N.B. there might (or might not) be spoilers in this article!

As a kid, Tegan’s being possessed by the Mara was absolutely terrifying — so much so that, like Castrovalva‘s recursive nightmare, the image of it stayed with me long after it was first broadcast.

Even now, the dream sequences leading up to it — in the void with Anatta, Anitta and Dukkha — remain unnerving. Paralleling this is the slow unravelling of Hindle, admirably played by Simon Rouse in one of many excellent supporting performances — Nerys Hughes, Richard Todd and Mary Morris are all marvellous here too.

“You can’t mend people!”

Hindle, Kinda: Part Four

Kinda might perhaps be guilty of the same kind of cultural insensitivity The Abominable Snowmen had — according to the notes in the Season 19 Blu-ray box set, Christopher Bailey himself apparently regretting the use of Buddhist names in the script — but if, as with that story, you can forgive it such a lapse, Kinda ranks with the greatest of Doctor Who serials.

“Wheel turns, civilisations arise, wheel turns, civilisations fall.”

Panna, Kinda: Part Three

Indeed, there’s so much going on in Kinda that even if I were to write two thousand words on it, I’d struggle to cover everything. (I’ve already watched it twice since Four to Doomsday and was considering a third viewing just to gather my thoughts!)

Whether it’s the metaphorical and literal use of boxes, its liberal use of Christian and Buddhist imagery, the implication (never fully explored) that the supposedly primitive Kinda understand genetics, the Kinda’s fascinating matriarchal structure where the women have voice and the men do not — or whether it’s viewing the story from a post-colonial perspective or as a study of mental health and breakdown, Kinda is a production that has a degree of complexity that you rarely see in any television series, let alone Doctor Who.

That it also works on the surface as a story of colonial conflict and demonic possession is testament to its merits. Even then those two themes could be said to be work on two levels. Ultimately the conflict on display is both internal and colonial; the possession could be said to be the same.

One of the best!