Kinda
Previous: Four to Doomsday
Kinda
And we open on what appears to be a jungle research base and...aha! You must be Sanders! Bit of a creepy dude, aren't you?
"Who's winning?"
"I am! She's hopeless in her present state of mind."
"Don't exaggerate, I only fainted."
"Twice."
Hello, kids!
Adric, once again you pleasantly amaze me. You chide Nyssa about losing the game, but rush to her side when she has another attack. Awwww...
Aaaand that's probably the last of Nyssa we'll see for a few episodes. You look pretty at-home here, Adric. Remembering your woodland roots?
Entering the adventure with an alternative Team Fivey! Let's see what crazy shenanigans they get themselves into with this dynamic.
"What is it?"
"Good question."
Poking it with a stick? Tegan, I'd say you're starting to get the hang of this.
Oh neat! If you listen closely when Five talks about how "their music sense is like our own," you'll hear he's playing Three Blind Mice.
Uh oh. Somehow I don't think leaving Tegan alone when she's feeling drowsy is such a good idea.
Five and Adric's relations so far remind me distinctly of a watchful parent trying to keep their kid from touching everything in a store.
Ah, the locals! I wonder if this is the Kinda tribe.
"Adric...there is a difference between serious, scientific investigation...and meddling."
"Yes..."
"ISN'T THERE?"
"YES!"
Wait...the TSS stopped moving and Five is IGNORING Adric's gesture implying "maybe we should take this opportunity to RUN?"
Journey to the Center of Tegan's Eye (holy balls, guys, that was WAY too creepy).
I don't know about you guys, but I'd be suspicious of any expedition team that has "taking hostages" as a procedure "in the manual."
BRAINY SPECS!
Two people in white in Tegan's mind = CREEPIER.
And they both have snakes tattooed to their arms. I bet I know where this thread is going.
Wait a second: paradise...forbidden apples...snakes...I thought this story was supposed to be full of Buddhist imagery, not Judeo-Christian.
"An apple a day keeps the, um...no, never mind..."
Holy crap. Angry Hindle is angry.
You know Five, maybe if you followed Sanders' example and actually gave Adric some credit once in a while, he'd be a bit more manageable.
Okay, seriously, WHAT'S up with all the close-ups on people's eyes in this serial?
TWO TEGANS! So now everyone in the original Team Fivey has had a double of themselves at some point this season.
Tegan has this, Nyssa has Ann in Black Orchid, and Adric has his Block Transfer copy in Castrovalva (but they were never onscreen together).
And now Hindle's behavior has officially stopped making sense to me. I guess we'll learn all in due time.
"He's not altogether stable. In fact I think he's on the verge of a nervous breakdown."
"Well then being in charge should do him some good!"
Or it could give him the opportunity to pull guns on everybody.
Five, I'm not quite sure how you're using logic to figure out which hand Adric has the coin in. At least you're being nice to him now.
He...just...wow. Adric just pulled off the old coin-from-behind-the-ear trick. Grinning forever now, for dork reasons. #dammitilovethiskid
"It may surprise you to learn, Doctor, I've never actually been locked up before." Well, you've picked the right guys to be locked up with!
Wow. I don't think Hindle's having a nervous breakdown, I think he's *completely* delusional.
AGAIN WITH THE EXTREME CLOSE-UPS.
Huh. Interesting flip of priorities: Five's trying to figure out how Adric did the coin thing, but Adric's the one worrying about Tegan.
Ah, this must be the scene where Janet Fielding got to write her own dialogue. Let's see how the Two Tegans work this out...
...Or maybe that comes later.
"Of course! Well can't you see it? He's got it right! He's absolutely right! The plants are the danger!" PLEASE let this be another bluff...
(From what I've read, it is. Let's hope the internet wasn't lying to me again.) #everybodyliesontheinternet
HERE we go! Tegan vs. Tegan!
"WAIT!"
"What?"
"There IS something."
"Where?"
"Out there!" *steals important-looking thing*
Good boy, Adric. #theinternetwasright
OH JESUS NOW THERE ARE TEN TEGANS.
Oh, I see what you did there. Nice work, kiddo, this is a definite improvement on your old ploy from State of Decay.
To clarify: They seem to be making good on Adric's original Artful Dodger in Space concept. The sleight of hand? Sneaking the Doctor a file.
I still don't quite know what they're doing to Tegan here, but I think by this point it definitely falls into the Mind Rape category.
Oh snap...EVIL!TEGAN!
And they cut directly from that to Adric screaming in agony. Thanks, guys. Like there wasn't enough in this serial to keep me awake forever.
Five, by "banish him from the dome" I hope you were implying that Adric would have a chance to escape and find Tegan. Didn't work anyway...
"That's impossible...it's Sanders...GO AWAY! SOMEBODY MAKE HIM GO AWAY! MOMMY! MOMMY, MAKE HIM GO AWAY!" ...O__O YET MORE CREEPY...
...LIKE EVIL-CACKLING!TEGAN.
It's too ungodly an hour for me to do the math behind whether or not LITERALLY half the characters in this story are Really Freaking Creepy.
Actually, I'll bet this commentary is setting a personal record for me for the most uses of the word "creepy."
Is it just me, or is evil!Tegan speaking with a British accent instead of Australian? Or am I just failing horribly at accents again?
So now they've introduced a Mysterious Box to the equation. I wonder if we've moved into Greek Mythology imagery now?
And of COURSE the actual opening of the box is the cliffhanger. Cue screaming.
Alright, now let's see what's in that box...
"Well, we've established one thing: the Kinda have a sense of humor." A sense of humor that apparently involves raising one's heart rate.
Oh wow. Whatever Mysterious Unseen Force was in that box set Five and company free. Cue Hindle freaking out.
GUYS. SERIOUSLY. WITH THE EXTREME CLOSE-UPS. NOT OKAY WITH THIS.
Also, that look on Sanders' face is going to haunt me for a while. Have I mentioned yet that this serial is REALLY CREEPY?
"What about Adric?"
"He'll be alright, he's very resourceful!"
Yes, but if he sees you running away, he might think you're ABANDONING HIM.
Also there's the little matter of that fact that he's stuck in a research dome with SEVERAL VERY CRAZY PEOPLE.
Hindle is ready to s'plode the base. *mind jumps back to the recently-watched Waters of Mars*
Five just used Adric's coin trick to show an offer of peace with the Kinda. NICE.
Well, whaddaya know! Conveniently Placed Prophecy turns the Kinda on Five and Todd! SURPRISE!
Okay Adric, looks like you're on your own this time. Let's see you use that brain of yours...
"Aris is one of my fathers."
"Is he? How many do you have?"
"Seven."
"Seven."
"SEVEN?"
"Isn't that rather extravagant?"
"Why? How many fathers do Not We have?"
"Well, on the whole, one."
"Only one?"
"Yes."
"That's very sad."
Adric seems VERY adamant against playing this game, and I have a feeling it's not because it's "childish." Wonder what it really is...
Ah. No wonder. It appears to having something to do with either rockets or explosives, from what I can see from here.
"Is he an idiot?"
"Are you an idiot?"
"Well I supposed I must be! I have been called one..."
"Keep silent, idiot."
You know, even after they assembled that thing, I STILL can't tell what it is. But sneaky Adric is sneaky...
"We will destroy the dome! The Not We must be killed!" Well, lucky for you, that's exactly what they were planning anyway!
Finally Five seems to've noticed the snake mark on Aris's arm.
Wait...Five, what do you mean you've heard the legend of the Mara before? Oh, wait, you're the Doctor; you know a little of everything.
No Adric, don't answer crazy old Mr. Sanders' call, just get in the TSS and 'SCAPE.
"Oh, play along with him, son. He means well."
"Does he?"
Listen to the mathlete, Sanders. Or at least try to through all the crazy...
Huh, so are Five and Todd going on a weird spiritual journey? Or just to that place where the Kinda men are penned in with a clock?
Dear Everything, I am confuse. -Hannah
"It's the end of Everything!" Sooooooooo, I guess it won't be answering my message, then? I mean, it looks like Everything's still there.
Well, here we go, my last episode with Adric...
"Doctor! I think she's dead!" I dunno, she just looks really still to me.
This confrontational scene with the shouting leader and the score of followers feels like something straight out of a Wayfinder game.
I'm sure they've been plenty of other stories with science vs. mysticism, but it feels like this is the first time I've really noticed it.
"The outside is for grown-ups! It's not for us, is it?" Hey guys, guess what this is? Go on, guess. That's right! EVEN MORE CREEPY.
Tegan has finally been found! And it looks like Adric's ready to go mech-piloting...
"You've been asleep for nearly two days!" Wait, it's been THAT LONG?
Kinda vs. Adric/TSS. Let's see how this goes down.
Well that was over fairly fast. Actually Adric, I'm a little surprised you're yelling for help when you clearly have the superior firepower.
Actually, considering everything you've had to put up with for the past couple episodes, I REALLY don't blame you for freaking out.
FINALLY. After all these episodes and all this craziness, Adric finally gets something ever-so-slightly sort of resembling hug-tiem.
Oh. So that thing they were building wasn't dangerous at all. It was just a model city. Unless they built it from dangerous things...
*remembers an old ihasatardis macro*
"I can has surprize?"
"BOO!"
"Mah surprize iz crap."
Why do I have a feeling that Adric and/or Tegan are going to try and dismantle one of the charges anyway? This could be a good or bad thing.
Desperate times call for desperate HOLY CRAP FIVE IS HALF-STRANGLING HINDLE.
"Well of course it's all your fault."
"What are you talking about?"
"Well if you hadn't fallen asleep and had that stupid dream..."
Oh come on, Adric, we've only got about 10 minutes left in the story. PLEASE don't start being a smartass now...
"Will Hindle be alright?" Adric. Again. You amaze me. He's been terrorizing you nearly all story, but in the end you still care. Awww...?
"I still control them! I am Aris! I HAVE VOICE!"
"YES, SO I HEAR!"
Alright, we've got our baddie trapped in a big circle of mirrors now. Cue Epic Special Effects Fail Snake!
"The circle must be closed!" ...Must stop thinking of "the circle must be broken!"
"It's fantastic!" Adric's awe is doubly hilarious after hearing Matthew Waterhouse singling the Mara out as a particularly abysmal effect.
You know, I'm actually surprised that the Mara kept weakening when it reached full height, since it could most likely see over the mirrors.
Well, it looks like Hindle and Sanders have finally been returned to sanity. 'BOUT TIME, GUYS.
Hello again, Nyssa! Feeling all better now, are we?
"Hello, Doctor!"
"Nyssa! How are you?"
"Fully recovered!"
"Excellent!"
"What have you been doing?"
"Oh, nothing much. This and that."
So the way that episode went, I really don't see the prompting Five had for the outburst at Adric that opened The Visitation.
I mean, Five was the one who explained that the machine went haywire because Adric was scared. Did he REALLY need to take that further?
Which reminds me, The Visitation was what I started Team Fivey with. Looks like I've come full circle. Which also reminds me...
Adric, this time 6 months ago, all I knew about you I read from TV Tropes, which summed you up as The Eternal Scrappy With a Tragic Death...
...I thought to myself "surely he can't be THAT bad," and, sure enough, I gave you a fair chance and, ultimately, you didn't disappoint.
Yes, you certainly had some hiccups along the way, but you're still a teenager and that's when we ALL make mistakes...
In the end, I think you're a good kid. You've shown bravery, loyalty (yes, even at the end of Four to Doomsday), and you really do care.
I'm so sorry things weren't better for you, both in canon and in the fandom. I really am. I love you, kiddo, and I'm gonna miss you.
Actually...see you in the Expanded Universe. I still haven't finished Cold Fusion or read Divided Loyalties or all those Short Trips and...
Next: The Visitation