After a companion free story we get back to more traditional Doctor Who storytelling. Louise Jameson makes her debut in this story as the primitive yet aggressive Leela. The story sees the Doctor arrive on a mysterious planet where there is a primitive tribe that denounce the Doctor as the Evil One. The story suffers from a lack of a story. Ok there is a mystery as to why there is a huge rock with the Doctor’s face on it and why everyone thinks that the Doctor is the evil one but that mystery is very thin and is resolved once they travel through the mouth of the Doctor.
It seems odd seeing Louise Jameson’s Leela like this. Considering all the Leela stories I watch of her are of her later time it’s not much of a surprise. I have always had mixed feelings about the Leela character because sometimes I like her and sometimes I find her annoying. I think that despite the weak script she does well in this story and it’s probably a good thing that there was a four week gap between Elisabeth Sladen’s departure and Louise Jameson’s debut. However as we would see in future stories, Louise Jameson would effectively be background noise as Tom Baker would steal the scenes that they were in together. Tom Baker never wanted anyone to replace Elisabeth Sladen as he thought he could do it himself and as a result this is where the silliness of Tom Baker’s Doctor took over, there didn’t seem to be the sense of seriousness that there had been before.
There is a good performance from David Garfield as Neeva. He plays the one who’s getting the voices and is at several points possessed by Xoanon. He gets massive brownie points from me because in the early part has to walk around with a massive glove on his head. Leslie Schofield returns to Doctor Who after having appeared in ‘The War Games’ in 1969. In this he plays Calib which was an ok performance but nothing really special. Another familiar name is Lloyd McGuire who appeared in this story as Lugo (which doesn’t ring a bell) but he appeared in the Channel Four drama ‘Teachers’.
The different tribes that are this mysterious planets were well realised. They Seva team are the usual band of argumentative people with a certain number vying for the position of leader. It seems odd that Leela is the only woman that we get to see in this story. It’s never made clear why this is. She can’t be the only woman on the entire planet yet even the Tesh’s don’t have a female crew member. On the subject of the Tesh, I feel sorry for the actors because they are forced to wear the stupidest looking outfits I’ve seen for a long time. As a result I can’t take them seriously.
The only cliffhanger that was of any worth was episode three’s. The idea of the Doctor being killed or whatever by voices and a CSO laden effect of Baker’s face was quite effective. The rest were rather dull but unfortunately that sums up my feelings for the story. The first third is pretty much boring but the last quarter was where all the interesting stuff happens. It was a fun notion that it was the Doctor had effectively caused all of this. Had it not been for his involvement (in an unseen adventure) and use his mind print on something then things probably would have been better.
The Face of Evil is the worst story of the fourteenth season. It lacks any drama and as a result I find the Serva team to be a bunch of bland group of people. Chris Boucher’s first story isn’t his finest (but then again neither was the great Robert Holmes) but it introduced Leela and that’s the best thing in this story.
It seems odd seeing Louise Jameson’s Leela like this. Considering all the Leela stories I watch of her are of her later time it’s not much of a surprise. I have always had mixed feelings about the Leela character because sometimes I like her and sometimes I find her annoying. I think that despite the weak script she does well in this story and it’s probably a good thing that there was a four week gap between Elisabeth Sladen’s departure and Louise Jameson’s debut. However as we would see in future stories, Louise Jameson would effectively be background noise as Tom Baker would steal the scenes that they were in together. Tom Baker never wanted anyone to replace Elisabeth Sladen as he thought he could do it himself and as a result this is where the silliness of Tom Baker’s Doctor took over, there didn’t seem to be the sense of seriousness that there had been before.
There is a good performance from David Garfield as Neeva. He plays the one who’s getting the voices and is at several points possessed by Xoanon. He gets massive brownie points from me because in the early part has to walk around with a massive glove on his head. Leslie Schofield returns to Doctor Who after having appeared in ‘The War Games’ in 1969. In this he plays Calib which was an ok performance but nothing really special. Another familiar name is Lloyd McGuire who appeared in this story as Lugo (which doesn’t ring a bell) but he appeared in the Channel Four drama ‘Teachers’.
The different tribes that are this mysterious planets were well realised. They Seva team are the usual band of argumentative people with a certain number vying for the position of leader. It seems odd that Leela is the only woman that we get to see in this story. It’s never made clear why this is. She can’t be the only woman on the entire planet yet even the Tesh’s don’t have a female crew member. On the subject of the Tesh, I feel sorry for the actors because they are forced to wear the stupidest looking outfits I’ve seen for a long time. As a result I can’t take them seriously.
The only cliffhanger that was of any worth was episode three’s. The idea of the Doctor being killed or whatever by voices and a CSO laden effect of Baker’s face was quite effective. The rest were rather dull but unfortunately that sums up my feelings for the story. The first third is pretty much boring but the last quarter was where all the interesting stuff happens. It was a fun notion that it was the Doctor had effectively caused all of this. Had it not been for his involvement (in an unseen adventure) and use his mind print on something then things probably would have been better.
The Face of Evil is the worst story of the fourteenth season. It lacks any drama and as a result I find the Serva team to be a bunch of bland group of people. Chris Boucher’s first story isn’t his finest (but then again neither was the great Robert Holmes) but it introduced Leela and that’s the best thing in this story.
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