Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

  • Doctor Who and the Face of Evil

  • 4th Doctor Novelisation
  • By: Terrance Dicks
  • Narrated by: Louise Jameson
  • Length: 3 hrs and 38 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (7 ratings)
Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Doctor Who and the Face of Evil cover art

Doctor Who and the Face of Evil

By: Terrance Dicks
Narrated by: Louise Jameson
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £7.99

Buy Now for £7.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

Doctor Who and the Android Invasion cover art
Doctor Who: Human Nature cover art
Doctor Who: The Reign of Terror cover art
Doctor Who: Warriors of the Deep cover art
Doctor Who and the Deadly Assassin cover art
Doctor Who and the Web of Fear cover art
The Making of Doctor Who cover art
Doctor Who: Meglos cover art
Doctor Who and the Power of Kroll cover art
Doctor Who and the Keys of Marinus cover art
Doctor Who and the Image of the Fendahl cover art
Doctor Who: The Smugglers cover art
Doctor Who: The Third Monsters Collection cover art
Doctor Who: The Romans cover art
Doctor Who: The Second Earth Adventures Collection cover art
Doctor Who and the Claws of Axos cover art

Summary

Louise Jameson reads a gripping novelisation of a classic TV adventure for the Fourth Doctor, as played by Tom Baker.

The TARDIS lands in a primeval forest, and the Doctor meets Leela, a warrior banished from her tribe. He learns that an ongoing war between the Sevateem and the Tesh was instigated by Xoanon, the god they both worship.

In reality an all-powerful computer, Xoanon is possessed by a desperate madness directly related to the Doctor - one which only the Time Lord can rectify!

In order to do battle with Xoanon the Doctor must escape, not only from the savage practices of the Sevateem, but also from the mind-controlling impulses of the Tesh.

Louise Jameson, who played Leela in the BBC TV series, reads Terrance Dicks's unabridged novelisation of the 1977 TV serial by Chris Boucher.

©2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Critic reviews

"Slick and polished...immersive productions of much-loved novelisations...long may we enjoy them." (Doctor Who Magazine

What listeners say about Doctor Who and the Face of Evil

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    5
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    3
  • 4 Stars
    3
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    4
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

An Interesting Dichotomy

Face of Evil is a story from around the middle of Tom Baker's tenure as the fourth Doctor. It's the first story in which Leela, his new companion, is featured. In it, we learn a little about her life and her warrior heritage. So, it's fitting that Louise Jameson herself, AKA Leela, should narrate this story, reproducing her own dialogue in character perfectly.

The story itself isn't one of my favourites, but still stands up well within the Baker era. I think Terrance Dicks did miss a trick here with the written adaptation by missing a prologue that explained something of the initial landing of the survey ship. It would've been a nice addition and fleshing out of the back story, something that has been done in other adaptations. To that end, I'd strongly recommend the superb 'Brain of Morbius
' read by the man himself, Tom Baker. It has a short prologue type introduction that wasn't covered in the TV story and added to the narrative. The 'Time Warrior' also has a small introduction that fleshes out the Sontaran's conflict with their arch enemies, the Routeeans.

That aside, Face of Evil is a solid story, but not one of my favourites as mentioned above. Louise Jameson does a decent job of reading this. However, her impression of Tom Baker's Doctor sounds a bit like an old man with a crusty voice. Still, she does her best and I can't fault her. Only two narrators I've come across so far can do a good Tom Baker, Nicholas Briggs and the most uncanny of them all, John Culshaw's rendering of the man.

The story revolves around classic science fiction tropes: The all powerful computer that has gone mad. This though, is perhaps more relevant today than it ever was, what with the rise of ever more, and frankly scary, iterations of A.I.

What differentiates classic Who, especially the Tom Baker era, from current Who, is the quality of the stories. Despite having a shoe string budget back in 1977 when Face of Evil was written, the core story is clever, describing the split of one group of people into two distinct and very different tribes. The distortion of meanings and identities over the centuries, leading to the ultimate dichotomy of what was originally a single, cohesive social group. Today's science fiction, not just Who, tends to rely more upon effects than story. Millennials would laugh at what passed for special effects in stories like this and the wobbly sets, but they miss the point. It's story telling, not eye candy, that makes for interesting and compelling tales.

Anyway, this is a good listen with excellent accompanying audio effects to enhance the telling of the story. If you're a Tom Baker fan like me, then you must add this to your fourth Doctor audio collection.


Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!