'Deva Loka was a paradise.' That's our TD! As well as jungles it has warm blue seas.
Sanders' thoughts lead us through the opening scene - we gather that he believes in doing things by the book but also has enough sense to vary the rules to suit conditions. So for example he doesn't punish Hindle for falling asleep on watch, because the latter has been up for three nights of his own volition. That's a gun that he takes off Hindle before waking him up, by the way.
We're told that Tegan joined the Doctor at the beginning of his 5th incarnation; at the end of his 4th I think.
Nyssa faints 'again', but we aren't told when the first occasion was (if you've read my previous comparison you'll know that it wasn't in TD's Four to Doomsday Target).
Dr Todd wears a lab coat (not a sort of uniform dress thing).
The Doctor's annoyance that Adric has got them captured by the TSS is conveyed only with a reproachful look. I expect TD thought Peter Davison's very funny delivery of the 'meddling' line wouldn't come across on the page.
'Homeworld' is Earth as far as the Doctor is concerned. He deduces this from the expedition's 'Earth names and Earth ranks'. I must say that wasn't obvious to me - I have always seen them as coming from another advanced human civilisation, like the Morestrans.
This is the only Target to contain the phrase 'very sophisticated camp'.
The Doctor bizarrely chooses to think of Hindle as K9 would: 'Intentions unfriendly, hypothesis: hostile.' He literally does think of K9.
The scene where Hindle gains control of the two Kinda is better explained: he realises that they are telepathic when one hands him his necklace - 'Very good, but how did you know?' he asks. They get him a chair, and take their positions at his sides, because he's giving them mental commands to do so. This interpretation never occurred to me but I think it works quite well.
The food served to the Doctor and Adric in the Zone is disgusting (like the food-cubes in Death to the Daleks. TD's Doctors clearly don't like space rations.)
Hindle's delighted with his newly recruited Kinda: by contrast he looks terrible with his unshaven face and red eyes (very different from his smartness on-screen).
The narrator explicitly says that it's quite true that the Kinda, and Karuna in particular, intend Sanders no harm in giving him the Box of Jhana.
Hindle's paranoid rant about vegetation to the Doctor and Dr Todd is very amusingly written - '"Fungi," said Hindle sinisterly' and 'Hindle's voice trailed off, lost in visions of some incredible plant/Kinda conspiracy'. As with Robots of Death, the impression is that TD is really enjoying the chance to adapt a script with a bit more sophistication than usual.
Although they're just the same as on screen, I must give due credit to his version of the scenes in Tegan's dream - I never properly understood what was going on here until this very reading. So the point is that Tegs has to agree to be occupied by the Mara? Got you. If she'd been able to face the thought of not-being, she wouldn't have given in and all would have been well. (That wouldn't be much of a story though).
Hindle's angry childishness is nicely contrasted with the returned Sanders' placid demeanour ('like a shy child at a party').
Aris pays attention to Tegan/Mara because he thinks she, being able to speak, is a Wise Woman like Panna. It's made clear that his subsequent behaviour is all due to the Mara exploiting his confusion and unhappiness to make him do its will - not something I ever picked up terribly well from the episode. Yes of course they signal it with the snake tattoo transfer but it mostly seems just like Aris has become corrupted by the offworlders and their ways.
Even Adric doesn't understand why Hindle doesn't lock him up after he's caught him trying to give the Doctor the key-card!
Hindle does not say 'Or I'll have you shot!' to make the Doctor open the Box of Jhana. Bit of a pity that as the line is crucial in giving the impression that Hindle really does mean business. The words he says in the book have much less impact.
When the box does open, Dr Todd does not scream (probably wouldn't work as a cliffhanger on the page). She goes straight to looking delighted by the jack-in-the-box. The box makes a sound rather than emitting light. Sanders is affected even more strongly by the second experience - again not something I picked up from watching the episode.
Incidentally the Doctor takes it for granted that the effect of the box is not inevitably to cause insanity in men; rather he attributes Sanders' behaviour simply to the effect of a spiritual experience on a rigid personality. This is contradicted by what Panna says later, just before she starts with the 'idiot' stuff.
Perhaps I shouldn't keep praising TD just because I paid more attention to his writing than when I've watched the episode, but again on screen the box comes across as more of an intentional way of disabling people. Or that could just be my paranoia.
'Put the light on' is given more effect by making the control room pitch dark when Hindle yells the line.
Karuna says to the Kinda that Aris has been sick with grief for his brother (the hostage). Again this is a lot more helpful than the line in production, which always suggested a physical illness to me.
When Aris turns up at the cave with his spearmen, even the Trickster's doll is carrying a tiny spear.
The conversation between the Doctor and Karuna/Panna on the way to the dome is done in a quick-fire way which is strangely amusing. Even the narrator isn't sure what's going on:
'And so did I,' said Karuna.
Or was it Panna?
The Trickster's mocking of Aris outside the dome is working on the Kinda. Aris is losing them. That's why he smashes the doll. (On screen the Kinda just look shocked or bemused).
The Mara knows that Aris's cargo cult TSS imitation is useless and based on his confusion - it's encouraging his delusions for its own purposes. It knows the attack on the dome will fail, it's still happy so long as there's death.
The real TSS, with Adric inside, actually tips over, then gets on its feet again (rather than being half tipped over by the Kinda).
When Tegan tells the Doctor how she gave in to the Mara in her dream, he thinks that it was just as well - because presumably the three missing Homeworlders had the same encounter, resisted, and were driven to madness and death. Once again, that hadn't occurred to me. I'm shocked that I've paid so little attention to what's become one of my favourite stories.
Hindle slowly gives 'a smile of pure happiness' when he looks into the box. Incidentally, only the Doctor and Dr Todd got the vision summoning them to the cave, because the box was specifically programmed to do that. Hindle and Sanders just get the 'too much perspective' treatment.
It's the Mara who hates Karuna and makes Aris chase after her into the mirror circle. Aris is holding the snake - when it's crawled off his arm - because he's angry, and trying to throttle it. On screen it looks more like he's going 'Eurrrgh! snake! Get it off me!'
The recovered Sanders and Hindle are themselves again - 'more than themselves', because Hindle is purged of his insecurity and fear, and Sanders has become more human. By the way, Dr Todd says that he wants to stay on Deva Loka when he retires, not now.
Sanders and Hindle don't wave, but they are standing with the Kinda when the Doctor gets into the TARDIS. We don't see it dematerialise.
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