In a previous offscreen Doctor Who adventure, the Fourth Doctor intervened on a spaceship in the far future. The Doctor reprogrammed the ship’s computer Xoanon, but in the process it absorbed his personality and went mad. The spaceship landed on a desolate planet and the original members of the crew died. But their descendants became savages in the wild jungle. The Doctor’s face was carved into the cliff face concealing the crashed ship. The tribe of the Sevateem refer to this face as ‘the Evil One!’

The Face of Evil

★★★★☆

TX: 01-22/01/1977

Written by Chris Boucher    Directed by Pennant Roberts

The Fourth Doctor arrives alone a barren, savage planet. The warrior tribe of the Sevateem has expelled a young woman called Leela, who bumps into the Doctor in the jungle. Leela takes the Doctor to see a cliff into which his face has been carved. This is why Leela and the other savages refer to the Doctor as “the Evil One”. Leela and the Doctor venture inside the Doctor’s face carved into the cliff and find a spaceship concealed within. The Doctor discovers that his previous intervention on a spaceship led to him reprogramming the ship’s computer Xoanon. Xoanon has gone insane and includes the Doctor’s split personality. The schizophrenic Xoanon tries to destroy the Doctor, but is cut short by the intervention of Leela. The Doctor realises that the tribe of the Sevateem are really the descendants of the original crew of the trip: the Survey Team. This is in accordance with Grimm’s Law of Consonant shift (State of Decay). After deactivating Xoanon, the Doctor prepares to depart in the TARDIS, but Leela stows aboard… Well behaved women rarely make history!