DOCTOR WHO: APOTHEOSIS
AN ANALYSIS OF SEASON 14
Part Two
THE FACE OF EVIL
The Doctor arrives on a jungle planet where he is shocked to find his face carved on a mountainside, and the local population denouncing him as 'The Evil One'
Once Elisabeth Sladen had announced her desire to move on from Doctor Who, Phillip Hinchcliffe and Robert Holmes began to think about the type of character they would like to pair the Doctor with. Hinchcliffe was determined to break the mould and go for something completely opposite to the Sarah Jane Smith character.
The character of 'Leela' was created out of an idea which involved the Doctor educating his new companion in a Eliza Doolittle / Professor Henry Higgins style of relationship. Leela although she appeared as a savage and wore leathers wasn't as dim or uneducated as she maybe perceived to be. It was a bold move to change the dynamic of the Doctor and companion in such a dramatic way, just as much as it was a bold move for Hinchcliffe to put his trust into a new writer Chris Boucher to write the scripts for the story that would introduce Leela to the series and the viewers.
Chris Boucher developed the character from Hinchcliffe and Holmes initial ideas and with Holmes's guidance wrote the scripts for 'The Face of Evil'. Interesting to see the interest with people's body parts in the titles of stories - The Hand of Fear, now we have The Face of Evil. Judging by the title, ideally it was The Face of Evil was going to be the face of the Doctor.
Leela's character was based of Emma Peel from The Avengers, amongst various other current heroes of the time. She was an intelligent primitive whose reasoning you could explain everything to because she knew nothing. It is just a question of a different sort of companion which at the time didn't quite go down so well with Tom Baker. At the time, Tom Baker was missing Elisabeth Sladen who he had a good chemistry with on screen and thought that his Doctor should ride solo. However, Baker was told by Hinchcliffe and Holmes that he had to have someone to talk to and explain things to, which is why the development of introducing a new character came about.
In early development of The Face of Evil, Boucher was asked to include a character who would act as the companion for the duration of the four-episode story. At first, this was given to one of the male Sevateem warriors, but it was the character of Leela that Hinchcliffe liked the most. It was quickly decided that her character should stay until at least the end of that year's run of episodes - and Leela became a primitive Eliza Doolittle with a dangerous streak.
Violent, aggressive, instinctive and good with a knife and crossbow, the innocent and child-like Leela is probably one of the most radical and successful departures for a Doctor Who companion. At the time, however, the character and her costume came much under fire from campaigner Mary Whitehouse and, in the beginning, lead actor Tom Baker did not care much for the character either.
Although criticised, Leela's knife and Janis thorns would prove useful in later episodes against deadly robots on a sandminer and the terror awaiting her in Victorian London, and actress Louise Jameson definitely makes an impressive debut as the Doctor's new savage companion.
THE ROBOTS OF DEATH
The Doctor and new companion Leela must catch a killer on a vast Sandminer staffed by humans and robots...
After being impressed by Chris Boucher's work on The Face of Evil Hinchcliffe and Holmes suggested after Boucher submitted and completed his scripts to consider writing the following story and continue the development of Leela's character.
Hinchcliffe and Holmes knew that they needed to save money for a potentially expensive six-part season finale to close the season, so it was decided to set the fifth story of season 14 in an confined environment that could be realised entirely within the studio with minimal location filming.
In conversation with Boucher they developed the notion of a whodunnit thriller within a mineral digger on an alien planet. Hinchcliffe was also keen to tell a story that focused on robotics and artificial intelligence - a subject that also interested Boucher.
The writer decided to set The Storm-Mine Murders on a human colony far in Earth's future where human workers were being murdered one by one, a structural device borrowed from Agatha Christie's 'And Then There Were None'. The title of the story started off as "The Planet of the Robots" during the storyline stage in June 1976, before settling on "The Robots Of Death" by September. As well as being heavily influenced by Dune, Boucher also borrowed other elements of Isaac Asimov's work, explicitly referencing the author's 'first law of robotics' established in 1941 that forbade robots from harming humans.
While Boucher was writing, Hinchcliffe asked Michael E.Briant to return to direct the four-parter. He had previously directed five Doctor Who stories, most recently 'Revenge of the Cybermen' for Season 12. But Briant was far from happy with the resulting scripts but reluctantly had to do the job as well as he could.
Briant and designer Ken Sharp travelled to Cornwall to study mining techniques, and en route discussed ways to make the story visually striking. Eager to move away from the traditional stark futuristic sets and corridors, they decided that the Sandminder would be luxuriously decorated in an Art Deco style, with other visual motifs drawn from Art Nouveau and Egyptian history.
The robots were designed by Sharp and costume designer Elizabeth Waller; Waller handled the clothing while Sharp modeled the distinctive masks which were cast in two sections of fibreglass and held together by Velcro strips. Various robots were constructed - six Vocs (coloured green), two Vocs (dark olive green), and one silver Super-Voc , along with dummy costumes for special effects sequences.
Over twenty different number plates were used on the chests so each costume could double for numerous different robots.
THE TALONS OF WENG-CHIANG
The Doctor and Leela arrive in Victorian London, where giant rats roam the sewers, and a murderous ventriloquist's dummy prowls the streets...
Impressed by his speedy work on The Seeds Of Doom, Hinchcliffe and Holmes initally invited writer Robert Banks Stewart to provide Season 14's closing six-parter. He developed a story called "The Foe From The Future", but after delivering the story outline, Stewart accepted a script-editing job with Thames Television and was unavailable to write the scripts.
Robert Holmes soon realised that he would have to write a replacement story himself, although retaining some Robert Bank Stewart's ideas, Holmes relocated the setting of the story to be Victorian London, a setting he had been keen on for some time. The story does paint a good picture of a fictitious Victorian period, with fog, gas lamps, hansom cabs, and music halls etc.
The resulting scripts given a working title of "The Talons of Greel" were written quickly and in consultation with Hinchcliffe and director David Maloney, Holmes' favourite director. He was inspired by films including Hammer's 'The Phantom Of The Opera', Dead Of Night, The Face of Fu Manchu, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories.
Originally it had been mooted that Leela could be written out at the end of the series, partially to placate Tom Baker who still objected to the character. There was the option of replacing her with an Eliza Doolittle- type companion who could be developed for this story - but because of time pressures and the fact that Louise Jameson had been a hit with both viewers and the production team, this notion was abandoned.
Like The Robots of Death, The Talons of Weng-Chaing stands up strong as one of the greatest Doctor Who stories of all time to this day.
Season 14 definetley ended on a high and although Tom Baker and Louise Jameson would return next season, Season 14 was the last hurrah for Producer Phillip Hinchcliffe, Script Editor Robert Holmes, Directer David Maloney, and Designer Roger Murrey Leach and boy did they go out on a high.
Though Season 14 was deemed too horrific to watch by some people, it certainly stands up as being a terrific series of Doctor Who stories. Four of which stand up very well on their own as individuals.The Gothic Horror stories with a science fiction twist to add a nice creative intuitive and plays on the imagination of the viewer without being too frightening.
In conclusion, Season 14 is a prime example of Doctor Who at its best and certainly watched and enjoyed by fans and audience members alike immensely.
