, but more structured than Manussa.
- Chaotic Evil: The Mara takes glee in chaos, on any level, and does things For the Evulz.
- Celebrity Endorsement: The Mara promises this to ausGarten, for his Thought Materialization Machine.
- The Corruption: Due to the Doctor taking the Mara to Manussa, the Sumaran empire might start early because the Mara goes around corrupting others.
- Demonic Possession: A prerequisite for any story featuring the Mara. As well as its usual host, Tegan, it also possesses everyone except for Baalaka at various points throughout the story.
- Divided We Fall: The Mara aims to create discord between the Doctor and his companions. The Mara's acolytes suffer from this exact fate in the end.
- Dream Land: The Doctor finds himself in one when he does a Mental Fusion with Tegan. Complete with sheep that are voiced by Turlough and Nyssa. It helps save the day in the end.
- The Empire: The Mara's goal is to start its own Sumaran Empire once again, a hundred years early. Nyssa points out how illogical it is for the Mara to even have an empire, since that implies some kind of control and rule, and the Mara thrives on random chaos and destruction.
- Evil Costume Switch: When Nyssa falls under the influence of The Mara, she undergoes one.
- Evil-Detecting Dog: Old Lady and the Snake dancers' snakes.
- Evil Is Petty: The Doctor, possessed by the Mara, loses a carnival game and then takes his revenge by destroying the barker's tent.
- Fake American: Yoanna Rayluss has an American Accent, but it's noticeably put on.
- Fluffy the Terrible: The snake that "nearly" attacks Tegan, is called "Old lady" by Dada, who coos to her and feeds her live mice.
- Glamour Failure: The Mara can't stand the sight of itself, and henceforth none of its acolytes.
- God Guise: The Doctor mentions the Mara is akin to this. Considered a demon, whilst "all" he is is a creature that needs to be born through others that works through temptation.
- Extremely Short Timespan: It isn't acknowledged in-universe, but looking at the timeframe from "Snakedance" up to this story, all the intervening adventures have taken place over a week, maybe two, at most.
- Good Counterpart: The Mara finds one in Baalaka.
- Herr Doktor: Dr. Kerrem. He even has a German accent.
- Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday: Manussan New Year's Eve is one day away, with the climax taking place during it.
- Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Baalaka. A Mara-possessed Doctor also mocks Nyssa for being this, calling her "Little Nun", though it actually does manage to corrupt her later on.
- "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: The Doctor tries this on Tegan, but the Mara is fully in control. Turlough also tries one on The Doctor later on, with a similar result.
- I Know Your True Name: Dadda says the "Evil" has to be named by Tegan before he can fight it. Whether or not this was superstition or an actual weakness is left hanging because the Mara shows up immediately.
- I Owe You My Life: During the aforementioned "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight, Turlough tells The Doctor this, since he rescued him from the Black Guardian and kept believing in him.
- Large Ham: Being possessed by The Mara really allows Peter Davison to let rip, and he is clearly enjoying himself.
- Mental Fusion: The Doctor and Tegan/Mara in order to drive out the Mara.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: By traveling to Manussa with the Mara in tow, the Doctor nearly kick-starts the Sumaran empire a century early.
- No-Sell: Baalaaka doesn't even react to the Mara's attempts at possessing him.
- Not That Kind of Doctor: When Yoanna wants Nyssa and Tegan to get the Doctor, Nyssa says "He's not the right kind".
- Older Than They Look: Tegan says the Doctor isn't as young as he looks (or thinks he is).
- Power Crystal: Manussa has technology based on crystals, which the Mara will eventually exploit to increase its power during its reign.
- Properly Paranoid: Dadda Desaka is a strange priest, and considered a religious nut by everybody who knows of him. Yet he's the one that sees the device that's being developed by ausGarten as oncoming trouble.
- Spanner in the Works: Baalaaka doesn't dream, at all (and therefore doesn't have any dark desires), and this makes him utterly immune to the Mara's influence.
- Speak of the Devil: After being possessed and traumatised by the Mara three times, Tegan is understandably too afraid to even speak its name at first, only calling it "the monster". Dadda calls it "The evil (one)" or "The dark dream".
- Sssssnake Talk: When the Mara has control of a person, their s's don't get drawn out as much as they get sharper, like a snake sticking out it's tongue.
- That Man Is Dead: The Mara-possessed Doctor says this almost word-for-word. Nyssa later says something similar when she falls under its control.
- Telethon: The Mara holds one. Though this is a way of corrupting people.
- Town with a Dark Secret: Nyssa and Turlough suspect the planet's populace to be too good, as if it's hiding something.
- The Unintelligible: The unleashed Mara is only capable of roaring, as opposed to its usual eloquence when possessing others. Turlough asks how it can talk to people and Tegan says it's because of its corrupting influence.
- The Virus: The Mara is compared to one, including quarantining Tegan in the TARDIS to try to contain it.
- Your Mind Makes It Real: The Thought Materialization Machine.
