By Thomas Rodebaugh

Obverse Books, out now

Season 14’s The Face of Evil goes under the Black Archive microscope and proves to be one of the book series’ more challenging reads.

While I wouldn’t go as far as to say that Leela’s introductory story was “…for the most part knuckle-draggingly dull” (Patrick Mulkern, Radio Times) it didn’t make much of an impression on eight-year-old me, and subsequent rewatches never really added much to the experience. This book’s author Thomas L Rodebaugh immediately had a challenge of convincing me of the story’s hidden depths… and I’m not sure he succeeded.

Rodebaugh playfully refers to the Doctor’s description of what the powerful and stupid have in common – ‘They alter the facts to fit their views’ – goading the reader into accusing him of doing the same thing. He then goes into detail looking at the publication of The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral World (1976) before confirming that the writer of the serial, Chris Boucher, hadn’t even heard of the book when writing the story! But then Rodebaugh admits he’s comfortable with his own theories being proven incorrect and you get a measure of what’s being offered here.

A lot of what’s discussed focuses on psychology, and depending on how deep you’re prepared to go with this will determine how much you’ll take away. He recognises that pre-2005 writing of Doctor Who did not provide much in the way of psychological depth or realism for the characters and thus contextualises the strengths and weaknesses in the story that was written.

He looks at how madness is portrayed in the show, often as whimsy, perpetuating stereotypical misunderstandings. Is Xoanon mad or merely malfunctioning, and just what constitutes madness? I particularly enjoyed the discussion around Leela’s eyes changing from brown to black, and how it opens a potentially problematic wider discussion around ‘blacking up’. Her costume is identified as impractical and clearly a design choice to ‘please the dads’ – but there’s no polemic here, just a recognition that this is how it was.

The story’s Influences are identified – Forbidden Planet, Beneath the Planet of the Apes, Harry Harrison’s Deathworld trilogy – and time is spent unravelling the elements of those earlier works and how they connect to Chris Boucher’s scripts. The work is completed with an interview between the author and Boucher, with the conclusion that no communication between people is ever accurate – no meaning can possibly be precise.

Verdict: One of the joys of the Black Archive range is the freedom that the guest authors are given to critique their chosen story. Thomas Rodebaugh has not taken the easy route, with some frequently deep analysis that may put off some readers, but his honest assertion that this version of events is there to be challenged feels like as good a reason as any to read it. 6/10

Nick Joy