Doctor Who: The Face Of Evil [DVD]

Description

When the TARDIS arrives on a jungle planet, the Doctor encounters two warring tribes, the Sevateem and the Tesh. The Sevateem worship a god called Xoanon and the Tesh are supposedly keeping Xoanon prisoner…But why do the Sevateem call the Doctor the Evil One? And what are the invisible creatures in the jungle? The Time Lord, with the help of a girl called Leela, is about to find out.Special Features• Commentary • Into the Wild Cast and crew talk about the making of The Face of Evil• From the Cutting Room Floor Film trims provide a behind-the-scenes glimpse at the film shoot.• Tomorrow’s Times – The Fourth Doctor A look at press coverage of Doctor Who during the Tom Baker era. • Doctor Who Stories: Louise Jameson talks about her role on the programme in this interview shot for 2003’s The Story of Doctor Who.• Swap Shop An extract from Louise Jameson’s appearance on The Multi-Coloured Swap Shop, interviewed by Noel Edmonds.• Denys Fisher Toys Advert • 1976 Typhoo Tea Doctor Who Promotion • Radio Times listings • Programme subtitles• Production information subtitles• Photo gallery• Coming soon trailer• Digitally remastered picture and sound quality Review: Your face is familiar - The fourth story of Tom Baker's third year as Doctor Who comes to dvd. With all four twenty five minute long episodes presented on a single disc. This story also saw the first appearance of Louise Jameson as his companion Leela. It sees the Doctor - travelling on his own - visit a jungle planet. Where there are two tribes. In the jungle live the rather primitive Sevateem. Of whom Leela is a member. Elsewhere on the planet live the rather more advanced Tesh. And everyone mentions a god called Xoanon. But at the same time, one look at the Doctor's face has people shocked and calling him the evil one. And there are deadly invisible creatures in the jungle. With the help of Leela, the Doctor aims to find the truth about the planet. But a surprise and a familiar face await him.... This comes from an era that most regard as the best of the original seris, a time when the show was at the height of it's powers. With a charismatic star and a production team who were taking the programme to new heights. Thus it's a polished and excellent production with Tom Baker well at home in the lead role. The jungle set is superb considering that it's all studio bound. All the supporting cast take it totally seriously and turn in good work. And Louise Jameson instantly makes an impression as Leela. Making her a smart and brave individual who just happens to come from a primitive planet and thus has little knowledge and experience outside her own realm. But one who is smart enough to learn. There are certain violents elements about the character's behaviour that did get flak at the time, but these vanish in due course. The story is also something that the programme hasn't done all that often. It's genuine science fiction. A totally alien and well worked out world with a mystery at the heart of it. It's not the greatest story ever made but it's a very good one from a great era. And thus it's worth five stars. The dvd has the following language and subtitle options; Languages: English. Subtitles: English. It also has English audio navigation. The extras are the usual: Commentary from several members of the cast and crew [including Louise Jameson and producer Philip Hinchcliffe, but not on this occasion Tom Baker]. Production infromation subtitles. A photo gallery of stills from the story and it's production. A coming soon trailer for the next release in this dvd range. The radio times listings for the story as PDF Files. Also as a PDF file [viewable by putting the disc into a computer and opening said files] are a reproduction of a 1976 Typhoo tea Doctor Who promotion. Other extras: A typically excellent twenty five minute long making of documentary about the story. From the cutting room floor: Nine minutes of film of it being made. This does have onscreen captions to explain what you're seeing being done so it works quite well and is quite interesting. Tomorrow's times: the Fourth Doctor. Latest in a series of these, which has looked as how news media reported the era of each Doctor. This one is presented by Wendy Padbury [Second Doctor companion Zoe] and whilst it has it's moments it only runs for twelve minutes, thus it gets through the era rather quickly and has little of substance. More substance can be found in Doctor Who stories: Louise Jameson. This, as with the recent one about Elizabeth Sladen on an earlier release from this year, was originally recorded in 2003 and uses the same format of discussing aspects of her time on the show in various sections. But it's a good interview and very enjoyable, although it does duplicate a little of the material from the making of documentary. There's also a four minute long extract from an appearance Louise Jameson made on saturday morning kids show Swap Shop [which will be familiar as it was on the VHS release of the story]. There's also a tv advert for a range of Doctor Who toys - including the Doctor and Leela - that were released in the mid 70's. This advert is so very 1970's in style it should bring back many memories of the time. Review: Far better than its reputation - 'The Face of Evil' sadly isn't one of the better remembered stories of the Philip Hinchcliffe era which is a shame as it's a superb story. The pace is slow but it's an intelligent script with some great ideas behind it. The story deals with the intriguing idea of the Doctor's intervention having an adverse effect on a civilisation; the Doctor was responsible for, albeit accidentally, driving Xoanon insane. There is also a pleasing element of mystery to the early part of the story as we see a primitive tribe with what appears to be the remains of advanced technology. The set design is creative; the story features a convincing jungle set but after two episodes the action shifts to the futuristic white corridors of the colonists spaceship which are also impressive sets. The chamber with three large screens that represents Xoanon is also very effective. The Sevateem are well realised with good costumes. The Tesh on the other hand are less impressive, they have silly costumes and a bizarre comical bowing ritual. After a downbeat performance in 'The Deadly Assassin' Tom Baker is back to his old self here cracking jokes and being eccentric in a very strong performance. Louise Jameson is superb as new companion Leela. Leela's characterisation is very different to other companions, she is portrayed as fearless, violent and extremely tough with the Doctor objecting to her acts of brutality. Leela is also shown to be ignorant but intelligent, the Doctor even describes her as a genius. There are some very memorable cliffhangers such as the one at the end of episode one where we see the Doctor's face carved Mount Rushmore style into a cliff face. The episode three cliffhanger where Xoanon torments the Doctor is harrowing. All in all 'The Face of Evil' is a clever, gripping, thought provoking story with pleasing twists and a great new companion. The main extra is 'Into the Wild' an informative 25 minute 'making of' documentary. 'From the Cutting Room Floor' is a selection of film trims from filming done for the story at Ealing. 'Tomorrow's Times The Fourth Doctor' is about newspaper coverage of Doctor Who during the Tom Baker era. It is presented by Wendy Padbury. They cover William Hartnell's sad death in April 1975 and some of the reactions to it. 'Doctor Who Stories: Louise Jameson' is 17 minutes of footage from an interview with Louise Jameson, conducted in 2003, in which she talks about her time on the show. There is also a short clip from a 1977 episode of 'Swap Shop' in which Louise Jameson is interviewed by Noel Edmonds.