‘Kinda’ came at the bottom of the 1982 story polls, and yet it is now widely regarded as one of the Fifth Doctor’s finest. What makes this unusual adventure so compelling?
In the story’s official making-of documentary, ‘Kinda’ is described as being a Doctor Who adventure for the video age – a comment that holds some weight. It is a complex story, and one that might not necessarily make sense on a single viewing; in short, all the pieces are there, but they might take a few passes to slot into place. This adventure isn’t quite on the same level as ‘Ghost Light‘ or even ‘Warriors’ Gate,’ but it does present some new and unusual ideas.
Perhaps this is why ‘Kinda’ was initially regarded the ‘worst’ of the series when Doctor Who Magazine ran its Season 19 story poll. At the time, there hadn’t been a story quite like it; it’s full of abstract ideas of good and evil and sanity and madness – concepts which are not always black and white. The central villain in this piece is the Mara, but then there are also the members of the survey team who are assessing the planet Deva Loka for colonisation, who possess more than a few villainous traits.
One particular member of the survey team, Hindle, actually succumbs to a nervous breakdown as ‘Kinda’ progresses, and his behaviour becomes increasingly erratic and unpredictable – one moment he simply wants to build a cardboard city and ‘play,’ and the next he is threatening to blow up the entire base and everyone in it. He’s an antagonist, certainly, but is he a ‘baddie’? Is he responsible for his behaviour? And what is the real cause of his behaviour anyway? Is it the Kinda tribe, or the jungle, or the Mara itself, perhaps?
And speaking of the Mara, this is a Doctor Who monster like no other. The Mara primarily takes the form of a snake, but it also manifests in other ways. When the Doctor’s companion Tegan first encounters it, the creature speaks to her through dreams, taking her into an unsettling alternate reality where it torments her with illusions until she consents to letting it take possession of her body.
Here, the Mara seeks a corporeal existence, free from ‘the dark places of the inside’ – not an unreasonable motive, as surely no living creature would wish to be trapped in a place of neverending darkness. But of course, the way the Mara conducts its business leaves a lot to be desired.
This is where ‘Kinda’ starts to get confusing, but then, it’s meant to be; the Mara deliberately tries to unsettle Tegan so that she can’t be sure what’s real and what isn’t. The same is true for the viewer. This was a deliberate decision on the part of the writer Christopher Bailey, and he notes in ‘Kinda’s making-of documentary that he and the script editor Eric Saward disagreed as to how to explain things to the viewer, or indeed whether to explain things at all; Bailey wasn’t overly concerned with getting bogged down in explanations, whereas Saward wanted to crystalise the world’s logic.
Perhaps the most cryptic moment in ‘Kinda’ is the cliffhanger to episode three, which must stand as one of the strangest and creepiest cliffhangers in the show’s history. The Doctor and his friend Todd are shown a vision which represents both the future and the past. The Kinda tribe are gathered in a circle, surrounded by clocks which are ticking ever-closer to midnight. The Kinda jester falls to the ground, overcome by mist and an unseen force, as the sound of an insidious whispering grows louder and louder. We cut to the wise woman, Panna, who raises her arms as she is engulfed in a bright light, and the Doctor cries, “It’s the end of everything!”
Got that? Well, it’s striking, if nothing else. The take-away here (we think!) is that the vision represents the inevitability of the Mara; it has sown chaos and destruction in the past, and it will do so again. Even if this isn’t quite the explanation, the vision can be summed up thus: the Mara is bad, and it needs to be stopped!
And how is the Mara ultimately defeated? Well, one of the criticisms of ‘Kinda’ is the purported ‘passivity’ of the Doctor and his companions, who spend most of their time reacting to the events around them, rather than causing or directly confronting them. And to an extent, this is true: Nyssa is absent for contractual reasons, Tegan (when she isn’t being tormented or possessed) is mostly unconscious, and the Doctor is left, for the most part, asking questions and watching mysterious visions as he struggles to understand this strange alien world and its people – much like the viewer, really.
But it wouldn’t be accurate to say that the Doctor is completely passive in ‘Kinda.’ True, he asks a lot of questions, but from these he makes logical deductions – and it’s these deductions that lead him, ultimately, to defeat the Mara. He realises that true evil cannot bear to face itself, and with the help of the Kinda tribe, he devises a circle of mirrors and lures the Mara into the centre, where it is seemingly destroyed.
Granted, the Doctor uses the young girl Karuna to lure the Mara into the circle, and he has the Kinda tribe hold up the solar panels whilst he stands by and yells out commands, but it’s still his genius that stops the Mara in its tracks. Had he not conceived of the mirrors, the Mara would have grown in strength and destroyed Deva Loka completely.
Does it matter that the giant snake looked like a piece of papier-mâché, or that the jungle looked like a garden centre? Not really. We’re Doctor Who fans – we’re used to it. Plus, if it really bothers you, the snake has a rather good CGI alternative on the DVD / Blu-ray release.
In short, ‘Kinda’ is one of those Doctor Who stories that has a “what on earth did I just watch?” quality. For the most part, this question is only answered after a second or third viewing – hence why the adventure’s popularity has increased in the decades since its transmission. And if you’re still scratching your head, just enjoy the atmosphere and the haunting synth soundtrack, which is undoubtedly one of the best of Season 19.
So how do you feel about ‘Kinda’? Has it improved on repeated viewing? And which do you think is the best story of Season 19? Let us know in the comments below.
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