Customer Reviews

Doctor Who - Face of Evil [VHS]

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Without a doubt this is one of the best adventures from the Tom Baker, or any, era. The fourth Doctor was really hitting his stride in this one, and it is a true classic. The Doctor proves his long-running theory that if you travel though time and the universe long enough, you will eventually run into yourself. In its original serial form, this adventure featured one of the best and most surprising end-of-episode cliffhangers in the history of the series. The Doctor's interaction with the primative tribe he encounters is priceless; and the sarcasm, wit, and one-liners that the Doctor's fourth incarnation is known for flows freely. The "lush" jungle sets, and production values in general, are good by Dr. Who standards. As if all of this weren't enough, the Doctor gets a sexy new travel companion in this one, Leela, who scampers around half naked most of the time, but who contrasts beautifully as the enlightened savage to the Doctor's quirky intellectual. The only bad thing about this Who adventure is that it took so long to finally come out in video.

Coming right on the heels of THE DEADLY ASSASSIN, THE FACE OF EVIL shifts the series away from its earlier, "cozy" format, and in a pretty permanent sort of way. I often wondered why so few episodes dealt with the consequences of the Doctor's meddling in the affairs of other civilizations --this one takes the form of the Doctor confronting the spectacle of his own face carved into the side of a mountain on the scale of Mount Rushmore.

Originally titled "The Day that God Went Mad," this serial takes us into an unnamed planet in the distant future, where two tribal factions are locked in an eternal (and ultimately futile) struggle, even though neither side has ever seen its enemy. The inherent danger offered by organized religion is taken to task in a way few episodes before (or since) were up to challenging: as usual, the local God has a perfectly logical, scientific explanation, but there's no explaining this to his devoted followers, particularly the quick-thinking high priest.

The episode is of course noteworthy because it introduces Leela, as portrayed by Louise Jameson, who remains one of the most popular companions of one of the most popular Doctors. Tom Baker carries off another brilliant performance, cheerfully spouting nonsense even as crossbows and poison darts are pointed in his direction. The episode also has the advantage of being part of Season Thirteen, which is definitely Tom Baker's high point as the Doctor. There is stark contrast between the aggressively savage Sevateem and the quietly fanatical Tesh, and it is this contrast which leads the Doctor to the story's climax: the local God is a divided personality and must be made whole --and the Doctor himself is the original cause of the problem! Besides Ms. Jameson, my favorite character in this serial is Neeva (David Garfield), the High Priest who starts out as Xoanon's most devoted and vocal follower, but who proves to be quite the jaded cynic when all is said and done. Worth your time if you're a Tom Baker fan, but can be safely left off your Top Ten Greatest Doctor Who Stories Ever list.

When Leela, a young huntress of the Sevateem tribe first encounters the Doctor, she calls him "the evil one" to which the Doctor disarmingly says, "Well, nobody's perfect, but that's overstating it a little. Would you like a jelly baby?"

So begins his association with one of his most memorable companions, she of the chamois leather outfit, leaving her arms and legs bare, but don't mess with her, as she knows how to use a knife and Janis thorns, weapons that paralyze, then kill.

Leela has been banished from the Sevateem for saying that their god Xoanon, doesn't exist. However, that's not all going on with the tribe. There's a power struggle going between Neeva, the shaman who claims personal contact with Xoanon, and Calib, whose belief is tenuous, but wants nothing more than to have Neeva exposed as a fraud and charlatan. The Sevateem want to liberate Xoanon from the Tesh, their sworn enemies who live beyond the wall in a mountain, however, the Evil One's invisible energy creatures prevent anything from happening.

The Doctor and Leela go to the mountain, where he says, "I must have made quite an impression," for he sees his own face carved on the mountainside like Mount Rushmore. Trouble is, he can't remember when he first came to the planet. Also, the voice of Xoanon is his own! But does Xoanon have all his marbles? At one point, it says "At last us... you, me, us, we... at last I shall be free of us!" When the Doctor asks Xoanon who he is, Xoanon asks back "Don't I know?"

Paradise comes from the Avestan (ancient Persian) word meaning "walled-in enclosure." In that vein, Leela says of Xoanon, "he dwells within the black wall wherein lies paradise." This draws on the theme of an ideal place made safe from evil by a wall.

Many praiseworthy lines come in from the Doctor. "Answers are easy. It's asking the right questions which is hard." and "The very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common. They don't alter their views to fit the facts. They alter the facts to fit their views." And in an exchange regarding faith and logic, Neeva says "We start getting proof and we stop believing." Tomas replies, "With proof, you don't have to believe."

Louise Jameson's debut as Leela is impressive here and throughout the other eight stories she comes out in. Despite the Doctor telling her off for killing people, even in self-defense, it has to be said that she saves the Doctor's life that way in this story and in those to come. After all, she's using her huntress's instinct. I'd have her as my minder anyday.

Of the supporting actors, David Garfield (Neeva) stands out. His attempts to exorcise the Doctor, whom he thinks is the Evil One, is one of the kitschy moments of the series. And his battle hat is indeed fetching, as it's a cricket glove with some odds and ends attached.

The original title The Day God Went Mad is more apropos, as the Doctor has to deal with an omniscient computer with schizophrenia. However, it was changed to The Face To Evil to ward off any potential religious objections. The ideas are creative, but the production values, such as the Sevateem's forest and a spaceship's corridors aren't much to shout home about, and only a few characters (Leela, Neeva, Tomas) stand out.

This adventure is the first to feature Leela, the Doctor's martial-savvy sidekick. She's a definite improvement over other Doctor Who heroines in that her qualifications involved something other than the ability to scream for help twenty-six different ways per season.

The episode itself is densely packed. Anyone could watch this and then lead a meaty discussion on religion, politics, technology, the ethics of artificial intelligence, or any of a number of topics. Of particular interest is the variety of things the Sevateem and Tesh venerate as religious items. Seeing the character of Neeva gallavanting around with a glove on his head and thinking himself pious is particularly humerous. So is the bowing and scraping of the overly-refined Tesh.

Simply for the amount of story packed into an hour and a half, this is a particularly worthwhile buy. It's also interesting to see Tom Baker playing a bad guy (I don't think I'm giving anything away to say that he does double duty in this episode as both the Doctor and the so-called "Evil One"). Baker's range as a performer, even in a low-budget, visiblek-wires sort of production like Doctor Who, is quite phenomenal.

One glaring problem needs to be pointed out: the Tesh and the Sevateem must reproduce asexually, because they certainly don't have a great number of women to interact with. Except for Leela and a computerized voice, there are no women in the episode. This is symptomatic of the times, of course: unless there's a concrete, story-based reason for a character to be female, the character is written as a male. This plagued most of the run of Doctor Who, but it seems striking when what's being portrayed is supposed to be a closed system that's self-reproducing, yet has no estrogen to speak of.

This episode begins with a wholly worthless but interesting interview copped from a British daytime talk show, in which Louise Jameson (Leela) discourses on what it's like being the Doctor's new sidekick (after fourteen years on the BBC, Doctor Who had at that point become a national institution, like the Tonight Show on this side of the pond). As I say, this interview is interesting, but it would have been better if it had been put after the episode. It's annoying to have to fast-forward past it every time I want to watch the episode.

All in all a satisfying purchase. Some minor qualms, but I don't thing an average member of the Who-watching public will be disappointed. Enjoy with my compliments.

This story is another in the darker period of Doctor Who. Having jettisoned the increasingly Andy Pandy jump-suited Sarah Jane Smith before an apparently final battle with the Master, the Doctor foregoes his Presidency to return to roaming around the Galaxy.

The plot has been laid out by several reviewers before me and I will not travel that well trodden road any further. Suffice to say that the character of Leela clearly is intended to attract an older audience but at the same time, the darker stories required a much stronger character than the Sarah Jane Smith types in order for the plots to work. Leela is certainly that, a savage killer, brought up to kill or be killed, she is uneducated but not stupid. She has an instinct which saves them more than once and is yet very protective of the Doctor.

Part of the charm of this character was that she served as a role model for many other female actresses in British drama as an independent person, capable of holding her own with men.

The story is the first to acknowledge that time travel can have unintended future consequences which alters the future in a way never thought of. The two tribes are also symbolic of the way our modern society has developed into an environmental side as opposed to a scientific, technological side. The monster, not by accident, is the same as the monster in that classic sci-fi movie, whose name escapes me, but which is created through the scienytist's id when using alien machinery.

A very impressive story to have on video.

Dr. Who arrives on an unnamed planet in the middle of a bloody war between to completely different tribes - one physical, courageous and strong-the other, mental, psychic and controlled- fighting to possess God.
God, in this case, is an intelligent computer that Dr. Who unknowingly made schizophrenic during an earlier visit to the planet. The God's madness started the war and it's up to Dr. Who to stop the war and avert the computer's self-destruction.
Thrown into the mix is the Dr.'s new assistant Leela.

A good episode of the series. Tom Baker is in high form, playing his role with relish while also playing to the camera. Leela, Louise Jameson, offers an interesting contrast-barbaric, emotional, quick to attack- to the Dr.'s way.
The show was written during the time of Von Danaaken's books-the Chariots of the Gods, et al., which hinted that earth had been visited by aliens in pre/early history, with devastating consequences. THe show reflects contemporary ideas and hints that our religions could have been based on similar visits.
An interesting premise.

This is classic Dr Who. The Doctor arrives in the uncharted jungles of an alien world and finds the survivors of a doomed space expedition, who have reverted to savagery, and an effigy of his own face carved into a mountain. The first story to feature Leela, who is at her best here, this is gripping sci-fi/fantasy from start to finish. There are strong performances from all the cast, the Horda are a genuinely chilling creation and the scenes in the forest, in which the Doctor and his companions are stalked by an unseen beast, really are behind-the-sofa moments. Add to that some nice little touches of humour and a clever, well-thought-out storyline and you have four episodes of unmissable adventure.

When Leela, a young huntress of the Sevateem tribe first encounters the Doctor, she calls him "the evil one" to which the Doctor disarmingly says, "Well, nobody's perfect, but that's overstating it a little. Would you like a jelly baby?" When they hear some ominous growls, he tells her "Do you have four friends with very bad colds or are we in danger?" She says, "They're your creatures." Has he been here before?

So begins his association with one of his most memorable companions, she of the chamois leather outfit, leaving her arms and legs bare, but don't mess with her, as she knows how to use a knife and Janis thorns, weapons that paralyze, then kill.

Leela has been banished from the Sevateem for saying that their god Xoanon, doesn't exist. However, that's not all going on with the tribe, whose gesture to ward evil coincidentally resembles the sequence for checking seals on a Starfall 7 spacesuit. There's a power struggle going between Neeva, the shaman who claims personal contact with Xoanon, and Calib, whose belief is tenuous, but wants nothing more than to have Neeva exposed as a fraud and charlatan. The Sevateem want to liberate Xoanon from the Tesh, their sworn enemies who live beyond the wall in a mountain, however, the Evil One's invisible energy creatures prevent anything from happening.

The Doctor and Leela go to the mountain, where he says, "I must have made quite an impression," for he sees his own face carved on the mountainside like Mount Rushmore. Trouble is, he can't remember when he first came to the planet. The two go inside the mountain to solve the mystery of Xoanon, whom they hear communicating to Neeva. And the voice of Xoanon is his own! But does Xoanon have all his marbles? At one point, it says "At last us... you, me, us, we... at last I shall be free from us!" When the Doctor asks Xoanon who he is, Xoanon asks back "Don't I know?"

Paradise comes from the Avestan (ancient Persian) word meaning "walled-in enclosure." In that vein, Leela says of Xoanon, "he dwells within the black wall wherein lies paradise." This draws on the theme of an ideal place made safe from evil by a wall.

Many praiseworthy lines come in from the Doctor. "Answers are easy. It's asking the right questions which is hard." and "The very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common. They don't alter their views to fit the facts. They alter the facts to fit their views." And in an exchange regarding faith and logic, Neeva says "We start getting proof and we stop believing." Tomas replies, "With proof, you don't have to believe."

Trivia: Leela's name came from Leila Khaled, a Palestinian woman who with her two comrades were the first hijackers and thus somewhat of a celebrity. Louise Jameson's debut as Leela is impressive here and throughout the other eight stories she comes out in. Despite the Doctor telling her off for killing people, even in self-defense, it has to be said that she saves the Doctor's life that way in this story and in those to come. After all, she's using her huntress's instinct. I'd have her as my minder anyday.

Of the supporting actors, David Garfield (Neeva) stands out. His attempts to exorcise the Doctor, whom he thinks is the Evil One, is one of the kitschy moments of the series. And his battle hat is indeed fetching, as it's a cricket glove with some odds and ends attached.

The original title The Day God Went Mad is more apropos, as the Doctor has to deal with an omniscient computer with schizophrenia. However, it was changed to The Face To Evil to ward off any potential religious objections. The ideas are creative, but the production values, such as the Sevateem's forest and a spaceship's corridors aren't much to shout home about, and only a few characters (Leela, Neeva, Tomas) stand out.

Boy, Robert Hodson, Jr.(the previous reviewer) really likes Leela! And so he should. Louise Jameson's performance only solidifies her character and the memory of this adventure. "Face.." is also the best sequel to an untelevised adventure. Sometimes this story gets a little lost between adventures, but never seems lose its viewers. The cast give wonderful performances, which isn't surprising, since Chris Boucher's script is filled with memorable line after line(just like "The Robots of Death"). The design and execution are over par for Who. There are one or two little goofs, like how do the Doctor and Leela climb to the mouth of the idle, some pedestrian gun play, and apart from a computer voice, where are all the Tesh women? Apart from that, "Face..." is unforgettable, thoroughly enjoyable even with repeated viewings.

Chris Boucher's flair for the one-liner was evident in every script he penned for the series, and The Face of Evil is no exception. The Doctor's utterances after being threatened by members of Leela's tribe are hysterical, as is Tom Baker's "jelly-baby" routine (something inserted by Baker himself, if I'm not mistaken). The Face of Evil features an interesting premise, and the tribal dynamics of the Sevateem are convincingly explored. Louise Jameson's debut as Leela is very good, unfortuneately she is never as strong a character in later adventures as she is here (except for perhaps "Horror of Fang Rock). All-in-all, an average though enjoyable story.