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Production Code: 5Y
First Transmitted Cast
An Earth colonisation survey expedition to the beautiful jungle planet Deva Loka is being depleted as members of the survey disappear one by one. Four have now gone, leaving the remainder in state of deep stress. The leader, Sanders, relies on bombast and rules; while his deputy, Hindle, is evidently close to breaking point. Only the scientific officer, Todd, seems at ease with the stresses of the situation. She does not see the native people, the Kinda, as a threat, but rather respects their culture and is intrigued by their power of telepathy. The social structure is also curious in that women seem dominant and are the only ones with the power of voice. The humans are holding two silent males hostage for "observation". Todd believes they are more advanced than they first appear, as they possess icons of the double helix of DNA about their necks, indicating a more advanced civilisation. Elsewhere in the jungle the TARDIS crew are also under stress, especially Nyssa of Traken, who has collapsed from exhaustion. The Fifth Doctor constructs a delta wave augmenter to enable her to rest in the TARDIS while he and Adric venture deeper into the jungle. They soon find an automated total survival suit (TSS) system which comes to life and marches them to the Dome where the human colonists have established their base. Sanders is a welcoming but firm presence, further undermining Hindle at regular opportunities, and it is therefore somewhat unnerving when Sanders decides to venture out into the jungle in the TSS, leaving the highly strung Hindle in charge. His will is enforced by means of the two Kinda hostages, who have forged a telepathic link with him believing their souls to have been captured in his mirror. The Doctor, Todd and Adric are immediately placed under arrest as Hindle now becomes completely mad. Tegan Jovanka is in even deeper danger. She has fallen asleep near the peaceful Windchimes, unaware of the danger of the dreaming of an unshared or non-telepathic mind. Her mind opens in a black void where she undergoes provocation and terror from a series of ghostly white visages, including the malevolent Dukkha, who taunts her that: “You will agree to being me, sooner or later, this side of madness or the other". The spectres are a manifestation of the Mara, an evil being of the subconscious that longs for corporeal reality once more. Mentally tortured, she eventually agrees to become the Mara and a snake symbol passes from Dukkha to her own arm. When her mind returns to her body she is possessed by the Mara and passes the snake symbol to the first Kinda she finds, a young man named Aris, who is the brother of one of the Kinda in the Dome. He too is transformed by evil and now finds the power of voice. Back at the Dome Hindle has conceived a crazed plan to destroy the jungle, whom he views as a threat. Adric plays along with this delusion. Hindle’s world soon starts to fall apart when first Adric betrays him and then Sanders defies expectation and returns from the jungle. Sanders has been changed by his experience in the jungle. An elderly wise woman, Panna, presented him with a strange wooden box which when opened has regressed his mind back to childhood. Sanders still has the box and shows it to Hindle, who makes the Doctor open it. The Doctor and Todd see beyond the toy inside and instead share a vision from Panna and her young ward, Karuna, which invites them to cave. The shock of the situation allows the Doctor and Todd to slip away into the jungle where they encounter Aris dominating a group of Kinda and seemingly fulfilling a tribal prophecy that “When the Not-We come, one will arise from among We, a male with Voice who must be obeyed.” Karuna soon finds the Doctor and Todd and takes them to meet Panna in the cave from the vision, with the wise woman realising the danger of the situation now Aris has voice. She places them in a trance like state and reveals that the Mara has gained dominion on Deva Loka. The Great Wheel which turns as civilisations rise and fall has turned again and the hour is near when chaos will reign. The vision she shares is Panna’s last act: when it is finished, she is dead. In a further curiosity, the old woman seems to have been reborn in Karuna. She urges Todd and the Doctor to return to the Dome to prevent Aris leading an attack on it which will increase the chaos and hasten the collapse of the Kinda civilisation. Back at the Dome Hindle, Sanders and Adric remain in a state of unreality, with the former becoming ever more demented and unbalanced, lapsing back into an unhappy childhood at moments of crisis. Adric slips away during confusion and dons the TSS but is soon confronted by Aris and the Kinda. He fires, hitting Aris and scattering the Kinda. The Doctor and Todd find an emotionally wrecked Tegan near the Windchimes and conclude she was path of the Mara back into this world. They then find Adric and the party heads back to the Dome where Hindle has now completed the laying of explosives which will incinerate the jungle and the Dome itself: the ultimate self-defence. Todd persuades Hindle now to open the wooden box, the Box of Jhana, and the visions therein restore both his balance and then Sanders’ own. The two servile Kinda are freed when the mirror entrapping them is shattered. This gives the Doctor an idea. He realises the one thing evil cannot face is itself and so engineers the creation of a large circle of mirrors in a jungle clearing. Aris is trapped within it and the snake on his arm breaks free. The Mara swells to giant proportions but then is banished back from the corporeal world to the Dark Places of the Inside. With the threat of the Mara dissipated, and the personnel of the Dome back to more balanced selves, the Doctor, Adric and an exhausted Tegan decide to leave. When they reach the TARDIS, Nyssa greets them, fully recovered too.
One element of this story that works very well is the mental breakdown of the two Human surveyors. The senior man, Sanders is already ‘losing it’ at the start, refusing to listen to the opinions of either of the remaining members of his team. Meanwhile, Hindle is degenerating fast. When he is left in charge his portrait of a madman in a position of power is chilling. The behaviour change in Sanders, on his return, is remarkable, too. From being a bombastic ‘I’m in charge’ man he is almost childlike in manner and seems to believe Hindle is in fact superior to him. The performances of both actors is to be commended. Janet Fielding as Tegan, in the surreal, whited out dream world, also deserves praise. Especially in the scene when she had to interact with a duplicate of herself. Bearing in mind this was one actress, on her own, on an empty studio floor, it took more acting ability than she is given credit for. People have tended to see Tegan as just the whiny ones with the Australian accent, but when scenes like that are looked at in detail you can see she DID have much more to her. The Mara, are an interesting bunch of nasties. It is worth mentioning here that the word Mara has two connotations in Earth culture. In Budhism a Mara is a demon that tempts men (apparently just men) into indulging their personal vices to excess. In Nose mythology they are a malignant female wraith which causes nightmares. And yes, they were referred to in Torchwood in the episode about malignant fairies. The Mara of Kinda seem to bear a relation to the Norse definition, coming to Tegan in her sleep. But their intention was to take over her mind so that they could have corporeal form. The symbolic passing of the snake tattoo from one arm to the other when the Mara left one mind for another was very evocative, incidentally. The clearly drawn snake had a chilling lifelikeness as it travelled. Another clue to who was possessed by the Mara was a red eyes and teeth. The Kinda, with their telepathy and ethereal wisdom are far from the ignorant savages Sanders dismisses them as. It is interesting that he defines civilisation in terms of technology. He even says something like “If they’re so advanced why haven’t they built a spaceship and come to observe us?” The obvious answer, that they don’t NEED space travel when they live in a paradise doesn’t occur to him. The idea that it is possible to be intelligent and not need technology is beyond him. His failure to see that is a moral lesson from this story for us all. The Doctor’s conclusion that mirrors will defeat the Mara is a good one, and it is very well realised with the circle of reflective metal that traps the possessed Aris and forces the snakelike Mara out of him. The Mara growing to monstrous size is also very well done. FAR better than the giant robot of eight years previously. A comparison shows how much effects technology had come on in those years. If there is a problem it is that The Doctor seems to have found that solution too quickly and too much out of the blue. But that is a small matter. On the whole, Kinda works as a good example of the Davison era stories.
Good guest stars and fine performances by the principle cast make
it a strong story. A luxuriant jungle set, costumes that work just
right and aren’t TOO over the top, and that amazing whited out
dream sequence with just the right element of surreal combine to make
it a memorable classic.
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