Kinda Part Three

The one where the Doctor is branded an idiot because he hasn't gone mad...

So, what's in the box? Turns out it's your common or garden jack-in-the-box, with a ghoulish Green Man twist, so Todd's ear-piercing scream of horror was slightly over the top. But opening the box leads to more than just a jack, as the lights in the dome begin to falter, the cell door miraculously slides open, and the Doctor and Todd share a bizarre vision in which Panna and Karuna beckon them to a cave. Later, we discover this "message" was meant only for Todd, not the Doctor, because Todd is a female. The Doctor and Todd leave Sanders behind, crouched on his knees and weeping (perhaps happy tears?). It's a sad sight to see this previously proud and bombastic man reduced to a mere child, and all credit to veteran film star (and Oscar nominee) Richard Todd for carrying this role so truthfully.

The Doctor and Todd make a cracking team, the younger Doctor and the older female companion. Nerys Hughes is so real in the part, treating it with respect and intelligence. There isn't an ounce of send-up in her performance, she plays it utterly straight, and as a result the pairing works so fluidly. There are many moments of charm between them, but it all begins with the scene where they escape the dome. As the ramp slowly begins to close on them, Todd exclaims (rather pathetically) "Ohhh!", and the exasperated Doctor growls "Well, jump!"

Peter Davison and Nerys Hughes are great value, making their way through the faux jungle in search of the dream cave. It's great how Todd seems to take the lead several times, such as when the Doctor tosses the coin and gets 'heads', but she insists they go the 'tails' way! When she senses someone following them through the undergrowth, she is roundly pooh-poohed by the Doctor until he hears a twig crack, and Todd demands: "Come out from there!" She takes no nonsense, and oh how I wish she'd stayed on as a permanent companion. She'd be the Donna Noble or Evelyn Smythe of the classic series!

The duo meet a jester Kinda, who Todd identifies as a cultural trope designed to diffuse potential sources of conflict (she's a scientist, she knows her anthropology). In return for his clowning, the jester demands the Doctor reciprocates in some way, so the Time Lord employs the coin trick he was taught by Adric at the start of the story. This coin trick is becoming quite ubiquitous.

The fun and games are interrupted by big bad Aris (aka the Mara), who wants the Not-We from the dome dead. I'm not sure why the Mara wants the Not-We dead, or what threat they might pose to the Mara, but it seems that the emergence of a male Kinda with a voice means that he must be obeyed. Male Kinda do not usually have a voice, only the women, so by taking possession of Aris, the Mara has automatically become their leader. Clever old serpent.

But... but... If a male Kinda with a voice is the ultimate sign of leadership on Deva Loka, why did the Mara choose to first possess Tegan, rather than Adric or the Doctor? The Mara was inside Tegan for a matter of minutes before it jumped across to Aris, but why did it use Tegan in the first place? Particularly as this now means Tegan spends the entire episode flat on her back and unconscious at the Place of Great Dreaming. It's quite a surprise that Janet Fielding gets absolutely nothing to do in one whole episode of a story that fans perceive as being "her" story.

By the way, this particular crowd of Kinda extras contains not one, but two future acting stars: a 24-year-old Glen Murphy, future MBE, and Dibber to Tony Selby's Glitz in The Trial of a Time Lord, and a nine-year-old Jonny Lee Miller, future Olivier Award winner and star of the US TV show Elementary.

The Doctor and Todd arrive at the dream cave and meet Panna and Karuna. Panna is pretty shady towards the Doctor, who she labels an idiot because he was not turned mad by opening the Box of Jhana*. Panna only intended the message to go to Todd (a female), and is surprised to find a sane man alongside her. Opening the box is for ladies only, which is why Sanders went mad, and probably the others from the dome too (such as Roberts). But one male who hasn't opened the box, but has gone mad all the same, is Hindle, suggesting his mental unravelling is completely coincidental to proceedings. However, I'm not clear on why Hindle is able to telepathically control the two Kinda in the dome. I'm sure I'm missing something, but then there's a lot to take in with Kinda.

Panna explains that the Mara is now in control of the great wheel of history, a wheel which turns constantly, bringing beginnings and ends together (Bhavachakra in Buddhism). Where is the 'beginning' of a wheel, and where is the 'end'? It is one continuous flow, suggesting birth, death and rebirth are all part of the same experience. "Wheel turns, civilisations rise, wheel turns, civilisations fall," says Panna.

With the Mara lending Aris a voice, this means it's the beginning of the end, but just in case you're starting to understand everything, this also means it's the end of the beginning. The Mara will bring death, delusion and suffering (remember Dukkha?) to Deva Loka as the wheel turns to start a fresh cycle. It's all very allegorical. Writer Christopher Bailey had such a lot to say with his script, much of which seemed to have been lost or fudged in production, but there's still so much to pick out. The script seems to say that because man has found voice, he must be obeyed, and men who speak only bring destruction and the end of things. It's a misandrist point of view, but that doesn't mean it's not true. I genuinely think that if women ruled the world, the world would be a better, safer place.

Aris/ the Mara wants to destroy the dome (coincidentally, Hindle also wants to blow up the dome to stop the outside getting in, so one way or the other, that dome's doomed). Panna explains that the end begins with a killing. "It is the Mara who now turn the wheel. It is the Mara who dance to the music of our despair. Our suffering is the Mara's delight, our madness the Mara's meat and drink. And now he has returned." If the Mara feeds on the madness of men, then there's plenty of sustenance for it here on Deva Loka!

The dodgy plain cyclorama at the back of the cave set which has been setting my teeth on edge throughout the episode suddenly gains a practical purpose and becomes a crazy back projection. Panna tells the Doctor and Todd to walk into the darkness and they look down upon a scene in which the Kinda stand in a circle, alongside various iterations of time, such as an alarm clock, a sundial and an egg timer, all of which show that time is running out. As the frolicking jester succumbs to some kind of evil force, time finally expires, and the Doctor exclaims: "It's the end of everything!"

That would have been a great cliffhanger, but sadly the action stumbles past this natural climax to have Todd find an apparently dead Panna, then it finishes. It would have been much better to end the episode with the Doctor announcing the end of everything, and the demonic-looking dream-Panna whiting out into the end titles.

Part 3 is an odd episode. Most of what goes on in the dome with Hindle, Sanders and Adric is superfluous, Tegan is overlooked altogether, and Nyssa's completely disappeared with her space headache. But the interaction between the Doctor and Todd, and everything we learn about the Kinda, is engrossing stuff, at the expense of all else.

* Interestingly, in Buddhism Jhana meditation forms part of the Right Concentration of the Eightfold Path. Eightfold = Eight Legs = Planet of the Spiders, a story also heavily influenced by Buddhism.

First broadcast: February 8th, 1982

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: The chemistry between Davison and Hughes as the Doctor and Todd.
The Bad: The almost total removal of Tegan from the narrative.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

NEXT TIME: Part Four...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Part One; Part Two; Part Four

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site.

Kinda is available on BBC DVD as part of the Mara Tales box set. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Tales-Kinda-Snakedance/dp/B004FV4R4K