BBC Doctor Who - The Stories BBC
QuickNav to a Season: 
QuickNav to a Story: 
 
The Previous Story
Kinda
 The Previous Story
The Previous Story
(Four to Doomsday)
 The Next Story
(The Visitation)
Season
Details
SynopsisGeneral
Information
The
Episodes
Audience
Appreciation
ArchivesNotesFirst and LastThe PlotQuote of
the Story
Release
Information
In PrintPhoto
Gallery
 

Peter Davison
Kinda
Fifth Doctor Logo


Synopsis


The Mara
The Mara
 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 Doctor or ultimately impede him?

Source: BBC VHS Video


General Information

Season: Nineteen
Production Code: 5Y
Story Number: 118
Episode Numbers:562 - 565
Number of Episodes: 4
Percentage of Episodes Held:100%
Working Titles:"The Kinda"
Production Dates: July - November 1981
Broadcast Started: 01 February 1982
Broadcast Finished: 09 February 1982
Colour Status: Colour
Studio: BBC Television Centre (TC8)
Location: None
Writer:Christopher Bailey
Director:Peter Grimwade
Producer:John Nathan-Turner
Script Editor:Eric Saward
Editor:Steve Murray
Production Manager:Ann Faggetter
Production Assistants:Rosemary Parsons and Sue Plumb
Production Associate:Angela Smith
Assistant Floor Manager:Val McCrimmon
Designer:Malcolm Thornton
Costume Designer:Barbara Kidd
Make-Up Designer:Suzan Broad
Cameraman:Alec Wheal
Lighting:Mike Jefferies
Visual Effects:Peter Logan
Incidental Music:Peter Howell
Special Sounds (SFX Editor):Dick Mills
Studio Sounds:Alan Machin
Title Sequence:Sid Sutton
Title Music:Ron Grainer and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Arranged by Peter Howell
Number of Doctors: 1
The Doctor: Peter Davison (The Fifth Doctor)
Number of Companions: 3The Companions: Matthew Waterhouse (Adric), Sarah Sutton (Nyssa) and Janet Fielding (Tegan Jovanka) Guest Cast: Nerys Hughes (Todd), Richard Todd (Sanders) Additional Cast: Simon Rouse (Hindle), Mary Morris (Panna), Sarah Prince (Karuna), Adrian Mills (Aris), Anna Wing (Anatta), Roger Milner (Anicca), Jeffrey Stewart (Dukkha), Lee Cornes (Trickster)Setting: Planet Deva Loka and Dark Places of the Inside Villains:Dukkha, Hindle and The Mara

The Episodes

No. Episodes Broadcast
(UK)
Duration Viewers
(Millions)
In Archive
562Part 101 February 198224'50"8.4PAL 2" colour videotape
563Part 202 February 198224'58"9.4PAL 2" colour videotape
564Part 308 February 198224'17"8.5PAL 2" colour videotape
565Part 409 February 198224'28"8.9PAL 2" colour videotape

Total Duration 1 Hour 39 Minutes


Audience Appreciation

Average Viewers (Millions) 8.8
Doctor Who Magazine Poll (1998)73.51%  (Position = 47 out of 159)
Doctor Who Magazine Poll (2003)433 Points (Position = 35 out of 159)
Doctor Who Magazine Poll (2009)73.61% Higher (Position = 69 out of 200)
Doctor Who Magazine Poll (2014)77.41% Higher (Position = 63 out of 241)
Doctor Who Magazine Poll (2023) Position = 4 out of 20


Archives


 All four episodes exist as PAL 2" colour videotapes.



Return to the top of this page
 


Notes


This story is considered by many to be the first real classic of the Fifth Doctor’s era. It was written by Christopher Bailey and introduces, to the show, the Mara, a snake-like being that inhabits Tegan Jovanka’s mind, and is later carried with her to the Season Twenty follow-up story "Snakedance", which Christopher Bailey also wrote.

Christopher Bailey, who had contributed plays to Second City Firsts and ITV Playhouse, had been approached by former script editor Christopher H. Bidmead in early 1980 to write a Doctor Who story. He had originally conceived his storyline with the Fourth Doctor in mind. However, with Tom Baker leaving at the end of Season Eighteen, Christopher Bailey was forced to re-imagine The Doctor’s character for this story. Furthermore, two new companions had been introduced, in the form of Adric and Tegan, and so Christopher Bailey had to account for these changes as well.

However, when it was decided to retain Nyssa as a regular character as well this presented a far greater difficulty for Christopher Bailey as there was no room for a third companion in his plot and to add her in risked damaging the storyline. Consequently, it was agreed that Nyssa would be written out of the main action - thus appearing only at the start and end of the story. This echoed a practise common in Doctor Who throughout the Sixties, when members of the regular cast would be omitted from an episode once or twice per season in order to afford them a week’s holiday.

To account for this absence a scene was scripted where Nyssa collapsed, supposedly from exhaustion, at the end of the previous story, "Four to Doomsday". And so, during the majority of this story, she remains in the TARDIS, resting.

Christopher Bailey was a student of Buddhism and he infused this story with many Buddhist terms and ideas. The Mara derives from a demon of the same name in Buddhist mythology which, as in Doctor Who, symbolizes temptation rather then evil (at least, in the sense of "sinfulness"). Other characters are named after Buddhist words. Namely: Dukkha (‘suffering’), Panna (‘wisdom’), Karuna (‘compassion’), Anicca (‘impermanence’) and Anatta (‘without self’). The Jhana Box (also spelt ‘Jana Box’ in the scripts) alluded to a Buddhist meditative state of complete immersion, while Deva Loka was named for the heavenly realm of supernatural beings (called ‘devas’). Sanders, on the other hand, was named for the 1935 film Sanders of the River.

This story also includes a number of Biblical references (an arboreal paradise, a serpent, and apples).

Three script editors worked with Christopher Bailey on this story: Christopher H. Bidmead (who left Doctor Who at the end of 1980), his interim replacement Antony Root, and finally Eric Saward. Eric Saward initially had received only a short-term appointment in the event that Antony Root was able to rejoin Doctor Who. During the summer of 1981, however, Antony Root was given a permanent job script-editing Juliet Bravo, and so Eric Saward agreed to remain on Doctor Who. He continued in this role through to Season Twenty Three. "Kinda" though was his first story that went into production.

"Kinda" was the first story to go before the cameras after an almost two-month break in production, which enabled Peter Davison to record the second season of his popular sitcom Sink or Swim. By now, the scripting problems which had affected the beginning of Season Nineteen had largely been resolved, and with the exception of the premiere story, "Castrovalva", the remainder of this season would be recorded in broadcast order.

The director allocated to this story was Peter Grimwade, who had last helmed the Fourth Doctor’s final story "Logopolis".

During editing, it was discovered that although the first two episodes overran significantly (resulting in a number of minor edits), episode four could not be made to stretch to its requisite duration. Because of the structure of the third episode, it was not possible to move material from earlier episodes to help fill the gap in the fourth, as was the normal practise. Consequently, Eric Saward was forced to ask Christopher Bailey - who was already working on a sequel to "Kinda", called "Snakedance" - to provide four minutes worth of extra material featuring only the regular cast to pad out the final episode. Christopher Bailey developed two scenes set in the expedition dome’s airlock. One involving Tegan and Adric discussing Hindle’s bomb and another in which The Doctor assures them that Hindle is no longer a threat. These two scenes were recorded in November 1981, during the recording of "Earthshock", Peter Grimwade’s next Doctor Who story.

Ironically, Peter Grimwade cast well known British film star Richard Todd in the role of Sanders; Todd had starred in the 1963 remake of Sanders of the River (which had also been distributed under the title of Death Drums Along The River).

Mary Morris, who plays Panna, appeared in the groundbreaking sci-fi mini-series A For Andromeda.

Nerys Hughes, better known for her starring roles in the BBC’s The Liver Birds and The District Nurse, plays Todd. She also guest starred in the Torchwood story "Something Borrowed" as Brenda Williams mother of Rhys Williams.

Adrian Mills, who plays Aris, later became a television presenter, including on the BBC’s consumer programme That’s Life.

Both Simon Rouse (Hindle) and Jeff Stewart (Dukkha) went on to star in The Bill.

For the scene in the second episode, where the two Tegans talk to each other about which of them is real, John Nathan-Turner allowed Janet Fielding to write her own dialogue.

The book "Doctor Who: The Unfolding Text" by John Tulloch and Manual Alvarado (published in 1983) features a segment on the making of this story. This was the first major non-fiction work dedicated to Doctor Who. Tulloch and Alvarado compare "Kinda" with Ursula K. Le Guin’s 1976 novel "The Word for World is Forest", which shares several themes with "Kinda" and may have been a template for its story. "The Unfolding Text" also examines the way "Kinda" incorporates the Buddhist and Christian symbols and themes, as well as elements from the writings of Carl Jung.

While the exact date that 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 the 1971 Third Doctor story "Colony in Space".

It is revealed that the Mara can only cross to reality through the dreaming of a solitary mind (one that isn’t part of a collective mind like that of the Kinda). The Mara can be contained between mirrors. The Kinda, aware that the Mara can reproduce itself, refer to it in the plural (Panna calls it ‘he’). Only women in the Kinda tribe speak. They employ a trickster to defuse conflict, are mutually telepathic, and follow a religion that embraces reincarnation. One of their devices is a box which removes aggressive impulses from the recipient. They play music on chimes based on the chromatic scale, and discourage individual dreaming.

At one point The Doctor refers to K9.

This story contains a number of errors. Namely: It is never explained what happened to Roberts and the other two missing crew; In episode four Tegan talks of Hindle as if she’d already met him; Adric and Nyssa’s draughts board is the wrong way round; It is quite obvious that the jungle ‘floor’ in most cases is merely a studio floor with some leaves scattered over it; When the Kinda surround Aris with mirrors, there is an obvious gap at the lower left for the camera to dolly in and out.

In the ancient language Sanskrit, ‘Deva Loka’ means ‘Celestial Region’.

Wind chimes from Deva Loka also appear in the Virgin Books’ The New Adventures novel "Legacy" written by Gary Russell.

Delta waves reappeared in the 2005 Ninth Doctor story "Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways". Far from the brain wave-enhancing recuperation devices from Kinda, however, delta waves were described by Captain Jack Harkness as being ‘waves of Van Cassadyne energy... Your brain gets barbecued’.

A fairy like creature, which is compared to a Mara, features in the 2006 Torchwood story "Small Worlds". It is not confirmed if there is a connection between the two creatures.

In the 2007 special Children in Need story, "Time Crash", the Tenth Doctor asks the temporally misplaced Fifth Doctor where (i.e. when) he is now - and speculatively references Tegan, Nyssa and the Mara from his own memories.

In the 2008 Tenth Doctor story "Turn Left", the time beetle on Donna Noble’s back is also revealed when faced with a circle of mirrors.

The story was repeated on BBC One in August 1983.

The Target novelisation of this story, released in March 1984, was the final novelisation to use a fully photographic cover, and it was the final Target novelisation to feature The Doctor as part of the main art until the novelisation of the 1966 First Doctor story "The Savages" was published several years later. Although allocated as issue number 84 in Target Book’s Doctor Who library, the book was actually the 83rd to be released; this was because it was swapped in the publication order with the novelisation of "Snakedance" late in the day without the numbers being reassigned.



First and Last

The Firsts:

 The first appearance of the Mara.

 The first Doctor Who story to be written by Christopher Bailey.


Return to the top of this page
 


The Plot

WARNING: May Contain SpoilersHide Text
Sanders, Todd and Hindle
Sanders, Todd and Hindle

After witnessing Nyssa collapsing onto the Console Room’s floor, at the end of the previous story (see "Four to Doomsday"), The Doctor prescribes some augmented D-sleep for his exhausted companion and constructs a delta wave augmenter to ensure that she gets it.

Meanwhile the TARDIS has materialised on the beautiful jungle planet Deva Loka and, while Nyssa remains behind in the TARDIS to sleep, The Doctor, Adric and Tegan Jovanka decide to look around. Nearby they find, hung from some trees, a set of wind chimes which seem to have a strange effect on Tegan. The Doctor and Adric are distracted when they find an armoured suit - a Total Survival Suit (TSS) - elsewhere in the jungle. Tegan meanwhile has been left alone, by the wind chimes, starts to feel sleepy. She settles down to rest and soon falls asleep.

While investigating the TSS it becomes activated when Adric slams shut its door, and it herds The Doctor and Adric to a dome-shaped base. There they meet Sanders, Todd and Hindle, the remaining members of a survey team aiming to classify planet S14 - as they term it - as to its suitability for colonisation. Hindle has captured two of the native Kinda for study and he discovers that, by using a mirror, he can hypnotise them and then telepathically order them to do his will. Already slightly unstable, Hindle slips into madness. This becomes evident when Sanders leaves in the TSS to look for Roberts - a missing crew member – and Hindle places all the others under arrest.

The Doctor
The Doctor

Meanwhile, the natives drape Tegan’s sleeping form with garlands and other offerings. In her dreams, Tegan meets a strange man with a snake tattooed on his arm, who wants to take over her body. The stranger confuses her with multiple images of herself and then leaves her totally alone in her own mind. Terrified, she capitulates to his demand. Tegan wakes up back in the forest, but she is now possessed by an alien force.

Elswhere in the forest Sanders has met up with the blind wise woman Panna and her young telepathic acolyte Karuna. Panna gives Sanders the Box of Jhana, which when he opens it light floods his face.

Tegan sleeping
Tegan sleeping

Back at the dome, Hindle is planning to set fire to a fifty mile area around the dome as protection against the plants and trees which he is convinced are a threat. The Doctor and Todd have been locked up and Adric is pretending to be on Hindle’s side in order to get the electronic key to the cell. When Sanders returns he gives Hindle the Box of Jhana but Hindle orders The Doctor to open it. The Time Lord does so and sees an image of Panna and Karuna beckoning him to them.

Lost in the jungle the possessed Tegan meets another Kinda, Aris, and she offers to help him. As they hold hands the snake mark moves from Tegan's arm to Aris' and becomes possessed. The creature within Tegan then reveals itself to be a Mara.

After escaping from the dome The Doctor and Todd manage to leave the dome only to come across a group of Kinda. But when Aris arrives he orders that the pair be restrained. Karuna suggests that Aris’s speech - he was previously mute, as are all Kinda males - fulfils a prophecy and that he must be obeyed. She takes The Doctor and Todd to see Panna. The old wise woman speaks of the cycle of life, of great wheels turning and civilisations rising and falling. She shows The Doctor and Todd a vision - time running out as the Kinda despair. When they return to reality, Panna appears to be dead, but Karuna is revealed to be her reincarnation.

The Doctor Discovers Tegan
The Doctor Discovers Tegan

The Doctor and Todd then find an emotionally wrecked Tegan in the jungle near the Windchimes. When they wake her she seems fine, if puzzled by her bad dreams. But The Doctor is convinced that she was the path of the Mara back into this world.

Aris, meanwhile, is exhorting the Kinda to attack and destroy the dome. They have built a TSS-like structure out of sticks with which to battle the real TSS. This machine now attacks, and the Kinda are scattered. Adric is inside the machine and The Doctor releases him. It is then that The Doctor discovers that Hindle has wired the dome with bombs and is planning to blow it up. The Doctor and Todd rush back to try to stop him. Hindle has reverted to a child-like state, and Todd tricks him into opening the Box of Jhana and the light floods his mind.

With the immediate danger over, The Doctor realises he must now deal with the Mara and plans to use a circle of mirrors to trap it. Karuna acts as bait to draw Aris into the circle. Trapped, the Mara leaves Aris’s body and grows into a giant snake. Then it weakens and vanishes.

With the threat of the Mara dissipated, and the personnel of the Dome back to more balanced selves, Todd tells The Doctor that Sanders intends to stay on Deva Loka but that it is a bit too green for her. As the Kinda arrive and look on, The Doctor bids the expedition team farewell. When The Doctor, Adric and Tegan reach the TARDIS a recovered Nyssa greets them and they all leave in the TARDIS.

 
Aris
Aris
Tegan and Aris
Tegan and Aris
Karuna
Karuna
Panna
Panna
 
Todd
Todd
Sanders
Sanders
Dukkha
Dukkha
The Mara
The Mara




Quote of the Story


 'Straight-down-the-line thinking, that's what this situation needs.'

Sanders



Return to the top of this page
 


Release Information

FormatTitleRelease Date (UK)Code NumberCover ArtRemarks
Audio
LP
Doctor Who: The Music1983REC 462Music score
Audio
Tape
Doctor Who: The Music1983Music score
Audio
CD
Doctor Who - Earthshock - Classic Music From The BBC Radiophonic Workshop Volume 11992FLMCD 709Alister PearsonMusic score
Video
VHS
KindaOctober 1994BBCV 5432Colin Howard
Video
DVD
KindaMarch 2011BBCDVD 2871Photo-montagePart of "The Mara Tales" Box Set Released along with "Snakedance"
Video
Blu-Ray
Doctor Who: The Collection - Season 19 (Limited Edition)December 2018BBCBD 0446Lee BindingBlu-Ray Limited Edition boxed set containing 7 specially restored stories
Video
Blu-Ray
Doctor Who: The Collection - Season 19 (Standard Edition)May 2021BBCBD 0527Lee BindingBlu-Ray Standard Edition boxed set containing 7 specially restored stories


In Print

FormatTitleRelease Date (UK)PublisherAuthorCover ArtRemarks
Novel
Novel
KindaMarch 1984Target No. 84Terrance DicksPhoto-montageISBN: 0-426-19529-9
Novel
Novel
Kinda1984Target No. 84Terrance DicksBook: Photo-montage
Box: Photo
Re-released as part of The Fifth Doctor Who Gift Set
ISBN: 0-426-19596-5
Tape
Tape
KindaAugust 1997BBC AudioTerrance DicksAbridged version read by Peter Davison. Single Cassette. ZBBC 1770
Novel
Novel
KindaFebruary 1992Target No. 84Terrance DicksAlister PearsonVirgin new cover reprint.
ISBN: 0-426-19529-9
MP3
MP3
Tales From The TARDIS - Volume 1July 2004BBC AudioTerrance DicksPhoto-montageMP3 version read by Peter Davison. Release includes 12 stories read by various actors and actresses from the show.
ISBN: 0-563-52372-7
CD
CD
KindaJune 2024Target No. 84Terrance DicksAlister PearsonAudio version of the BBC Books Target Novel read by Janet Fielding (Tegan Jovanka).
Doctor Who CMS Magazine (In Vision)Issue 57 (Released: May 1995)
Doctor Who Monthly - PreviewIssue 62 (Released: March 1982)
Doctor Who Monthly - ReviewIssue 64 (Released: May 1982)
Doctor Who Magazine - ArchiveIssue 104 (Released: September 1985)
Doctor Who Magazine - ArchiveIssue 226 (Released: June 1995)
Doctor Who Magazine - Time TeamIssue 376 (Released: December 2006)
Doctor Who Magazine - The Fact of FictionIssue 476 (Released: September 2014)
Doctor Who DVD FilesVolume 93 (Released: July 2012)

Return to the top of this page
 


Photo Gallery


The Doctor and Companions

 
Peter Davison
The Fifth Doctor

   

Matthew Waterhouse
Adric
Sarah Sutton
Nyssa
Janet Fielding
Tegan Jovanka
   




On Release

Audio LP - Doctor Who: The Music
Audio LP - Doctor Who: The Music

BBC
AUDIO
Audio Tape - Doctor Who: The Music
Audio Tape - Doctor Who: The Music

BBC
AUDIO
Doctor Who - Earthshock CD Cover
Doctor Who - Earthshock CD Cover

Silva Screen
AUDIO
VHS Video Cover
VHS Video Cover

BBC
VIDEO
   
Mara Tales DVD Cover
Mara Tales DVD Cover

BBC
VIDEO
The Collection Season 19 Limited Edition Blu-Ray Cover
The Collection Season 19 Limited Edition Blu-Ray Cover

BBC
VIDEO
The Collection Season 19 Standard Edition Blu-Ray Cover
The Collection Season 19 Standard Edition Blu-Ray Cover

BBC
VIDEO



In Print

Target Book Cover
Target Book Cover

Target
NOVEL
The Fifth Doctor Who Gift Set
The Fifth Doctor Who Gift Set

Target
NOVEL
Audio Cassette Cover
Audio Cassette Cover

BBC
TAPE
   
Reprinted Virgin Book Cover
Reprinted Virgin Book Cover

Virgin
NOVEL
MP3 Cover
MP3 Cover

BBC
MP3
Target Audio CD Cover
Target Audio CD Cover

BBC
CD
   


Magazines

Doctor Who CMS Magazine (In Vision): Issue 57
Doctor Who CMS Magazine (In Vision): Issue 57

CMS
Doctor Who Monthly - Preview: Issue 62
Doctor Who Monthly - Preview: Issue 62

Marvel Comics
Doctor Who Monthly - Review: Issue 64
Doctor Who Monthly - Review: Issue 64

Marvel Comics
Doctor Who Magazine - Archive: Issue 104
Doctor Who Magazine - Archive: Issue 104

Marvel Comics
   
Doctor Who Magazine - Archive: Issue 226
Doctor Who Magazine - Archive: Issue 226

Marvel Comics
Doctor Who Magazine - Time Team: Issue 376
Doctor Who Magazine - Time Team: Issue 376

Marvel Comics
Doctor Who Magazine - The Fact of Fiction: Issue 476
Doctor Who Magazine - The Fact of Fiction: Issue 476

Marvel Comics
Doctor Who DVD Files: Volume 93
Doctor Who DVD Files: Volume 93

GE Fabbri
   


Return to the top of this page
 
 
Who's Who
KJ Software
Who Me
Episodes of the
Fifth Doctor


Season 19 Press to go back to the previous visited page References
 
 
Doctor Who is the copyright of the British Broadcasting Corporation. No infringements intended. This site is not endorsed by the BBC or any representatives thereof.