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A huge mountain with the Doctor's face carved in. A god going mad. A jungle haunted by strange apparitions. Could the Doctor's past be catching up with him?
What do you think of Face of Evil?
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http://images.wikia.com/tardis/image...evil_title.jpg
A huge mountain with the Doctor's face carved in. A god going mad. A jungle haunted by strange apparitions. Could the Doctor's past be catching up with him?
What do you think of Face of Evil?
A great introduction for a new kind of companion. It plods in a few places though. 8/10
There's some superb stuff in this adventure, but there's too many places where the ambition outstrips the budget. In many ways, this is far more imaginative and inventive than doing another Hammer rip-off.
This is also the first time that Tom Baker goes inside his own head on Doctor Who.
I'm very fond of this story. I remember liking the book as a kid a great deal.
What does it for me is that it is one of those rare stories that deals with the consequences of the Doctor's actions. They are few and far between. OK so we haven't seen his original visit, but the idea of coming back to somewhere and finding out that the Doctor's presence hasn't had a benign effect feels fresh and new, particularly in context in 1977. Combine this with strong performances, a snappy script and some good images and cliffhangers, you get something rather good.
It's all a bit of a pity that the bits in the Temple of Xoanon look a bit cheap and underwhelming, but the forest looks great, as does the Doctor Mountain and the video effects are great.
"Who am I?!" is up there as one of the finest cliffhangers in the show's history too.
I remember liking the book too, Si. But although I know I watched The Deadly Assassin and Robots of Death when they first went out, there's a "nothing in the middle" when it comes to remembering Face of Evil - maybe, for some reason, we missed it all??
I've seen it once, though, on UK Gold, and really enjoyed it. Chris Boucher is a really good writer, although ironically this debut script is quickly overshadowed by his own next story!!! It's a shame that the 'face on the mountain' reveal looks so poor, it's so clearly a not-very-convincing model that it detracts from what should be one of the great cliffhangers. Part three IS one of the greats, though... and I like the bit with the settee too.
I thought it was set on the same Planet of Evil. The book covers looked almost identical forest-wise...Quote:
I remember liking the book too, Si
And in The Face Of Evil, they really are attacked by giant rolling heads - which the cover of Planet of Evil implies.
You know, that could why i don't like Planet of Evil. I was sure Sorenson's head was going to be rolling around the place...
There's some fantastic acting in this (Louise Jameson; best actress ever to play a companion?), and some really mad ideas in a really great script. It doesn't quite all hang together, but I've always loved the result.
There's been better, even in this season; but there's been a whole lot worse. The worst you can say about the story is the very obvious mountain model and the slightly variable acting, but the story is solid enough.
7/10
6/10 - a story of two contrasting sides. The writing is superb - both the underlying ideas and the actual dialogue. There are some outstanding moments - one of my favourites is Tom talking to Xoanon and explaining how he went mad before the Ep 3 cliffhanger, but there are many other little gems in both words and actions (the Doctor being heartely pissed off that Leela has defeated the Tesh guard on his own). Star of the show is definitely David Garfield's Neeva - esp when he goes Rambo at the end, but there are some nice touches for Leela and Tom as well.
However, anything good is heavily weighed down by the pretty terrible production. The forest sets just don't work for me - esp when it switches between film and vidoe, and once location doesn't even begin to join up with another. Similarly we have a very overlit ship (except for the odd control room) and the embarrassment of a full scale battle in 3 corridors no bigger in total than your lounge. Tomas and Andor are very poorly acted, and even Caleb seems to lose his way by the end. Add on top some dodgy CSO that would make Underworld embarrassed and its just not that pleasant to watch.
Now , as an audio only story.......
That said, the scenes in Xoanon's shrine look really good. the video treatment of Tom Baker's face looks great and the CSO works really well with the multiple images of the face swimming onto the screen.
True, but many of the scenes with actors CSOd against backgrounds are pretty poor, as are the gun effects and the Baker-Face monsters.Quote:
Originally Posted by SiHart
I always quite liked the gun effects, but that might be because I like the sound effect rather than the red beams themselves.
I've never been particularly keen on this story. I just think it's pretty boring and drags the season down a bit, following as it does from the rather dull Deadly Assassin. The season as a whole starts well and finishes well, but it falters in the middle because of these two stories.
I think that 'The Face of Evil' is probably my least favourite of Season 14 - not because it's bad in any way (in fact, quite the opposite), but that I like all the other stories so much more.
As I suggested on the DVD forum, there's a lot going for it, with some good design, a great new companion in Leela (and what a performance from Louise Jameson), and a very good script by Chris Boucher, featuring some novel, and at times, daring concepts.
But I just don't know why it doesn't stand out for me. I admit I've only seen it a couple of times, and not for a few years now, but it has just never grabbed me, and other than what I've mentioned, there isn't an awful lot that I can ever remember about it.
That said, the Part Three cliffhanger, with the giant face of Tom screaming 'Who am I? in a child's voice, has to be one of the weirdest, most unsettling ever.
