 This story is considered by many to be the first real classic of the Fifth Doctor’s era. It was written by Christopher Bailey and introduces, to the show, the Mara, a snake-like being that inhabits Tegan Jovanka’s mind, and is later carried with her to the Season Twenty follow-up story "Snakedance", which Christopher Bailey also wrote.
Christopher Bailey, who had contributed plays to Second City Firsts and ITV Playhouse, had been approached by former script editor Christopher H Bidmead in early 1980 to write a Doctor Who story. He had originally conceived his storyline with the Fourth Doctor in mind. However, with Tom Baker leaving at the end of Season Eighteen, Christopher Bailey was forced to re-imagine The Doctor’s character for this story. Furthermore, two new companions had been introduced, in the form of Adric and Tegan, and so Christopher Bailey had to account for these changes as well.
However, when it was decided to retain Nyssa as a regular character as well this presented a far greater difficulty for Christopher Bailey as there was no room for a third companion in his plot and to add her in risked damaging the storyline. Consequently, it was agreed that Nyssa would be written out of the main action - thus appearing only at the start and end of the story. This echoed a practise common in Doctor Who throughout the Sixties, when members of the regular cast would be omitted from an episode once or twice per season in order to afford them a week’s holiday.
To account for this absence a scene was scripted where Nyssa collapsed, supposedly from exhaustion, at the end of the previous story, "Four to Doomsday". And so, during the majority of this story, she remains in the TARDIS, resting.
Christopher Bailey was a student of Buddhism and he infused this story with many Buddhist terms and ideas. The Mara derives from a demon of the same name in Buddhist mythology which, as in Doctor Who, symbolizes temptation rather then evil (at least, in the sense of "sinfulness"). Other characters are named after Buddhist words. Namely: Dukkha (‘suffering’), Panna (‘wisdom’), Karuna (‘compassion’), Anicca (‘impermanence’) and Anatta (‘without self’). The Jhana Box (also spelt ‘Jana Box’ in the scripts) alluded to a Buddhist meditative state of complete immersion, while Deva Loka was named for the heavenly realm of supernatural beings (called ‘devas’). Sanders, on the other hand, was named for the 1935 film Sanders of the River.
This story also includes a number of Biblical references (an arboreal paradise, a serpent, and apples).
Three script editors worked with Christopher Bailey on this story: Christopher H Bidmead (who left Doctor Who at the end of 1980), his interim replacement Antony Root, and finally Eric Saward. Eric Saward initially had received only a short-term appointment in the event that Antony Root was able to rejoin Doctor Who. During the summer of 1981, however, Antony Root was given a permanent job script-editing Juliet Bravo, and so Eric Saward agreed to remain on Doctor Who. He continued in this role through to Season Twenty Three. "Kinda" though was his first story that went into production.
"Kinda" was the first story to go before the cameras after an almost two-month break in production, which enabled Peter Davison to record the second season of his popular sitcom Sink or Swim. By now, the scripting problems which had affected the beginning of Season Nineteen had largely been resolved, and with the exception of the premiere story, "Castrovalva", the remainder of this season would be recorded in broadcast order.
The director allocated to this story was Peter Grimwade, who had last helmed the Fourth Doctor’s final story "Logopolis".
During editing, it was discovered that although the first two episodes overran significantly (resulting in a number of minor edits), episode four could not be made to stretch to its requisite duration. Because of the structure of the third episode, it was not possible to move material from earlier episodes to help fill the gap in the fourth, as was the normal practise. Consequently, Eric Saward was forced to ask Christopher Bailey - who was already working on a sequel to "Kinda", called "Snakedance" - to provide four minutes worth of extra material featuring only the regular cast to pad out the final episode. Christopher Bailey developed two scenes set in the expedition dome’s airlock. One involving Tegan and Adric discussing Hindle’s bomb and another in which The Doctor assures them that Hindle is no longer a threat. These two scenes were recorded in November 1981, during the recording of "Earthshock", Peter Grimwade’s next Doctor Who story.
Ironically, Peter Grimwade cast well known British film star Richard Todd in the role of Sanders; Todd had starred in the 1963 remake of Sanders of the River (which had also been distributed under the title of Death Drums Along The River).
Mary Morris, who plays Panna, appeared in the groundbreaking sci-fi mini-series A For Andromeda.
Nerys Hughes, better known for her starring roles in the BBC’s The Liver Birds and The District Nurse, plays Todd. She also guest starred in the Torchwood story "Something Borrowed" as Brenda Williams mother of Rhys Williams.
Adrian Mills, who plays Aris, later became a television presenter, including on the BBC’s consumer programme That’s Life.
Both Simon Rouse (Hindle) and Jeff Stewart (Dukkha) went on to star in The Bill.
For the scene in the second episode, where the two Tegans talk to each other about which of them is real, John Nathan-Turner allowed Janet Fielding to write her own dialogue.
The book "Doctor Who: The Unfolding Text" by John Tulloch and Manual Alvarado (published in 1983) features a segment on the making of this story. This was the first major non-fiction work dedicated to Doctor Who. Tulloch and Alvarado compare "Kinda" with Ursula K. Le Guin’s 1976 novel "The Word for World is Forest", which shares several themes with "Kinda" and may have been a template for its story. "The Unfolding Text" also examines the way "Kinda" incorporates the Buddhist and Christian symbols and themes, as well as elements from the writings of Carl Jung.
While the exact date that this story is set in is not made clear, Todd does mention that their homeworld is vastly overpopulated. This could indicate that it takes place around the same era as the 1971 Third Doctor story "Colony in Space".
It is revealed that the Mara can only cross to reality through the dreaming of a solitary mind (one that isn’t part of a collective mind like that of the Kinda). The Mara can be contained between mirrors. The Kinda, aware that the Mara can reproduce itself, refer to it in the plural (Panna calls it ‘he’). Only women in the Kinda tribe speak. They employ a trickster to defuse conflict, are mutually telepathic, and follow a religion that embraces reincarnation. One of their devices is a box which removes aggressive impulses from the recipient. They play music on chimes based on the chromatic scale, and discourage individual dreaming.
At one point The Doctor refers to K9.
This story contains a number of errors. Namely: It is never explained what happened to Roberts and the other two missing crew; In episode four Tegan talks of Hindle as if she’d already met him; Adric and Nyssa’s draughts board is the wrong way round; It is quite obvious that the jungle ‘floor’ in most cases is merely a studio floor with some leaves scattered over it; When the Kinda surround Aris with mirrors, there is an obvious gap at the lower left for the camera to dolly in and out.
In the ancient language Sanskrit, ‘Deva Loka’ means ‘Celestial Region’.
Wind chimes from Deva Loka also appear in the Virgin Books’ The New Adventures novel "Legacy" written by Gary Russell.
Delta waves reappeared in the 2005 Ninth Doctor story "Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways". Far from the brain wave-enhancing recuperation devices from Kinda, however, delta waves were described by Captain Jack Harkness as being ‘waves of Van Cassadyne energy... Your brain gets barbecued’.
A fairy like creature, which is compared to a Mara, features in the 2006 Torchwood story "Small Worlds". It is not confirmed if there is a connection between the two creatures.
In the 2007 special Children in Need story, "Time Crash", the Tenth Doctor asks the temporally misplaced Fifth Doctor where (i.e. when) he is now - and speculatively references Tegan, Nyssa and the Mara from his own memories.
In the 2008 Tenth Doctor story "Turn Left", the time beetle on Donna Noble’s back is also revealed when faced with a circle of mirrors.
The story was repeated on BBC One in August 1983.
The Target novelisation of this story, released in March 1984, was the final novelisation to use a fully photographic cover, and it was the final Target novelisation to feature The Doctor as part of the main art until the novelisation of the 1966 First Doctor story "The Savages" was published several years later. Although allocated as issue number 84 in Target Book’s Doctor Who library, the book was actually the 83rd to be released; this was because it was swapped in the publication order with the novelisation of "Snakedance" late in the day without the numbers being reassigned.
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The Firsts:
The first appearance of the Mara.
The first Doctor Who story to be written by Christopher Bailey.
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(Position = 47 out of 159)
(Position = 69 out of 200)
