 This story introduces Louise Jameson as The Doctor’s new companion, Leela, who was inspired by Emma Peel of The Avengers and Eliza Doolittle from My Fair Lady.
This story was written by Chris Boucher - his first contribution to the show – and was directed by Pennant Roberts, whose earlier credits included episodes of Doomwatch, Survivors and Softly, Softly: Task Force.
The story was written with two endings: one with Leela not joining Doctor and the other, which was the one used, where she becomes The Doctors new companion.
Before joining the show, as Leela, Louise Jameson resume included considerable stagework, plus the horror film Disciple of Death. On television, she had appeared in programmes such as Emmerdale Farm, Z Cars and Space: 1999; she had also been shortlisted to play the part of Purdey in The New Avengers.
Louise Jameson’s contract included a provision that required her to wear brown contact lenses, as it was felt that her blue eyes were not appropriate for the savage character she would be portraying. This part of her contract was amended at the beginning of Season Fifteen.
Also to further her savage character Louise Jameson wore make-up to darken her skin. Originally, this make-up was a very deep brown colour, but it was eventually made lighter to produce Leela's final look; the darker shade was though still visible in several publicity photos.
Leela's leotard-based costume was designed by John Bloomfield.
Studio recording was completed on the 26th October 1976. On completion a photocall for Louise Jameson was held. This event had to be hastily arranged after a newspaper, the Evening Standard, broke the news of her casting the night before. Originally, Leela's debut was intended to air on the 27th November 1976, with this story then completing its run before a one-week Christmas break. However, with Robert Holmes being forced to assume the writing duties for the season finale, "The Talons of Weng-Chiang", at short notice, it was decided to give the production team some breathing space by deferring "The Face of Evil" until the New Year. As a result, Leela finally made her first on-screen appearance on the 1st January 1977.
This story was actually promoted in the Radio Times as the first in a new season of Doctor Who due to the unusual break in the middle of the season.
All the actors credited as Xoanon do not appear onscreen; only their voices were used.
Pamela Salem and Rob Edwards play two of the voices of Xoanon, as both actors were at the time rehearsing for the following story, "The Robots of Death," while Anthony Frieze, who was also credited as one of the voices, was the young winner of a competition to visit the Doctor Who studios. Philip Hinchcliffe arranged for a recording of his voice to be made shouting ‘Who am I?' for the climax to the third episode.
This story features a guest appearance by Leslie Schofield who previously appeared in the 1969 Second Doctor story "The War Games". Leslie Schofield, however, is more famous for being in the 1977 film Star Wars IV: A New Hope. He has also appeared in Blake’s 7, in 1978, as well as 140 episodes of EastEnders between 1997 and 2000.
The Doctor notes that the invisible phantoms are ‘projections from the dark side of Xoanon's id’. He also says Xoanon was a ‘marvellous host I remember one of his dinner parties...’.
The Horda are described as being carnivorous crab-like creatures. ‘Ten of them could strip the flesh from a man's arm’.
Leela uses Janis Thorns which paralyse, then kill. Despite her claiming there is no cure The Doctor uses a bio-analyser to identify the poison and make an anti-toxin to save Leela when she is poisoned by one of them.
The Doctor is heard to state that he helped the Mordee, which may be the name of the spaceship itself or a future human ethnic group. The spaceship seems to have originated on Earth (this is confirmed in "The Invisible Enemy"). According to the legends of the tribes, the Sevateem left the Place of Land while the Tesh remained.
The Doctor is heard to exclaim ‘another self-aggrandising artefact!’. This is a reference to the many megalomaniac computers he has previously encountered. Namely in the 1966 First Doctor story "The War Machines" and the 1973 Third Doctor story "The Green Death".
The story does not explicitly explain when the Fourth Doctor repaired the Starfall Seven's computer. The timing of The Doctor's first encounter with Xoanon was however, explained in Terrance Dicks’ novelisation of this story first published by Target Books in January 1978, to have occurred immediately after his regeneration in the Fourth Doctor’s first story, "Robot". This occurred when Sarah Jane Smith sees him initially leave in the TARDIS (but was apparently a much longer time for The Doctor himself, the TARDIS returning to UNIT so quickly and The Doctor's mind so addled by his recent regeneration that he didn't remember his visit).
The Target Books’ novelisation of this story was paired with the novelisation of "The Sun Makers" and released as the last of Star Books’ Doctor Who Classics range in May 1989.
This story was repeated on BBC4 in December 2015.
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The Firsts:
The introduction of new companion Leela played by Louise Jameson.
The first Doctor Who story to be written by Chris Boucher.
The first Doctor Who story to be directed by Pennant Roberts.
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(Position = 83 out of 159)
(Position = 116 out of 200)
