In any other season, “Face of Evil” would be in the running for the best story of the season.

But placed in the heart of season fourteen, surrounded on two sides by classic stories, “Face of Evil” can and does get easily overlooked by fans (this one included) when it comes to naming off the classics of Hinchcliffe/Holmes era.

Watching it again, for the first time in years, I found myself thinking about what a huge shame that is.

Becuase “Face of Evil” is one of those big-idea, high-concept Doctor Who stories that works on just about every level. OK, so it’s quite the same level of Who-fan nirvana that “Deadly Assassin” or “Robots of Death” is. But I’d argue in a lot of ways, this story has a lot more big-ideas per episode than those two do.

The central conflict of the story is a religious war between the Tesh and the Sevateem. The two sides are kept seprarate by a barrier, but they agree on one thing—their “god” Xoannon. Each side is absolutely convinced they are right in their way of interacting or worshipping Xoannon, to the point that they’re prepared to wipe out the other side in what they see as their divine right and duty.

What makes this that much more interesting is that Xoannon turns out not to be a god, but a computer gone amok. And that the Doctor has created this problem by trying to help the situation. Sometime earlier, the fourth Doctor landed on the planet and imprinted his personality on the computer system. He thought he’d wiped his mental patterns from the machine, but they somehow stayed and have now run amok. The computer has taken over and has delusions of gradeur, setting itself up as a god and not wanting to be shut down.

It’s even willing to allow the two sides of human beings on the planet to go to war in order to stop the Doctor.

It’s a fascinating story and watching the series explore it is nicely done. And while it is easy to clearly demark the story’s shift (it spends two episodes with the Tesh, two with the Sevateem), it still doesn’t make it any less compelling or interesting. The series doesn’t go so far as to debunk religious beliefs. Instead, the Doctor challenges the mindless following of any one system or set of beliefs to an extreme. The Doctor meets and bonds with Leela, who he challenges to think outside her paradigm and she does. Of course, it’s not hard to buy that she would since the first scene sets up that Leela has challenged the status quo and is being exiled because of it. She may be a “savage” but she’s willing to think for herself, something which the Doctor picks up on early in the story. Of course, she’s still a product of her upbringing, as we see with her falling back upon the kill first, ask questions later theory time and again with her character. We see the Doctor’s moral outrage at the use of the Janus Thorn and his rebuking Leela that she need not kill every perceived enemy.

Like I said, this is “big idea” storytelling by Doctor Who. (The original title of the story was “The Day God Went Mad” if that tells you anything).

It’s also a story that is told in a time when the production team is in full confidence. The script is smart, well done and holds the attention for four episodes. Louise Jamison’s work as Leela is top-notch and her character provides a great counterpoint to Tom Baker’s fourth Doctor. And Baker himself is clearly comfortable and excelling in the role of the Doctor. Again, the Tom Baker of later seasons has yet to crop up and we see that Baker can act when he wants to. He turns in a great performance here and while there are a few moments of fun and silliness, they’re no where near as out of control and exceessive as later seasons (see season 17 for examples).

So all of that said, why doesn’t “Face of Evil” rank higher among fans. I still say it has a lot to do with where the story falls in the series run than anything. Were it not sandwiched between two classics, it might be a lot better regarded. And another thing to give this story credit for—it’s hard to follow an instant classic by Robert Holmes. For a greater appreciation of how good this one turned out to be, just skip ahead to what followed “The Caves of Androzani.”