DOCTOR WHO, SEASON 14 SERIAL 4:
THE FACE OF EVIL
Doctor: Fourth (Tom Baker)
And introducing...Leela
April 2023
This is quite a good one.
The Face of Evil is Tom Baker’s return to a becompanioned lifestyle after the solo adventure of The Deadly Assassin (which I’ve never yet seen), and therefore the introduction of Leela. It’s also got a lot to offer on its own — but Leela is my favorite companion, so let’s talk about her first.
Leela rules. I just like her a lot. By the end of Part 3 of this story she’s killed six people, even though the Doctor chewed her out for it at least once. But she’s capable, smart, and always ready to throw herself into the fire in a way that’s deeply compelling to me. She always wants to be involved, and because of this she comes off really well overall— even though she gets hypnotized twice and briefly paralyzed! Many other companions written less competently would come out of an adventure like this one appearing to solely be a damsel in distress for the Doctor to save, but Leela is far from ever having that air about her. She even saves the Doctor once! And judo-flips a guy! More companions should judo-flip a guy.
Okay, enough Leela talk for now. The main plot thrust of this story is quite a compelling one, partially because it has two “hooks” to it: firstly, the idea of the warring Sevateem and Tesh tribes, one focused on physical acuity and one on mental acuity (which apparently leads to telepathy, but hey, Doctor Who’s had weirder) and their origin; and secondly, the fact that “the evil one”/god appears for all intents and purposes to be...the Doctor himself.
The Sevateem are a pretty classic Doctor Who warrior group: they wear scanty clothing, have a lot of knives and killing, there’s a priest (Neeva), at one point they make the Doctor undergo a trial to prove he isn’t “the evil one.” I think they’re fine. Their best point is Leela: while I do like the stuff about Calib and Andor and Tomas and the tribe’s politics, Leela always has her head on more important stuff. Like survival!
The Tesh, who are only introduced in the second half of the serial, are a delightful opposite: weird jaundiced-looking dudes in pale green cylinder hats and outfits. They also have guns. And telepathy. More importantly, they have the god Xoanon...who is maybe the Doctor. Tom Baker playing both the Doctor and the antagonist (albeit only in face and voice) is very good, and he pulls it off quite well I think.
Spoiler stuff goes here:
The twist (I say twist, but it’s not really much of one as it gets discussed only about 2 episodes in) is that the Sevateem and Tesh are descendants of one crash-landed space expedition an indeterminate amount of time ago: the Sevateem are descended from the survey team, and the Tesh are descended from the technicians, and stayed with the ship. When the ship first landed, the Doctor fixed what he presumed was a fault in the computer (but was actually the computer attaining life) and in doing so, put his own personality imprint into it. Thus the way it looks like him, etc.
I was a little afraid, with how much they were discussing the computer being “insane”, that it was going to end with Xoanon’s destruction. Fortunately it doesn’t—just the removal of the Doctor’s personality imprint from it. I don’t know enough about pluralism to properly remark upon how the removal of a split personality being portrayed as “healing” reflects on pluralism as an identity, but I do feel like I need to bring it up. It also feels worth noting here that the “other personality” in question is, in fact, the Doctor’s, and that both Xoanon’s original self and the Doctor are referred to repeatedly as “warring”.
Also, the way Leela becomes a companion at the end is great: the two groups are arguing about who should become the leader overall and Leela is floated as the obvious answer. This is interesting partially because apparently there’s a version of the script where Leela stays and becomes the leader, never being a companion at all. So that’s neat! But in this version, she goes to track down the Doctor, argues with him about coming with, and ends up just sort of forcing her way inside the TARDIS, whereupon we get a great moment of hearing him going “Don’t touch that!!” and the TARDIS dematerializes. It’s very funny!
Overall Thoughts:
I do like this story quite a bit. It’s not perfect, but frankly I was afraid of some deeply problematic implications and ended up pleasantly surprised. I’d recommend it if you want a nice healthy dose of Leela (which, being me, I think everyone should have). It also feels like a solid Tom Baker onramp, i.e. a first story to watch in the Tom Baker years, as it introduces a new companion and doesn’t require any prior knowledge, really. Since this is the first story I’ve watched from the season recently, I can’t really rate it compared to those around it, so it beelines straight to the top!
I don’t know how often I’m going to do these Tom Baker reviews since I’ve been making my way through the early years also, but next up (eventually) is The Robots of Death...which I’ve either heard is very good, or very bad, and I can’t remember which. But I think very good! So I’m excited!
Leela Kill Tally: 6 (+6)