Doctor Who (1963) 14.04.03

The Face of Evil - Part 3

The Doctor and Leela explore the area beyond the barrier. They meet the Tesh who at first think that the Doctor has returned to save them. Leela points her crossbow at them. Jabel, the leader of the Tesh, uses his mental superpowers to subdue her. Two of his followers take Leela away.

The Doctor sees that they are about to kill Leela in the process of analyzing her. He objects and Jabel turns his mental superpowers on the Doctor. When the Doctor wakes up he is, like Leela, tied down and about to be fried by the analyzing equipment. He uses a mirror to cause the machine to malfunction and free them.

The Doctor and Leela go exploring once again. They find a communications room. The Doctor uses the equipment there to contact Neeva. He tells him to have Calib bring the Sevateem through the mouth of the idol. Calib, Tomas, and the rest of the Sevateem follow the Doctor's instructions and cross into the realm of the Tesh. The Doctor and Leela  head to level 37 and the sacred chamber. There is a guard at the door but Leela disarms him and knocks him out.

Leela keeps guard outside the chamber of Xoanon while the Doctor goes inside to try and reason with it. The Doctor explains that he made a mistake the last time he was there. He has come back to fix it. The machine, Xoanon, is confused and thinks that it is the Doctor.

Leela is attacked by several of the Tesh. She is able to use the weapon she took from the guard to keep them at bay, until it runs out of power. Xoanon grows impatient with the Doctor and begins to scream at him quite loudly. The Doctor falls to the ground gripping his head.

Thoughts

The weapons that the Tesh use are identical to the one that the Doctor built for Tomas. Maybe the Doctor didn't build that weapon from scratch as I thought he did. Maybe he just repaired an old weapon?

If the Tesh have mental powers why don't they use them to subdue Leela once again? So far only Jabel has exhibited such powers. Maybe he is the only one who possesses them?

The Tesh are all men. Where are the women? There must be women somewhere.

Not great stuff and yet I continue to watch. Just one more episode to go. I think there's a good chance I will enjoy it more with the commentary track.