D. Evans 2005-03-29
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Written by Buddhist Christopher Bailey, Kinda is one of the most interesting stories of the fifth Doctor era. It is steeped in ideas concerning culture, how different races react to each other, and how people become frightened of ideals they can not understand. Clearly as well the story is also influenced by historical events, the arrival of explorers in the third worlds.
In this case an Earth expedition force is sent to a tropical Planet to report on whether the Planet is fit to colonise. However the crew gradually become unhinged by the influence of the Planets natives, and the evil snake The Mara which also affects the mind of regular companion Tegan.
At this stage in the programmes history, the series had three regular companions travelling with The Doctor. This presented the obvious problem of finding storylines for all the regulars, and usually resulted in one or two of them being sidelined. In this story Nyssa is written out for the duration of the adventure, this benefits Tegan who is given a central role in the adventure.
Several well known faces are in the adventure. British actor Richard Todd plays the leader of the expedition force, and fans of The Bill will recognise a young Reg Hollis and Jack Meadows.
Very different to the fast paced, more straight forward stories, The Visitation and Earthshock, the originality of Kinda helps give season 19 a diversity. It's success also led to a sequel Snakedance the following season.