4.15: The Face of Evil

In which the Doctor’s mistakes catch up with him.

Broadcast: January 1977

Watched: June-July 2020

My first question is: we’re in the middle of season 14, why do they change companion mid season, something the show had steered away from since about 1967? [James Cooray Smith’s answer was, “Who says it’s mid-season?”, a smart arse way of pointing out that, for its first few years and again in the mid1970s, the “seasons” of Doctor Who were fitted retrospectively onto much messier production and broadcast patterns.¹ This story was broadcast after a five week break; but it is generally listed as the 4th story of season 14, not the first story of a new 1977 run.]

The Face of Evil, Part One

This is a very political season. This, like the three stories before it, is fundamentally about a power struggle. I guess that’s always a big thread in Who, it’s there in the Tribe of Gum [the caveman bit of the very first story] and The Aztecs, but it feels quite dominant this year.

For the third time in a year and a half we have a jungle created almost entirely through sound effects. Invisible monsters are nice budget savers too, aren’t they?

Leela gets her dad killed in her very first scene and later kills someone. Wow.

The nature of the Sevateem is revealed earlier than I thought it was, I thought they kept us hanging on that for a couple of episodes. The bit where God speaks with the Doctor’s voice is a proper headf*ck. The bit where we see his face isn’t, because it doesn’t actually look that much like Tom.

I wonder if this influenced Douglas Adams on the Secondary Phase of Hitchhiker’s? [Probably, the man was a fan.]

The Face of Evil, Part Two

I’m finding this one a bit of a struggle to be honest with you, and I think it’s me, not the show – I find the whole tribal aesthetic off putting and distancing so can’t really get into it. Shame, as I suspect it’s quite clever. I wonder if it’s one I’d find easier if the episodes were missing, perversely?

Not only is Leela incredibly violent, but so is the Doctor. I wound back to see how he broke Caleb’s leg – you don’t see, it happens off screen, oddly, Caleb is suddenly just on his back – but he definitely whips a hoarder at the guy being mean to Leela for a giggle.

No idea what’s happening at that cliffhanger.

The Face of Evil, Part Three

Lending credence to my theory that the aesthetic is an issue for me – I enjoyed that one much more. I think I just do better with stupid sci fi than stupid tribal stuff, even when it’s the same story and the Tesh look bloody stupid.

Still not entirely clear on what’s meant to have happened, or what timescale it’s meant to have happened over, but lots of good moments in this one – walking through the wall, the Tesh greeting the Doctor, the telekenisis. The cliffhanger is terrific.

Still, as a whole I fear this is the new Pyramids or Flatline – one that’s clearly good but just doesn’t quite work for me.

The Face of Evil, Part Four

“...the end of the world.”

Does any other Doctor get to play the villain has much as Tom? Here, Invasion of Time, Meglos... any more?

Anyway. I like the ending – that Xoanan is so apologetic about it all and that there’s six or seven minutes left after the plot reaches its climax, to talk about what happened and what comes next. I like that the two tribes merge at the end. I like the sofa. Can’t help but think there are subtleties I’d only get from watching it again, or concentrating more, in a way that I found hard to do. Oh well.

I also quite like the way the priest is so pissed off he decides to overthrow god.

1. The answer to “Who says it’s mid-season?”, by the way, turned out to be “Martin Wiggins, in TARDIS 77.”