Doctor Who:
Kinda
By Christopher Bailey
“You can't mend people,
can you! You can't mend people!”
The TARDIS materializes on
the planet Deva Loka where there is a small human expedition that is based in a
dome and investigating if the lush jungle planet is suitable for
colonization. The Doctor sets up a
delta wave augmenter that will help Nyssa recover from a mild mental
disorientation. In the meantime while
Nyssa is recovering The Doctor Adric and Nyssa begin to explore the area. The travelers come upon a clearing that has a
large group of hanging crystals that look and act just like wind chimes. The
Doctor is amazed at the construction and believes there is intelligent life on
this planet. Tegan finds a spot to relax
and ends up falling asleep.
While Tegan is sleeping
Adric and The Doctor find an empty Total Survival suit that gets activated and
leads them back to the base where they are sort of welcomed by Saunders and
Todd under a lot of suspicion but not by the scientist Hindel. After much scrutiny The Doctor gets that
suspicious feeling that something is not quite what it seems especially when
Saunders decides to explore more of the jungle and leaves the very unstable
Todd in charge. Todd is unhinged and on
the verge of a break down and is extremely paranoid to the extent of locking
Hindel and The Doctor in the cage and proclaiming he has the power of life and
death over him.
But all is not well with
Tegan either. It appears she is being
manipulated by The Mara inside her mind or in a void like area. The Mara wants to be Tegan gets bombarded
with mind games and eventually agrees to The Mara’s terms. The Mara is now free to extract its revenge
on Kinda people and once again the universe. So its up to The Doctor and Hindel
with the help of the Old Lady and the Kinda people to make sure the Mara are
trapped forever.
“You can't mend people,
can you! You can't mend people!” was probably one of the best lines ever in
Doctor Who. Just look at what it says
mend people. In fact the whole story
deals with mending people and their mental state. From the dark natures of
Tegan’s mind to the dark nature Aris and of course the fragile state of mind that
Hindle was displaying. Kinda was the type of story that tried different things
and worked really well. In fact it’s the
type of story that showed us what can happen when the show did everything
right. That is probably why it was purchased
by the National Film Archive.
Kinda is one of the best
stories during the 5th Doctor’s era and also boasts some fine
performances. Heck even Mathew
Waterhouse wasn’t as annoying and is actually quite good. Peter Davison now
quite at ease in the role as The Doctor gives one of his best performances of
the season and in fact of his tenure.
Simon Rouse as Hindle gives a really good performance and Hindle is one
of the more insanely interesting characters ever.
I would be remiss if I
didn’t mention the main villain of the story and that is the snake like
Mara. In fact they are a giant snake
that takes over your persona by manipulating your brain and allow the darker
side to take over. The Mara I found to
be a creepy villain. Especially the
scenes inside Tegan’s mind which I found to be pretty dark for Doctor. Loved the way Janet Fielding played the evil
Mara possessed Tegan. She was awesome in
Kinda and gave us one of the best performances by a companion during the
Davison era. It just added to the freakiness of the Mara and gave them human
form while using one of The Doctor’s companions against him.
While Kinda was such a
dynamic and strongly written story it did have, well, it has the dumbest
looking snake in sci – fi. Yes I know it was 1982 and thankfully the dvd has
the option to use a cgi snake but it does look funny. It does make for a funny moment but, hey, it
doesn’t really detract from a story that was quite different for Doctor Who at
the time.
Grade A
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