The Doctor Who Real Time Marathon: Kinda

KINDA (Part One) 01/02/2022

Pronounced like German for 'children' and not like the Nine Inch Nails song 'Kinda I Want To'. I must say, I'm really enjoying how off-the-wall this series is so far. It's such a huge contrast to the Tom Baker era (which I think is really rather the point). Season 18 showed some diversion from the usual fair, but so far we've had the fake peaceful society of Castrovalva and a story which felt more like a Hartnell adventure. Now we've got a story which seems to have more in common with Warriors' Gate or The Mind Robber than anything else in the last 19 years.

Firstly, it's not about Nyssa. She's in the TARDIS with a contraption the Doctor made incorporating the Sonic Screwdriver to help sort her head out - apparently, she's fainted again since last week so is currently sitting this story out.

They've landed on S14 - aka Deva Loka - planet of the Kinda, a seemingly-but-not-really primitive Humanoid people who are likely the descendants of Human colonists (my own supposition since the planet has apples; unless the research team aren't Human? They don't seem to be aware of the planet's history...). Anyhow, the Kinda are capable (or have at one time been capable) of constructing huge, crystalline windchimes which have an eccentric scale similar to our own. They're also telepathic and know about DNA, probably. 

Whilst Adric and the Doctor stumbled across a Total Survival Suit used by the research team and ended up getting taken back to the colonists' Dome, Tegan seemed to get hypnotised by the windchimes and fell asleep. This is where it got rather wonderfully weird. In her head she encountered an old couple playing chess (Adric and Nyssa were playing Draughts at the start), then a rather fit bloke in Medieval garb (like the old couple, the male of which oddly resembled my maternal Grandmother) who laughed a lot and apparently wants Tegan to 'become' him or something. In a creepy way. But also vaguely sexy. It's complicated.

These scenes in Tegan's head are beautifully shot and directed. Filmed in a black void with the three strangers in white clothing and makeup, metallic structures here and there, and the lighting/contrast pushed up to make everything look washed out. It's really effective and contrasts nicely with the scenes inside the Dome.

Here, basically, we have three of an original team of six colonists researching the planet in preparation for colonisation, half of whom have gone missing in the forest - the forest, incidentally, is the stories weak point; it's nicely realised, but the story is studio-bound and the highly conspicuous studio floor slightly shatters the illusion regardless of how many leaves the set dresser throws down! First, we have Sanders who's in charge (now Roberts has disappeared) and he's basically a militaristic bully. Then there's Hindle, Head of Security and on the verge of a nervous breakdown due to Sanders' bullying. Third is the team's sole scientist, Todd, who seems fairly reasonable, if a little laid back, and has found herself confiding in the Doctor. This has got her into trouble. Sanders has taken the TSS off to look for Roberts leaving Hindle in charge. Hindle, however, had a massive hissyfit after hearing Todd tell the Doctor about the eventual plans for colonisation and trashed her lab, then made telepathic contact with the two Kinda hostages (policy for whatever dodgy company they all work for), and got them to work for him as armed guards, holding the Doctor, Adric and Todd at gunpoint at the cliffhanger.

It's certainly a very interesting and unusual narrative. Stylistically, I'd've liked the exterior shots to be filmed on Location, but given that you can see the forest outside the Dome through the windows that may have been hard to match. All this is overshadowed, by how good the stuff in Tegan's head look, though. It's also nice to see Adric and Tegan a little less moody, although I think the Doctor was a bit harsh having a go at Adric for accidentally activating the TSS. However, that continues their more caustic relationship from the last story. Overall, an impressive start to the new serial.

KINDA (Part Two) 02/02/2022

There are several things which are really effective about this story. The sequences in Tegan's head are incredibly well realised, beautifully lit, and incredibly creepy. The entity speaking to her, later revealed as a Mara, and playing cruel games was doing so in order to get her to agree to letting him/it use her body - ie taking possession of it. Eventually, Tegan caved and next thing woke up in the clearing beside the windchimes (are they something to do with the Mara?). Except it wasn't Tegan, and her transformation was subtle but brilliant; full marks to Janet Fielding for a great performance! The snake tattoo on her arm is a bit naff, but the pink dye on her lips, teeth and inside her mouth, plus the subtle redness around the eyes, is really good. Coupled with her performance, all hysterical cackling and leering grins, and the change in her voice it works incredibly well and far better than other, more elaborate makeup choices I've seen in Sci Fi and Horror.

Early in the episode we met a blind, old Wise Woman called Panna and her acolyte, Karuna. Both can talk since this is a sign of wisdom amongst the mute, telepathic Kinda. They were visited by Aris, whose brother is one of the prisoners in the Dome. He can no longer hear him (telepathically), presumably because he's under Hindle's control. Panna refused to help as she was preparing to give Sanders some form of box.

Here we encounter one of the less effective things. I didn't notice yesterday. but today it was very obvious that the TSS has some rather useless stompy feet which move at its sides as it trundles through Studio S14 pushing a pile of dead leaves before it. Fortunately, these scenes were kept to a minimum.

Sanders accepted the box and opened it, and whatever it did to him made him revert to a child-like state. I can only assume this is what happened to the other three colonists, and since Karuna said the box would only be effective with a woman I can conclude that Todd is the only female member of the expedition. I do wonder what happened to Roberts and the others!

Meanwhile, in the Dome, the Doctor, Adric and Todd were locked up overnight. Then Hindle released them to tell them that the forest was trying to get in so he was going to burn it down with fire and acid for a 50 mile radius round the Dome. Adric seemed to side with him as he had with Monarch, which was a nice bit of continuity, especially when it was so he could try and free the Doctor and Todd. It didn't work, though, and just got him tortured a bit.

Then Sanders returned with the box, Hindle nearly had a breakdown until he realised Sanders' state of mind, then he locked Sanders, Todd and the Doctor up and told them to open the box or be shot. The cliffhanger was them opening the box.

Before this, Aris met Mara-Tegan who convinced him to let it help him free his brother and now the Mara is in him and Tegan is asleep again. It's a really interesting concept which I feel I only half understand but, despite it all looking very studio-bound, this is so far a pretty brilliant story and very different to anything before it!

KINDA (Part Three) 08/02/2022

Okay, so at the cliffhanger last week the Doctor, Todd and Sanders were locked up by Hindle and told to open the Box of Jana which Sanders had been given by Panna and Karuna. Turns out there was a marotte inside like the one used by the clown/jester character they'd meet later in the episode. It also contained something intangible which caused the three of them to have a vision of the Kinda and of Panna and Karuna beckoning them into the forest. The Doctor hinted that it changed him somehow, and given only women are meant to be able to experience what's inside the box without going mad, I'm wondering what that tells us about the Doctor; that his alien physiology can cope with whatever it is? That the Doctor isn't quite male? He is a shape-changing alien, after all!

Anyhow, the box also caused a power drain allowing the Doctor and Todd to escape, leaving Sanders recovering from a second dose of Jana. They encountered the Kinda, then Aris turned up and ordered them killed. Apparently, the Kinda have a prophecy that one day a male with  voice will come along to lead them. However, Karuna took the Doctor and Todd to Panna who later realised that Aris is possessed by a Mara. I think that the Mara are incorporeal creatures that possess people, like demons but for Science Fiction. Regardless, Aris took all the Kinda but Panna to attack the Dome, and Panna showed the Doctor and Todd another vision.

There's a lot of high concept stuff going on here which I won't pretend to completely understand, but it's nonetheless very good and very different to anything we've seen before. It's also quite amusing in places; having escaped, the Doctor noted that Todd asks a lot of questions to which she responded "It's my training. I'm a scientist!". Then when they met Panna and she learnt that the Doctor had been present when the Box of Jana opened she surmised he couldn't have witnessed it and remained sane "unless... are you an idiot?" and subsequently kept referring to him as 'Idiot' and telling him to "stop babbling".

The visions themselves involve some pretty trippy effects which were fairly uncomplicated yet effective. The scenes inside the Dome were nicely directed with Hindle deciding the only way to protect them all from outside was to rig explosives to reduce the Dome (and surrounding area) to its base constituents, thus making them safe 'forever'. It's a really nice portrayal of someone who's had a massive breakdown, as is the contrast of Richard Todd's bullying character Sanders and the child-like pleasantness after having opened the Box.

Adric made a few attempts to escape but it was more about Hindle's madness in these scenes. We only saw Tegan once, in a short scene where she was sleeping. The episode ended with an unusual cliffhanger of Todd saying she thinks Panna is dead. I've got to admit, the cliffhangers this series are as refreshing as the stories, more often propelling the story along rather than stopping it to give us some crow-barred jeopardy! I'm looking forward to seeing how all this resolves. It's certainly a fascinating piece.

KINDA (Part Four) 09/02/2022

It's funny, but this series doesn't really feel like Doctor Who any more. Except that's not quite what I mean. Maybe it feels more like Doctor Who than it has in years! The appealing thing about the first four years was how diverse the show was, and how atmospheric some of the episodes were. Things changed in the Troughton era to a Monster Of The Week format which changed slightly again with Pertwee and continued through the Baker years. And whilst a lot of it was great fun, there was very little variation in style and format. Then last series everything changed (sort of) and instead of having Mr Baker swan in and defeat yet another alien monster or evil scientist/dictator we got an adventure with tonnes of atmosphere, stunning effects and visuals, social commentary and deep concepts, and the Doctor being entirely passive - much like in some of the Hartnell stories - with Warriors' Gate. It looked like a Duran Duran video and felt like Sapphire & Steel. In short, it felt modern and new and clever.

Kinda, and in many ways Castrovalva, echo this style and feel freer and fresher than the tried (and sometimes tired) same old same olds of the past six or so years. Not that they weren't fun at the time, but this feels so much better. The show has evolved. It also seems to have junked the repetitive title format of '(The) Something Of (The) Something' in favour of snappier, more ambiguous monikers. That's not to say that the stories aren't about the Doctor fighting a Monster Of The Week - that's exactly what Kinda was about - but it was also about more than that, and the monster itself was conceptually very different. The Mara are an abstract, an evil within the dark places of the mind that access this dimension via 'the dreaming of an unshared mind' - ie Tegan, not telepathic like the Kinda who also know not to sleep alone (maybe that's how Karuna has 7 fathers!). And as an abstract in varying forms - the people in Tegan's dreams, the entity in possession of her and Aris, and the giant snake at the end (which was mercifully mostly blurred by special effects to help disguise it being a nicely designed but rather obvious huge puppet) - it posed more of a threat and allowed some nicer realisation than most Who monsters.

For a story in a studio-bound forest, this was incredibly good, the dialogue superseding the budgetary limitations. Hindle raging that "You can't mend people!" and Todd's response to his question if she was scared of him: "Terrified." were wonderfully performed. And Todd's chemistry with the Doctor made me want her to join him in the TARDIS. The incidental music was quite beautiful, too, especially over the final scene.

In short, the story succeeded despite its limitations thanks to a clever concept, some stunning performances, and a very intelligent script. That's three successful stories in a row, all very different but all fresh and new. I'm liking Tegan now, although Adric decided to be a bit of a twat near the end, and thankfully Nyssa met them at the TARDIS and she's fine again. I'm preparing myself for a turkey next week. This successful streak can't last much longer!