Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start...
Day 592: Kinda, Episode Three
Dear diary,
I think the cliffhanger to yesterday’s episode - resolved in today’s one - has to rank among the very best that the programme has ever given us. There’s something just so wonderfully Doctor Who about the fact that it can start off as being truly scary (we’ve seen Sanders open the box and lose his mind already, and then there’s Todd’s scream), move that fear into being funny, with a small figure bursting from the box, and then make it truly eerie as you realise that there actually is something in the box, as it starts to shut off all the power in the base and allows the cell door to slide slowly open… It’s carried out perfectly, and it’s a sign of the episode ahead. I’ll spoil things for you slightly here by telling you that today’s episode is - for the first time since Genesis of the Daleks - a full on 10/10 from me. I’ve really loved it.
Since finishing the episode a couple of hours ago, I’ve been trying to wrap my head around just what it is that’s working so well about Kinda, and this episode in particular. I simply end up coming back to the same things I was banging on about yesterday. Everyone involved is treating this episode as though it were something special. It’s got a feel to it that transcends simply being another four episodes in an ongoing series, and it almost feels as though it could be a one-off play by itself. Removing some of the trappings from this era simply helps to reinforce the feeling of this being something different - Nyssa is still locked away in the TARDIS (and not been mentioned here), Tegan only gets a single brief shot in today’s episode, in which she’s asleep, and even Adric’s role is kept small and away from the Doctor.
Meanwhile, out hero is paired off with Todd as they encounter the Kinda tribe and start to piece things together. I toughed briefly yesterday on Nerys Hughes working well opposite Peter Davison, but this episode takes that and really runs with it. When they escape from the dome and start to explore the jungle, they just click as a Doctor/Companion pairing, and much like the Fourth Doctor and Duggan in City of Death, I think this will end up being one of those team ups that I long to see more of.
It’s also bringing out the best in Davison, who’s turning in his most confident performance yet (more confident, perhaps, than even inCastrovalva, which was filmed after this), and has finally really bedded in as the new Doctor for me. His exasperation at being constantly called an idiot throughout the meeting with the wise woman is brilliant, and he plays it so very perfectly. I spent a fair while yesterday praising Simon Rouse’s turn as Hindle during the story, and I fear that I’m simply going to have to repeat myself here. He’s walking a very thin tightrope between underplaying and overplaying the part, but it’s working just so brilliantlyfor what’s required.
Something else that’s really working for me in this episode is just how fully developed the tribe of the Kinda is. We’re given several bits of information about them - such as the fact that they have seven fathers - which could feel completely irrelevant (there certainly doesn’t seem to be any need for that information to further the plot), but actually just helps to strengthen them as a society. It means that when we’re given information about their prophecies, or we’re asked to go along with the more outlandish aspects of their culture, it’s far easier to do, because Ibelieve in this species, and I’m willing to accept anything I have to.
That’s a reflection on Christopher Bailey’s script, which I fear I may have been doing down over the last few days. I keep talking about how good the cast and the direction is, but they can only work with what they’re given. What they’ve been given here is an intelligent, entertaining script, from someone who’s totally sure about the story he wants to tell. He’s done the thing that all the best Doctor Who stories do: created a world, populated it with people, and then dropped the TARDIS in to see what happens to it. Bailey’s name doesn’t often come up during discussions about people’s favourite Doctor Who writers, but I think it’s going to start coming up when I’m asked the question, because Kinda really is one of the best scripts that the programme has ever had.
