Kinda is the 119th serial and the 3rd of 7 in the 19th season. There were 4 parts, which aired two days a week, and they ran February 1 to 9 1982. Peter Davison is the 5th Doctor and he's got three Tardis pals now. Matthew Waterhouse is Adric, Sarah Sutton is Nyssa and Janet Fielding is Tegan. Nyssa was supposed to be out of the series but Peter Davison wanted to keep her. The script for Kinda had already been written for two companions so the solution was to have Nyssa faint at the end of the last serial and spend some time resting in this serial. The screenplay is written by Christopher Bailey and the serial is directed by Peter Grimwade. The script editor is Eric Seward and the producer is John Nathan-Turner.
The Tardis drops the gang on Deva Loka, a jungle planet that is home to the Kinda. Some Earthmen are there seeing if the planet is worth colonizing. The 7 person survey crew is down to three and they have a couple of Kinda in a holding cell. Saunders is the leader and Hindle is the lone man left under Saunders. The scientist is a woman named Todd. Their dome is kind of interesting. The whole serial was filmed in the studio.
The Doctor and Adric get separated from Teagan and soon get captured by an empty armoured suit. It was mostly Adric's fault for not leaving it alone. The suit is like a small tiny car you drive with your brain. It pretty bulky and kind of goofy. Teagan goes into a dream state near some wind chimes. The Doc and Adric are taken to the Earth dome where they meet the remaining crew. Saunders is a by the book guy and out of his league. Hindle is scared and edgy and on the verge of breaking. Saunders leaves Hindle in charge while he makes a recon in the armoured suit. Hindle cracks and things get pretty nasty. Teagon has an adventure in her brain where she meets Mara, the villian of the piece.
Things get pretty buggy for a while. Hindle flips out completely and sets explosives to blow the dome. Tegan, under Mara's spell, transfers his evil essence to a native. Mara takes over his mind and he sets out to kill the Earthmen. The Doc comes to the rescue and puts the Kinda back on the right track. I didn't seem to like the story as much as some of the people who reviewed it online. It was ok but I liked the previous one better.
The commentary with Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Matthew Waterhouse and Nerys Hughes was interesting enough. The rest of the extras were about average. There's a making of on the show, a featurette on the late Peter Grimwade, some deleted and extended scenes, a way to turn on the new CGI effects done for the dvd, a comparison video of the snake sequence at the end of the last episode, a photo gallery, the info track and the Radio Times listing.
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