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The Doctor Who Saved Me Reviews #089: The Face of Evil(S14, Ep4)

Season 14, Episode 4

The Face of Evil(4 parts)

-Written by Chris Boucher

-Directed by Pennant Roberts

-Air Dates: January 1st-22nd, 1977

-Runtime: 99 minutes

Or as I like to call it...

The one with giant scary Tom Baker face

We Begin!!! In the midst of a meeting of the Sevateem tribe where they are deciding whether to exile one of their members Leela out into the dangerous forest on the count of blasphemy for denouncing their god Xoanon. She is exiled with her father sent to take the Test of the Horda in her place for which he likely will die as she is sent out into the woods and chased down by her people. As Leela runs she stumbles upon the TARDIS where The Doctor has come out exploring the local surroundings, and is quite taken aback by him, seemingly recognizing The Doctor and referring to him as the Evil One. The Doctor is confused but tries to reassure her and gives her some jelly babies to help calm her down a bit as the two begin to work together with The Doctor getting to learn a lot more about the situation at hand and the beliefs in Xoanon and the Evil One. The Doctor tries to approach with his appearance, scaring the other Sevateem members with him soon being captured and brought forth in front of the rest of the Sevateem with the head priest Neeva examining him while also preparing the warriors for an upcoming attack on the Tesh, praying to Xoanon. Leela takes the opportunity to free The Doctor and as the two run off they happen upon a mountain where a face has been carved into it, with it turning out that the face of evil(eyyy) which the Sevateem fear truly is none other than The Doctor's own.

Episode Proper

Yeah, this one was a solid watch. The Face of Evil is a pretty interesting episode, of course being the introduction to Leela as a companion, but also serving to be the one of the first episode to really tackle the consequences of The Doctor’s adventuring and how just because he consistently does great good, he isn’t infallible and can make mistakes with dire consequences. This is something that was touched on in The 1st Doctor story, The Ark, with the Monoid take over being helped by The Doctor curing the pandemic they were dealing with, showcasing that there can be consequences, though it really isn’t focused on that much there compared to here. Deconstructing The Doctor’s travels and showcasing the possible fallout that can happen from them is something that would become a staple of Modern Who and the EU, primarily the audios, with it becoming a much more regular thing, but back in Classic Who it wasn’t done that often, so it’s cool to see it really it get its start here.

This episode’s general premise is really good, being about two quarreling tribes, one primitive and one technologically advanced, being manipulated by an incredibly advanced supercomputer posing as their god in order to try and figure out its own ends.This starting premise is good but it becomes excellent with the great twist that The Doctor is unintentionally responsible for the whole situation, with it actually being his face that is considered the Evil One by the Sevateem. It serves to really make this episode stand out, even among and already well loved crowd of stories this season, with the use of The Doctor’s involvement helping to give it a great layer of depth that is wouldn’t have had this just been a standard, The Doctor stumbling into a crisis, with it giving it a whole new dimension that really works in its favor.

I’ll talk more on this deconstruction a little later, but first I want to talk about the primary plot for most of the episode, that being the conflict between the Sevateem and the Tesh. I like the build up of how we get to Xoanon and the reveal of what’s really going on, with The Doctor encountering this strange tribe of humans who are all incredibly fearful of him for some unknown reason, with us learning more about the tribe and their customs and beliefs which I do find interesting to learn. I adore the the backstory of the Sevateem, and the Tesh by connection, with the idea of this rather primitive tribe actually being the descendants of these space explorers who ended up on this planet being great, showcasing and interesting evolution in what happened to them, to the point they no longer remember that they were technologically advanced space faring humans. It’s good showcase of Xoanon’s influence, especially in contrast to the Tesh who have that similar lack of memory to their past but have instead advanced psychically and kept their technological advancements; a great dichotomy that fits well in with the experiment Xoanon is attempting to conduct.

I really enjoyed learning about the Sevateem and their relation to Xoanon, the Tesh, and The Doctor. I loved how they have all this advanced technology with them, most no longer working, that they barely understand how they work, with it being fun seeing how they have come to interpret them into their culture, like the ceremonial helmet that has the glove of a space suit on its head, or various sacred artifacts being various pieces of equipment that they have interpreted as having spiritual meaning instead of technological usage. Even the name Sevateem has a fun twist, with it actually being a misinterpretation over the years of the term survey team, which the Sevateem originally were before Xoanon’s influence; the same also applies to the Tesh who were originally just technicians before this shift in their development. It all helps show well the difference between the Sevateem and the Tesh well, with it also being a fun look as to what would happen to all this advanced technology once the society that understood it was gone; just the concept is cool, asking some fun little existential questions of what would future generations think of the current one, or alien societies to abandon Earth technology, rather interesting to think about.

I’ll be honest though, while I do really enjoy this story and liked learning about the Sevateem and their culture, I found the first half dealing with their tribe politics a bit boring. While it was interesting learning more about them, the infighting between much of the Sevateem I just found to be rather monotonous and not that interesting. While it is somewhat reasonable and could be interesting, basically being some of the Sevateem not wanting to go on the offensive knowing the defense by the Tesh will kill them, especially since it plays a major part in Leela meeting The Doctor, it just went on for longer than I cared for, with it feeling that there was little progression with them. It reminded me of the similar annoyance and boredom I felt with the Thals infighting in Planet of the Daleks. Thankfully though, it’s not nearly to that level, with it being cut short for the more interesting action to go on instead, with the conflict between the Sevateem and Tesh being way more interesting.

I like the build up to the Tesh, with them being these mysterious figures who are feared by the Sevateem and also seem to have a close connection with Xoanon. They have incredible power from the little we see of them in the first half, as they mercilessly mow down the Sevateem. While their outfits are laughable, looking like they are about to do The Nutcracker ballet, they do live up to their reputation by the Sevateem when we end up on their side of the fence in the latter half of the episode. They have immense and cool psychic power which was interesting to see, with them being incredibly technologically advanced compared to the Sevateem, making them a great threat once The Doctor and Leela end up having to deal with them, with even The Doctor being susceptible to their psychic attacks.

The Tesh serve well to shake the episode up once they become a more prominent presence in the latter half, with the conflict between them and the Sevateem being fantastic. The contrast between them is readily apparent even at a glance with it being great seeing it explored in the episode and how deliberately this dichotomy of the two groups is meant to be. I love how while the Tesh are more technologically advanced compared to the Sevateem, they are also much more close minded, having an almost eugenic like mentality to the Sevateem, seeing them as lesser beings who they must destroy. Despite their advancements and lack of superstition, they are actually much more hateful and cruel than the Sevateem, which makes sense since these advancements are caused by a culture made by Xoanon to repress emotion and be more cold and logical, thus they lack any of the emotions that would make them more open to peace, and instead are awful to those they consider lesser.

I loved the conflict between the Tesh and Sevateem, with the action being great between them, with it being cool to see the differing interactions between them once both groups finally meet up face to face. The conflict between the Tesh and Sevateem have some great themes about hate with it also serving well to parallel Xoanon’s struggle internally between both sides of himself. The latter part is intentional with the great reveal that both groups have been part of an experiment by Xoanon in an attempt to understand his own condition and eventually make a decision. I love that explanation for what’s going on, so cool and interesting to see this experiment by an extremely powerful intelligence, with it doing well to also tie into The Doctor’s own failings and show how his own misunderstanding of the situation really did lead to all this happening.

I love the last part of the episode with the experiment by Xoanon coming to an end, and him deciding to try and end his dual identity once and for all. It’s so tense yet fun at the same time, with the Tesh and Sevateem converging on one another, the tension of the latter being wiped out being replaced by the greater tension when Xoanon takes control of every member of both tribes to attack The Doctor and complete destruction. It’s a wild and tense finale, especially with Leela being controlled as well, with the added commentary by Xoanon making for a truly exciting final action sequence for the episode which I was on the edge of my seat while watching. The first half of this episode might’ve been a bit slow, but the latter half and especially this finale more than make up for it; I was truly captivated the whole time, it was

Pacing, Sets, and Special Effects

The pacing here was pretty good for the most part, even if it is a bit slow to get going at first with the tribe infighting. The sets here are solid, I like the jungle sets for the outside area of the planet, with it being nice and colorful while having a nice sinister feel about them, reminding me well of the sets used in Planet of Evil. The inside areas are also pretty good, from the cave area to the Tesh base which excellently contrasts the Sevateem’s jungle environment. I love the set used for the main hub of Xoanon, with it being simple, just a bunch of screens which they project Xoanon’s creepy face on forward and backward, but it’s incredibly effective, especially for that cliffhanger for part 3 where they all move about; great, creepy stuff.

The special effects for this episode were actually pretty good, with the video effects used to depict Xoanon’s face and the monsters attacking people actually being rather creepy and effective. It just looks so cool with Tom Baker’s face doing well to give this disturbed look to it with all the video effects added on; even if they look a bit cheesy, I like having his face be the invisible monsters that attack people, with that effect also looking pretty good. The props for this episode were excellent, your usual blasters of course, but I really liked the model used of The Doctor’s face on the side of the cliff, with that just looking fantastic. The costumes for this episode are good, with the Sevateem outfits getting across their tribal aesthetic with the torn rags, with the costumes for the Tesh looking good, albeit very silly.

Xoanon

Xoanon was a fantastic and really compelling villain for this episode, especially with how he is a result of The Doctor’s meddling. Xoanon is well built up in the episode before we get to learn much about him, learning that both the Sevateem and the Tesh worship him as a god, with the legend of the Evil One and attack in The Doctor by the Sevateem who recognize his face serving to build the intrigue until we get the great reveal of the giant carving of The Doctor’s face. Not only does the reveal of The Doctor’s face make for a fantastic cliffhanger for part 1, with it literally being carved onto the side of a cliff, his face as the one the supercomputer Xoanon takes served to really facilitate that The Doctor has been here before and it’s his fault for what’s going on. I like Xoanon’s subtle and manipulative presence throughout the episode, just being this disembodied voice manipulating the Sevateem for mysterious reasons and seemingly having great power. He’s always in the background it feels like, with the level of control he has being rather threatening even if we don’t see him, leading various Sevateem to their deaths for unknown reasons, with his control of the invisible creatures of the forest also being very scary; not the least of which being because they are giant version of The Doctor’s face.

When we finally get to where the Tesh are and more importantly where Xoanon is, The Doctor finally figures out who he is and the part he played in all this. I love Xoanon’s backstory, being an incredibly intelligent being that became so advanced it turned into a new form of life that was accidentally tampered with by The Doctor, who believed it to simply be malfunctioning, with his imprinting of his personality into the computer and failure to remove it being what caused this whole mess. Xoanon basically had DID and went insane due to this split personality and struggle with identity, with that resulting in his manipulation of the Sevateem and the Tesh. I like how Xoanon casts a shadow on The Doctor, with this being a monster of his own making due to his carelessness, making this whole mess his fault; he’s a product of The Doctor’s adventures and wouldn’t have caused so much trouble had The Doctor not meddled or been more careful, really impactful stuff.

Xoanon’s insanity over his split personalities and struggles for self identity make him a very tragic monster, as he never wanted to be like this, it was The Doctor who accidentally made him this way, going crazy till he could no longer see reason. This resulted in an actually really interesting villain plan by Xoanon where it turns out his separate development for the Sevateem and the Tesh has all been part of a plan to organize the various sides of himself and try and figure out which personality is him, with that being seen well in how he made the Tesh incredibly advanced but cold and purely logical, while making the Sevateem a tribal people, but very emotive and have keen instincts and strength. This experiment to try and figure out himself was very interesting and helps to contextualize a lot of what he’s done as part of this insane experiment to try and fix his own insanity which I found really compelling, especially with how he concludes it.

I loved Xoanon’s meeting with The Doctor and how he ends up having a full blown identity crisis in his presence, not understanding what’s going on anymore, as his own personality is partly The Doctor’s mind so seeing him separate further confuses him and drives him into a spiral of identity crisis, questioning who he is. This makes for a phenomenal part 3 cliffhanger as he calls out who he is; seriously that cliffhanger has been living rent free in my head ever since I saw it. I adore the use of Tom Baker’s face for Xoanon, with them doing such an incredible job of making him incredibly creepy and disturbing, with the multiple layered and differing voices used for Xoanon, including Tom Baker’s own which he does a fantastic job on, only add to his presence and creepy factor for the episode which I just loved to see; makes Xoanon an incredibly memorable villain for me.

I love how following his breakdown Xoanon comes to the conclusion of his experiment, deciding to blow himself up just to be free from the pain, not caring that doing so would blow up everyone else on this part of the planet. He just wants it all to end which is both really sad and also very scary with what he does to make sure The Doctor doesn’t succeed in stopping this from coming to fruition, even though The Doctor is simply trying to fix his mistake and help Xoanon from his messed up state. That finale is amazing, with it being really creepy how Xoanon controls all the Sevateem and Tesh to do his bidding and attack The Doctor as the time counts down for his destruction, all while chanting "Destroy and be free"; it’s just incredible stuff, I loved it. Xoanon defeat is great, being shot by the priest who he had manipulated but had gone just as insane as him and was able to break through the mind control and blast him, allowing The Doctor to be able to delete his personality from Xoanon and finally let him be free of his insanity.

I really liked how Xoanon was still alive after The Doctor helped to fix him and he was attacked by the priest, with it being nice to see Xoanon get a second chance at life. I like how he kindly asking The Doctor where did he go wrong, clearly wanting to do better now that he’s in the right state of mind again, seeking to make amends to the Sevateem and Tesh who he had wronged, now wanting to live in peace with them, though he offers them the chance at revenge to destroy him but the two tribes refuse. It’s nice that Xoanon gets this second chance to do right, with us also seeing his omnipotent powers, creating a couch for The Doctor and Leela to sit on, showing the great good he can do now that he’s finally himself for the first time. Xoanon was a fantastic antagonist for this episode, being incredibly memorable and an effective threat, doing well to hold a mirror up to The Doctor and show some of the issues with his adventuring and attitude.

Supporting Cast

The supporting cast for this episode was solid and fulfilled their role in the episode well. The Sevateem and Tesh were great groups that were cool to see in the episode proper even if individually most didn’t; not helped by the fact I was annoyed by the constant infighting among some of the main guys. One character that did stick out to me though was crazy priest guy, Neeva, with him being a lot of fun and a nice change of pace from the usual religious zealot character. I like how he gives us some insight into the culture of the Sevateem and their beliefs, with his outfits being a fun bit of scrap put together; looks cool.

I really enjoyed his development, with him starting off antagonistic to The Doctor and Leela and being a devout follower of Xoanon, before learning that in truth he and the others were just being used by him as Xoanon betrays them in the attack with many of them dying. He becomes fairly catatonic because of this and loses his antagonism, struggling what to do and think with this earth shattering revelation for him, with it eventually driving him mad. I liked how due to going mad, Neeva is the only one able to not be affected by Xoanon’s control, and manages to partly redeem himself blasting Xoanon at the cost of his life, which greatly aids The Doctor in giving him the few seconds needed before he explodes. Neeva was a fun character with some neat development, with David Garfield doing a solid job as the character, getting across his crisis of fate really well.

The Doctor

The Doctor is fantastic in this episode, with the whole story serving nicely as a showcase for the potential consequence of his careless travels, with it being a well done deconstruction of his usual shtick. His opening moments are fun with us getting some of that self narration solo Doctor in that first scene of his like we saw in The Deadly Assassin, with it being funny seeing him pull a knot out of his pocket and then decide to begin to curiously look around; it's definitely interesting to see him act like he has a companion with him when it's clear he doesn't. I liked when he ran into Leela and immediately tried to get a hold of what's going on with her, with it being nice seeing his confusion as he offers a jellbaby to her and is told the Evil One eats babies before offering her some jelly babies. Speaking of jelly babies this of course leads to that hilarious scene where The Doctor threatens one of the Sevateem hunters with a jellybaby, which is just amazing to see and feels so at home with this kind of Doctor.

The build up of the confusion for The Doctor throughout the story during this first part is well done, with his capture and constantly being called the Evil One, eventually going to that great reveal of his face on the mountain side. I really liked seeing The Doctor piece everything together throughout the story trying to slowly remember what happened, realizing he visited this planet before and recognizing all the spaceship parts that both the Sevateem and the Tesh are using, and understanding the truth of the whole situation; especially with the cool detail of realizing that Xoanon uses his voice. The Doctor gets some fun action in this story alongside Leela, with his cool crossbow skills to escape the trap; there's also the imagery later of him scaling his own face which is quite fun to see.

The Doctor's encounter with the Tesh is quite interesting to see, with him being described as a Lord of Time and being a figure of great respect and admiration by them which stands as a neat contrast compared to his encounter with the Sevateem who tied him up due to him holding the face of the Evil One. I liked him quickly getting on their bad side once it's shown he doesn't approve of what they're doing to the Sevateem people, with it reminding me a bit as to what happened with the leaders all the way back in The Savages, holding him in high esteem while hoping that he would be cool with what they're doing. The Doctor gets a neat escape from that situation, with it nicely followed by his full realization of what is actually going on with Xoanon.

I adored the reveal of what's actually going on with Xoanon and The Doctor's part in all of this with it being such a good deconstruction of The Doctor's usual attitude towards his travels. The backstory to the whole situation is just really interesting to me, with The Doctor having landed on this planet earlier in his travels and encountered the crew of the ship, doing his usual thing of trying to save the day and help out by fixing the ship's seemingly malfunctioning computer, uploading his own personality into it to help fix it, not realizing the truth as to what was going on with the computer, that it was gaining sentience and was a new powerful form of life, all while forgetting to delete his own personality leaving it a confused and damaged being with a split personality. It's such a fantastic and creative choice to have The Doctor accidentally being the person who caused this entire situation with Xoanon, with it really working for this incarnation of The Doctor because he is so egotistical and lost in his own world that it is very believable he would confidently do all this not realizing the mess he's leaving in his wake; also gets a funny hat trick on the Tesh.

I love seeing The Doctor realize that this situation is his own fault, with it being really strong stuff as he comes to terms with that fact, especially with his own bit of humility which we haven't seen all that much of from this incarnation, fully admitting that the entire situation is his own fault and due in part to his own egotism. It was really nice seeing The Doctor admit his fault in this situation and work tirelessly to try and correct his mistake, which feels very in line with The Doctor to try and work so hard to fix the mistake he's made and try his best to make amends for the whole mess. It never feels like he ever dodges that responsibility which I really like, he takes full credit even when speaking directly to Xoanon in a fantastic scene in an effort to try and stop whatever plans it has, repeating multiple times it was his mistake which is just such strong stuff to see from The Doctor which we haven't really seen done at all in this show, fixing a mistake of his own travels; also like the detail of him telling Leela to wait outside, knowing Xoanon will possibly kill him, to me shows his willingness to not let others get hurt for his mistake and he needs to fix it himself.

I really loved how they deconstructed the typical shtick of The Doctor here, seeing him arrive on a planet but accidentally end up causing more of mess in his efforts to help out because of his own blind egotism, not realizing the damage he was causing in his efforts to aid or the potential consequences of his actions. It's something the show hasn't really tackled much at all before aside from that questioning of The Doctor's travels back in The War Games, with this deconstruction of their actions being something many stories would go on to touch on; so really this is like one of if not the first story to deconstruct The Doctor's travels which is pretty neat. I liked how quickly The Doctor took to trying to fix this mess after realizing he's responsible for the whole mess, never once denying it and working his best opportunity to try and fix the mess, with it feeling the exact way one should take The Doctor and his travels.

The way this story handles the deconstruction of The Doctor's adventures is the way I very much prefer and like to see it happen. Normally I'm always a bit hesitant and don't really enjoy stories that go too far in trying to deconstruct The Doctor as a character and what they are because it more than always feels like they're taking the character in a much more morally grey than I feel is appropriate for the character. Often times they lead to stories that feel way too grimdark and depressing that it feels more so like they're trying to be edgy and make The Doctor a much more cold character that they actually are, framing their adventures as more grey and dark than they really are; at least to me that's how it comes across. Listen I say all this as someone who loves The 7th Doctor, from the stories and snippets of audio I have experienced of him before my watch through I can get with a darker take on The Doctor, same with The War Doctor; it just has to still feel in line with the character of The Doctor.

It's just so often to me it feels like certain fans want to deconstruct the concepts and ideas of The Doctor way too much and drive them into being a much darker and more grey character than they actually are. I'm not saying there isn't some darkness you can play with for The Doctor and that there isn't stuff to criticize with his adventures and travels, like I said I really like 7 and am endlessly excited to actually dive into his stories; though even then I feel his dark chessmaster personality is overstated, yes it's integral, but it feels like it overlooks the rest of his character who does legitimately care about the people around him and has more fun and whimsy outside of that chessmaster strategist. What I am saying is that it can feel like some fans want to deconstruction to go farther than I feel is comfortable and normal for The Doctor, where it feels like they're trying too hard to make them this much more morally grey and questionable figure than I feel they actually are; with it usually just feeling uncomfortable to hear stuff like that.

Is The Doctor a perfect person? No, there is stuff to criticize about themselves and the way they go about things but it still has to be in line with the character who is pretty much always just trying to do the right thing, not this consistently grey mastermind who plays with lives as part of his plans, not this uncaring immortal or lonely god with a dark side, they are just a nice weirdo traveling in a box trying to do where they can, that is at the core of each of the Doctors and I feel is sometimes missed in these attempts to go overly dark with the character. The Doctor is a flawed person that doesn't always make the right decisions and messes up but they are always a good person, at least trying to be, do their best to do right. It's why even without having seen the full story I adore the "Kind" speech that the 12th Doctor gives in World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls because it just speaks to that truth of that character so perfectly.

I like the way The Face of Evil handles its deconstruction of The Doctor because it allows a questioning of The Doctor's adventures and attitude towards them that feels very much in line with the character and isn't trying to go overly dark or edgy on the topic. It goes into his character and shows his flaws and shortcomings, looking into his egotism and tendency to dive into things even if they generally aren't his business, which I found quite interesting to see done. I really liked how instead of spending time to brooding and self-loathing about this mistake, or trying to make it something that shows The Doctor is much more gray and not always a good person, The Doctor just accepted that responsibility straight away, realizing where he messed up and still feeling awful about it, but not staying for pity and just trying to work hard to fix where he messed up, nearly losing his life in the process to fix Xoanon after accidentally causing the ordeal.

Again not saying there isn't time for that introspection and if it's done well I like it, I just liked this attitude of The Doctor seeing their flaws and screw ups and quickly trying to fix that problem. I generally prefer my deconstructions combined with reconstructions, and generally I think for the most part, most stories do this idea well of deconstructing the ideas of The Doctor while still ultimately reconstructing the idea of The Doctor, who they are and what they always stand for. It's part of the reason I don't mind the retcon done in The Day of Doctor with the saving of Gallifrey and the Time Lords, because it feels like a proper resolution that feels in line with who The Doctor is and what they stand for; a person always trying to do good and give hope in hopeless situations. The Face of Evil I feel understands that point really well and I like how we get insight that The Doctor does screw up and end up causing things to become worse, but they still remain that person who always tries their best to do good and quickly works to correct this failure. A good form of the kinds of deconstructions that feels in line with who the character of The Doctor is.

I've always been hesitant with how far certain stories have and many fans say The Doctor could and should be taken, how much darker or more grey can this character be made, trying to deconstruct and pick apart these pieces of The Doctor's character and modus operandi. Like I said, it's not like they're aren't things to criticize or go a little darker with, I've already mentioned how much I like how this episode deconstructs The Doctor's attempts to help and save people without always having full information as to what's going on, with others showing The Doctor's darker side like Dalek being phenomenal stories I've really enjoyed. It's again just that it just sometimes feel it goes too far and takes away from The Doctor as a character genuinely is to ask questions about them that really don't need to be asked, and feel like your trying to take the character to a place of moral grey that feels almost antithetical to who the character is.

I've been talking for a good while about this, but I guess it's just something I had a lot of thoughts on in my head. I think Stubagful's review of Doctor Who Season 2/15, is the reason I got this idea in my head because while I did like the video and love his other videos, especially his Big Finish reviews into the 8th Doctor audios which is in part what inspired me to do this whole run through of the series, I really dislike the segment in that video where he looks into whether The Doctor is a narcissist. While I don't disagree with that notion of The Doctor's ego and narcissism I really hate that analysis he gives of The Doctor using that character in The Robot Revolution to have further adventures and mourning the fact he can't use her for that when she dies, with his description of The Doctor feeling frankly sociopathic, especially with the way he says he cries with little behind the eyes. It's frankly just uncomfortable and feels like a take on The Doctor and his reaction to those who die around him as way darker than it actually is to the point it really does feel out of character.

Not to say Stu is wrong for thinking that I just heavily dislike this seeming push to try to make The Doctor grayer, to make them almost more sinister than how they really are which just irks me and feels completely against The Doctor both as a character and a concept; I could be totally misinterpreting what he's saying in that part of the video and I apologize if that isn't what was intended, that's just how it came off to me. You can criticize the dangerous lifestyle The Doctor lives, and it's been done in ways I really like, as with the entire storyline involving Rose and Jackie which shows how dangerous traveling with The Doctor is outside the fun adventures and the risks of that. There is a line and I feel sometimes certain fans and stories are too eager to have The Doctor cross it in order to make for this dramatic story when to me it just feels uncomfortable and against the actual nature of The Doctor and who they're meant to be. Once more I'm not saying there aren't things to deconstruct, there are and it's great when stories like this one do that, I just prefer it to actually feel in line with who The Doctor is instead of trying to make them much darker than they really are.

Ok rant over; sorry that went on so long, apparently had a lot of emotions regarding that topic that I wanted to get out and process. Anyways I liked the climax of the story with The Doctor rewiring the machine and attempting to fully undo his mistake and delete his personality from Xoanon, with it being fun and tense. I found the resolution quite funny with The Doctor being shocked and annoyed that he's been asleep for two days before having a rather nice conversation with Xoanon now that he's rehabilitated, even giving some neat pointers to try and help set things right on wear to go; his reaction to Leela coming aboard is also quite fun, clearly not seeking to originally have her aboard but her coming in anyway. Tom Baker was fantastic in this episode, having so many fun scenes while also representing The Doctor's remorse about his actions quite well; he also does a great job as Xoanon alongside all the other voices used for him.

Leela(Introduction)

Leela debuts in this story and this is a near phenomenal introduction to her character, who she is and what her whole deal is. I love how much Leela stands out from other companions we've had so far, with her being this warrior woman from a tribal people who were left on a fairly uninviting planet; the closest I could compare her to is Katarina and Jamie, one about their need to learn many things and constantly being curious about certain things, and the other because of heir fighting prowess. Leela's introduction is handled well with her first scenes being really strong as we see her headstrong attitude standing up to her tribes' worship of Xoanon and trying to stop her father from going to the test where he would surely die. The rest of the story would do well in this opening, with it all helping to give a clear indication of who Leela is just from this scene alone, a headstrong and righteous person who fights against what she sees as unjust while still caring about the people close to her.

Leela as a warrior woman is so fun and cool with her getting some excellent action that is I had a blast watching, seeing her run away and try and put a fight against her tribe, even trying to tell one of her friends who tries to help her to leave her on her own as she can take care of herself. There are a lot of good action scenes with her and they're all a lot of fun to see happen, with her managing several successful and almost successful breakouts for The Doctor when he's in trouble. Female companions have often shown themselves to be quite capable of being part of the action and fighting, see Babrara running over Daleks, but Leela definitely stands out as being a much more action focused character who isn't as knowledgeable as most companions normally are; I made the Katarina comparison for that reason.

-Went a bit longer than I expected on this one, probably cause of my long talk on the deconstructing The Doctor, but not over long so rest will be in the comments, hope you enjoy

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u/FitCheesecake4006 — 5 days ago

▲ 4 r/gallifrey

The Doctor Who Saved Me Reviews #089: The Face of Evil(S14, Ep4)

Season 14, Episode 4

The Face of Evil(4 parts)

-Written by Chris Boucher

-Directed by Pennant Roberts

-Air Dates: January 1st-22nd, 1977

-Runtime: 99 minutes

Or as I like to call it...

The one with giant scary Tom Baker face

Episode Proper

Pacing, Sets, and Special Effects

Xoanon

Supporting Cast

The Doctor

Leela(Introduction)

-Went a bit longer than I expected on this one, probably cause of my long talk on the deconstructing The Doctor, but not over long so rest will be in the comments, hope you enjoy

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u/FitCheesecake4006 — 5 days ago

▲ 5 r/gallifrey

Season 14, Episode 3

The Deadly Assassin(4 parts)

-Written by Robert Holmes

-Directed by David Maloney

-Air Dates: October 30th-November 20th, 1976

-Runtime: 95 minutes

Or as I like to call it...

The one where The Doctor seemingly assassinates the President(of Gallifrey)

We Begin!!! With a title crawl, ala Star Wars, telling us of the great crisis that will befall the Time Lords. The Doctor is in the TARDIS, having dropped off Sarah Jane and begun to head to Gallifrey in response to the urgent request for him to return home. As he does so, he's struck by a premonition that shows the President of Gallifrey being assassinated during a public event, seemingly by none other than himself. The TARDIS arrives on Gallifrey and is immediately impounded for parking in a restricted area. The Doctor of course has a lot more on his mind, as he runs from the Time Lord guards as he tries in vain to warn others of the upcoming assassination and try and put a stop to it himself. Unfortunately everything goes just as his premonition had depicted, except The Doctor himself never actually fired the gun that was aimed at the President of Gallifrey. Still he is arrested under suspicion of the assassination and is soon to be executed before he offers himself up as a candidate for the Presidency in a bid to buy more time and figure out what exactly is going on. The Doctor is back home on Gallifrey and has limited time to investigate this assassination and the larger conspiracy behind it. Still whatever the truth may be, it's clear The Doctor must work fast and catch the deadly assassin(eyyy) before it's too late.

Episode Proper

I have been looking forward to this one for quite some time, and oh my goodness, it more than lived up to my expectations for it; this story was incredible. The Deadly Assassin is such an important episode for Doctor Who, giving us more insight and lore into Time Lord society, being the return of The Master after the question was left up in the air if the character would come back given Roger Delgado’s passing, with it also standing out a good deal by being the only episode of Classic Who to not have a companion, with it instead being a solo story with The 4th Doctor. I had heard a good bit about it when hearing about Classic Who, with it being on lists of the best 4th Doctor stories, containing a premise that just immediately caught my attention and made me incredibly excited to finally get to this story. Certain episodes I’ve had my eye on for Classic Who, greatly anticipating, really interested in seeing what they have to offer, as the little I knew about them made me all the more excited to see it, Marco Polo and The Dæmons were previous examples of this, with The Deadly Assassin quite possibly being my most anticipated of all; and thankfully, as I stated at the start, it lived up to it and then some.

The opening of the episode was great, immediately grabbing me with the text crawl and excellent dramatic reading by Tom Baker, detailing a bit about Time Lord history and the upcoming crisis. I love this opening with it feeling like cracking open an old tome, really getting across this feeling of grandness to the entire story, much in the same way that stuff like Star Wars does it with their own opening crawls. It certainly sets the episode apart starting out and helps to set the tone of the story going forward extremely well. This story just has this sense of grandeur that the opening gets across excellently, with it making sense since the last time we had The Doctor on Gallifrey it was in the 4 hour epic, The War Games so it fits that the first time getting to see and have a story on his home planet would be such a momentous occasion; this little prelude we’re given more than set up perfectly the story we are in for.

The premise for this story is amazing, with it primarily being a conspiracy mystery thriller focusing on The Doctor rushing to solve the assassination of the President of Gallifrey, which he’s been framed for, before he’s executed for the crime. This is an incredible idea for a story, perfect for the first one set on Gallifrey, with the concept of solving a presidential assassination being immediately eye-catching, with it being quick to get invested in a story such as this, as I was. I adore murder mysteries so right away I was already incredibly invested in this narrative, as it overlaps with my favorite genre, with the high stakes of it all, being a presidential assassination and the time limit set for The Doctor to figure stuff out only making it all better. It also sets up so much of the stuff about Gallifrey and the Time Lords, making the whole concept serve well as one that allows us to really dive head first into Gallifrey culture and learn more about the Time Lords which we had known almost next to nothing about beforehand.

The plot flow in this episode was fantastic, with the entire narrative being expertly structured, which left me thoroughly enamored throughout the entire time I was watching this episode. Each part of the episode does something different from the last which aids in keeping the entire episode fresh and interesting while simultaneously developing the plot along well to an excellent finale. I’ve already said the title crawl opening immediately catches the attention and gets you interested in what seeing this episode has to offer, but that can really be said for the whole of part 1, which is simply a phenomenal opener to the episode going on ahead. Seeing The Doctor get his premonition of the events to come during the opening minute quickly makes me hooked for the events to come, watching how the assassination plays out and the possibility of The Doctor somehow playing a part in it makes for immediate investment in the plot going forward.

The entirety of part 1 is focused on this premonition with it doing an excellent job at setting up the events that are about to take place, with the incredibly exciting hook of The Doctor attempting to stop and warn about the assassination before it happens. This is just some great set up, allowing us to really get into the world of Gallifrey and the culture of the Time Lords, even as soon as The Doctor arrives with TARDIS getting impounded for basically doing our equivalent to parking in a restricted area, with immediate guards on the case; showing quickly just how bureaucratic and rules focused Gallifrey is. I really love how this episode shows us Time Lord society, with it being so interesting seeing the inner workings of it, from the cool technology and weird language, to the heavily bureaucratic nature of it all, the general structure of society and their government; I’ll talk a lot more about the cool lore additions of the Time Lords and my thoughts on them a little later in the review.

The whole thing is so exciting, seeing The Doctor rush to try and stop his premonition from coming true, with it being so much fun seeing how The Doctor stands out from Time Lord society as he quickly becomes a person of interested and chased by many guards leading to some great antics as the time of his premonition draws near. I liked seeing all the pieces put into place by the end, as The Doctor’s premonition becomes more and more real, until we start seeing the same scenes we saw then which heighten the tension wonderfully leading the a fantastic cliffhanger as it all comes to life; The Doctor having failed to stop it. Love having The Doctor be accused of the assassination, with it making for immediate investment into seeing him try and solve it, with the whole loophole of him running for the Presidency giving a fun excuse as to why he’s allowed to run around and investigate while also having the time limit of his execution date making this story very pressing and tense throughout the middle two parts as he must solve the mystery before time’s up.

The story then flows into a more murder mystery type narrative, which, as I’ve stated earlier, I absolutely love, with it being so enthralling watching the investigations into the President’s death, seeing The Doctor look over the crime scene and try and get a handle on what exactly happened during the whole ordeal. I loved watching the clues be found as he interacted with his fellow Time Lords, trying to put together the events of the murder and how exactly he was set up to take the fall for the crime. It was so much fun seeing him put the pieces of it all together, with the fun reveal of how the assassination actually happened, that the gunman was one of the high ranking Time Lords in the crowd by the President, with the shot coming out from there instead of the rifle The Doctor had been found and caught with. I loved how things started coming together with the cool discovering of the miniaturized tech guy inside the the viewer, immediately making it clear The Master is involved in some form, thickening the mystery further as to what his goals are and who is the Time Lord he partnered up with in order to commit the assassination. My love of murder mysteries made this entire portion an enthralling watch.

This then proceeds well into the third portion of the story with us going to the Matrix; as per the words of The One “Whoah”. Following a lead when The Doctor realizes that someone has tampered with the Matrix deducing that someone must’ve implanted the Matrix’s prediction of the assassination into his head to lead him to the scene, he goes into the Matrix itself leading to the fun and insane third part of this episode. The Matrix as a concept is such an amazing concept, being the combination of all Time Lord knowledge, with it all going into the Matrix supercomputer to make an impossibly advanced device which serves as a central tenant of Time Lord society.

It is such a fascinating and cool addition to Time Lord mythology, with it only being made all the more interesting with it being able to predict the futures, using the collective knowledge and understanding of time to give several possibilities to the Time Lord’s own future. It helps to really sell the advanced nature of this network, than and the fact that it contains its own cyberspace which is possible for people to enter and manipulate for their own will, with it being so enthralling watching The Doctor enter the space and deal with the chaos going on there as he deals with the titular deadly assassin; as opposed to an incompetent one.

The Matrix battle between The Doctor and the assassin is so much fun, having such creative and wild imagery I was having a blast throughout. The closest thing I could think to compare the Matrix sequence to is The Mind Robber, having that same sense of fun surrealism that makes it such an engaging watch. The imagination on display throughout this entire sequence was so amazingly creative I couldn’t help but love it; I wasn’t expecting too much from the Matrix sequence so to see all this wild imagery was certainly a welcome surprise. I love how they use the Matrix to just go all out insane and give us some crazy stuff that we would almost never see in most other episodes of the show.

Here we get stuff like a samurai attacking The Doctor on a cliff top, him being strapped down in a canyon before almost being administered a lethal shot, or being trapped in a railroad track and almost being run over by the assassin appearing in multiple different trains for probably the wildest cliffhanger so far, in part 2. I loved all this insane imagery, finding it so much fun with it also helping to give a great amount of tension showing just how much control the assassin has over the Matrix compared to The Doctor with it being tense seeing him mercilessly and continually chase him down trying to get rid of this loose end; the imagery of him in the gas mask with the horse was cool and really sells the threat of this assassin relentlessly chasing after The Doctor.

This then calms down more by the time we get more into part 3, with it becoming a great tense showdown between The Doctor and the assassin, very reminiscent of The Most Dangerous Game, with the assassin hunting him down and The Doctor’s attempts to survive. This is such a good tense sequence, with both actors doing a great job at selling the tension of the whole scenario. The cat and mouse game is great, eventually culminating in some solid and surprisingly brutal action when the two start fighting with one another, with the scene of The Doctor’s drowning definitely being rather graphic; however I do feel the brutal nature of this fight helps sell the tense nature of this whole confrontation, making it incredibly engaging to watch unfold. This all concludes wonderfully with the reveal of the assassin's identity, Chancellor Goth, which makes perfect sense with all the clues as to his identity throughout the episode, with his defeat in the Matrix being great.

We then go into the final portion of the episode which serves well to wrap this whole journey up, with it being the race between The Doctor and The Master as The Doctor finally pieces together what exactly The Master has been planning with the whole assassination plot. The finale brings the entire episode to an epic confrontation with the reveal of the Eye of Harmony and The Master’s plans for it, with the chase in order to stop it being so much fun, culminating in an epic and truly explosive fight that brings this grand journey to a fun and satisfying close. This whole episode was such a fun journey, with each of its different portions offering something new and interesting that helped make it feel like a true epic adventure that brought us through so much of Gallifrey and Time Lord culture, even if we mostly just stayed in the main city. This episode was so much fun to watch, like the best Doctor Who episode it felt like a true journey was had throughout, one which I loved every step of the way, from the murder mystery with the presidential assassination to the insane cat and mouse game in the Matrix, I had a ball while watching the whole thing.

Pacing, Sets, Location Filming, and Special Effects

The pacing for this episode was on point, moving from one plot point to the next expectedly, with the way the plot flows from each of the 4 parts making it so the episode never becomes tiresome viewing; fully engaging from start to end. The sets for this episode were pretty good, sure they may look a bit shoddy from some angels, with the colors maybe being a bit too faded in some parts, but I still think they do a great job at getting across the planet of Gallifrey and the central area of the Time Lords. Even if the sets aren’t visually striking, they are still mechanically impressive with such cool additions done to the set work that I really loved, like seeing a piece of the floor flip over to reveal the staircase which the President walks down helping to really add to the overall feel of the assassination scene, or just seeing the Eye of Harmony rise out of the ground, they had some stellar technical work this episode which the production team deserve to be applauded for. The location filming for this episode was solid, with the quarry they use for the first half of scenes in the Matrix looking pretty good, especially with all the fun props and costumes they use for it, like the gas mask man with the horse. The stream and surrounding woods they shoot the later half of the Matrix scenes actually look pretty stellar, especially when shooting the final combat in the river which is shot very nicely.

The special effects for this episode were pretty good, nothing groundbreaking but they look nice, especially like the look of the reticle of the sniper rifle The Doctor picks up; we get some fun blue screen effects, like shrunken people and the eyes on the mountain. The props here were pretty good as well, with the different weapons looking neat with the Eye of Harmony looking excellent; the Sash of Rassilon also is a neat accessory. The costumes for this episode were all great, the main Time Lord outfits are, of course, iconic with the rest of the costuming, like the outfits for the guards being fairly good as well. I really did enjoy the variety of outfits given to Chancellor Goth in his combat against The Doctor in the Matrix, with them all being good fun, like a samurai or a gas mask soldier. The costume used for the Decayed Master is fantastic, love the burnt cloak look, with the make up and protests to show off his rotting flesh being appropriately gnarly. The face is obviously a mask and can be a bit clunky, but that’s overshadowed by just how striking the whole look is, with the bold eyes and skull-like features helping to make me overlook any flaws in the face.

Time Lords and Gallifrey

We finally return to Gallifrey after all this time, with this episode being one to truly allow us some further insight into the Time Lords, going past their initial mystique to see what kind of people they truly are. The depiction of the Time Lords here is undoubtedly this stories' most continuous element, especially at the time it was released, I've seen comments from people who were around the time of that discourse describe it as fairly similar to the upset caused around The Timeless Children. It's clear to see why, as unlike how they were shown in The War Games or even the little bits we get with them in the Pertwee era before The Three Doctors, where they seemed to be these incredibly powerful, almost godlike beings who appeared to be truly the higher beings they presented themselves as, the Time Lords are depicted here as much the opposite, stagnant, self important bureaucrats who are more human and fallible than they'd ever consider themselves to be.

The Deadly Assassin serves to do one incredibly important thing for the series, demystify the Time Lords, giving us a better look into their society and culture that allows us to see beyond the grand facade and understand just how fallible the Time Lords really are. I really enjoyed learning more about the Time Lords in this episode. I always love learning more about alien cultures and societies and to be able to see what the Time Lords are like was really cool. This episode does a fantastic job at disillusioning the audience to the Time Lords, doing well to show the Time Lords as the boring, pompous bureaucrats that they are. The Time Lords here are shown to be very bureaucratic, with a huge focus placed on rules and orders, and stagnant, with much of their technology having become dated as they never updated it, and mostly find themselves parading around the same governmental structures, positions, and ideas without any real growth or change from that.

The Time Lords are shown here, to truly be a bunch of self important bureaucratics, who prefer sitting around and discussing possibilities rather than getting any actual action done. I like how here it shifts the opinion of their lack of interference with other socities through time is not because of any real noble effort to be passive overseers despite their power, but more because they think of themselves to high and mighty to meddle with the affairs of who they might consider lesser beings, riding their high horse while pretty much sitting around and doing fuck all about anything in the wider universe; which helps make it all the more clear why The Doctor decided to leave. We get to go more into their society, specifically their politics which seems to make up a huge portion of their lives, with the main point of this being to show just self important the Time Lords consider themselves to be, while at the same time seeing how relatively boring and stale their lives for the most part all, doing a bunch of political talks and such, focusing on proper rules and procedure, with the point being made clear that Time Lord society has become stale, and even worse than that, corrupt with it also being shown how much shady business is going on with them.

I really liked seeing and learning all the new cool information about Time Lord society and politics, with us learning that Gallifrey has a Presidency, with the President generally not having much different duties compared to the rest of the High Council of Time Lords, which is what forms the government on Gallifrey. I loved seeing their new robes and the different meanings assigned to them, with it being cool to see Time Lord guards in action and learning about all the different parts of Time Lord society, with the High Council specifically being split into different sections like Castellans and Cardinals, with it also being cool to learn apparently The Doctor was meant to be a Cardinal before he decided to strike out on his own. I had a blast seeing the other little bits of Time Lord society we get, like learning about Time Lord Academy which The Doctor went while growing up, with us even getting a fun interaction where he meets a friend from those times, with us also seeing Time Lord news broadcasts, with it all being great worldbuilding to see just how Time Lord society operates.

What I liked is how well the episode managed to balance out giving us a lot of cool and interesting insight into Time Lord society while also making it clear that the Time Lords have become rather stagnant as a society, being incredibly pompous and self important people. We get to learn and explore all these fascinating parts of Time Lord history, while also getting The Doctor's perspective to help offset the wonder and see how petty and obstructive people they can be. Time Lord society, while definitely being incredibly advanced and having so many cool things like regeneration, time travel, the Matrix, is shown well to be sort of stuck culturally speaking, at least from the moment in time The Doctor exists.

I feel this makes sense, due to being a society where time travel and feeling time is second nature to them, their society would eventually find themselves in a comfortable place and end up sticking to that, never changing or evolving because time doesn't pass for them as it does for others. They are near immortals and haven't really decided to branch out much because they have so much time. They already think of themselves as the most powerful beings in the universe, and their society as the best there is, so thus it makes perfect sense that they're growth would slow to a crawl one day, with them being too haughty to notice or care that they haven't change in millenia; after all what is that much time to most Time Lord.

It's clear Time Lord society and culture has become stuck, with their technology barring the Matrix being described as The Doctor as rather outdated, and culturally the Time Lords haven't grown or changed much at all, seemingly stuck in the same old traditions and conduct without any shift in the status quo. They are powerful but clearly don't have much of anything that would be called serious achievements or progress, they're stuck in the same place they've been for millenia and don't seem keen at making any change; even if it's clear there is stuff wrong with how things are. This is of course what makes this incident so impactful to Time Lord history, as it's the first serious crisis that they've faced with that served to fundamentally shake up their stagnant society, as the death of the President of Gallifrey, The Master's attempts to get the Eye of Harmony, and The Doctor's renegade status and victory at the election serving to shift the status quo from what it had been, and show the dangers of having remained so stuck in the mud. Even if later Time Lord stories would still show their bureaucratic nature and corrupt side, it's clear that this was a serious upset in what had been and will definitely have ripples going forward.

The stagnicity of Time Lord society also helps to reveal another core problem within it which was really interesting to see and helped a lot in demystifying the Time Lords, with that being the corruption present within the High Council of Time Lords. The Time Lords are self important bureaucratics and that is only furthered with how many try and further their own ends or attempt to protect the image of the High Council to stop a scandal from occuring. Of course there is Chancellor Goth and his collusion with The Master in order to try and get the Presidency for himself, bluntly trying to rush The Doctor's execution which violates his Time Lord Rights. However it's clear that Goth is not an outlier amongst Time Lord society, with many others within it being just as self important and possessing that desire for power as him, even if they wouldn't go to his ends to do it.

I really love that scene with Borusa, making his first appearance, where he blatantly attempts to cover up Goth's actions in order to hide a scandal, covering up the truth in a clear effort to protect the image of the High Council of Time Lords; it's a great moment that shows well how corrupt the High Council is and what they're willing to do to maintain their image. There's also the Celestial Intervention Agency which the episode doesn't do much with other than a name drop but would be utilized more later. It's just a fun way of showing the Time lords mocking bureaucracy and governmental corruption, especially given the not subtle acronym of CIA that they represent; we all know what you were doing Robert Holmes and we respect it. The corruption of Time Lords helps to bring home the fact that the Time Lords are not these benevolent godlike beings that we originally saw them as and are truly fallible people that it makes sense why The Doctor had enough and left.

This shift in depicting the Time Lords I heard was incredibly controversial among the fandom when this episode came out, upending all we thought we knew about them and making it clear that they aren't like how they were presented in The War Games at all, they are not benevolent, they are fallible and more human than we could think. Personally I'm fine with the shift, finding it to be really well done and serves to help paint the Time Lords in a whole new and interesting light; I'd say more than if they just kept them as they were in The War Games. I would say this shift doesn't come out of nowhere, and actually makes sense in explaining why The Doctor left in his explanation in The War Games, with the more stagnant bureaucratic depiction of them being similar to how they were in the opening of Colony in Space and throughout The Three Doctors, the more we saw of them, the more the initial mystique vanished, and thus now we're able to see the Time Lords for who they really are, powerful, advanced beings who have become stagnant and believe themselves to be more important that they actually are. I like how it sort of fits with The Brain of Morbius and what The Doctor warned about living forever, with the Time Lords here showing the issues with such long lives if nothing new is allowed to grow.

I'll be honest, I actually like demystifying the Time Lords and having us learn more about them, even if they are stagnant I just find them such cool and interesting people to learn about, with their flaws making them all the more interesting in my opinion. While their godlike mystique is fine, I feel it's too idealized for a society that The Doctor ran away from and spawned several renegades like The Monk, The Master, and K'napo, each with wildly different views and interactions with each other. The Time Lords as this grand society that we just couldn't comprehend doesn't interest me too much, I much prefer actually learning about their history and culture, dealing with their politics instead of just speaking about them as these almost godlike people. Learning more about them and having stories with their history and culture is so much fun for me and I don't mind if it goes against whatever grand image people had in their heads for them. I like the subversion of expectations and giving us a society more fallible than we could imagine.

Honestly my favorite way of depicting Time Lords, which this episode does well, is to show them as these powerful and advanced beings who have existed since the dawn of time and are quite possibly the most powerful mortals in the universe, yet are still so fallible and human at the end of the day. They are not these grand beings, powerful and influential yes but they are not above other mortals, they can still be emotional, impulsive, corrupt. They are just as humans as they are seemingly godlike beings, fallible as us, capable of good or bad, and being susceptible to many of our failings that bring them down from this seeming god status; they are human aliens, as different to us as they are the same. I like how Time Lord society clearly must be changed, with the way it's structured having led to much of these failings, much in the ways many of our own societies throughout history have perpetuated many similar failings we see with the Time Lords here. I love how this all helps to explain why The Doctor is the way he is, with it making perfect sense as to why he decided to leave all this behind and strike out on his own; it is the a great depiction of the type of society that would make someone like The Doctor rebel against it and leave to explore the universe.

Before I finish up my thoughts on this episode's depictions of Time Lords, I want to say that I like how it avoids a pet peeve of mine that I mostly see with Modern Who. I have said that I love depicting Time Lords as fallible people with much of their society being corrupt, later being shown to have a dark history as Time Lord society has done some awful actions. I don't like collectively painting all Time Lords as bad. I feel this is something I see with Modern Who, where the tendency to talk about Time Lords as a collective forgoes the fact that they aren't, Time Lords are a people just like any other, with good and bad people within their ranks. While Time Lord society should rightfully be criticized and be held accountable for their awful actions, this does not mean all Time Lords are bad people, with most just being people, not part of the larger things Time Lords are criticized for. Whenever we talk about Time Lords, especially in Modern Who, it's always about the society and not the people living within it, you can rightfully criticize any complicity but that doesn't change the fact there are likely just as many innocents as there are corrupt bureaucrats.

I feel this sort of nuance is lost in Modern Who, mainly a consequence of their genocide forcing Time Lords to be talked about as a collective, so the society, instead of the actual people, which I feel is a waste. I don't like Time Lords being presented as wholly evil or corrupt, Time Lord society should be held accountable yes but there are still a bunch of innocent people caught in the cross fire that I feel is never tackled on. We talk about Time Lords as a society but not as a people, and that's a layer of nuance that I feel too often is ignored in favor of just casting them as villains for corrupt actions to make The Doctor look good in comparison for going against their people; they're in the right of course but I feel it's more often done to make The Doctor look good than it is to say anything really meaningful about that.

Time Lords are people too, and I like how this episode shows their corruption and stagnicity, with all the issues of their society, while also showing off that not all Time Lords are bad people. We get to meet a nice new reporter who was The Doctor's friend in college, who simply attempted to report on the events and what's going on, just an innocent bystander who bore witness to a wild incident in the High Council. The two Time Lords who aid The Doctor in his investigations into the assassination are also shown to be genuinely nice people, old fashioned and a little stuck in their ways but still people trying to do the right thing and aiding The Doctor throughout the entire crisis, even being apprehensive to the attempts to cover up the truth that Borusa was doing.

It shows nicely that while there are issues with Time Lord society, that doesn't mean all Time Lords are inherently bad people, there are good people trying to legitimately help where they can and do good, which is a nice bit of nuance I liked to see. I wish other stories approached this nuance of looking at the Time Lords as individual people instead of just the society as they do so often in Modern Who. Sorry for this tangent of mine, went on for longer than I thought, it was just watching this episode and seeing it managing to do a critique of Time Lords while also showing some level of nuance with the good people just trying to help out in spite of the issues, really made me realize what rubbed me the wrong way about some, not all, of the writing of Time Lords later on; feel free to disagree, I just wanted to explain this feeling I had about the ways Time Lords as people are treated.

Now despite this episode serving to demystify the Time Lords greatly, it does still add in some cool lore additions to them that are really interesting to learn about and see how they expand on the Time Lord myth. The most obvious one of course is the Matrix, which is such an amazing addition to the mythos, being the sum total of all Time Lord knowledge where all Time Lord's experience and knowledge are uploaded to following their death. It's such a cool concept and I really enjoyed how they played with it in the episode, forming its own cyberspace universe that was so exciting to explore, especially with someone manipulating it for their own ends.

While most Time Lord technology is hilariously out of date according to The Doctor, a neat signal of their stagnicity, the Matrix is not one of those examples being an incredibly advanced sci-fi concept that was so interesting to learn about.I especially enjoyed that since it is so advanced, the Matrix is capable of predicting many future events given the probability, which is so cool, and I really liked that being used to frame The Doctor by projecting it into his head. That also serves as a neat reminder and showcase of the telepathic abilities of the Time Lords, something we saw back with Susan in The Sensorites and is made clear here it's a mainstay for most Time Lords which I liked.

Outside of the Matrix, which is really cool, this episode serves to introduce a crucial element of the series, that being the regeneration limit. I love this retcon as not only does it serve well as The Master's motivation for the episode, attempting to bypass it as he nears his final death which is so cool, but it really adds well to the stakes to the series as a whole. Doctor Who can sort of struggle with tension because its main character is capable of cheating death multiple times and more often than not the companions are safe; though the times where the latter is subverted are great and does well to keep stakes and the possibility of their death. Now with the regeneration limit that tension returns for The Doctor as it's clear they can only die so many times before they're dead for good. It makes it so the tension remains and every death of theirs feels like it's counting down the clock to their ultimate demise; side note the 12 limit works well since it correlates nicely to the hours on a clock, fun for a race based around time. The 12 regeneration limit is such a great addition to the show and the mythos, making it clear while they often seem like it, The Doctor is not immortal; which is a good thing, they shouldn't be, even if the new series has made them well way past the normal limit.

I would like to quickly bring up what many view as a plot hole in this episode, which is that, despite the cast being composed entirely of Time Lords, none of them regenerate when they die. That's a fair point but it actually never bothered me at all while watching the episode, since I just assumed most of the big named Time Lords who died like the President or Chancellor Goth were already on their last regenerations anyway, so they would just stay dead by that point. I also just assumed any one else that was killed was done so with weapons that are capable of stopping regeneration, as those weapons would be later shown to exist in the series, it just makes sense for Time Lords to have them. Along with that, the death by tissue compressor also made sense since it would later be confirmed that there are times where the body is too damaged to regenerate. That's why I feel, despite it being a bit of a missed opportunity to show some Time Lord guards regenerating, I do feel most of the non-regenerations make sense in this episode.

Finally there's the last big addition this episode makes to the lore and that's Rassilon, the first leader of the Time Lords and considered one of the main founders of Time Lord society. It was so interesting learning more about him this episode, with the intriguing mythos surrounding him as one of the founders of the Time Lords alongside Omega, someone else important who we already knew; just some great expansion into them. We get to see the Seal of Rassilon properly this time, after having seen its random use in Revenge of the Cybermen, as it adorns a good amount of the decor on Gallifrey. It makes sense they brought it back, it was such a cool looking symbol and it'd feel like a waste to just use the design once, so I'm glad it became an iconic staple of the show; I even own a necklace with the symbol which I love.

The mythos around Rassilon is interesting especially when it comes to the Eye of Harmony, which is the whole macguffin of the episode, and such a fascinating concept that works fantastically as the centerpiece of this story. Seeing The Doctor slowly figure out the importance of all the Presidential symbols, which are funnily enough all named "of Rassilon", and how they all connect to and serve as the keys to open up the Eye of Harmony. The Eye of Harmony is such a fascinating part of Time Lord history, being the heart of black hole captured long ago by Rassilon, with this singularity serving as the basis for all of Time Lord’s powers, including regeneration. The power of the Eye of Harmony is massive and would destroy Gallifrey and a decent part of the universe if not handled correctly. The design of it looks so cool with it serving well as this grand mythic centerpiece of the Time Lords and this story holding unbelievable cosmic power that made for an exciting climax as the pillar rises up and chaos occurs as it's attempted to be open by The Master; the Eye of Harmony was a great addition to the Time Lord mythos.

-Given how much I anticipated this story it's no wonder that I came out having a whole lot I wanted to say about it because there is just so much to talk about with it. Like usual I will link a Google Doc to my review and put my closing thoughts in the comments below. I work really hard on this review so I hope you enjoy:

The Doctor Who Saved Me Reviews #088: The Deadly Assassin(S14, Ep3)

u/FitCheesecake4006 — 12 days ago