The Face of Evil

Don't move; or I'll kill him with this deadly jelly baby.

There are three Doctor Who stories that I saw snippets of growing up before I dove head in to watching a few years ago. The first and most memorable was The Masque of Mandragora. The second was a few seconds of what I eventually figured out to be episode six of Invasion of Time due to my memory of Commander Storr and his Hitler-ish dark spot under the nose. But the third was the last five or ten minutes of The Face of Evil when the Doctor defeats Xoanon and then is accompanied, albeit unwillingly, by Leela.

Because of my past experience, I'm not sure whether this story was more interesting or less. It was less in that there was no mystery as to who Xoanon was and what his specific problem was. But on the other hand, knowing who the bad guy was also allowed me to focus on other elements of the story and appreciate them. I would be curious to know just exactly how many generations would have had to pass for a scientific survey team to degenerate into tribe of superstitious primitives, but given that Xoanon seemed to be killing them off with a degree of regularity, perhaps it didn't take as long as it might for an unoppressed technological group.

I think it obvious that the Doctor Who team was trying to recreate the jungle from Planet of Evil, although they didn't quite succeed. I wouldn't say their efforts look bad though. I've certainly seen less convincing jungles in media. I also enjoyed the acting. I can't recall anyone being particularly over the top or with overwhelmingly annoying characteristics. They were perhaps a bit one-dimensional but I wouldn't have expected a deep character study from an episode like this.

I must also say that I genuinely liked the character of Leela in this story. In my memory of the end of this story, I had visions of Leela being a bit dumber (more caveman-like) and not being much more than T&A bait. Instead, as I watched the story, while she was aggressively impulsive, she had a quick mind and did not hesitate to do what the Doctor himself was reluctant to do. I enjoyed her a great deal. Her final scene where she runs to the TARDIS after the Doctor was a bit rushed and I would have appreciated a bit more development as to why she did not want to stay as de-facto ruler, but those are small nits.

As I mentioned earlier, the production values are a bit below what had been done earlier especially as an immediate follow up to The Deadly Assassin. But its not so glaring that it screams out at you as cheap. I would chalk that up to direction or my own tolerance for cheap if they try. Probably a mix of the two.

I think I probably rate this one higher than the average fan does. Some of that might be nostalgia, but there is genuinely good writing and performance in this story. Only the production values let it down and even then it's not really that bad, especially relative to either the early years or the lean years of the Eighties. I wouldn't have any problem popping this one back in and enjoying it.

Overall personal score: 4 out of 5