Mar 5, 2011
Doctor
* Peter Davison (Fifth Doctor)
Companions
* Matthew Waterhouse (Adric)
* Sarah Sutton (Nyssa)
* Janet Fielding (Tegan Jovanka)
Others
* Richard Todd — Sanders
* Nerys Hughes — Todd
* Simon Rouse — Hindle
* Mary Morris — Panna
* Sarah Prince — Karuna
* Adrian Mills — Aris
* Lee Cornes — Trickster
* Jeff Stewart — Dukkha
* Anna Wing — Anatta
* Roger Milner — Annica
Production
Writer Christopher Bailey
Director Peter Grimwade
Script editor Eric Saward
Producer John Nathan-Turner
Executive producer(s) None
Production code 5Y
Series Season 19
Length 4 episodes, 25 minutes each
Originally broadcast February 1–February 9,
1982
Chronology
← Preceded by Followed by →
Four to Doomsday The Visitation
Kinda is a serial in the British science fiction television series
Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four twice-weekly parts
from February 1 to February 9, 1982.
Contents
[hide]
* 1 Synopsis
* 2 Plot
* 3 Continuity
* 4 Production
* 5 Outside references
* 6 In print
* 7 Broadcast and VHS release
* 8 References
* 9 External links
o 9.1
Reviews
o 9.2 Target
novelisation
[edit] Synopsis
An idyllic paradise-like planet, Deva Loka, is not as it seems. 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?
When Tegan sleeps near the Windchimes she is confronted by the true
evil that threatens Deva Loka.
[edit] Plot
An Earth colonisation survey expedition to the beautiful jungle
planet Deva Loka is being depleted as members of the survey
disappear one by one. Four have now gone, leaving the remainder in
state of deep stress. The leader, Sanders, relies on bombast and
rules; while his deputy, Hindle, is evidently close to breaking
point. Only the scientific officer, Todd, seems to deal with the
situation with equanimity. She does not see the native people, the
Kinda, as a threat, but rather respects their culture and is
intrigued by their power of telepathy. The social structure is also
curious in that women seem dominant and are the only ones with the
power of voice. The humans are holding two silent males hostage for
"observation". Todd believes they are more advanced than they first
appear, as they possess necklaces representative of the double
helix of DNA, indicating a more advanced civilisation.
Elsewhere in the jungle the TARDIS crew are also under stress,
especially Nyssa of Traken, who has collapsed from exhaustion. The
Fifth Doctor constructs a delta wave augmenter to enable her to
rest in the TARDIS while he and Adric venture deeper into the
jungle. They soon find an automated total survival suit (TSS)
system which activates and marches them to the Dome, the colonists'
base. Sanders is a welcoming but gruff presence, further
undermining Hindle at regular intervals. At this point Sanders
decides to venture out into the jungle in the TSS, leaving the
highly strung Hindle in charge. His will is enforced by means of
the two Kinda hostages, who have forged a telepathic link with him
believing their souls to have been captured in his mirror. The
Doctor, Todd and Adric are immediately placed under arrest as
Hindle now evinces megalomania.
Tegan faces a more metaphysical crisis. She has fallen asleep near
the euphonious and soporific Windchimes, unaware of the danger of
the dreaming of an unshared mind (one not engaged in telepathic
activity with another humanoid). Her mind opens in a black void
where she undergoes provocation and terror from a series of
nightmarish characters, one of which taunts her: “You will agree to
being me, sooner or later, this side of madness or the other". The
spectres are a manifestation of the Mara, an evil being of the
subconscious that longs for corporeal reality. Mentally tortured,
she eventually agrees to become the Mara and a snake symbol passes
to her own arm. When her mind returns to her body she is possessed
by the Mara. In a scene reminiscent of the Book of Genesis she
passes the snake symbol to the first Kinda she finds, a young man
named Aris, who is the brother of one of the Kinda in the Dome. He
too is transformed by evil and now finds the power of voice.
Back at the Dome, Hindle has conceived a bizarre and immolatory
plan to destroy the jungle, which he views as a threat. Adric plays
along with this delusion. Hindle’s world soon starts to fall apart
when first Adric 'betrays' him and then Sanders defies expectation
and returns from the jungle. However Sanders is radically different
from the martinet in earlier episodes. Panna, an aged female mystic
of the tribe, presented him with a strange wooden box (the 'Box of
Jhana') which when opened has regressed his mind back to childhood.
Sanders still has the box and shows it to Hindle, who makes the
Doctor open it.
The Doctor and Todd see beyond the toy inside and instead share a
vision from Panna and her young ward, Karuna, who invites them to
cave. The shock of the situation (accompanied by strange phenomena)
allows the Doctor and Todd to slip away into the jungle where they
encounter Aris dominating a group of Kinda and seemingly fulfilling
a tribal prophecy that “When the Not-We come, one will arise from
among We, a male with Voice who must be obeyed.” Karuna soon finds
the Doctor and Todd and takes them to meet Panna in the cave from
the vision, with the wise woman realising the danger of the
situation now Aris has voice. She places them in a trance like
state and reveals that the Mara has gained dominion on Deva Loka.
The Great Wheel which turns as civilisations rise and fall has
turned again and the hour is near when chaos will reign, instigated
by the Mara. The vision she shares is Panna’s last act: when it is
finished, she is dead.
In the Kinda world, multiple fathers are shared by children, just
as multiple memories are held, and at Panna's death her life
experience transfers to Karuna. She urges Todd and the Doctor to
return to the Dome to prevent Aris leading an attack on it which
will increase the chaos and hasten the collapse of the Kinda
civilisation.
Back at the Dome Hindle, Sanders and Adric remain in a state of
unreality, with the former becoming ever more demented and
unbalanced, and infantile. Adric eventually escapes, and attempts
to pilot the TSS but is soon confronted by Aris and the Kinda. He
panics, and Aris is wounded by the machine (which responds to the
mental impulses of the operator) and the Kinda scatter.
The Doctor and Todd find an emotionally wrecked Tegan near the
Windchimes and conclude that she was the path of the Mara back into
this world. They then find Adric and the party heads back to the
Dome where Hindle has now completed the laying of explosives which
will incinerate the jungle and the Dome itself: the ultimate
self-defence. Todd persuades Hindle now to open the Box of Jhana,
and the visions therein restore the mental balance of the two. The
two enslaved Kinda are freed when the mirror entrapping them is
shattered. The Doctor then realizes the only method of combating
the Mara- he realises the one thing evil cannot face is itself and
so organizes the construction of a large circle of mirrors
(actually reflective solar panels) in a jungle clearing. Aris is
trapped within it and the snake on his arm breaks free. The Mara
swells to giant proportions but then is banished back from the
corporeal world to the Dark Places of the Inside.
With the threat of the Mara dissipated, and the personnel of the
Dome back to more balanced selves, the Doctor, Adric and an
exhausted Tegan decide to leave (as does Todd, who decides 'its all
a bit green'). When they reach the TARDIS, Nyssa greets them, fully
recovered.
[edit] Continuity
* The Mara features again in the next season's
serial Snakedance.
* Delta waves reappeared in the 2005 episode
"The Parting of the Ways". Far from the brain wave-enhancing
recuperation devices from Kinda, however, delta waves were
described by 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 episode Small Worlds, however
there may be no connection between the two.
* In Time Crash (2007), the Tenth Doctor asks
the temporally misplaced Fifth where (i.e. when) he is now – and
speculatively references Tegan, Nyssa and the Mara from his own
memories.
* In Turn Left (2008), the time beetle on Donna
Noble's back is also revealed when faced with a circle of
mirrors.
[edit] Production
Serial details by episode Episode Broadcast date
Run time Viewership
(in millions)
"Part One" 1 February 1982 (1982-02-01)
24:50 8.4
"Part Two" 2 February 1982 (1982-02-02)
24:58 9.4
"Part Three" 8 February 1982 (1982-02-08)
24:17 8.5
"Part Four" 9 February 1982 (1982-02-09)
24:28 8.9
[2][3][4]
* The working title for this story was The
Kinda.
* This was the first story to feature Eric
Saward as script editor.
* In the ancient language Sanskrit, "Deva Loka"
means "Celestial Region".
* Nyssa makes only brief appearances at the
start of episode 1, and at the end of 4, because the script had
largely been developed at a time when only two companions for the
Doctor were envisioned. When it was known a third companion would
also be present, rather than write Nyssa into the entire storyline
it was decided she would remain in the TARDIS throughout and be
absent through most of the narrative. To account for this absence
Nyssa was scripted to collapse at the end of the previous story,
Four to Doomsday. In this story she remains in the Tardis, resting.
Sarah Sutton's contract was amended to account for this two-episode
absence.[4]
* For the scene in episode 2 in which the two
Tegans talk to each other about which of them is real, John
Nathan-Turner allowed Janet Fielding to write her own dialogue.
[edit] Outside references
* Writer Christopher Bailey based this story
heavily on Buddhist philosophy. He used many Buddhist words and
ideas in writing Kinda; most of the Kinda and dream-sequence
characters have names with Buddhist meanings, including Mara
(temptation — also personified as a demon), Dukkha (pain), Panna
(wisdom), Karuna (compassion), Anicca (impermanence) and Anatta
(egolessness). Additionally, Jhana (also spelt Jana in the scripts)
refers to meditation.
* This serial was examined closely in the 1983
media studies volume Doctor Who: The Unfolding Text by John Tulloch
and Manuel Alvarado. This was the first major scholarly 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 Buddhist and Christian symbols and themes, as well as
elements from the writings of Carl Jung.[5]
[edit] In print
Doctor Who book
Book cover
Kinda
Series Target novelisations
Release number 84
Writer Terrance Dicks
Publisher Target Books
ISBN 0-426-19529-9
Release date 15 March 1984
Preceded by Mawdryn Undead
Followed by Snakedance
A novelisation of this serial, written by Terrance Dicks, was
published by Target Books in December 1983.
In 1997 the novel was also issued by BBC Audio as an audio book,
read by Peter Davison.
[edit] Broadcast and VHS release
* The serial was repeated on BBC One over 22-25
August 1983, (Monday-Thursday) at 6.25pm. This story was released
on VHS in October 1994 with a cover illustration by Colin
Howard.
* This story is set to be released on DVD in
2011 along with Snakedance in a special edition boxset entitled
Mara Tales. It will feature an audio commentary by Peter Davison,
Matthew Waterhouse, Janet Fielding and Nerys Hughes.[6]
[edit] References
1. ^ From the Doctor Who Magazine series overview, in
issue 407 (pp26-29). The Discontinuity Guide, which counts the
unbroadcast serial Shada, lists this as story number 119. Region 1
DVD releases follow The Discontinuity Guide numbering system.
2. ^ Shaun Lyon et al. (2007-03-31). "Kinda". Outpost
Gallifrey. Archived from the original on 2008-07-31.
http://web.archive.org/web/20080731011611/http://www.gallifreyone.com/episode.php?id=5y.
Retrieved 2008-08-30.
3. ^ "Kinda". Doctor Who Reference Guide.
http://www.drwhoguide.com/who_5y.htm. Retrieved 2008-08-30.
4. ^ a b Sullivan, Shannon (2007-08-07). "Kinda". A
Brief History of Time Travel.
http://www.shannonsullivan.com/drwho/serials/5y.html. Retrieved
2008-10-04.
5. ^ Tulloch, John; and Alvarado, Manuel (1983).
Doctor Who: The Unfolding Text. St. Martin's Press. ISBN
0-312-21480-4.
6. ^ Matthew Waterhouses' autobiography Blue Box
Boy
[edit] External links
* Kinda at BBC Online
* Kinda at Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time
(Travel)
* Kinda at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
* KI'n'DA - Cardiff Doctor Who group
[edit] Reviews
* Kinda reviews at Outpost Gallifrey
* Kinda reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings
Guide
[edit] Target novelisation
* On Target — Kinda