‘KINDA’
Please feel free to comment on my review.
Mara on Deva-Loka with the Fifth Doctor, Tegan and Adric whilst Nyssa is in the TARDIS
We now come to the third story of Season 19 in ‘Doctor Who’ called ‘Kinda’. The first time I watched ‘Kinda’ was when I had the ‘Doctor Who’ DVD box set called ‘Mara Tales’ for my birthday in May 2011. At that time, it was the final ‘Doctor Who’ DVD box set release to feature Nyssa in it for me. 😀
‘Mara Tales’ was a DVD box set that contained two TV stories from the Peter Davison era of ‘Doctor Who’. They were ‘Kinda’ and ‘Snakedance’ and they featured the evil snake-like creature called the Mara. The two tales focused on Janet Fielding as Tegan as she gets easily possessed by the evil Mara.
When I saw Sarah Sutton at the ‘Regenerations 2010’ convention in Swansea, September 2010, I told her I was looking forward to getting the ‘Mara Tales’ DVD box set. Sarah acknowledged that it was the new DVD box set at the time. How ironic that it’s been re-released on the Season 19 Blu-ray box set.
After I saw the ‘Mara Tales’ DVD box set for my birthday in May 2011; I found ‘Snakedance’ to be a better ‘Doctor Who’ story than ‘Kinda’. The two Mara stories are by Christopher Bailey, who was a Buddhist enthusiast at the time and he put his extraordinary writing talents into ‘Doctor Who’ itself.
I later had the DVD cover of ‘Kinda’ signed by Peter Davison at the ‘Regenerations 2016’ convention in Swansea, September 2016 and by the lovely Sarah Sutton at the ‘Fantom Events at Memorabilia 2016’ convention at the NEC Birmingham, March 2016. I told Sarah I liked her as Nyssa in both ‘Mara Tales’.
I know that Sarah as Nyssa wasn’t in ‘Kinda’ very much and I was looking forward to ‘Snakedance’ more. But the scenes with Nyssa in ‘Kinda’ are my favourites and I told Sarah I meant that sincerely when I saw her at ‘Fantom Events at Memorabilia 2016’. Sarah was pleased and thanked me for saying that.
With that said, the ‘Mara Tales’ are peculiar bunch of ‘Doctor Who’ stories from the Peter Davison era. And that’s not just the two TV stories. There’s also the Big Finish audio, ‘The Cradle of the Snake’ afterwards. What is it about these Mara stories that makes them unique and unusual in storytelling?
Are you ready to face your nightmares and the dark places of the inside here? Let’s take a look as we begin this excursion with the Mara in the first story, ‘Kinda’, set during Peter Davison’s first season as the Fifth Doctor. It’s a very mind-boggling story and I’m not sure that I fully understand it altogether.
Like I said, Sarah Sutton as Nyssa doesn’t appear in ‘Kinda’ much. The reason why Nyssa fainted at the end of ‘Four to Doomsday’ is given in the superb Big Finish audio called ‘Primeval’. I know not many people have heard that story, but I’ve heard it and the explanation’s there and needs to be checked out!
Nyssa gets stuck inside the TARDIS for most of the time in ‘Kinda’ as the Doctor gives her 48 hours of induced D-sleep with the delta-wave augmenter. I wish Nyssa was in this four-part story more as I missed her from seeing this. I’ll get into more how I feel regarding Nyssa not being in ‘Kinda’ later on.
As I indicated, I found ‘Kinda’ an unusual and strange four-part story by Christopher Bailey. It’s not terrible by any means, but it was unnerving and surreal. There are elements of the 2009 film, ‘Avatar’ directed by James Cameron, in ‘Kinda’. I saw that film beforehand and was blown away by it.
‘Kinda’ was a story that went through various changes in terms of script-editing. Chris Bailey had contact with three script-editors including Christopher H. Bidmead; Anthony Root and Eric Saward. Chris Bidmead and Anthony Root were more enthusiastic about the script than Eric Saward seemed to.
Granted there are some amazing ideas that Chris Bidmead and Anthony Root found impressive. But Eric Saward was concerned about the logic and the structure of the storytelling which Chris Bailey had to keep on addressing when it came to improving the scripts which must have been hard-going.
I don’t think ‘Kinda’ does make a lot of sense in terms of the storytelling and you have to use your imagination in terms of understanding the overall plot of the tale. But the vision for ‘Kinda’ is pretty bold and fair dos to the director Peter Grimwade who achieves a linear structure in telling the story.
Anyway, the TARDIS arrives on the jungle planet Deva Loka, which is home to the primitive but peaceful Kinda. Without Nyssa joining them, the Doctor, Tegan and Adric explore the Deva Loka jungles and discover a survey dome on the planet. This dome is under the command of Mr. Sanders.
By accident, Tegan falls asleep at a clearing lined with crystalline wind chimes in the jungle. From there, she has terrible dark dreams and soon gets infected and possessed by the Mara. The Mara causes havoc whilhst inside Tegan’s mind as well as another called Aris. Can this Mara be defeated?!
I found Peter Davison’s Doctor to be pretty good in this adventure. I know Chris Bailey originally wrote for this ‘Doctor Who’ story for Tom Baker’s Doctor. Some say that the script doesn’t suit Peter Davison’s Doctor, but I believe Peter came out top trumps despite saying lines meant for Tom Baker!
What I found impressive about Peter’s Doctor is how very intrigued he is by what’s going on in the story. He shares an interesting relationship with Todd, the scientist at the survey dome and seems to know of the legends of the Mara when he recognises its tattoo mark on Aris’ arm and tries to stop it.
I enjoyed Janet Fielding as Tegan in this story. Unfortunately Tegan falls asleep and has harrowing dreams when she faces incarnations of the Mara. These include Jeff Stewart as Dukkha who taunts her and Anna Wing as Anatta (representing Nyssa) and Roger Milner as Annica (representing Adric).
Very soon, Tegan allows the Mara to take possession of her and she doesn’t end up as the character we know and love. I found Janet Fielding gave a pretty seductive, sexy and evil performance as the Mara-possessed Tegan. Mind you, that possession does not last long when the Mara possesses Aris.
Matthew Waterhouse is good as Adric and gets a fair share of the action in this adventure. I enjoyed how Adric interacts with Hindle who goes mad in the story. He also shares an interesting bond with Sanders who warms to Adric when he’s looked inside the Box of Jhana and seems rather child-like.
I’m not sure how much of the story is true about Matthew Waterhouse giving Richard Todd helpful guidance on how to act during the making of this story, but it sounds pretty amusing. Adric has a go of using the Total Survival Suit (TSS) when going outside, but he finds out that it is difficult to control.
Richard Todd guest stars as Sanders, the commander of the survey dome in the story. Richard Todd is a renowned film actor appearing in movies like ‘The Dam Busters’ from 1955. I enjoyed his performance in this TV tale, as he starts off being this gruff military person who wears a pith helmet.
Eventually, when he looks into the Box of Jhana given to him by Karuna, he becomes completely different. He’s friendlier and has a child-like innocence about him. He soon starts to follow orders from the gone-mad Hindle. It was amusing when Sanders acted rather happy-faced in the adventure.
Simon Rouse guest stars as Hindle, who becomes mentally unstable in the story. He’s one of the survey dome team under Sanders’ command. He completely loses it when he’s given command in Sanders’ absence. Simon Rouse does very well in giving an extraordinary performance of a mad man.
Afterwards, Simon Rouse would go on to appear in ‘The Bill’ as well as appear in the Big Finish audio adventure ‘The Witch From The Well’ with Paul McGann’s Eighth Doctor. One of my favourite moments with Hindle is when one of his cardboard figures gets torn up and he says this amazing immortal line.
Hindle: “YOU CAN’T MEND PEOPLE, CAN YOU?!!! YOU CAN’T MEND PEOPLE!!!”
Nerys Hughes guest stars as Todd, the scientist at the survey dome whom the Doctor becomes friends with. Nery Hughes is well-known for her appearances in the comedy series, ‘The Liver Birds’. She was also Rhys Williams’ mum, Brenda, in the ‘Torchwood’ episode called ‘Something Borrowed’.
I enjoyed Todd’s reactions to the things she doesn’t understand, especially when she’s with the Doctor who’s often flippant regarding explanations such as how Panna can be in Karuna. I also enjoyed that moment where the Doctor tosses for it and he calls “Heads!” whereas she calls “Tails!”
There’s also Mary Morris as Panna, the wise woman who seems to know everything about what’s going on with the Kinda and the Mara. She is also a blind old woman with a walking stick that Karuna to guide her. I found it amusing when Panna kept calling the Doctor an idiot when he was with them.
There’s Sarah Prince as Karuna, the young girl who assists Panna in their methods to defeat the evil that is ‘among we’ or among the Kinda tribe. She can easily read the minds of the Kinda who don’t use voice to communicate. Karuna very soon had the mind of Panna inside when Panna herself dies.
And there’s Adrian Mills as Aris, the Kinda male who gets possessed by the Mara. I’ve met Adrian Mills in real-life at the ‘celebrate 50 – The Peter Davison Years’ event in Chiswick, London, April 2013. He’s a nice chap and I’ve had a photo of Adrian Mills as Aris signed by him at that convention.
In the story, the Mara soon becomes a giant snake when trapped inside a circle of mirrors by the Doctor to defeat it. The original Mara snake was a puppet and…yeah, it looks fake and pathetic. I couldn’t help but laugh when I saw that puppet snake for the first time and it should’ve been a lot better.
Thankfully, the makers of the ‘Kinda’ DVD recreated the Mara snake with a brand-new CGI version of it. The CGI Mara snakes looks pretty impressive and terrifying. I’m glad they kept that CGI version of the Mara snake when transferring the ‘Kinda’ story onto Blu-ray for the complete Season 19 box set.
At the end of the story, Nyssa is better and fully recovered. I’m glad Nyssa’s better by the end of the story, but because of her absence I didn’t enjoy ‘Kinda’ as much as I enjoyed ‘Snakedance’. I think Nyssa could’ve had a big part to play in the story in order for it to be very entertaining throughout.
If Nyssa was in ‘Kinda’ more, she could’ve helped Tegan through her Mara experience with her own latent telepathic abilities as established later in ‘Time-Flight’. Nyssa would’ve been there at Tegan’s side to help her best friend to get out of the traumatic experience she went through with the Mara.
Nyssa could’ve also worked well in the scenes with Adric inside the survey dome with witnessing Hindle’s madness and paranoia as well as seeing Sanders’ strange behaviour. Nyssa could’ve tried to calm Hindle down, despite being afraid of him, and could’ve got through Sander in his mental block.
Those are my thoughts on how Nyssa could’ve been made of more use in ‘Kinda’ rather than just get locked up for most of the story in the TARDIS. I know that this was a Tegan-central story, but with that said Tegan spent a lot of the time sleeping in ‘Part Three’ and did not wake up until ‘Part Four’.
The original DVD special features were as follows. There was the making-of documentary, ‘Dream Time’, with cast and crew interviews; the ‘Peter Grimwade – Directing With Attitude’ documentary; deleted and extended scenes from the story; the CGI effects option for the story and the CGI effects comparison of the Mara snake. There were BBC trailers and continuity announcements of the story; a photo gallery of the story; a mono sound audio mix option for the story and a DVD audio commentary with Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Matthew Waterhouse and Nerys Hughes. There was an isolated music option by Peter Howell to enjoy; an info-text commentary option to enjoy and PDF materials including a ‘Radio Times Listings’ of the story. There was also a ‘coming soon’ DVD trailer for the ‘Revisitations 2’ DVD box set including ‘The Seeds of Death’ with Patrick Troughton, Frazer Hines and Wendy Padbury; ‘Carnival of Monsters’ with Jon Pertwee and Katy Manning and ‘Resurrection of the Daleks’ with Peter Davison, Janet Fielding and Mark Strickson.
On Disc 3 of the ‘Doctor Who – The Collection – Season 19’ Blu-ray, the ‘Dream Time’ making-of documentary; the ‘Peter Grimwade – Directing With Attitude’ documentary; the deleted and extended scenes; the CGI effects option for the story; the CGI effects comparison; the mono sound audio mix option for the story; the DVD audio commentary; the isolated music option; and the ‘Radio Times Listings’ PDF can be found on there. The the info-text commentary option; the BBC trailers and continuity announcements and the photo gallery for ‘Kinda’ have been updated for 2018 on the Blu-ray.
The new special features on Blu-ray include the ‘Behind the Sofa’ feature on ‘Kinda’ with Peter Davison (the Fifth Doctor); Sarah Sutton (Nyssa); Janet Fielding (Tegan) and Matthew Waterhouse (Adric) as well as Mark Strickson (Turlough) and Sophie Aldred (Ace). There’s also the ‘coming soon’ DVD trailer for ‘The Visitation’ with Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton and Matthew Waterhouse. There’s also a brand-new 5.1 surround sound audio mix option for the story to enjoy.
On the PDF front, as well as the ‘Radio Times Listings’ of the story, there are also production documents and scripts for the story. You need a special Blu-ray computer drive for that.
‘Kinda’ is an extraordinary and a very unusual ‘Doctor Who’ story. But it is ‘kinda’ interesting. See what I did there? 😀 I don’t fully understand what goes on in the story, as some of the logic and structure is confusing. But the themes of dreams and possession are strong throughout in this story.
I know how much I’ve said I wish Nyssa was in ‘Kinda’ more as I felt her absence throughout. But I’m glad she was back at the end and was looking forward to finding out where she and the others would go next. I knew where they were going next of course, but I was excited to revisit it in the Blu-ray box set of Season 19.
‘Kinda’ rating – 7/10
‘DOCTOR WHO – KINDA’
Please feel free to comment on my review.
The Mara and the Kinda
I enjoyed reading ‘Doctor Who – Kinda’ as a book!
This is a Target novelization of the original TV story ‘Kinda’ by Christopher Bailey. But it’s not Chris Bailey who has written the novelization. It’s by Terrance Dicks who provides novelization duties on this remarkable surreal story. Terrance has done a remarkable job tackling such an unusual story as this.
After seeing ‘Kinda’ in the ‘Mara Tales’ DVD box set for my birthday in May 2011, I was keen to discover more about this remarkable story. I didn’t understand much of it and it’s not a favourite of mine. But reading the book by Terrance Dicks has enabled me to get a clearer depiction of the story.
The book was published in 1983; a year after the TV story was shown in 1982. The story is divided into 12 chapters with 3 chapters making one of the four episodes – 3 chapters; times 4 equals 12 chapters. This is a popular approach to novelize a four-part ‘Doctor Who’ TV story by Terrance Dicks.
I wondered how Terrance Dicks would novelize this story from Christopher Bailey’s original TV scripts. Terrance hasn’t really changed much of the original plot. Despite minor changes to some of the dialogue, he’s managed to novelize the story by matching exactly as it appeared on the TV screen.
I’m not sure how much Terrance understood ‘Kinda’ from the original TV scripts (probably not much as the case maybe). But Terrance has done a wonderful job in describing the surreal imagery featured in the story, especially with the dream sequences that I found baffling when I saw them.
Also, what Terrance doesn’t do with changing dialogue, he makes up for it with describing the scenes full of incredible detail throughout. I’m amazed by how Terrance is able to delve into the world of Deva Loka and describe many of the places and environments such as the survey dome and the jungles.
Terrance also homes in on the characters that are featured in the story with likes of Sanders and Hindle. He delves into Hindle’s madness with gripping detail. He also transcends Sander’s character beautifully from a gruff, belligerent army officer to the gentle, child-like man he becomes at the end.
One thing I’ve noticed is about Nyssa’s absence from the story is that it’s never explained why Nyssa had to stay in the TARDIS. No reference gets made to the previous story, since Nyssa didn’t faint at the end of the novelization for ‘Four to Doomsday’ by Terrance Dicks to help explain the reason for her absence.
Another thing that disappointed me was that there were deleted scenes featured on the ‘Kinda’ DVD from the ‘Mara Tales’ box set that weren’t featured in the novelization. I found this rather odd as I thought they were in the original script and I wondered why Terrance didn’t include them in the book.
The depiction of the Mara in the book is just as frightening as to how it was depicted in the TV story. The Mara’s delight in the pain and the suffering of others shines throughout. Terrance has clearly stressed on this story’s aspect by delving into more of the snake-like force wanting to cause havoc.
Tegan’s dream sequences are pretty effective in the book. Reading those scenes made me feel for Tegan, who was tormented with resisting the Mara’s temptations. I wondered why there wasn’t a reference made to Adric as the old man and Nyssa as the old woman who played chess in Tegan’s dreams.
I was slightly disappointed by how the Box of Jhana was depicted. It’s not clearly illustrated that the Doctor, Todd and Sanders are overcome by a bright light when they open the box. Instead they are hearing music before they ‘see the world through the Kinda’s eyes’ according to the novelization.
I like how Adric gets portrayed by Terrance Dicks since he’s written for him before in ‘State of Decay’ and some other Target novelizations. Terrance touches upon Adric’s fear of Hindle when he goes through his madness; being unstable and about to set off the master detonator to destroy the survey dome.
Terrance Dicks has written for the Fifth Doctor before in the previous Target novelization for ‘Four to Doomsday’. Terrance superbly describes the Doctor’s youthfulness, energy and impeccable curiosity as well as portraying the scientific friendship he has with Todd which was shown throughout the TV adventure.
I’m not sure whether there will be an audiobook for ‘Kinda’ someday. I’m sure there will be and I have a few ideas on who might read the reader. It could be Peter Davison, Janet Fielding or Matthew Waterhouse. Christopher Bailey might even write a new version of the novelisation himself for BBC audio.
I’ve enjoyed reading ‘Doctor Who – Kinda’ by Terrance Dicks. It’s not the best Target novelization that I’ve read, but it’s a fine addition to this unique surreal story about dreams and the Mara. Terrance has novelized the story well and reading it has made me feel like I’m watching the TV story again!
‘Doctor Who – Kinda’ rating – 7/10
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Bradley's Basement 
I love Kinda! Yeah, it’s weird, but (as I said in my “top 5 fifth doctor audios# video) I like weird and I had no real problem understanding the story, or at least interpreting it in such a way that it made sense to me.
Janet Fielding does one of her best performances in this, both as Tegan and the Mara possessing Tegan’s body. The insights into Tegan’s mind, as the Mara tries to take her over, were also really interesting, especially if you believe in the suggestion that the chess-playing characters are meant to be older nightmarish representations of Adric and Nyssa (don’t know if that’s true or not, but seen it mentioned by other fans and thought it was an interesting interpretation, if nothing else). I find the Mara to be a really interesting villains which I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing (or hearing) again.
I also like that Adric pretended to be on Hindle’s side for a while. It was especially interesting the first time I watched the story, since Adric had been won over by Monarch for real in the previous story, which meant that I wasn’t sure if he was bluffing or genuine in this, until it became blatantly obvious it was the former.
The guest cast was also fantastic. I loved Todd and actually really wish that Big Finish would have the Doctor meet her again and maybe even make her a companion, if Nerys Hughes is able and willing. Hindles insanity was also really well played and written.
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Hi Elinor!
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on ‘Kinda’!
I have re-watched this story a number of times on DVD and have been able to gain more understanding of the story. It is a fascinating story by Christopher Bailey, although I think ‘Snakedance’ and ‘The Cradle of the Snake’ are better Mara tales compared to this one. I’m glad you didn’t have a problem understanding this story when you saw it as you seem to like the weird and sensational according to your reviews. 😀
I’m convinced that those two chess players that Tegan sees in her dreams are older representations of Nyssa and Adric. It certainly matches the first shot of Tegan seeing Nyssa and Adric by the TARDIS at the beginning of the story to prove that theory. I’ve heard it hints at Tegan’s insecurity about Nyssa and Adric as travelling companions, which was interesting.
I’m sure that the Mara will return at some point. Whether it’ll be on TV or audio, I don’t know. I’ve still yet to read that short story from the ‘Tales of Trenzalore’ collection of stories with the Eleventh Doctor.
I enjoyed Adric in this story. Well, since this story takes place directly after ‘Four To Doomsday’, perhaps he was trying to bluff his way to Monarch and wasn’t given a chance to do so by the Doctor. It is possible. His bluffing of joining sides with Hindle was interesting, although I’m sure he was scared-stiff when witnessing his madness and being in his company whilst the Doctor and Todd were off somewhere. I like how Adric witnesses from his point of view during the story especially in the TV version and novelization. I like his interaction with Sanders who becomes rather fatherly to him, I think.
Well let’s hope Big Finish will consider bringing Todd back into ‘Doctor Who’ for audio. It is possible. Nerys Hughes has done a Big Finish audio already with the Eighth Doctor and she’s well-known for two appearances in the ‘Doctor Who’ universe, one as Todd in ‘Kinda’ and the other as Brenda, Rhys’ mum in ‘Torchwood’.
I found Simon Rouse’s performance as Hindle very gripping and terrifying to watch in this story. Simon Rouse really went for it with going mad, didn’t he? I found it amusing when he screamed “YOU CAN’T MEND PEOPLE, CAN YOU?! YOU CAN’T MEND PEOPLE!!!”
Thanks Elinor. Glad you enjoyed my review on ‘Kinda’! Hope to hear from you again soon!
Tim. 🙂
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“YOU CAN’T MEND PEOPLE, CAN YOU?! YOU CAN’T MEND PEOPLE!!!” someone get Hindle into the mind probe lol.
“The trick is Richard not to directly look at the camera” i bet Matthew Waterhouse cringes saying that now to Richard Todd as he’s been ribbed about it ever since.
Great review Tim, another strange story this but in a good way & thank god theres a cgi snake now because that what let the story down originally for me however a intriguing adventure this just a shame Nyssa wasn’t included in the story as i think she’d been great in this.
Good performances from the cast & a very dark twisted arc for Tegan, pity there was no location filming for this as the studio bound setting doesn’t quite capture the scope the story was trying to achieve.
Remember being terrified at those Mara scenes when it possessed Tegan, it gave me shivers down me spine lol.
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Hi Simon.
Honestly I would’ve given Hindle a cuddly toy to bury his tears in. 😀
I’m sure it’s one of the things Matthew regrets doing when he was making ‘Doctor Who’ back then. But then again, we’ve all done embarassing things in our lives which we wish we could’ve undone from our youths. I know I’ve experienced it many times as a teenager at school. Gosh those were the days. 😀
Very pleased you enjoyed my review on ‘Kinda’, Simon. I’d say this is my least favourite story from Season 19 of ‘Doctor Who’. It’s got some interesting stuff going on in it, but I enjoyed ‘Snakedance’ more than this and yes it would’ve been better if Nyssa appeared in the story rather than just be sick in bed in the TARDIS. Yes that CGI snake looks a lot better compared to laughable plastic one in the original version.
I think this story shoud’ve been filmed at Ealing Studios to create the jungle effect that was trying to be made with Deva-Loka. They did it with ‘The Creature From The Pit’. Why couldn’t they have done it with ‘Kinda’. I found those scenes with Tegan in ‘the dark places of the inside’ where she’s dreaming pretty scary and disturbing to watch indeed.
Very pleased you enjoyed my review on this story. Thanks for sharing your memories on it.
Tim. 🙂
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Great review Tim.
I found this story to ok, not that great. I think the Mara was quite an epic character when possessing Tegan and Aris. I was a bit unnerved when the snake form of the Mara escaped Aris because I am terrified of snakes. I wonder how I’ll feel about the CGI version. I think Tegan was well performed by Janet in this story, despite being absent from part 3. Adric was decent as well although I felt he was being a jerk to Tegan when they waiting in the corridor of the dome and the lights flickered. Nerys Hughes as Todd was my favourite guest character. Hindle however tended to get on my nerves. So far, ‘Kinda’ is my least favourite Season 19 story with ‘Castrovalva’ second and ‘Four to Doomsday’ first. I expect it will move up when I watch the rest of the Season. I also hope I’ll enjoy ‘Snakedance’ and ‘The Cradle of the Snake’ when I get around to them.
I expect Nyssa would have worked well in this story if she hadn’t been stuck in the Tardis. Maybe someone should produce a short story focusing on that period for her.
Obviously you think Nyssa wins as a companion over Tegan but just can’t decide between them and will have to place them as my joint favourite companions. I agree that Tegan can be whiny at times but this story and ‘Feast of Fear’ proved that she can be perceived as a great character. I suppose her journey of gradually wanting to be with the Doctor (which I assume Big Finish covers) is part of her character development despite the problem being the writing rather than Janet Fielding. That being said however, a lot of DW fans believe that Janet is exactly like Tegan, but then I expect most fans that think that are doing so out of jest. Even though she had a break from the programme and was critical of it until she joined Big Finish, some fans seem to be confusing her brashness with negativity which is actually rather sad. I’m looking forward to seeing her, Peter and Sarah at Bedford to maybe get experience of her and Peter heckling each other which Sarah maybe acting as referee.
Take care, WF92.
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Hi WF92.
Glad you enjoyed my review on ‘Kinda’.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this story. Yeah ‘Kinda’ is my least favourite story of Season 19. That’s an interesting rating of the season so far. I would have put ‘Castrovalva’ first, ‘Four to Doomsday’ second and ‘Kinda’ third so far in terms of preference in the season, but then that’s me. 😀 Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the characters. Thanks also for sharing your thoughts on Nyssa and Tegan, and yes Tegan does work well in terms of character progression in the Big Finish audios as opposed to the TV series.
Many thanks for your comments.
Tim 🙂
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There are some SF TV stories or movies that might not particularly make sense, yet still be easily enjoyable. Kinda may qualify and especially as an affirmation of how much would change for Dr. Who after Tom Baker’s time. For Janet’s most unforgettable chance to shine as Tegan, alongside Snakedance, the Mara can be a most symbolic example of evil, which also revitalized how serious Dr. Who in John Nathan-Turner’s reign became for issues of mind control.
Learning that Jonny Lee Miller as a boy appeared as one of the Kinda children in the extras crowd was a surprise. Thank you, Tim, for your review.
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Hi scifimike,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on ‘Kinda’ and how you enjoyed it as a story, especially with it featuring the Mara as a ‘Doctor Who’ monster and how Tegan’s character was handled, complimented by Janet Fielding’s performance in the story as both Tegan and the Mara.
That’s interesting about Jonny Lee Miller. Thanks for sharing that. As well as ‘Kinda’, I’ve seen him in one of the ‘Keeping Up Appearances’ episodes and he’ been in the BBC adaptations of Jane Austen’s ‘Mansfield Park’ in 1983 and ‘Emma’ in 2009.
Many thanks for your comments.
Tim 🙂
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You’re welcome. I learned about Jonny Lee Miller in Kinda from someone’s comments for a Kinda clip on the Dr. Who YouTube channel.
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Hi scifimike,
Ah, good you found out about Johnny Lee Miller being in ‘Kinda’ from someone’s comments on a YouTube clip. I wouldn’t have known JLM was in the story off-hand, as he’s uncredited, doesn’t have a line to say in the story and was a kid. I wonder if he’ll ever return to ‘Doctor Who’ someday for a proper speaking role. 😀
Best wishes,
Tim 🙂
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After how good he was as Sherlock Holmes in Elementary, he might even be good as the Doctor. I first saw him in Hackers with Angeline Jolie and then in Trainspotting.
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Hi scifimike,
I’ve yet to see him in ‘Elementary’, ‘Hackers’ and ‘Trainspotting’. I’m sure Johnny Lee Miller would be good as the Doctor.
Many thanks,
Tim 🙂
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I remember rumors that another Trainspotting actor was considered for the Doctor. That was Robert Carlyle. But instead he found a sci-fi TV role on Stargate: Universe. Too bad it was short-lived due to low ratings unlike its two Stargate predecessors. I also remember some online buzz that Kelly Macdonald was a possible contender as Jodie’s successor. I think that was just what some of her fans wanted, but she could have been good too.
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Hi scifimike,
I think there are actors I would like to be the Doctor such as Alistair Mackenzie (‘Monarch of the Glen’) and Stephen Mangan (BBC4’s ‘Dirk Gently’) because I enjoyed them in those shows, but those dream aspirations don’t come to fruition, which is a shame, and what’s important is whether the actor is good enough to play the Doctor at all. I know Kris Marshall from ‘Death in Paradise’ has reportedly been considered to play the Doctor as much as Charles Dance has been considered to play the Master. As much as I wouldn’t mind that happening, very often the fans’ aspirations don’t match real life, which is a shame. Still, there’s hope that these aspirations can be happen in some form, whether it be TV, audio or something.
Thanks,
Tim 🙂
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