The Face of Evil is the fourth serial of the 14th season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 1 to 22 January 1977. This serial marked the debut of Louise Jameson as companion Leela. It was also the first of three stories written for the series by Chris Boucher and the first of five directed by Pennant Roberts.
In the serial, the powerful split-personality computer Xoanon (played by Tom Baker, Rob Edwards, Pamela Salem, Anthony Frieze, and Roy Herrick) attempts to create two super races from the descendants of a human expedition with eugenics—the savage Sevateem, and the psychic Tesh. The Fourth Doctor (Baker) seeks to repair this personality fault.
The serial is generally well received by reviewers, although Doctor Who fans consider it to be overshadowed by other stories in Season 14. It achieved high ratings, with three episodes attracting over 11 million viewers on first screening.
Plot
The Fourth Doctor, travelling alone in the TARDIS, arrives on a jungle planet and encounters Leela, a savage from the local tribe, who denounces him as the Evil One of fable among her people. She has been exiled from her tribe, the Sevateem, for profaning their god Xoanon who (by their legend) is kept prisoner by the Evil One and his followers, the Tesh, beyond a black wall. He speaks to them through the tribe's shaman, Neeva. The Doctor finds a sophisticated sonic disruptor, which creates the force field that keeps creatures from attacking the village. The Sevateem plan to launch an attack on the domain of the Tesh to free their god. Leading the attack is the combative Andor, who suspects Neeva of being a false prophet.
In Neeva's shrine, the Doctor inspects the ancient tribal relics, artifacts from an Earth survey expedition. He finds a transceiver used by Neeva to hear the commands of Xoanon. It speaks with the Doctor's own voice, conveying exhilaration on hearing the Doctor that "At last we are here. At last I shall be free of us." The Doctor tells some of the tribe the Sevateem are the descendants of a “survey team” which left a Starfall Seven Earth colony ship.
The Doctor and Leela arrive at a clearing beyond which, carved into a mountain nearby, is a depiction of the Doctor's face. The Doctor cannot recall why his likeness would be there. They notice a figure in a space suit in the “mouth” entrance and follow it through a projection of a wall. Beyond is a rocket, which the Doctor then recalls as belonging to the Mordee Expedition. Xoanon has detected the Doctor nearby, and when he reaches the ship the god-creature is both ecstatic that "We are here" while also manically pledging that "We must destroy us." The brute-force attack of the Sevateem against the technology of the Tesh fails badly, killing half the Sevateem, including Andor. The Doctor and Leela meet three representatives of the Tesh, who serve and worship Xoanon. The Doctor deduces both Sevateem and Tesh are descendants of the same crew from the Mordee Expedition, with the Tesh (or technicians) involved in the same deadly eugenics exercise as the Sevateem (or survey team). The invisible creatures that attacked the Sevateem are part of the same deranged scheme, which was created by Xoanon, a self-aware computer, designed to think independently. The Doctor had once repaired Xoanon but forgot to wipe his personality print from the data core, leaving the computer with a split personality. The Doctor, speaking as Xoanon with the communicator, instructs Neeva to tell Calib, who is now tribal leader, to lead the Sevateem survivors through the face in the mountain. With Leela keeping guard and holding the Tesh at bay, the Doctor ventures into the computer room of the ship to confront Xoanon. When Xoanon refuses to shut itself down, it channels a vicious mental assault at the Doctor, causing him to collapse, while Xoanon booms: "Who am I?"
The Tesh come under attack from Calib and the survivors of the Sevateem, who have reached the spaceship. Their attack diverts the Tesh while the Doctor and Leela return to the computer room. Xoanon uses its telepathic abilities to take control of Leela, most of the Sevateem, and the Tesh. The Tesh and Sevateem converge on the computer room and interrupt the Doctor as he tries to repair Xoanon, which has now triggered the countdown to an atomic explosion. Elsewhere in the ship, a shattered Neeva, whose loss of faith in Xoanon renders him able to resist Xoanon's telepathic commands, fires a disruptor gun at Xoanon's chamber. Xoanon kills Neeva but loses control of its subjects. The Doctor uses the interruption to complete extracting his personality print from Xoanon, which stabilises Xoanon, terminates the atomic explosion, and knocks the Doctor unconscious.
Two days later, the Doctor wakes up to find himself aboard the spaceship in the care of Leela. She reports that Xoanon has been quiet, and the Doctor interprets this as success for his extraction experiment. They visit the computer room and find Xoanon's identity and sanity restored. The computer confirms it was running a eugenics experiment and thanks the Doctor for his repair work. The Doctor then contacts the survivors of the Tesh and Sevateem and tells them Xoanon is now cured and able to support their new society. Calib nominates Leela to lead the combined Tesh and Sevateem. Leela instead jumps aboard the TARDIS, despite the protests of the Doctor, and initiates take-off.
Production
In early 1975 writer Chris Boucher submitted a storyline to the Doctor Who production office. Script editor Robert Holmes rejected the script as too short and unsuitable for the programme but was impressed by the imagination of the piece. He invited Boucher to work on another story, which was to be called The Prime Directive, based on an idea by Holmes and producer Philip Hinchcliffe about the breakdown of a society controlled by a central computer. A few months later in October 1975, Boucher delivered the story, now titled The Mentor Conspiracy. Over the next three months Boucher and Holmes worked on the script, retitling it The Tower of Imelo. Hinchcliffe also had some input coming up with the idea that the Doctor had visited the planet before, but his visit had had a negative impact. The episodic scripts were then officially commissioned on 27 January 1976. The red contact lenses she wore (to turn her blue eyes brown) caused her great discomfort and she was unable to wear them for long periods.
By the time the story went into the television studios, the title of the serial had changed yet again to The Face of Evil. The set designer for the serial was Austin Ruddy in his only Doctor Who outing. Hinchcliffe was impressed with the sets and considers him the best designer after Roger Murray-Leach. In episode three, several actors were employed to take on the voice of Xoanon, including Pamela Salem, who had also auditioned for the role of Leela and would then appear as a cast member in the following serial.