Rate and Discuss: Kinda

[SiHart]

With Nyssa needing relaxation and 24 hours D sleep on the Delta wave Augmentor, the Doctor takes the TARDIS to paradise- Deva Loka. But is the planet as friendly as it seems? Colonists from the dome are disappearing in the jungle and Tegan soon finds the snake in this garden of Eden...

What do you think of Kinda?

[Andrew Curnow]

My instinctive first thought on the subject of Kinda is a sort of collective guilt - because despite it having four superb episodes of quality drama, crackling dialogue, memorable moments and great performances, the DWM-reading fans of the time (myself included) voted it last in the season poll because of that damn snake right at the end!!

Ignoring the snake, it's a story that I can watch again and again, Davison's first trip to an alien planet is a delight - and although people moan nowadays about the obvious jungle set, it never bothered me in 1982, I was too engrossed in the story. It's probably the best use of Adric with the fifth Doctor, there's some great interaction between them. Nerys Hughes gives a superb performance (and looks pretty good too) and the whole thing just breathes quality.

And I've not even mentioned Simon Rouse, who is just outstanding, taking it (and quite right too) totally seriously and as a result selling the whole story to us. Plus two great cliffhangers (2 & 3)!!

[J.R. Southall]

Brilliant, brilliant acting, dreadful, dreadful sets, brilliant, brilliant script (until Saward rewrites the last two episodes and almost f*cks it up), and dreadful, dreadful effects.

Kinda hovers constantly on the borderline between a 5/10 and a 10/10, and in the end I gave it an 8 because while I think it deserves a higher mark, I don't think it actually earned one.

[SiHart]

I found this story terrifying as a kid. yes really. It was all the scenes in Tegan's mind they unnerved me in a way that much of Doctor Who didn't. The idea of someone intruding in your mind, in that black void really got to me- most especially the moment when Dhukka disappears and leaves Tegan on her own after all the things he's put her through, and the silence is deafening until she agrees to his terms... Horrible. Even now thinking about it gives me shivers.
I've had a fear of possession stories ever since.

Janet Fielding rises to the challenge of this story really well. her performance in this is light years away from the poor performance of Four To Doomsday. The way she alters Tegan in the surprisingly few minutes she's possessed on screen is really fantastic- it really feels like there's someone else in her skin- everything is different- the body language as well as the voice.

But it's not just her that shines, Davison is great in this. His relationship with Nerys Hughes is lovely. In some ways it's a shame he didn't get paired off with a similar character as a companion because he really shines in all the scenes with her in a way he doesn't often do with his proper companions.

The guest cast are pretty good all round really. Simon Rouse gives a Hindle a manic quality that really makes you believe he's living on the very edge of reality. Richard Todd is subtle and twinkly, playing along with Hindle and Mary Morris is superb as the blind Panna.

Yes, there are some limitations to the production, but the imagination on show throughout this story is breath taking. It's not perfect, but I really like it.

Snakedance is better though

[Nyder]

I agree with Si - the scenes in Tegan's mind I found very disturbing too. I remember this story being very different from all the other ones in the season. Damn shame about the snake, but apart from that - a truly memorable episode!

[Stuart Wallis]

Back in the days when I wasn't quite as ancient as I am now, there were two things i disliked about Kinda: the big inflated pink thing at the end; and the fact that i didn't understand the damn thing.

Now that I'm into fantasy novels, I get it. And it's well worth watching now that I do. The idea of the Mara as both a fantasy monster that "reproduces" itself by possessing people and still remaining the one being, and as a metaphore for the serpent in Eden, is excellently thought out. It also supplies a better example of Buddhist metaphor than Planet Of the Spiders ever could, with the figurative spider on Hindle's back that makes him mad, and the explanation, via Sanders, of Cho-je's "When the old man dies, the new man is delighted to find that he never existed".

So it works on an intellectual level, which you can't say about much Who, plus jeff Stewart and Janet Fielding make excellent villains. Least said about Adrian Mills...

8/10

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

Despite my Dad complaining that it was rather slow moving I really loved this on what I think is only the second time I've watched it all the way through. Really clever ideas. The military characters are a little dated but otherwise there's so much to recommend this. Especially Janet Fielding having miraculously learnt to act since Four to Doomsday.

A solid 8/10 from me

[Si Hunt]

I'm not sure about this one. Stories about madness are always a bit ropey for me - because you can have an actor shouting a lot and talking nonsense and it's all ok 'cos he's mad innee? It's a bit like Ghost Light - not a lot of it makes much sense, but he's mad etc. I don't really get what the scene where he builds a city out of boxes and little paper people and the Doctor breaks them is all about (unless it's just great 'cos he's mad and shouting) nor do I really get what the experience with the box of Jhana is, unless it's as simple as everyone have a hallucination of the Kinda's history.

There are some nice touches - Mary Morris is wonderful and unearthly and I like the attempt to depict an alien paradise. But I'd rather it turned nasty by more definate means, for example the jungle becoming alive perhaps, rather than by surreal set pieces that don't really make much sense. Why does Panna suddenly die during the group hallucination (if that's what it is). Sawards Episode 4 re-writes are wretched, but I like some of the interplay in the dome with the "guess which hands" and Janet Fielding is really good. The sets are poor, but I don't really mind the snake.

A mix of the good and the bad for me - but not really a classic. It was, however, extremely memorable to me when I was a child, and at the time seemed very strange indeed.

Si.

[MacNimon]

This is just a story I've never been able to get into. I've always found it to be pretty dull and boring...it just has a sort of experimental feel to it which I didn't enjoy - similar to how years later some Coy stories had an experimental feel, trying something different; I didn't like them either! - I think I simply prefer something a bit more traditional. Not to take away anything from the performances, though...Richard Todd's Hindle in particular.

I can only give this a 4/10 though, and I felt the series was dragging a bit here after the equally dull F2D.