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

The end of a very dark story.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 8/10 · 28 July 2019]

The forth episode sees Kinda back on track, Part three was a little overly surreal, Part four is much better, quite a meaty episode. I had previously been a little critical of some of the special effects, but the update on the blu ray provides some genuinely unsettling moments as the Mara is revealed.

It is such a well written story, it's creepy, clever, and left in such a way, that you know the Mara is going to return.

Why did none of the companions ever change their clothes, they must have been honking.

The final appearance of Nyssa is quite amusing, funny how she manages to regain hee health after fainting, just as the events come to a natural conclusion. A lovely cast, Nerys Hughes was great.

Big thumbs up 8/10

Creepy vibes.

[wetmars · 8/10 · 24 February 2020]

I guess this is a great way to end an four-parter.

Time has been kinder to Kinda

[ishmael-18 · 9/10 · 30 March 2009]

Sad to say that Season Nineteen was not a high point in Dr Who, nor a great debut for the new Doctor, Peter Davison; if the spiteful tabloids were calling him 'the wet vet' (and the spleen of the talentless never tastes good), a good deal of the blame must lie with the programme makers, rather than with the star.

And it's for this reason that in 1982, the reception of Kinda was of derisive incomprehension 'What was it about?', wailed a legion of spotty youths, 'We don't like the snake!'. Such is the peril of making one part of a TV series incongruously good.

There's the trouble; it's a clever, highly literate, script, well acted, and the fine designs are well-executed. If the Mara at the end is visibly a giant puppet snake, the Dark Places of the Inside, shown in Tegan's dream, are a Becketish world where such a thing would be well at home. By the halfway point of Episode Two, a significant portion of the cast are running mad, and with reason.

It's true that not every plot point is explained - why does Hindle insist on making a model city? How does the blatantly empty Box of Jana work? And who are the old couple playing Chess? - but this doesn't really matter, we can always work it out for ourselves.

(Fans of The Bill may spot three of Sun Hills Finest pounding the Deva Loca beat)

S19: Kinda: Surprisingly engaging and interesting considering it looks at first glance like a standard 'Brits v's natives' tale

[bob the moo · 30 August 2020]

This serial quickly looks like it is going to one of the fairly standard "atypical British colonizers in space resulting in doctor helping primitive, but interesting, culture overcome". Seeing this early on (complete with 'It Ain't 'Alf Hot Mum' characters and even pith helmets), I was pondering on what awful joke I would make in this comment about me "kinda" liking it - and then how I could change that once I understood it was pronounced like the chocolate company. In the end it turns out I didn't need either because this serial is surprisingly strong - and is additionally surprising as it comes off the back of several so-so serial in this new era.

Rather than being simplistic, the story brings in lots of ideas and concepts. We have the standard 'British v natives' but it is subverted with concepts of circular fates and controlling entities. For the practical we have mechanical battle suits to remind us this is sci-fi, mind control, telepathy, and other ideas. All of these work well too - not just thrown at the screen then forgotten. Even the 'villain' of the piece works pretty well in the end, even if the effects have dated. With so many ideas all working, the 4 episodes flew by and felt very satisfying.

It was helped by the sets looking good, but mostly by how good the performances were. Davidson didn't excel but he did his work and was a decent Doctor throughout. Sutton is side-lined for some reason, but her absence helps the plot fee less cluttered (I maintain that 3 assistants is too many), but the downside I saw was that suddenly I've lost the one I like the most. Waterhouse remains limited but he was okay, but Fielding's Tegan was great here. She has a complete side-plot that is intriguing and troubling and she performs all of it really well - much better than the standard 'scream and run' performance. In the guest roles we also have strong turns from Cornes and Sanders, but it is Rouse that really impresses with the range of his character and how much of an impact he makes on the serial at any given point.

Overall a really interesting and engaging serial that has a lot of aspects of strength that add to the whole.

Didn't do much for me.

[poolandrews · 4/10 · 26 April 2007]

Doctor Who: Kinda: Part Four starts as the Doctor (Peter Davison) realises that the Mara that has possessed Aris (Adrian Mills) was born out of Tegan's (Janet Fielding) mind & intends to control the the Kinda people to destroy the dome, meanwhile Hindle (Simon Rouse) has gone completely mad is on the brink of destroying the dome himself. The Doctor has to stop the destruction of the dome & send the Mara back to where it came from...

This Doctor Who adventure was episode 12 from season 19 that aired here in the UK during early 1982, directed by Peter Grimwade this was a pretty poor story. The script by Christopher Bailey was a mess, it was convoluted & confusing while not making much sense. The only decent character in it was Todd & the scenes of the mad Hindle talking to mini paper cut-outs of people are frankly ridiculous in the extreme & what happened to the three missing expedition members that started the whole thing off in Part 1? Their disappearance was before the Mara materialised so what happened to them & why was nobody bothered? During editing of this episode it was found to not be long enough so apparently the scenes in the airlock between the Doctor, Tegan & Adric discussing the bombs was scripted as as to use only those three regular character's that were obviously available the whole time during season 19 & was shot during the filming of Earthshock.

This has been a really cheap looking story throughout, in this episode we get to see the Mara in it's true form which is a pretty fake looking giant snake although the actual model snake itself doesn't look too bad it's the stiff unconvincing way it moves or rather the the lack of the way it moves to be more precise that totally kills the effect. The acting hasn't been great although I thought Nerys Hughes did alright & my main memory of Kinda is her ageing scientist character running around in tights & high heels.

Kinda has been pretty poor from start to finish, it's one of my least favourite stories that I have seen, has little in the way of redeeming features & I missed Nyssa in this one, there is better out there.