Leela has always been my favourite companion. She chose to join the doctor, because she saw someone who needed help. And she chose to leave him, when someone else needed her more.
If I'm not mistaken Tom Baker is the only Doctor who's had the opportunity to play against himself as the villain on two separate occasions. Which to be fair, his run lasted the longest of anyone's and was practically two Doctors (scary Who and wacky pantomime Who), so it's not surprising it happened twice
Really glad to have found this piece of superb reviewery, Chimp! As you mention a number of times, The Face of Evil stands not only as testament to the quality of 70s Who but, in particular, is unmistakably Chris Boucher/Phillip Hinchcliffe Who. The "Robots of Death" DVD extra of the interview with the former makes one appreciate just what a deep-thinking and skilful (TV) writer Boucher was and the opinions that he expresses in the interview about high-end concepts such as freedom and oppression speak volumes for him as a person. A really enjoyable watch - thanks and God bless for the future (in keeping with the content of the video).
The Tom Baker(Dr Who) with Leela companion are among my favorite episodes. The writing, sets, Special effects were most part brilliant. Talons of Weng Chiang and Pyramids of Mars top list.
The amount of exposed male upper leg in the story makes it a bit of a favourite. I'm suprised nobody has done a prequel or sequel. Imagine Ncuti Gatwa going to an advanced planet populated by telepathic near nudists with green shoes only to clock the Mount Rushmore sized carving of Tom Baker.
Two things to add: a DVD interview revealed that the skimpy costumes of the ‘Survey Team’ were an in-joke by the gay costume designer based upon S&M/Drag wear (it became a contest to see what they could get past Ms Whitehouse) and plot question: if the two tribes are born of many generations of in-breeding till they forgot about their origins, where are all the women & children?
It does suffer from Smurf Village Syndrome. I imagine Women and Children were only allowed near the seat of power if they did something really wrong which why we see Leela Smurfette.
The Face of Evil is one of my favourite Doctor Who stories. Good story. It's a bit like the First Doctor story "The Savages''. The perfect introduction story for Leela.
I was lucky enough to be in the studio for this. I also had dinner with some of the cast. (don't ask) lol I really, really loved this story. Thought it all worked really well.
I’m so glad that someone else loves this story as much as I do. I think it’s a very underrated story. Thanks Chimp for taking my suggestion for this story!! Also, I agree with your hot take and I hope they done update the special effects on this story. This story really looks great for 70’s Who.
'Face of Evil' is the sequel to the 'Planet of Evil' story from season 13. I don't know if you've mentioned this anywhere, I may have missed it. The previous story is a blatant 'Forbidden Planet' rip off, and they seemed to have a spate of using 50s/early 60s sci-fi B-Movie tropes during that period. One thing I've noticed going through the original series on BBC i-Player is that the costume design for some of these episodes is excellent. The 'Tesh' look like Mobius drawings from 'Heavy Metal'.
Thank you. Doesn't Louise Jameson have to wear contacts and we find some troubles behind the scenes at this point, even Tom not liking the Leela character? Great deep dive.
As I remember Tom Baker was very full of himself and becoming a bit of a diva in production by this time and he felt like he didn't need to have a companion as it took away from him being the star of the show
1. Yes. Getting rid of the dark contacts is why her eyes "changed color" from the explosion in Horror of Fang Rock. Why they wanted to hide Jameson's brilliant eye colour to begin with is a puzzle. 2. Baker himself admitted that he was suffering from both the ego that came from extreme fame and heavy alcoholism and he was a terror to everyone. (Except kids. AFAIK every Doctor actor kept in character around children) Because the show was having its highest ratings ever Graham Williams effectively let him steer the show into the deep silliness of the Romana 2 era.
As one of those who experienced the serial first before I knew about the novelisation, I personally find the idea that the Doctor just made a mistake through sheer arrogance and being a flawed character that he has to face the consequences of to be far more interesting than it just being a result of his regeneration trauma, so I'm actually glad that explanation never made it onto TV
