Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3474 in VHS
• Released on: 1999-05-04
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: HiFi Sound, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of tapes: 1
• Running time: 103 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
"The Face of Evil" (1976) was the fourth story in the 14th season of Dr Who. Tom Baker was well and truly established in the role of the heroic Time Lord, but the Doctor's popular assistant, Sarah Jane Smith played by Elizabeth Sladen had departed at the end of "The Hand of Fear". This story was inspired by HG Wells' The Time Machine (filmed in 1960) with its future society split in two: one group descended into primitive superstition the other surviving as a technological elite. Adding a crashed spaceship, a computer with multiple personalities and a mysterious carving of the Doctor, this would have been a routine adventure but for one thing; the first appearance of a new assistant played by Louise Jameson. An instant hit with the audience, Leela was a different kind of Dr Who companion. Confident, not adverse to violent self-defence, scantily-clad and unselfconsciously sexy, Leela was part-way between Tarzan's Jane and The Avengers' Emma Peel. Writer Chris Boucher acknowledged The Avengers influence, also noting that he named the character after Palestinian hijacker Leila Khaled! Leela stayed with the Doctor until the end of "The Invasion of Time" (1978). --Gary S. Dalkin

Synopsis
When the Doctor arrives in the Tardis on another planet he finds a savage tribe called the Sevateem who worship a spaceship computer. He succeeds in gaining access to the ship and sort out the problems with the help of a Sevateem girl called Leela. After, she manages to get on board the Tardis and the Doctor has found himself another companion.

Customer Reviews

Leela's Debut? - NB!
Arriving in a marshy jungle on some distant alien world, the Doc is suprised when the savage natives, the Sevateem, recognise him as ''the Evil One'' despite the fact that he has never seen them before, nor set foot on this very planet. Or has he? On the run from the Sevateem, the Doctor finds that his only ally is Leela, an outcast from the tribe, and he begins to unravel a mystery inextricably linked to his own shady past...

A break from the gothic tales that populate Baker's early years, The Face Of Evil is blessed with an intelligent and thought-provoking, if somewhat slow, script and some brill performances. Baker's at his boyish best and Louise Jameson makes nice her debut as Leela, although she isn't as good as in her next story - bloody masterpiece The Robots Of Death. Speaking of that tale, it is worth mentioning that Face has often been overlooked in favour of Robots, Talons or The Deadly Assassin, but trust me, it's a worthy purchase.

James

The Doctor faces past actions in a cracking Baker adventure
The Face of Evil is unusual in many respects. It finally gives us a story that examines the consequences of the Doctor's sometimes irresponsible actions. It gives us Leela, the savage who would just as soon knife someone as trip over and scream. And who can forget those strange cliffhangers? (Part 3 especially)

This is a weird and wonderful adventure set on an unnamed planet population by a savage tribe, the Sevateem, and a technologically advanced society who practice mind control, the Tesh. But by far the best character in this is Xoanon, the mysterious God of both tribes.

This is one of the best Fourth Doctor adventures you are likely to see, and a big round of applause for Chris Boucher, the writer, who also comes up with the Robots of Death and the Image of the Fendhal.

Revenge of the Sevateem; sort of
This mid 70s Tom Baker story is memorable for being the one that introduced leather-clad savage 'Leela'; part of the tribe of the Sevateem who were originally astronauts, The Doctor saves Leela's life and she becomes his bondsman, travelling with him for the next two seasons before settling on Gallifrey with a guard captain. Anyway, I digress; the story has an intriguing premise, featuring an insane computer which disturbingly has The Doctor's identity...The remainder of the story is fairly standard mid-70s Doctor Who fare but Tom Baker is on fine form and the interplay between him and the computer is pretty good too.
I would have given this 4 stars but accidentally clicked on five so that explains why the review is slightly at odds with the rating!