Peter Davison (The Doctor), Janet Fielding (Tegan), Sarah Sutton (Nyssa), Matthew Waterhouse (Adric)
Guest Cast
Richard Todd (Sanders), Nerys Hughes (Todd), Simon Rouse (Hindle), Anna Wing (Anatta) [1], Roger Milner (Annica) [1], Jeffrey Stewart (Dukkha) [1-2], Adrian Mills (Aris), Mary Morris (Panna) [2-4], Sarah Prince (Karuna) [2-4], Lee Cornes (Trickster) [3-4].
CREW
Written by
Christopher Bailey
Directed by
Peter Grimwade
Produced by
John Nathan Turner
SYPNOSIS
A beautiful, paradise planet, Deva Loka. Its inhabitants, the Kinda, are a gentle and seemingly primitive people. On the surface, a perfect place to colonise. But if it is so perfect, why are the colonisation team disappearing one by one? Unaware of this, The Doctor and his companions choose to rest on Deva Loka. Enchanted by the beautiful Chimes, “the place of dreams”, Tegan sleeps and falls prey to the Mara, a malevolent force out to steal her mind. But just what are its ultimate evil intentions?
Meanwhile, The Doctor and Adric are captured by the surviving colonisation team’s officers, Sanders and the unstable Hindle. When Sanders disappears, Hindle collapses into a world of paranoid delusions and suddenly the security of the entire base is at risk.
Can The Doctor rescue Tegan from the Mara and defeat it – before it pushes Hindle over the edge? And who is the mysterious blind woman who appears in visions? Will she help The Doctoror ultimately impede him?
NOTES
Kinda is reportedly based on Buddhist concepts, with Buddhist names and themes throughout the story. The Mara derives from a demon of the same name in Buddhist mythology which, as in Doctor Who, symbolises temptation rather then evil(at least, in the sense of “sinfulness”).
Nyssa does not appear in parts two and three. While the exact date this story is set in is not made clear, Todd does mention that their homeworld is vastly overpopulated. This could indicate that it takes place around the same era as: Colony in Space.
In Kinda, Dukkha, Panna, Karuna, Anatta and Anicca’s names and functions all derive from Buddhism as well. Dukkha is”suffering”, Panna is”wisdom”, Karuna means “compassion”, Anatta is”not-self” and Annica means “impermanence”. In Snakedance the characterof Tanha appears, Tanha is”thirst” which figuratively means “restlessness” or “craving”. In addition, it may have Biblical references (an arboreal paradise, a serpent, and apples).
