Doctor Who: Serpents

Serpents seem to be about as popular in science fiction franchises as they are in the realm of fantasy. The world of Doctor Who is no exception.

From ouroboros to the Garden of Eden to Harry Potter, serpents are one of the most widely represented and significant animals that humans use in their symbolism. Most people fall into two categories: ones who find serpents off-putting and ones who adore them. This may be why they vary in their representation in terms of favorable and unfavorable attributes. In modern Western culture, they are largely depicted as sinister and/or creepy. In the famous words of Paula Abdul in her song ‘Cold Hearted’:

"“He’s a cold hearted snake. Look into his eyes. Oh, oh! He’s been telling lies. He’s a lover boy at play. He don’t play by rules. Oh, oh! Girl, don’t play the fool now.”"

The song includes a rap that uses imagery of this reptilian person squirming, being under a rock, and having a smooth, sharp tongue. Anyway, you get the idea. Watch the video below if you’d like.

After considering the introduction of the new character Colony Sarff — whose body is constructed of a colony of snakes — to Doctor Who in Series Nine, it is worth examining the various other times that serpents have made an appearance in the Whoniverse. The vast majority of these appearances present serpents in quite a negative light. We will discuss some notable examples below.

Our first example is the First Doctor serial ‘The Ark,’ in which a Brazilian snake is among the other species of animals aboard a space ark about ten million years in humanity’s future. Here we see an obvious reference to the Biblical story of Noah.

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In the Third Doctor serial ‘The Green Death,’ there are rather large snakes on Metebelis III. As a result of Sontaran fear experiments in the Fourth Doctor serial ‘The Sontaran Experiment, one of Sarah Jane Smith’s hallucinations is a snake on her arm. Much like the Dark Mark in Harry Potter, there various characters with moving snake tattoos — as well as the Mara, like Voldemort, shifting into the form of a snake — in the Fifth Doctor story ‘Kinda.’ ‘The Snakedance‘ is another Fifth Doctor story with a plethora of snakes and snake imagery. The Seventh Doctor utilizes a snake in his magic tricks in the story ‘The Greatest Show in the Galaxy.’ We learn in the Eleventh Doctor episode ‘The Time of Angels‘ that The Church deals with lava snakes as a regular nuisance in the 51st century.

Lastly, speaking of oroborus, there is a K9 episode titled ‘Oroborus‘ in which there is a snake that devours time, causing all sorts of wibbly wobbly problems.

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What do you think of the use of serpents in the Whoniverse? Let us know in the comments.