The Face of Evil Part Two

The one where the Doctor faces the Test of the Horda...

It's so intriguing that the Doctor cannot remember how his face came to be carved into the side of a mountain on an alien planet he's never been to before. It's like something Steven Moffat would write, pulling the audience in with a seemingly impossible truth, then showing how that impossibility is possible (although with Moffat, the solution wasn't always very clear to me!).

I love the relationship that's developed so easily and swiftly between the Doctor and Leela. It feels like they have been companions for longer than one episode, the two actors appear to be quite at ease in one another's company. The thing is, I know that this was not the case, that Tom Baker was quite dismissive of Louise Jameson, feeling the character was not needed and that he could carry the series by himself. Behind the scenes, tensions ran high, so the fact the Doctor and Leela seem to gel so well on screen is testament to the professionalism of both actors. I think the tension would be more evident in other stories, but here, it feels lovely.

Leela is already feeling the frustration of spending time with the Doctor, trying to keep up with his cantering thoughts and tendency to not explain things fully. Jameson really does hit the ground running with Leela, and makes one of the finest and most confident debuts of any companion. She's just marvellous, and a joy to watch, as she bounces off Tom so well, and uses her face and body language to translate what Leela might be thinking or feeling.

My favourite scene is when they hear the voice of Xoanon through the spacesuit relay. Leela drops to the ground and covers her ears in fear of the voice, but the Doctor gently reassures her that it is not the voice of god, and that she need not fear it. You can see Leela coming round to the Doctor's assertion, hiding her doubts and resolving to believe what the Doctor tells her. It's a beautifully subtle performance by Jameson, who has obviously thought through her character and motivations to the letter.

The Doctor's encounter with the voice of Xoanon is quite eerie, because Xoanon has the voice of the Doctor/ Tom Baker. The Doctor is utterly baffled as to why this might be, or who it might be. "Who are you?" he asks, to which the voice replies: "Don't I know?" Chilling stuff.

The Doctor and Leela visit the wall that everybody speaks of, and finds that it is actually a time barrier, keeping everybody in their place. The Sevateem attack on the barrier is a huge failure, and more than half of the tribe are apparently killed. As well as all of this, there's a power struggle fermenting in the village, with Calib keen to assert his authority and wrest power from Andor and Neeva. There's a great scene where the Doctor and Leela attempt to get Calib on their side, but he pulls the wool over their eyes and is more interested in his own ambition. The moment where he sticks Leela with a janus thorn is quite alarming, because we've already learnt that it's a fatal poison.

Luckily - and somewhat unlikely - the technological relics scattered about include a bio-analyser and a medikit, both of which still have power, and the Doctor manages to whip up an anti-toxin in a matter of minutes. If only things were really that easy, the current international coronavirus pandemic would be over already.

The Doctor doesn't take kindly to people attacking his new friend. As well as taking the time to save her life with the anti-toxin, he also exacts a pretty swift and cold revenge on the guard who slaps Leela across the face. It's quite out of character for him to do this. "Who is that man?" the Doctor demands, and then flings a flesh-eating Horda at him. It's a very cruel and vengeful thing to do - after all, it was just a slap across the face, nothing too serious - and is just the latest in a long line of incidents where the Fourth Doctor's temper gets the better of him.

The Test of the Horda is done well, all shot on film, and the pit of writhing creatures looks suitably unpleasant. The Doctor claims he learnt to shoot a crossbow from William Tell, which is a surprise as most people assume Tell is merely a Swiss folk hero (a la England's own Robin Hood). But, the Doctor has met Robin Hood, and folk heroes can be based upon truth, so maybe he did meet Tell. Or maybe he met him in the Land of Fiction?

Either way, the Doctor wins the Test of the Horda, but this in itself does not prove that he isn't the Evil One. It proves he's a good shot with a crossbow, but not that the Horda won't eat him given half a chance. So the whole sequence is rather pointless, and none of the villagers seem to notice this. By the end of it the Doctor still hasn't proven he's not the Evil One, but everybody acts as though he has.

With the tribe now on his side, the Doctor uses the relics to make a laser gun to fight the invisible creatures that stalk the jungle (invisible because it's cheaper that way). He explains that the Sevateem got their name from the Survey Team which landed here many years ago, but as Calib asks, are the tribespeople their captors or their children? The whole mystery is very intriguing, and intelligently thought out. What confuses me is that Xoanon has the voice of the Doctor, but it is the Evil One who has the face of the Doctor. Are they one and the same? And why does Xoanon speak with multiple voices? That in itself is eerie.

The Doctor and Leela venture up the mountainside and enter the head of the Evil One through the mouth. The Sevateem battle against the invisible creatures, as well as projections of the Evil One which give me the chills, never mind them (that image of the Doctor's roaring face is startling). Meanwhile, the Doctor and Leela are stopped short by the shadow of something lumbering just around the corner. It feels like we're on the cusp of a major discovery in this intriguing mystery.

First broadcast: January 8th, 1977

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: The instant rapport between the Doctor and Leela is great (even if there wasn't one between Baker and Jameson!).
The Bad: The Doctor flinging a flesh-eating monster at one of the villagers is needlessly vindictive.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★☆☆

"Would you like a jelly baby?" tally: 06

NEXT TIME: Part Three...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Part One; Part Three; Part Four

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site: https://doctorwhocastandcrew.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-face-of-evil.html

The Face of Evil is available on BBC DVD. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Face-Evil-DVD/dp/B006LI4XG2