Face of Evil - Very Powerful & Very Stupid

[Si Hunt]

The boxed in format of the UK release actually makes it look better. It's not all that bad when the graphic is closed in. Quite nice, in fact. Although that sculptor really ought to be thrown to the Horda.

Si.

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

The face on the mountain still looks like my Aunt Dolly...

That just makes me want to burst into song.

[Stuart Wallis]

...one of the many things we had to stop Aunt Dolly doing frequently...

[Rob McCow]

Thanks to some internet money-off vouchers, I'm in the rare position of having ordered some Doctor Who DVDs.

So for what seems like every day for the past month, Si has been asking me 'Is The Face of Evil on it's way yet?' to which my response has been 'How the heck should I know?!!'

Although today I can now answer that question with a 'Yes'. It's leaping it's way from HMV as we speak.

[Si Hunt]

Ours is on its way too. Sometimes such good things happen that you just feel euphorically drunk on the exuberance of life.

Si.

[SiHart]

Well I Neeva.

[Si Hunt]

Make sure you get rid of the now redundant video when the DVD comes, Si. I know you're a bit of a horda.

Si.

[Stuart Wallis]

To keep the video or not? A janis thorny problem!

[Si Hunt]

Crikey, this is a crap story! It's odd because you can see what they're doing, and it's all reasonably accomplished (so far) but there's a distinct lack of magic here. In fact, it's just boring. There's a silly tribe consisting of unattractive topless old men, no especially sparkling lines, no monsters and the episode 1 cliffhanger is the Doctor finding a not especially convincing model of his face in a cliff.

The best things about this are the interaction between Doc and Leela, and he appears mildly bored throughout, and the suggestion of technology behind a primitive civilisation.

But it's really, really slim pickings. And this is with a faint knowledge that the really awful episodes are still to come.

Oh dear.

Si.

[Rob McCow]

My opinion is as different from yours as the Sevateem is different from the Tesh.

[Si Hunt]

That's good. Tell me why you like it sometime!

Si.

[Rob McCow]

Bah! I can't be bothered right now. We'll do the commentary this week and I'll fill you in then.

[Stuart Wallis]

I'll fill you in then.

No, I won't even bother!

[Dirk Gently]

[Si Hunt]

Episode 2 is somewhat more exciting than Episode 1, with the gun battle (despite one shot where they simply don't bother to overlay on the visual effects of the rays) and the Doctor curing the Janus thorn in Leela. The cliffhanger, however, is terrible. Ooh, Tomas is in danger? Must tune in next week to check he is ok.

Si.

[J.R. Southall]

Aw, I'm rather fond of The Face of Evil. I'd take it over Planet of Evil any day - and Planet of Evil is great!

[SiHart]

I'd definitely take it over Planet of Wretched Evil any day!

[Si Hunt]

Well so would I, both of them are dull!

Si.

[Dirk Gently]

It may be a bad reflection on me but I quite like them both.

[Si Hunt]

So far you all like this story but no-one has come up with one good thing in its favour! C'mon, what's so good about it?

Si.

[SiHart]

The script crackles with fine dialogue, like all Chris Boucher scripts. The ideas behind the story are great, especially so the Doctor's past catching up with him- the first time his past influences his future. I love that. It's the first time Tom wears that lovely chocolate brown jacket. Louise Jameson is stunningly brilliant in this, bringing a new dynamic with the Doctor to the companion role and easily wiping the memory of Sarah Jane Smith. The iconography of the Doctor's face on the mountain, and in the Xoanon scenes is rather good, the sound effect of the Tesh guns is brill, I love the corruption of the names- the Sevateem for Survey Team and Tesh for Techs. Clever stuff.

It's a very good story.

[Si Hunt]

There are some very interesting ideas here struggling to get out. The idea that the Doctor visited the Mordee expedition and repaired their computer, leaving his personality print on it and driving it mad, is excellent (though when he's supposed to have made this little jaunt is not clear; maybe they could have been really adventurous and got Pertwee back to play Xoanon?). Si is right, although not her best story, Louise Jameson makes you forget Sarah Jane instantly. It's all very odd indeed.

Unfortunately, as we have seen time and time again, all this is wrecked by two of Doctor Who's biggest evils - a director who doesn't care, and a costume/set designer with no money. The direction is lazy - there's a 10 second shot of a dull wall with a crap model peaking through (somehow the Doctor and Leela are in some sort of invisible transport module). The scene where they are strapped to a desk is dreadful, cliched James Bond stuff; when they escape, it's clear neither how the Doctor got his mirror from his pocket into his hand, or what he does with it. I think they don't even bother to overlay the effect of the ray bouncing off it, so we just see a crap flash charge on the gun, which itself is a boring camera type device.

The sets of the ship are boring white panelled walls, and the colour scheme of the Tech is green and purple; their actual outfits are like clown costumes with lampshades on the head. In short, the whole ship design and colour scheme clashes, there is no uniformity at all, and the whole thing looks a mess. There's not even much attempt to show that it IS a ship, and it just looks like an alien base.

I think what this story needed was a good director to bring out the script, and to make the most of some good ideas with some directorial flourishes; alas, it comes over like a portent of the next year, the cheap 'prison' scenes resembling something out of The Sunmakers or Underworld. It's a real shame, as there is a lot of promise here.

I remembered Episode 4 as being where the rot set in, but I was wrong - it's a lot earlier! I concede there is lots of potential here, unfortunately despite all we say about budget not being the point of Doctor Who, a lack of money and a lazy director can stifle a good script and make it unpleasant to look at and tedious to advance through. The music? Who can remember any of it. Pennant dragged everyone down with him!

We're amazed at how inconsistent Doctor Who could be over its original run. This reminds me of "Caves of Androzani" and "The Twin Dilemma". Beside an all-time classic ("The Robots of Death") where everyone pulls together to make something special out the script, comes a workmanlike cash-starved effort which everyone seems to be trying to get to the end of, rather than relishing the opportunity to make the story blossom.

Si.

[Simon R]

It's the first time Tom wears that lovely chocolate brown jacket.

Is it not the same one as "Pyramids" and "Masque"?

[Stephen Morgan]

The idea that the Doctor visited the Mordee expedition and repaired their computer, leaving his personality print on it and driving it mad, is excellent (though when he's supposed to have made this little jaunt is not clear;

The teleplay is not clear on this point no! But the TARGET novel states that while the fourth doctor was in a post regenerative state he managed to sneak away from UNIT HQ for this little adventure. Hence he has no memory of Xoanon, or of what he did to it in the first place.
That's the gist of it from memory, I haven't read the book in years, maybe I should dig it out again.

[SiHart]

Is it not the same one as "Pyramids" and "Masque"?

No, that's a burgundy one as it turns out that they hired for him to wear. This is a new one that John Bloomfield had made up to a similar design.