Above is the Box of Jhana, a Kinda device that forms the crux of one of the plot lines in this story, in particular concerning the base of operations for the expedition leaders on this mission. But before we go into the detail of what the box is, first we must examine the crew members.
Sanders is the leader of the expedition, and comes across as perhaps the most stereotypical English captain you can think of. he wanders around, barking orders at his inferiors and generally not being trusting of the natives. He's the sort of character that has been moulded after years and years of training and discipline into the man that he is today, being a perfect army gentleman and not having any sort of remnant of his own true self.
Hindle, then, represents the person who tries to fit into that mould. When we first meet him, he's constantly on edge, afraid of the situation that he's found himself in and falling back into rulebooks to try and compensate for his fear. This doesn't entirely succeed, however, as he almost immediately has a complete mental breakdown. What follows is a masterful performance from Simon Rouse as he plays a man trying to remain in control of his own mental faculties, but failing and breaking down into tears, slowly revealing himself as just a child, trapped in this world and unable to cope. It's almost certainly the best part of this story, and probably one of the best performances we'll ever see in Doctor Who ever, as this one man has his mind utterly destroyed.
Todd acts as a contrast to both of them, being a calm and rational scientist. She does not fear the natives, and explicitly avoids following the rules as stated in the manual, given that they often fly in the face of common sense. She's teamed up with the Doctor for most of the episode, and acts as an excellent foil for him, revealing him to be quite stupid in some circumstances, however in others he succeeds because of his own particular wiseness. It's reminiscent of the relationship between the Fourth Doctor and the First Romana, whereby both were essentially equals, it's just that one would tend to have slightly more experience over the other in certain circumstances. It's a shame, then, that she never became a companion, although the TARDIS is crowded enough as it is.
But getting back to the original point, the Box of Jhana is a particular Kinda device that affects all three of them in a particular way. It's, in my opinion, a mind-opener, a device that opens the mind of those who come into contact with it. When Sanders discovers it, his completely closed off mind to anything but his own discipline completely disappears. He regresses back to a child-like state, joining in in games that are set up by Hindle as he goes slightly more and more mad. Todd, on the other hand, is unaffected by it. She already has an open mind and is willing to accept much of what occurs, provided that it all makes sense. Likewise, the Doctor has an open mind as well, and so he too is unaffected.
But Hindle's response to it is perhaps the most enlightening of all in this thesis. His madness has increased dramatically, to the point in Part 4 where he has formed a city of tiny cardboard people, all ready to be destroyed when he blows up the world, by setting off the explosive charges littered across the base.When one of them is accidentally broken, he refuses to accept any evidence that states that it can be fixed, shouting loudly "You can't mend people!". In saying this, he speaks of himself, of how he knows that he is broken but that nothing can 'fix' him. A man who has been born and bred from a manual that speaks nothing of how to deal with a person's mental state and is thus suffering an array of issues. But then, he opens the box and his mind is opened.
We later see them all relatively relaxed, and ready to experience life with a far more open mind. Sanders is even speaking of going native, and staying on the planet forever. That's the moral of that particular branch of the story, then. That one must open their mind in order to receive true enlightenment and paradise.
But that's only half the story. I've barely talked about the Mara in this story, or Panna, or Aris, or the turning of the wheel. There is just so much that's interesting in this story that you just want to watch it again and again, to pick up on various bits and pieces that you missed, and enjoy it more and more. That's why, in my opinion, this is perhaps the greatest Doctor Who story of all time, and one that I'm looking forward to watching again one day in the future.
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