5th Doctor
Kinda
Serial 5Y
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Producer
John Nathan-Turner

Script Editor
Eric Saward

Designer
Malcolm Thornton

Written by Christopher Bailey
Directed by Peter Grimwade
Incidental Music by Peter Howell

Peter Davison (The Doctor), Matthew Waterhouse (Adric), Janet Fielding (Tegan), Sarah Sutton (Nyssa) [1,4], Richard Todd (Sanders), Nerys Hughes (Todd), Simon Rouse (Hindle), Anna Wing (Anatta) [1], Roger Milner (Annica) [1], Jeffrey Stewart (Dukkha) [1-2], Adrian Mills (Aris), Mary Morris (Panna) [2-4], Sarah Prince (Karuna) [2-4], Lee Cornes (Trickster) [3-4].


A beautiful, paradise planet, Deva Loka. Its inhabitants, the Kinda, are a gentle and seemingly primitive people. On the surface, a perfect place to colonise. But if it is so perfect, why are the colonisation team disappearing one by one?

Unaware of this, the Doctor and his companions choose to rest on Deva Loka. Enchanted by the beautiful Chimes, "the place of dreams", Tegan sleeps and falls prey to the Mara, a malevolent force out to steal her mind. But just what are its ultimate evil intentions?

Meanwhile, the Doctor and Adric are captured by the surviving colonisation team's officers, Sanders and the unstable Hindle. When Sanders disappears, Hindle collapses into a world of paranoid delusions and suddenly the security of the entire base is at risk.

Can the Doctor rescue Tegan from the Mara and defeat it - before it pushes Hindle over the edge? And who is the mysterious blind woman who appears in visions? Will she help the Doctor or ultimately impede him?


Original Broadcast (UK)

Part One1st February, 19826h55pm - 7h20pm
Part Two2nd February, 19827h05pm - 7h30pm
Part Three8th February, 19826h55pm - 7h20pm
Part Four9th February, 19827h05pm - 7h30pm
 

Notes:
  • Released on video in episodic format. [+/-]

    U.K. Release U.S. Release

  1. KINDA
    • U.K. Release: October 1994 / U.S. Release: June 1996
      PAL - BBC video BBCV5432
      NTSC - CBS/FOX video 8371
      NTSC - Warner Video E1320
  • Novelised as Doctor Who - Kinda by Terrance Dicks. [+/-]

    W.H. Allen Edition Virgin Edition

    • Hardcover Edition - W.H. Allen.
      First Edition: December 1983.
      ISBN: ?.
      Cover by ?.
      Price: £?.

    • Paperback Edition - W.H. Allen.
      First Edition: March 1984. Reprinted in 1987.
      ISBN: 0 426 19529 9.
      Photo Cover.
      Price: £1.35.
      Also released as part of The Fifth Doctor Who Gift Set in 1984 [ISBN: 0 426 19596 5].

    • Audio Release Cover Paperback Edition - Virgin Publishing Ltd.
      First Edition: February 1992.
      ISBN: 0 426 19529 9.
      Cover by Alister Pearson.
      Price: £2.99.

  1. AUDIO RELEASE:
    • An abridged version of the novel, read by Peter Davison, was released on cassette (ZBBC 1770).
     
  2. Released: August 1997
  3. 90 minute Cassette
  4. ISBN: 0 563 38831 5
  • Doctor Who Magazine Archive: Issue #226.
 
 
 
 
Part One
(drn: 24'50") 

The planet Deva Loka is almost paradise; a human expedition has landed in a tropical jungle with a year-round temperate climate, abundant food and non-hostile natives. And yet four expedition members have vanished into the jungle so far, and the paranoid security officer Hindle fears that the native Kinda are responsible. The team leader Sanders scoffs at his fears and refuses to instigate a round-the-clock alert, and Hindle is unable to express his fury at Sanders for fear of seeming insubordinate to a superior officer. Science officer Todd fears that Hindle is reaching his breaking point, but Sanders -- who welcomes the difficulties, as he was starting to feel too comfortable on this world -- simply puts more pressure on Hindle, convinced the struggle will make a man of him.

The TARDIS has materialized nearby, and Tegan returns from a walk to find Adric and Nyssa sitting beside the ship, playing draughts. Nyssa is unable to concentrate properly due to a mild mental disorientation, but the Doctor has wired the sonic screwdriver up to a delta wave augmenter; 48 hours of induced delta-sleep will help her to recover from her recent traumatic experiences. The Doctor, Adric and Tegan take the opportunity to explore the jungle, and soon find a set of wind chimes in a nearby clearing -- the product of technology far more advanced than evidence would suggest exists on this planet. The Doctor plays the chimes and analyses their chromatic structure, unaware that the sound is lulling Tegan to sleep. Adric, bored, wanders off, and the Doctor follows -- and as Tegan drifts off to sleep beneath the chimes, the native Kinda emerge from hiding and place offerings of fruit and handwoven necklaces at her feet.

The Doctor and Adric find an abandoned survival suit in a nearby clearing, and as the Doctor examines the offerings placed before it Adric closes the suit's door -- causing it to return to life automatically. The suit holds the Doctor and Adric prisoner with its weaponry and marches them back to the expedition dome, where Hindle and Sanders demand to know what happened to Roberts, the suit's former occupant. The Doctor convinces Sanders that he and his friends have just arrived on the planet and know nothing about the expedition's difficulties, and Sanders invites them to the Dome's bridge despite Hindle's objections. The Doctor is surprised to learn that Sanders, per standard operating procedure, has taken two Kinda hostage to ensure the native population's good behaviour. Concerned for Tegan's safety, he asks for permission to see the hostages, and Sanders agrees to let him do so, overriding Hindle's objections once again.

The hostages, two Kinda males, appear to be in shock, but although Todd agrees that they shouldn't have been taken prisoner, she doesn't believe the Kinda are as primitive as they appear; their necklaces are woven in the shape of the DNA double-helix, and she suspects that they are telepathic. A Kinda male appears outside the Dome; he's often there for some reason, although the others are apparently all too frightened to come this close. The expedition has been left to scout the planet for colonisation purposes; the mothership will return in six seasons and they will make their report then. Hindle arrives and is furious to find Todd telling the Doctor all about the expedition's purposes. Todd, fed up with his paranoia, storms out of the laboratory, and the Doctor follows. Hindle, left alone, tears the laboratory apart in a sudden fit of rage. As he tries to regain control of himself he pulls out a mirror to check that his hair is straight -- and catches sight of the two Kinda hostages staring at him in the mirror. A telepathic link is forged between them, and Hindle finds that the two Kinda will now obey his every unspoken command without question...

Tegan, fast asleep by the wind chimes, dreams of being alone in an infinite black void. Once again she walks around a fantastic travelling machine of some kind to find two eccentrically dressed people playing draughts. The man and woman, both of whom have snake tattoos on their arms, claim that Tegan doesn't really exist and is merely an illusion to put them off their game. The figures fade into the distance as a young man appears, laughing and sneering at Tegan's confusion. Convinced she's only dreaming him, she tries to abolish him from her thoughts, but fails. The dukkha announces that "you will agree to being me, sooner or later, this side of madness or the other" -- and when she rejects him, he invites her to meet a friend of his. Tegan herself walks out from behind the caravan -- and now all that remains is for the two Tegans to determine which of them is real and which the illusion. What could be simpler?

Sanders doesn't accept Todd's theory that the Kinda are more sophisticated than they appear; as far as he's concerned, they're just ignorant savages. He decides to take the Total Survival Suit out to search for the missing expedition members despite the danger that he too might not return. While he's gone Hindle will be in charge, despite Todd and the Doctor's feeling that Hindle is dangerously close to a mental breakdown. Hindle returns, and seems calm enough as Sanders informs him of his decision. But as soon as Sanders departs, Hindle pulls a gun on the Doctor, Todd and Adric and places them under arrest, convinced that the Doctor is a dangerous alien enemy and that Todd is his associate. Todd begins to protest but falls silent when the two Kinda arrive, also armed -- and as Hindle crows with victory, she and the Doctor realize he is now totally mad...

Part Two
(drn: 24'58")

Hindle locks the Doctor, Adric, and Todd in the cargo hold overnight, and Todd simmers in frustration as the Doctor and Adric pass the time playing sleight-of-hand tricks with a coin. Hindle has them brought back to the bridge where they find his mania has developed further. He now believes that everything outside the Dome is a danger -- the trees, the plants, all spreading, branching out, old growth blocking out the light and new growth occuring at random. Although Todd insists the danger is all in his mind, he intends to sterilise a fifty-mile area around the Dome to protect them all from the Outside. Adric announces that he understands completely, and Hindle, grateful for an ally, welcomes him to the fold. The Doctor and Todd are sent back to the cargo hold, hoping that Adric has more than his own interests at heart.

Two Kinda females -- the blind, elderly Panna and the much younger Karuna -- wait in a forest clearing, on a vital mission to make the Not-We of the Dome understand why they must leave the Kinda in peace. Aris, the young Kinda male whom Todd and the Doctor saw earlier, comes to Panna for healing and understanding; bad enough that his brother has been taken prisoner by the Not-We, but now he has gone from Aris' mind as well. Panna impatiently dismisses him; what is about to happen here is far more important. Aris departs, still in despair and without understanding. The TSS then marches into the clearing with Sanders at the controls, and Karuna worries that he will be unsuitable, as Panna had said only a woman could understand. But it is Sanders who is here, and Karuna gives him the wooden box she's been carrying. Sanders, puzzled to find two Kinda who can actually speak aloud, reaches out from the TSS, takes the box and opens it -- and is horrified by what he finds inside...

Tegan and her double argue over which of them is real; each is identical in every way, with the same memories and same sense of identity, and each is convinced they are the real one. The dukkha continues to taunt Tegan, and causes a crowd of Tegans to appear and then to vanish again. Tegan, no longer secure in her own identity, still refuses to give into the dukkha and tells him to leave her alone -- and so he vanishes, and she vanishes as well. She is unable to bear the isolation, and gives in to the dukkha's demands. The dukkha thus passes into her body, and she awakens back in the real world -- with a snake tattoo on her arm...

Hindle puts Adric on surveillance duty while he has breakfast, but Adric distracts him and takes advantage of the opportunity to take the keycard to the cage in the cargo hold. When Hindle sends him to the hold with the prisoners' meals, he tries to slip the keycard to the Doctor, but Hindle spots him. Hindle's Kinda force them to the bridge, where Hindle has the Kinda torture Adric as punishment. The Doctor suggests expelling Adric from the Dome to face the mercy of the trees, but Hindle reminds him that the trees have no mercy -- must he think of _everything_ himself? As he tries to think of a plan to punish Adric for his disobedience, however, the TSS appears on screen -- unlike the other expedition members, Sanders has returned, and Hindle collapses in sheer screaming hysteria, begging his mother to make Sanders go away.

Aris arrives at the clearing of the wind chimes, seeking peace -- but finds Tegan instead. With the power of the Mara at her command, she reads his mind and sees his hatred for the people in the Dome -- a feeling the Mara can use. Aris realizes too late what is happening, and the power of the Mara passes out of Tegan into him. Tegan falls unconscious to the ground as Aris stands, the snake tattoo now on his arm -- and capable of giving Voice to his thoughts. Now all things are possible.

Hindle goes to greet Sanders as the Doctor and Todd discuss his return in light of the disappearance of the other expedition members. Todd is still certain that the Kinda are not responsible for what happened to the others, but the Doctor points out that if they aren't, then something else is. And if the Kinda are more sophisticated than they appear, perhaps their enemies are as well. Sanders emerges from the TSS, and Hindle begins to babble apologies and justifications before realizing that Sanders is just standing there, smiling placidly. Sanders hands over Karuna's wooden box, claiming that it's a gift, and that he can't remember who gave it to him or what's inside. Hindle, having forgotten all about Adric's disgrace, sends the Doctor, Todd and Sanders back to the cargo hold, locks them inside with the box and orders them to open it on pain of death. Although the Doctor has no way of knowing what's inside the box -- only that it's given Sanders the most traumatic shock of his life -- he has no choice but to open it...

Part Three
(drn: 24'17")

A doll with a Kinda ceremonial mask face springs out of the box, much to Sanders' amusement and Todd's relief -- but as Hindle demands to know what's happening, the Doctor's attention is caught by something else happening in the box. Hindle flies into a panic as the power in the Dome goes out and the cage door slides open. The Doctor and Todd are granted a vision of the world through the eyes of the Kinda, seeing the jungle as a verdant, lush paradise -- and seeing Karuna and Panna, standing by a cave, beckoning to them. They awaken to find Sanders in a state of shock, unable to cope with the mystical experience. Todd's theories have been confirmed; this is no planet of primitives, and the Doctor and Todd flee into the jungle as the power in the Dome starts to come back up, determined to learn more.

The Doctor and Todd realize that they're being followed, and soon a group of Kinda emerges from the forest and surrounds them. A Kinda leaps out of the bushes with a puppet on a stick and begins performing pratfalls, and Todd identifies him as the Trickster, the traditional figure who defuses conflict through mockery and comedy. The Doctor participates in the game by demonstrating the sleight-of-hand he learned from Adric, but just as it appears that he's made friendly contact Aris arrives. Aris is now wearing vines around his arm to hide his snake tattoo, and he orders the shocked Kinda to seize the Not-We and destroy them. Karuna arrives and tries to scan Aris' mind to find out how he has achieved Voice, but he blocks her. The other Kinda believe Aris' arrival to be fulfillment of prophecy; when the Not-We come, one will arise from among We, a male with Voice who must be obeyed. The other Kinda mill about uncertainly while Karuna takes the Doctor and Todd to see the wise woman; Panna will know what to do.

Adric brings Sanders and the wooden box back to the bridge, where Hindle has fallen into a sulk. He refuses to let Adric leave to search for the escaped prisoners; instead, he and Sanders place explosives at strategic points around the Dome, such that the zone of maximum impact will be the centre of the bridge and the total area of devastation will cover a thirty-mile radius of jungle. Having ensured that the Outside will never be able to get in, Hindle and Sanders relax and begin to build a cardboard city for play. Adric refuses to participate, but Hindle, upset that Adric won't play his game, refuses to let him leave the bridge. Adric tries to slip away, but Sanders follows and brings him back, assuring him that Hindle means well. Don't we all, underneath?

Karuna takes the Doctor and Todd to the cave, while explaining more about the Kinda way of life and assuring the Doctor that his friend Tegan has been seen in the Place of Dreaming. When they arrive at the cave, Panna is puzzled to hear the Doctor speaking to her; no male can look into the Box of Jhana and survive the experience, and Panna thus concludes that the Doctor must be an idiot. She takes the others into the cave to explain to Todd why the Not-We must leave the Kinda in peace, before History begins all over again. But as she prepares to enter a trance, Aris arrives with a crowd of Kinda, who are now his devoted followers. When Karuna tries to scan their minds she finds only blind obedience, and then she too falls under Aris' thrall. Panna realizes that the Voice speaking through Aris is not his at all, but Aris mocks her helplessness and leads the Kinda away to attack the Dome and drive out the evil Not-We.

Panna explains that Aris' mind has been darkened by his brother's captivity, but the voice that speaks through him is that of the Mara, the evil ones who turn the Great Wheel that causes the rise and fall of civilisations. Soon History will begin again, and they will all be broken upon the Wheel. Todd wants to warn the Dome of the danger, but the Doctor, who has also heard the legends of the Mara, convinces her to wait until Panna has finished. Panna goes into a trance, and both the Doctor and Todd experience a vision of time running out. A crowd of Kinda mill helplessly in a jungle clearing, and Panna stands alone in a glade full of timepieces ticking down to midnight. The Trickster tries to entertain the Kinda but collapses shrieking in pain as the laughter of the Mara booms out -- and when midnight strikes the glade dissolves in light and fire. The Doctor and Todd return to normality, the Doctor understanding that they've seen a vision of the past and the future. They must prevent the attack on the Dome -- but only Panna can lead them to the Dome, and when they turn to her for help they find that she is dead.

Part Four
(drn: 24'28")

The Doctor concludes that Panna slowed down her bodily metabolism in order to release the mental powers which enabled them to share a vision, but that this time it was too much for her aged body to handle. Karuna then returns, having shaken off Aris' influence at the moment of Panna's death; as happens with the Kinda, Panna's wisdom and experience have passed on to her at the moment of death, and they have become one. Now they must stop Aris. But before returning to the Dome they stop off at the Place of Dreaming to find and awaken Tegan. She is initially reluctant to tell the Doctor about her dream -- dreams are private -- but eventually does so, and although she now recalls it only as a vague, embarrassing memory, her description confirms the Doctor's suspicions that a Mara passed into the waking world through her dream, into Aris.

The Kinda arrive at the Dome, and when Aris tries to whip them up into a fighting spirit, the Trickster attempts to deflate him with mockery and mime. Aris snatches the Trickster's puppet and dashes it to pieces on the ground. He then has the Kinda build a cargo-cult copy of the TSS out of sticks and twigs; if the Kinda have a Guardian just as the Dome does, they will be as powerful as the Not-We. Adric, meanwhile, slips away as Hindle and Sanders obsess over the minute details of their cardboard city and the little cardboard people populating it, and attempts to pilot the TSS out of the Dome. The Doctor's party arrives to see the TSS surrounded by the Kinda, and as Aris urges them to destroy it, the Trickster once again leaps into action, cavorting around the machine and turning the attack into a game. Adric, finding the TSS more difficult to control than he'd thought, panics and accidentally opens fire, wounding Aris and scattering the panic-stricken Kinda. The Doctor manages to talk Adric down, and Adric manages to open the TSS door and emerge, shaking and terrified. The Doctor and Todd enter the Dome to confront Hindle, but Adric, Tegan and Karuna find that in the confusion, Aris has escaped.

The Doctor and Todd return to the bridge, where Hindle attempts to surprise them by jumping out of a cardboard "building" and blames Sanders when they aren't shocked. Trying to keep him calm, the Doctor and Todd ask him about the city and how he controls the Kinda; he explains that the Kinda believe he has captured their souls in the mirror. The Doctor accidentally steps on one of the cardboard people, and Hindle, trying to snatch it from him, tears off its head. Furious and near tears -- "you can't mend people!" -- Hindle is about to order the Kinda to detonate the explosives, but as the Doctor tries to hold him back he drops the mirror, which shatters. The Kinda, freed of Hindle's control, depart the Dome. Hindle breaks free of the Doctor and is about to push the detonator himself when he sees Todd holding the Box of Jhana, which has fallen to the floor in the struggle. She agrees to trade the Box for the detonator if Hindle promises not to open the Box; but once he has the Box he opens it immediately, and the Box begins to work its spell on him.

As the power flickers in the Dome, Adric and Tegan, fearing that Hindle has activated the bombs, panic and lash out at one another. But all returns to normal, and the Doctor arrives, explaining that the Box of Jhana -- which is in fact a sophisticated healing device -- has put Hindle back in touch with nature. Now they must deal with the Mara, and Hindle's trick with the mirror gives the Doctor an idea; the one thing evil cannot face is itself. The Kinda collect solar reflecting panels from the Dome and gather in a clearing, and once they are ready Karuna finds Aris and lures him into the trap. There, he is trapped within the circle of mirrors, and surrounded by reflections of reflections stretching off into infinity. The snake detaches itself from his arm, and the Kinda pull him out of the circle as the Mara swells to a gigantic size, trying to break free. Tegan stares in horror at the snake, realizing that this is the thing that was inside her mind. The Kinda hold firm, however, and the Mara swells with power and vanishes, banished back to the Dark Places of the Inside. At last the Kinda are free of it.

Hindle and Sanders have fully recovered, healed not only of their nervous breakdowns but of the underlying fears, tensions and insecurities which drove them to madness in the first place. Todd plans to recommend that Deva Loka be classified as unsuitable for colonisation. The Doctor bids goodbye to her and returns to the TARDIS with Tegan and Adric; Nyssa has fully recovered, and he and his friends can set off on another adventure.

Source: Cameron Dixon

Continuity Notes:
  • Tegan is taken over by the Mara again in Snakedance.
  • The Martians in Legacy have wind chimes from Deva Loka aboard their ship, which suggests that the artifacts of the Kinda are eventually circulated around the Galactic Federation.
 
 
 
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