From: ira2p@faraday.clas.Virginia.EDU (Iain Robert Asplin)
Subject: Re: Face of Evil  (was Re: Immortal Companions)
Organization: University of Virginia
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1992 22:06:46 GMT

In article <1992Sep13.085200.21148@lugb.latrobe.edu.au> HISC9016351D@LUST.LATROBE.EDU.AU (MAMMONE,Robert) writes:
>> 
>
>Personally, I don't buy your argument in relation to this.   In Robot, the
>Tardis dematerialises, though not fully.  this doesn't necessarily mena the
>Doctor didn't leave.  I would argue he did leave, and landed on Leela's
>planet, in her past. In the Face of Evil, Xoanon is clearly a manifestation
> of the Doctor's disturbed mind after his traumatic regeneration.  Thus,
> Xoanon is a traumatised creation wrought by the Doctor's hand.  You also say
> that the Tardis wasn't working precisely enough for him to return to
> exactly where he took off from (ie the lab).  This is wrong in two regards. 
>      Firstly, the Doctor may have spent some time repairing
>the Xoanon, and returned some time later for him, but instantly for Sarah. 
>What I'm trying to say is that the Doctor may have been away fixxing the 
>computer, which would have given him time to work out the exact 
>co-ordinates of the laboratory at UNIT headquarters for him to return.
> Of course you could argue against this by saying that the Doctor was still
>suffering from post regeneration problems when he returned, indicating that he
>had spent very little time away. 
>    Anyway, my second point is about the Tardis's reliability, which you raise.
>  I think the Doctor by his fourth incarnation had very good control
> over the Tardis.  Look at The Pyramids of Mars.  To illustrate to
> Sarah Jane what the Earth would be like in her time, 1980, if they let 
>Sutekh alone, he travelled to an alternatefuture, showing a devastated planet,
> then returned to the exact space and time co-ordinates (1911, the Priory)
> afterwards.  Some would argue that the Doctor was simply tricking Sarah Jane 
>into agreeing with his argument to stay and fight Sutekh, but I think 
>not.  Somehow, I think I've left the main point of the argument, but I'm sure
> you'll find my main argument somewhere inside.

I don't buy this argument.
First of all, in "Robot," the TARDIS did not dematerialize.  It reamains
solid through two gyrations of the dimensional stabilizer, Sarah knocks
on the still-solid door and calls inside, and the Doctor shuts the TARDIS
down.
Second of all, the theory you are quoting from Terrance Dicks is incorrect
as he said it.  Dicks' theory from his novelization of "The Face of Evil"
states that on one of the nights before we see him wake up in "Robot"
he secretly woke up, snuck into the lab, and went on his journey to the
Mordee expedition.

Third of all, why do we need these "Robot" theories in the first place?
It's a lot simpler to just say that some time took place between 
"The Deadly Assassin" and "The Face of Evil," and at some period in
that unlinked time, he had his first encounter with the Mordee expedition.
There is another adventure the Fourth Doctor must have had that could
fit nicely into this gap too, which is his night on Joconda with Azmael
when he has to push him in the fountain to sober him up, referred to
in "The Twin Dilemma."  I like to put it here, because it sounds like
the sort of old-boys romp he would rather not have companions around for.