Doctor Who (TV Series) Kinda: Part One (1982) User Reviews

Tegan in the Garden Of Eden

[profh-1 · 8/10 · 8 November 2009]

KINDA opens on a paradise-like world named Deva Loka where an Earth expedition has suffered several missing members, the officer in charge is a bully, and his security man is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Meanwhile, as Nyssa sleeps off what is (apparently) a side-effect of being in Monarch's mind-scan chamber, Tegan falls asleep under some bizarre hanging wind chimes, and finds herself in a bizarre dream-world with characters who look like they stepped out of ALICE IN WONDERLAND. And it just keeps getting stranger as it goes!

As I get older and my sensibilities get sharper, I've noted more and more how bad films get worse, but good ones keep getting better. KINDA really surprises me, as watching it again today I found myself enjoying it more than I ever had. I now consider it the first really GOOD Peter Davison story (in fact, the first really GOOD story on this show since THE KEEPER OF TRAKEN).

Saunders (Richard Todd) starts out a meanie, but even then he has one line that's stuck with me, when he says, "It'll be GOOD for 'im-- make a MAN out of 'im!" Of course, he lightens up considerably as the story goes on. Hindle (Simon Rouse), who starts out lodging official protests against everything, goes completely insane once he's left in charge of the dome. I'm not sure whether he's genuinely frightening or just annoying as hell, but a good right hook to the jaw could have solved a lot of problems if someone, almost anyone, had delivered it somewhere early in the story.

Tegan is a lot less annoying this time out, and her frantic behavior in the dream-place for once seems quite natural. When she emerges possessed by The Mara, we see an entirely different performance, and it's quite surprising, as it shows Janet Fielding had a LOT of potential that was never utilized in her entire run on the show. Adric is far less annoying than in the 3 previous stories... at least, until he decides to play up to Hindle (you just feel like the Doctor must be thinking, "Oh, NOT AGAIN!"). He then gets worse near the end when he bluntly tells Tegan it's all her fault, then childishly tries defending his own failings. Mature, he AIN'T.

At last, Peter Davison's Doctor gets a chance to shine, as he really feels at home in this story. I did keep wishing he'd have found a way to clobber Hindle (I'm sure Jon Pertwee or Tom Baker would have managed it), as his continual inaction allowed the level of danger to keep increasing.

I was genuinely fascinated this time around by a lot of story elements that in earlier viewings I just found baffling. It seems to me KINDA may well have been a sci-fi allegorical retelling of the Biblical story of "The Garden Of Eden", what with such things as people living in a garden-like paradise, evil taking the form of a snake trying to tempt or possess people, and local fruit-- an apple-- being considered "forbidden" by the manual. I love the line when The Doctor says, "An apple a day keeps the... never mind."

The whole concept of the wheel of time and history repeating itself was rather mind-blowing. As usual, Mary Morris (as Panna) was mesmerizing (I get a kick out of her every time I watch THE PRISONER episode "Dance Of The Dead"), though it seems The Doctor put his foot right in it when he said he "must be" an idiot, and she started calling him that repeatedly. At least Karuna (Sarah Prince) only did it once, and showed him more respect once she (probably) figured out he was trying to help, and, smarter than he looked.

Of all the characters who turned up on the show during this period, it's Todd (Nerys Hughes) who felt to me like someone who SHOULD have become a Companion. She was smart, pretty, level-headed, and although she argued a bit with The Doctor (they were, frankly, both baffled by what was going on around them), they seemed to get along quite well. When they shake hands farewell at the end, it seemed a shame to think we'd never see her again. Especially when The Doctor was stuck with Adric and Tegan (well, for awhile, anyway).

Slithering into madness!

[A_Kind_Of_CineMagic · 9/10 · 27 September 2019]

Review for all 4 parts:

This adventure is quite bonkers really. It is surreal and strange and unsettling. The TARDIS arrives in a paradise world but find colonialist humans and evil snake creatures having effects on the natives. The plot involves Tegan coming under the influence of the evil Mara, Nyssa sidelined 'feeling unwell' and mystical powers at work but a lot of it seems to be a study in mental breakdown. The character Hindle, strikingly and effectively played by Simon Rouse goes totally out of control and it is quite a powerful view of his mental collapse into psychotic, delusional chaos. His fellow colonial 'soldier' Sanders, played beautifully by esteemed veteran Richard Todd, also has total personality change as a result of a mind altering device. Tegan and native Aris both descend into surreal dreams and are under the influence of the Mara at different times so the whole story is full of ideas about loss of mental control. It is very interesting and also very odd. Tegan's dream sequence is creepy, fascinating and bizarre. Hindle creates an unpredictable danger throughout and is a well acted, memorable character. Sanders and Todd (Nerys Hughes) are very good characters too and the Doctor himself is given plenty of different things to do and is very good indeed. Adric is OK and Tegan has one of her better adventures showing a different side.

The ideas and imagery are unusual, the action is at times intriguing, sometimes fun and sometimes a bit too weird. All in all it is a very good story and very different to the normal adventures.

My ratings: Part 1 - 8.5/10, Part 2 - 9/10, Part 3 - 8/10, Part 4 - 8.5/10. Overall - 8.5/10.

If men were as good-natured as sheep, they would still be grazing good-naturedly in the fields

[JamesHitchcock · 12 June 2015]

The Doctor and his companions land on the jungle planet Deva Loka which is being surveyed for colonisation by a team of explorers from another planet. (Presumably Earth, although this is never made explicit; they simply refer to their "home world"). Something is going wrong with the expedition, however. Four members of the survey team have mysteriously disappeared. The team's leader, Sanders, is a strict disciplinarian, but his deputy, Hindle, is close to going mad. The only other remaining member of the team is Todd, the female scientific officer. The planet is inhabited by a humanoid race known as the Kinda. (The word is pronounced to rhyme with "cinder", not with "finder"; it may derive from "Kinder", the German for "children"). Sanders and Hindle believe the Kinda to be primitive savages, but Todd and the Doctor believe that they may be more advanced than they seem.

At this period the Doctor had three companions, but of these one, Nyssa, spends most of the time sleeping in the TARDIS. The reason, apparently, was that the script had been written at a time when he only had two companions, so there was no role for Nyssa to play, although she does made very brief appearances at the very beginning and very end so that Sarah Sutton could appear in the requisite number of episodes stipulated in her contract. Tegan also spends much of the serial asleep, although in her case for valid plot reasons, which means that only Adric gets to play much of a role. Matthew Waterhouse's Adric, a brilliant extra- terrestrial intellectual with the personality of a sulky, brattish teenager, has regularly been voted the least popular companion in the history of the series, and in this serial he gets plenty of opportunity to display that side of his character.

Trying to elucidate the plot of Kinda any further would be difficult, but not because of its complexity, at least not in the literal sense of that word. "Complex", after all, derives from the Latin for "woven together", and the plot of this story is very loosely woven indeed. The scriptwriter Christopher Bailey seemed less interested in writing a science fiction adventure (which I thought was the point of the series) than in indulging his own interests in Buddhist philosophy. Many of the Kinda have names with technical meaning in Buddhist theology, such as "Dukkha" (suffering) or "Karuna" (compassion). The main threat to the colonists comes not from the Kinda, who are an essentially peaceful people, but from the Mara, an evil entity which normally only exists within the minds of its victims, but which can also manifest itself in the physical universe in the form of a huge, and extremely unrealistic, toy snake. (The word "Mara" in Buddhism denotes the personification of evil, equivalent to the Christian Satan).

One of the few plot elements which make any sense is an element of satire on European colonialism; with their khaki uniforms, their solar topees and their patronising attitude to the "natives", Sanders and Hindle are clearly intended as caricatures of British colonial officers. We are clearly intended to approve of the Kinda's own moral and political philosophies, but as these are based around the idea that passivity and a sort of benign apathy are desirable virtues I was less enthusiastic about them than Mr Bailey would have wished. One of the Kinda's tenets is that as civilisations are prone to decline and fall it is better for everyone's wellbeing if they are never allowed to arise in the first place. I was put in mind of Immanuel Kant's dictum that if men were as good-natured as sheep they would still be grazing good-naturedly in the fields.

I liked Peter Davidson's interpretation of the Doctor, but I must admit that he was not always lucky with some of the scripts he had to work with. The other good contribution in this serial comes from the former Liver Bird Nerys Hughes as Todd, who effectively plays the part of a sort of substitute companion to the Doctor while his actual companions are either unconscious or detained elsewhere. (It might have been interesting if Todd had joined the TARDIS as an official companion, but the producers still seemed stuck with the idea that the Doctor's female companions all had to be dolly-birds; the idea of an intelligent older woman in such a role still lay in the future). Some have praised Simon Rouse's interpretation of Hindle, but for me he was just a bit too far over the top.

Someone at the Beeb- unaccountably- must have liked the Mara, because it made a second appearance in another Fifth Doctor adventure, "Snakedance", the following year, looking just as unconvincing as ever. Actually, "Snakedance", although it is not a particularly good serial, is at least better than "Kinda", largely because it has a plot which makes some sort of sense. "Kinda", by contrast, must count as one of the most opaque and incomprehensible serials in the history of "Doctor Who". (The reason for the disappearance of the four missing expedition members, for example, is never clarified). At the time it was first broadcast in February 1982 I was a member of the Cambridge University Doctor Who Appreciation Society, and even we were baffled by it. God knows what the average viewer made of it.

Great start.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 9/10 · 28 July 2019]

I'd class both Castrovalva and Four to Doomsday as decent, but inconsistent stories. Kinda marks the first very good story for Davison. I agree with many of the remarks made, there are so many messages in this episode, almost too many to comment on, but I'll try and pick out a few as I see them.

We get a definite message about the evils of colonisation, Brits in particular, the invasion of peaceful alien worlds, devastated by the British army, with stuff upper lips. We get the Alice in Wonderland imagery, with Tegan transformed to a very dark, surreal world, those scenes are excellent. We also have the acknowledgement of a an all too crowded TARDIS, with Nyssa sidelined.

Very visual, very nicely acted, and some fine performances, this one's a winner. 9/10

" You Can't Mend People " Where's Simon Rouse Bafta Award ?

[Theo Robertson · 10/10 · 28 January 2014]

Refers Too All Four Episodes . Spoilers

The Tardis lands on the jungle Planet of Deva Loka . The group split up and Tegan quickly becomes possessed by the mythical demon The Mara . Meanwhile the Doctor finds an Earth survey team and becomes hostage to military man Hindle who is showing signs of psychosis

This won the wooden spoon in the Doctor Who Monthly's season survey of 1982 . I also remember not being too taken by it on its initial broadcast being rather slow and talkative . However after seeing it again a few times since then I have no hesitation in awarding it ten out of ten and is one of the very best stories the show has given to television . JNT said " The memory cheats " and it can cheat in a good way

Let's get the bad points out of the way . It's obviously filmed in a television studio and the military wear pith helmets just in case anyone may miss the subtext that imperialism is a bad thing . On top of that the climax of the story suffers when the Mara is revealed to be something resembling a giant draught excluder but apart from these small hiccups we have a masterpiece rarely seen in the show

What makes Kinda so wonderful is the superb acting on show . Richard Todd is possibly the biggest name actor to have appeared in the classic series after appearing in so many popular films in the 50s and 60s and he doesn't disappoint though to be honest the role of Sanders could easily have been given by any elderly actor . Nerys Hughes is cast against type in a serious role and one wonders why DOCTOR WHO production teams didn't try out a mature , intelligent surrogate companion more often . . Best performance goes to Simon Rouse as Hindle and it's sad that when acting awards were given out by the likes of the BAFTA's and the like the guest cast of DOCTOR WHO were always overlooked . Rouse could have played Hindle as a generic looney with a gun and treated the show as children's television but his performance is perhaps alongside Michael Wisher in Genesis Of The Daleks the only time an actor on the show deserved a BAFTA nod . Rouse is spellbinding in his role and the fact he would later become a household face in THE BILL doesn't detract . We also get appearances from the actress best known as Lou Beale in EASTENDERS and another THE BILL regular Reg Hollis which again doesn't detract . If you think you've seen Adrian Mills before that's because he was one of the panellists on THAT'S LIFE . He doesn't distract and the only distracting performance is by ... Mathew Waterhouse

Of course the cast are helped by a combination of scripting by Christopher Bailey and direction by Peter Grimwade . There was a fan myth that Christopher Bailey was a pen name for Kate Bush which was half believed and it's easy to see why with a story having a meta-physical new age Bhuddist/Hindu subtext . I personally thought it might have been written by Dennis Potter due to the characters reverting to childhood as in Blue Remembered Hills . This was merely misguided speculation on my part but when you've DOCTOR WHO come up with such an unusual type of tale you're willing to believe anything . One interesting aspect producer JNT told Grimwade to tone down from the script was the sexuality of the possessed Tegan which was much more overt than appeared on screen and is something of a pity when you've got a story like this pushing boundaries . As it stands Grimwade has nothing to be ashamed of and many scenes such as Hindle doing " a jack in the box " might have appeared silly but are both dramatic and chilling alongside the more understated and haunting aspects such as Sanders and Hindle discussing their planned suicide by blowing up the survey base . Even the overlooked aspect of incidental music becomes something special here and Kinda is very special indeed

Let me just repeat that this was considered the weakest story in season 19 by the readers of Doctor Who Monthly which sometimes indicates if you don't vote then you get all you deserve . Thankfully Kind has been rehabilitated by fandom and is one of the finest productions of British television . It also hits back at the great myth that DOCTOR WHO is nothing more than a badly acted silly show for children and Kinda is one of the greatest defences against that myth

Clichéd, poorly put together...

[Leofwine_draca · 3/10 · 31 March 2015]

Review of the Complete Story:

I'm sorry, but the Peter Davison adventure KINDA is a huge comedown compared to the heights of DR WHO that we experienced during the 1970s. It's a clichéd adventure set on a jungle planet (again), with a poor script and some frankly embarrassing performances that belong in a pantomime and nowhere else. To make matters worse, the production values are noticeably bad here, with the unconvincing jungle set a poor substitute for the good one seen in the Tom Baker serial PLANET OF EVIL.

Davison contributes a weak performance as the Doctor, a character who has little to do in this adventure. He's also saddled with a trio of poor companions: Adric is as annoying as ever, Nyssa sits the whole thing out, and Tegan is just, well, bland. Ironically, one of the worst performances comes from the Oscar nominated Richard Todd (THE LONGEST DAY), who hams it up a treat as a gruff military type (what else) who's set again our heroes from the start.

Inevitably the worst thing about the production is the story, which is way too familiar from loads of other stories to be in the least bit memorable. For once I'd like to see an episode where the Doctor and his companions aren't arrested/blamed/treated with suspicion when they arrive at a location. The writer infuses the native storyline with Buddhist theology but it all feels very juvenile and something below the standards of even children's television; an almost entire lack of action, incident, and danger combine to make this one of the very worst.

"I never think twice, it's takes too much time." Average Who.

[poolandrews · 4/10 · 25 April 2007]

Doctor Who: Kinda: Part 1 starts as the Doctor (Peter Davison), Tegan (Janet Fielding) & Adric (Matthew Waterhouse) decide to explore a new planet called Deva Loka while Nyssa (Sarah Sutton) has a sleep in the TARDIS, they become separated when the Doctor & Adric come across a robot which then takes them to a camp where a small team of people are there assessing the planet for possible future colonisation. Tegan falls into some hypnotic trance where she suffers a bizarre hallucination type dream, the Doctor becomes interested in the events of Deva Loka when the leader of the team Sanders (Richard Todd) admits three other members of the team have mysteriously disappeared without trace...

This Doctor Who adventure was episode 9 from season 19 that aired here in the UK during early 1982, directed by Peter Grimwade I didn't particularly like the start to Kinda. The script by Christopher Bailey hasn't done much to impress so far, there's a distinct lack of fun here & a lack of any sort of enemy so far as well. Apparently Nyssa was written out of this story because actress Sarah Sutton was only contracted for 24 episodes during this season! There's been no real action, there's no real excitement & it's an episode that I'll probably have completely forgotten about although hopefully the actual story will improve over it's remaining three episodes.

The tight BBC budget shows here, this is a completely studio bound story & the surface of Deva Loka looks incredibly fake. The interior of the camp is also rather poor looking & there's a wobbly robot that's not to far from looking like a wheelie bin.

Kinda hasn't started that well, however not much has happened & I don't really quite know where it's going so hopefully it'll pick up & begin to impress me.