REVIEW:
A story that is close to my heart, because it is the first Doctor Who I can ever remember watching.
When I was young, Doctor Who was on PBS at 10 PM on Saturday. My family had already been watching it for years, and when I was around the age of 4 they decided I was finally old enough. I remember sitting in someone's lap that night, watching this story play out on the screen. It was a magical moment.
While The Face Of Evil may not be the best story of the classic series, it is actually a very good introduction to anyone who hasn't seen Doctor Who before. There aren't any references to previous stories; It's set during Tom Baker's era of the program, and he is considered the most iconic of the Doctors; It is also the introduction of Leela as his latest companion, so you get to meet her and get to know her along with the Doctor.
Leela is an interesting companion. Many of the previous female companions in the series often had the reaction of screaming when faced with danger/evil aliens, and it got to the point where it was a cliche. To break free of this longstanding trend, the production team decided to create a companion who would be a stronger role model for the girls in the audience. She is a warrior, someone who always takes action and isn't afraid of anything. While she finds herself out of her depth after meeting the Doctor and beginning to learn from him, she is still able to adapt well to her new situation.
As for the other characters, the most memorable has to be Neeva, the shaman. In the first couple of episodes he overacts quite alot, but it doesn't feel too out of place because his character is meant to be a fanatic.
Because this was an entirely studio-bound production, the forest set had to be totally constructed, using fake trees, plastic pipes painted and dressed up, and lots of fake cobwebs. While odd to today's audiences, it does manage to create a spooky enough atmosphere, helped by the constant sounds of animal noises in the soundtrack, which make it come alive as much as possible. It helps to contrast the differences between the Sevateem and the Tesh when the action moves into the space ship during the third and fourth episodes.
The Sevateem village is never really seen apart from a couple of interior and exterior set pieces, and only one other female warrior apart from Leela is ever on screen, but only during the march toward their unsuccessful attack. Similarly, all of the Tesh are male, so questions people might have of societal structure of the Sevateem and how the Tesh reporduce, especially given their denail of the flesh in favor of mental achievment, are never answered. But then, this is typical for TV Doctor Who; there is not really any room for much of anything beyond the core story. It gets the job done, at least.
THE BEST BITS:
- The handkerchief joke.
- The Doctor's use of an egg timer to distract the vibration-hunting creatures. A quirky sollution that is typical of the character.
- When asked where he learned to shoot a crossbow: "In Switzerland. Charming man... William Tell, he was called."
- The cliffhanger to Episode 3: The Doctor writhing in agony with his own face projected on screens all around him, screaming, "No!"
- One of the great quotes of all time: "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, which can be uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that needs altering."
