THE PLOT
The Doctor takes the TARDIS to Deva Loka, a peaceful planet where he trusts that Nyssa can recover from her fainting spell in peace. As Nyssa rests, the Doctor and his companions go exploring. They find a beautiful set of chimes created by the natives, with an alien yet harmonic musical sound. The sound sends Tegan into a trance, where she finds herself in a sinister, all-black plane, menaced by the evil Mara.
Meanwhile, the Doctor and Adric are captured by a colonization team. The team's leader, Sanders (Richard Todd), finds them harmless enough. But when Sanders goes off to investigate the disappearance of another team member, the security officer - the unstable Hindle (Simon Rouse) - takes command. Now the Doctor and Adric, along with the team's scientific officer, Todd (Nerys Hughes), find their lives at the mercy of a madman, while the ancient evil of the Mara uses Tegan as a vessel to the real world and threatens to engulf them all!
CHARACTERS
The Doctor: Though apparently originally commissioned as a Fourth Doctor story, this is one of those rare serials that is difficult to imagine with any other Doctor. It's so well-suited to Davison's thoughtful, understated performance, a story for a Doctor who takes time to evaluate the situation before acting. The Doctor does a lot of watching and listening, holding back until there is an opportunity for action to actually be beneficial. When he does finally take charge, in Episode Four, it's decisive. Davison's showdown with the Mara-possessed Kinda just before turning the mirrored panels on it could serve as a one-scene rebuttal to all the charges that he lacked authority.
Tegan: The first half of this serial gives Janet Fielding quite a bit of focus, and she eagerly rises to the challenge. The Mara's attempts to gain agreement to use Tegan's form are highly effective, creepy and surreal without being so esoteric as to nullify the drama. Fielding gets to play multiple levels, as Tegan is frightened yet stubborn in her refusal, then confused by trick after trick. Two dream figures tell her that she does not exist. Then a jester figure, the Mara's face for Tegan, mentally exhausts her before making good on that initial threat, fading Tegan from existence to "leave (her) alone." Finally, the terrified and exhausted Tegan is broken into granting her consent. It's magnificently nightmarish, wonderfully-directed by Peter Grimwade and acted to perfection by Janet Fielding, who obviously enjoyed getting something truly meaty to play. There's much less for her to do in the second half, but she still is effective when she sees the Mara's true form and demands to know that it's truly gone from her mind now (a demand that the Doctor ignores, thus paving the way for a follow-up).
Adric: After being borderline unbearable in Four to Doomsday, Matthew Waterhouse actually dials it back and is once again fairly watchable. I thought Adric's scenes opposite the insane Hindle were well-done, with Adric attempting to humor Hindle to gain a chance first to help the Doctor, then to escape, and finally to do something about Hindle's plan of destruction. He does dive back into being obnoxious in his scenes with Tegan in Episode Four. Waterhouse seems to consistently be at his best when acting opposite Sarah Sutton, and at his dreadful worst when playing opposite Janet Fielding.
THOUGHTS
Reading through the DWM: In Their Own Words special, it seems that Kinda had a particularly troubled genesis. The script was commissioned by Bidmead, to whom the concept of the Mara doubtless appealed. It was delivered about the time that Bidmead left. Some development was done by Antony Root, who seems to have enjoyed the layered themes of the story. But written by an inexperienced television writer, it was still in no fit shape for broadcast when Eric Saward became script editor, leading to Saward giving the second half of the story a massive overhaul - one which did not please writer Christopher Bailey, who then did an 11th hour rewrite to try to restore some of the themes that he felt the Saward draft had lost.
Given such a troubled development process, it would be reasonable to expect Kinda to be a failure. Honestly, it would almost be excusable, after skipping along between three script editors, at least two of whom had radically different sensibilities, and a writer with no television experience. But somehow, it all manages to come together. The result is probably my favorite televised Davison story, and one of my all-time favorites of the entire series.
This is the first story of Saward's script editing tenure on which he had a strong influence, and it may be his crowning achievement as script editor. Both Saward and Root seem to have recognized that there was enough going on in this story to make it worth the effort to put it into shape. The result, I think, is a clear example of how creative tension can sometimes work in a show's favor. Saward's structural sensibilities keep the story moving along and keep it comprehensible, while Bailey's layered themes make it into something special within that framework. Effectively, this is to Saward what Warriors' Gate was to Bidmead: an imaginative piece that required a massive amount of work, but which paid off with 4 stunning episodes.
Like Logopolis, this story benefits from director Peter Grimwade's eye for the visual. Tegan's nightmarish encounter with the Mara on a black-on-black astral plane, the old woman's vision of the Mara, Hindle and his cardboard city - all are effective visual moments, exceedingly well-executed. Grimwade knows how and when to use close-ups for maximum effect, and when to cut away from close-ups to wider shots. The Part Two cliffhanger is particularly strong, with its cutaways to Hindle's black-and-white face on the monitor, rather than to Hindle himself, and with that sharp zoom to Nerys Hughes' scream. The resources may not have been all that could have been hoped for, and certain moments (hello, snake) fall slightly short. But he knows how to use the resources at his disposal to maximum dramatic effect.
The story features a fine guest cast. Screen veteran Richard Todd gets the "special guest star" billing, of course, and gives a strong performance. But in guest star terms, this show belongs to Simon Rouse. There's something wonderfully childlike in Hindle's insanity. He tries to model himself on his father figure (Sanders), imitating Sanders' militaristic way of running things by dressing his native hostages as soldiers and inspecting their fingernails. When Sanders returns - to take away his command, Hindle presumes - he falls apart as the old man approaches, crying out to "Mummy" to make Sanders go away, clearly flashing back on childhood beatings to which the script alludes. I loved some of the close-ups of Hindle's eyes. Staring straight ahead, not blinking, not quite focused. One of the most convincing madmen Who has offered, and one of the most unforgettable human guest roles in the series.
While the production isn't up to the level of the four serials preceding it, I would still rate it well above the series' average. Even the infamous giant snake stands out more for falling short of the superb production values of the JNT era to this point, rather than as a Myrka- or Scarasen-level disaster. To my tastes at least, Doctor Who rarely gets better than this.
My Rating: 10/10.
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