Trivia / Doctor Who S19 E3 "Kinda"

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• Creator's Favourite Episode: Janet Fielding and Matthew Waterhouse are both consider this as their favourite serial.
• Follow the Leader: This serial appears to continue the Doctor Who tradition of using a popular work as a springboard, in this case The Word for World is Forest. However, Christopher Bailey has sworn that he didn't read that story until long after he'd finished the scripts. None of the critics believe that, but it might actually be true: the writers of the Discontinuity Guide noted that they had a hard time coming with works that this serial ripped-off — er, referenced — because, as far as they could tell, the story was actually pretty original.
• Pop-Culture Urban Legends:
  • Because Christopher Bailey didn't write much else for TV, and because of the unusual nature of the script, there were widespread fandom rumours that "Christopher Bailey" was a pseudonym for a very well-known highbrow person who didn't want to be openly known as a Who writer, with the most common targets being Tom Stoppard and Kate Bush. This wasn't debunked until interviews with Bailey were conducted in 2002 and 2011.
  • During filming, Matthew Waterhouse made a quip to Richard Todd that "the secret of acting is not to look into the camera", poking fun at an earlier take that Waterhouse had flubbed by doing exactly that. Over the years this was exaggerated (including by Peter Davison and Janet Fielding!) into Waterhouse having tried to lecture Todd, a veteran actor with an Oscar nomination under his belt, on how to act. By some other accounts Todd did get into an argument with someone trying to tell him how he should act, but it was John Nathan-Turner rather than Waterhouse (and Todd was allegedly more annoyed that Nathan-Turner was going over the head of director Peter Grimwade).
• What Could Have Been:
  • Judi Dench, Joanna Lumley, Helen Mirren and Diana Rigg were considered for Todd.
  • Trevor Howard and John Mills were considered for Sanders.
  • Christopher Bailey originally wrote the story for the Fourth Doctor, feeling that his somber, Wizard Classic characterization in season 18 was a good fit for the idea of a wise sage. When Tom Baker left and was replaced with the much younger Peter Davison, Bailey realized that the incoming Fifth Doctor wouldn't fit this version of the story, and rewrote it accordingly.
  • Sanders and Hindle were supposed to hold hands and walk into the forest, holding a flower. John Nathan-Turner cut it for thinking it was too camp.

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