Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 464: The Face of Evil, Episode Four

Dear diary,

‘I never know why,’ the Doctor explains to a splinter of Clara during The Snowmen, ‘I only know who…’

He is, of course, talking about the way in which he chooses people to travel with him. It seems like the TARDIS is the same - she must have given Leela a hint as to which button needed pressing for the ship to take off so quickly! At the start of this story, she thought the height of technology was a crossbow, and yet now she’s able to run into the TARDIS and set the ship into flight seemingly on first try. I’m not complaining - I really enjoyed that entire final scene, and I can’t wait to see how the Doctor’s relationship with Leela is dealt with in the next episode, since he didn’t ask her to come along.

I’ve really enjoyed Leela throughout this story. It’s felt unusual to have a companion introduced with any kind of background again. Liz is introduced fresh to UNIT, so doesn’t know any of the characters. Jo does know them by the time she meets the Doctor, but only just, and Sarah Jane is brought in to this world and introduced to them all one-by-one too. Even Harry doesn’t feel like we’re greeting him on his own terms, because he suddenly pops up as a previously unseen aspect of a team we already know. The last time we met a new companion in their ‘natural environment’ was way back with Zoe in The Wheel in Space, so it’s nice to see a return to that format here.

And I love that the Doctor doesn’t automatically plan to take Leela with him. I’d always assumed (I say that as though I’ve ever given it more than about thirty seconds thought) that the Doctor would simply reach the end of this adventure and ask Leela if she fancied a trip round the universe with him. Travel broadens the mind and all that. Throughout the story, she’s been filling the role of companion admirably, getting on well with the Doctor, saving his life and caring for him when he’s unconscious for two days… I never considered that he’d not think twice about leaving without her. It’s nice, though, because I’m never fond of the idea that one companion leaves and he just goes off to pick up the next one. You can also wonder if he already thinks of himself as having a companion in Sarah Jane. He only took her home because she couldn’t come to Gallifrey with him, and he was aiming for London at the start of this story. Could it be that Leela turning up and rushing into the TARDIS distracts him for long enough to give up on returning for Sarah?

I’m really excited by it all. I’ve said several times in the last week or so that I wanted this story to act as a fresh start for the programme, and I think it’s done just that. Tom Baker has been on fine form, and Louise Jameson makes a fantastic first impression - even down to tiny little moments, as when Xoanon forms a seat for her and the Doctor. Tom settles in and continues the conversation, but my attention was solely on Louise, who makes it clear that Leela isn’t used to this kind of furniture! It’s a tiny moment, but it’s wonderful. Even the style of there story has felt like something of a hybrid between the programme as it’s been for the last few seasons, and the way that it’ll be come about 1980. The design of the Mordee ship feels like something you’d see in Peter Davison’s era, and the costumes of the Tesh give me the same impression too. Meanwhile, the browns and reds of the ‘outside world’ feel closer in tone to what I’ve come to know since Baker took over the role. This really is something of a changeover story.

Even the effects, used to provide both the image of Tom Baker’s face in the role of Xoanon, and the final form of the computer once its mind has been cleared, feel a bit more progressive. We’re coming up on the half-way point in Tom Baker’s tenure, and we’re right at the height of the programme’s popularity. I’m really thrilled to have been enjoying this one so much, and I really hope the trend continues from here…