Update dependency mess (Kubuntu 8.10)???

Has anybody tried the most recent Kubuntu 8.10 update and run into dependency issues??
Adept gave me an error message, so I tried to resolve it and get:

sudo dpkg --configure -a
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of kate:
 kate depends on libplasma3; however:
  Package libplasma3 is not installed.
dpkg: error processing kate (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of ksysguard:
 ksysguard depends on libplasma3; however:
  Package libplasma3 is not installed.
dpkg: error processing ksysguard (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of kdebase-plasma:
 kdebase-plasma depends on libplasma3; however:
  Package libplasma3 is not installed.
dpkg: error processing kdebase-plasma (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of plasmoid-quickaccess:
 plasmoid-quickaccess depends on libplasma3; however:
  Package libplasma3 is not installed.
dpkg: error processing plasmoid-quickaccess (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of kdebase-workspace-bin:
 kdebase-workspace-bin depends on kdepimlibs5 (>= 4:4.2.0); however:
  Version of kdepimlibs5 on system is 4:4.1.4-0ubuntu1~intrepid1.
 kdebase-workspace-bin depends on libplasma3; however:
  Package libplasma3 is not installed.
 kdebase-workspace-bin depends on kdebase-workspace-data (= 4:4.2.0-0ubuntu1~intrepid2); however:
  Version of kdebase-workspace-data on system is 4:4.1.4-0ubuntu1~intrepid3.
dpkg: error processing kdebase-workspace-bin (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Errors were encountered while processing:
 kate
 ksysguard
 kdebase-plasma
 plasmoid-quickaccess
 kdebase-workspace-bin

installing libplasma3 complains about:

sudo apt-get install libplasma3
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
You might want to run `apt-get -f install' to correct these:
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
  kdebase-workspace-bin: Depends: kdepimlibs5 (>= 4:4.2.0) but 4:4.1.4-0ubuntu1~intrepid1 is to be installed
                         Depends: kdebase-workspace-data (= 4:4.2.0-0ubuntu1~intrepid2) but 4:4.1.4-0ubuntu1~intrepid3 is to be installed
                         Recommends: dontzap but it is not installable
  libplasma3: Conflicts: kdebase-workspace-data (< 4:4.1.73-0ubuntu1) but 4:4.1.4-0ubuntu1~intrepid3 is to be installed
              Conflicts: libplasma2 but 4:4.1.4-0ubuntu1~intrepid3 is to be installed
E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt-get -f install' with no packages (or specify a solution).

And finally trying to use the nuke gives:
sudo apt-get install -f
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Correcting dependencies... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  seamonkey-chatzilla openoffice.org-math kdeplasma-addons-data seamonkey-mailnews
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
The following extra packages will be installed:
  kde-window-manager kdebase-workspace-data kdebase-workspace-libs4+5 kdepimlibs5 libical0 libplasma3
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  kubuntu-desktop libplasma2
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  libical0 libplasma3
The following packages will be upgraded:
  kde-window-manager kdebase-workspace-data kdebase-workspace-libs4+5 kdepimlibs5
4 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 2 to remove and 53 not upgraded.
5 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 0B/13.5MB of archives.
After this operation, 434kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?

at which stage I'm not quite sure whether I want to remove kubuntu-desktop, because it looks kind-of essential to me.