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Serial 5Y: Kinda
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| Plot |
| Production |
By the time the adventure was formally commissioned on September 25th, it was known that Kinda would instead feature the Fifth Doctor. Bidmead therefore had to rework the Doctor's role in the action, because the new incarnation would no longer suit the "wise sage" figure Bailey had envisioned. As he was working on his scripts, Bailey was also informed that companions Adric and Tegan were to be joined by a third regular, Nyssa. Instead of inserting Nyssa into the action, however, it was decided to omit her almost entirely from the plot. Nyssa would appear only in the first and fourth episodes, with the explanation being that she was still weakened from her experiences in the previous story, Four To Doomsday (whose climax was also amended to account for this). As a result, actress Sarah Sutton's contract for the latter portion of Season Nineteen was constructed to reflect her absence from these two episodes.
Bailey used many Buddhist words and ideas in writing Kinda. Most of the Kinda and dream-sequence characters have names with Buddhist meanings, including Mara (temptation), Dukkha (pain), Panna (wisdom), Karuna (compassion), Anicca (impermanence) and Anatta (egolessness). Additionally, Jhana (also spelt Jana in the scripts) refers to meditation. Anicca and Anatta, the two draughtplayers met by Tegan in her vision, were intended by Bailey to be Tegan's perception of Adric and Nyssa, who are seen playing draughts in the opening scenes. Their unusual caravan, similarly, is meant to represent the TARDIS.
With Bidmead's departure from Doctor Who at the start of 1981, Kinda was passed along to temporary script editor Antony Root and then to Root's replacement, Eric Saward. Substantial work still needed to be done on the story at this point. Because of Bailey's unfamiliarity with the medium, his scripts were generally slow-paced and lacked proper cliffhangers. There was also concern about the Doctor's minimal involvement in the action and the lack of definition of the Mara as a tangible enemy, and it was felt that that the adventure's ending was not suitably dramatic.
It was decided that Kinda should be made entirely in the studio, and the director assigned to technically-complex serial was Peter Grimwade, who had last worked on the Season Eighteen finale, Logopolis. Recording took place in two Wednesday-to-Friday blocks, one beginning on July 29th and the other on August 12th. Unfortunately, the production was plagued by numerous delays. Most of these arose from the time needed to set up the difficult shots -- such as the sequence involving multiple Tegans -- and problems keeping the studio floor covered with leaves, which were easily brushed aside by cameras and other equipment. Also slowing things down on the first recording day was the fact that this also marked the wedding of Prince Charles to Lady Diana Spencer.
As a result, Grimwade was forced to expend thirteen minutes of costly overtime on the final studio day, August 14th, in order to complete all integral scenes. Even despite this, some portions of the script had to be abandoned, including a complex effects sequence in which Panna sits on a crumbling plinth. The loss of this latter scene, into which much thought and planning had been invested, infuriated visual effects designer Peter Logan, who requested that special effects be given greater consideration by Doctor Who directors in the future.
In editing, it was discovered that although parts one and two overran significantly, resulting in numerous minor edits, episode four ran substantially short. Because of the structure of the third installment, it would be difficult to move up material to help fill the gap, as was the normal practise. Fortunately, around that time Bailey was in talks with Saward about writing a sequel to Kinda for the next season, and in late October, he agreed to write two additional scenes for the story featuring only the regular cast and a part of the dome's airlock set. (Some accounts, however, suggest that Saward himself wrote this material.) These were a thirty-seven second scene with Tegan and Adric discussing Hindle's bomb, and a two minute, ten second scene in which the Doctor joins them and tells them that Hindle is no longer a threat. These two scenes were recorded on November 10th, during the making of Grimwade's next Doctor Who serial, Earthshock.
| Details |
| Episode | Date | Time | Duration | Viewers | Audience App. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1st February 1982 | 6.57pm | 24'50" | 8.4m (78th) | |
| 2 | 2nd February 1982 | 7.04pm | 24'58" | 9.4m (45th) | |
| 3 | 8th February 1982 | 6.57pm | 24'17" | 8.5m (67th) | |
| 4 | 9th February 1982 | 7.06pm | 24'28" | 8.9m (56th) |
| Producer | John Nathan-Turner |
| Script Editor | Eric Saward |
| Writer | Christopher Bailey |
| Director | Peter Grimwade |
| Designer | Malcolm Thornton |
| Costume | Barbara Kidd |
| Incidental Music | Peter Howell |
Principal Guest Cast: Nerys Hughes (Todd), Adrian Mills (Aris), Mary Morris (Panna), Sarah Prince (Karuna), Simon Rouse (Hindle), Jeffrey Stewart (Dukkha), Richard Todd (Sanders).
Novelisation: Kinda by Terrance Dicks (book 84), December 1983; photomontage cover; rerelease cover by Alister Pearson (1992).
Video Release: Kinda, episodic format, October 1994; PAL (BBC Video cat.# 5432) and NTSC (Warners cat.# E1320) formats available; cover by Colin Howard.
Other: Released as a talking book, Kinda, with narration by Peter Davison.
Rankings: 35th (72.07%, Doctor Who Dynamic Rankings website, 22nd June 1999); 47th (73.51%, DWM 1997 Annual Survey).
| Sources |
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