The Face Of Evil (1977) Review

Typical blokes.

The Face Of Evil is a solid, but unremarkable story that doesn't really make much sense.

PLOT

The Doctor lands on an unknown planet and is captured by savage people who believe him to be "the Evil One". Teaming up with a young woman from the tribe named Leela, he escapes and discovers that the planet is home to two races... both descendants of a survey team whose computer was driven mad by the Doctor by accident long ago.

ANALYSIS

Basic question: why did the survey team forget about their past? If it was ever explained, I completely missed it. Xoanon mentioned experimenting on them and living out his torment on them(which is absolute nonsense), but they never explained how it actually all worked. Nor did they explain in comprehensible terms why the Doctor needed to resort to telepathy to fix a computer. 
At least the story is completely watchable and not just because of Leela's... you know.

CHARACTERS

Tom Baker, as I am told, loves to break the fourth wall. He already sort of did so in The Deadly Assassin, but this is his first talking to the camera moment. I don't really mind, because having Tom Baker talk to me as if I was the companion feels both surreal and awesome.
Maybe his ideas for the show were good after all.

Can I just say how happy I am that a leather-bikini-wearing Louise Jameson is now a regular? 

Two memorable faces from The War Games return in this story, one being Colonel von Weich(the guy with the scar) who now plays the superstitious Neeva and his political opponent Kalib, who was the really southern guy who flirted with Lady Jennifer. Both of them are far less memorable here. I needed the Wiki to know it was actually these two. 

In a wonderful turn of events, Tom Baker semi-plays the role of Xoanon and does it wonderfully, twisting his performance as the Doctor in a chilling fashion. The cliffhanger where Xoanon screams "Who am I?!"(not Baker's voice at that point) is easily one of my new all-time favourites. So friggin' creepy.

And the Tesh. Right, that covers them.

NOTES

*Did anyone else think the Doctor was talking to his future self before Xoanon revealed that he was sending his toys to the Sevateem's village?

*The Doctor says that Xoanon developed two personalities: his own and the Fourth Doctor's. But why are there a multitude of voices then?

*Is Leela's "you like me" supposed to be romantic? Cause that's the vibe I certainly got.

*I love how the Doctor refuses to let her into the TARDIS. Like, "What is this nonsense? You're not from contemporary London, you're a guest star playing a savage! I'm not taking you with me!"

*All that whining about needing his companions in the new show and he just doesn't care here. And given that Clara only probably meets him every 50 years, I'm not surprised. He just wants to make them think they're special. Whilst, in reality, he has spent half of his life on some privately owned planet filled with pairs and pairs of round things, only waking to the call of the midlife crisis every now and then.
The Time War granted him the biggest pension in the universe and he just hasn't told anyone yet. 

*For all the talk about how the Doctor doesn't remember his age, the new series tries its hardest to give him one, has anyone else noticed that? It just strikes me as kind of odd. It's currently 2500, by-the-by. Also, if the War Doctor was 800 in The Day Of The Doctor, that means it took the Ninth Doctor 100 years to check himself out in a mirror. Also, since the Tenth Doctor lived only 7 years, that would make him the George Lazenby of the Doctors, wouldn't it? Why the heck did the Moment pick him? Bah, another time, another review.

*Tom Baker was apparently originally supposed to use a knife in the scene where he threatens the Sevateem with a jelly baby, but he refused. Hats down to the man.

*Also, this is the first time he's had jelly babies since Robot. I kind of expected him to use them more often.

*How did the Tesh carve the Fourth Doctor's visage into the mountain?

*How come the Tesh simultaneously understand science and yet cover up all the computer banks and stuff with clothing?

*If this takes place generations after the survey team landed, how is all the machinery still working?

*The only criticism I have about Leela is that she has a very silly-sounding name.

CONCLUSION

Meh. Not bad, but not standing up to the quality of the stuff we've had recently.