The Faceless Ones
| 035 – The Faceless Ones | |||||
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| Doctor Who serial | |||||
 The Doctor hides at Gatwick Airport |
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| Production | |||||
| Writer | David Ellis and Malcolm Hulke | ||||
| Director | Gerry Mill | ||||
| Script editor | Gerry Davis | ||||
| Producer | Innes Lloyd | ||||
| Executive producer(s) | Peter Bryant associate producer | ||||
| Production code | KK | ||||
| Series | Season 4 | ||||
| Length | 6 episodes, 25 minutes each (material missing from episode 3 due to damaged print) | ||||
| Episode(s) missing | 4 episodes (2, 4-6) | ||||
| Date started | 8 April 1967 | ||||
| Date ended | 13 May 1967 | ||||
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The Faceless Ones is the eighth serial of the fourth season in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 8 April to 13 May 1967. The story concerns a race of identity-stealing aliens known as the Chameleons. It sees the departure of Michael Craze and Anneke Wills as the Doctor's companions Ben Jackson and Polly.
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[edit] Plot
The Doctor, Ben, Polly and Jamie split up to flee police, who confiscate the TARDIS from Gatwick Airport runway. In the Chameleon Tours agency hangar, Polly sees Spencer kill another man and report to his superior, Captain Blade. Polly flees, bringing the Doctor and Jamie to the hangar. When they find Blade guarding the body and run, Blade captures Polly. He hides her and the corpse from the return of Jamie and the Doctor with skeptical airport authorities.
Alone again, Spencer revives an alien, a faceless green humanoid with prominent veins. Nurse Pinto brings in unconscious air traffic controller Meadows, and connects him to alien and machine. Alien transforms into Meadows doppelganger, and goes to his airport job. Polly exits newly landed plane, but rejects the Doctor and Jamie, claiming to be Michelle Leuppi from Zurich.
At the Chameleon kiosk, they meet Samantha Briggs, a young Liverpudlian, searching for her brother. On a Chameleon youth tour, he sent a postcard from Rome, but nobody saw him there. Breaking in, the trio find fake postcards from missing tourists, and a monitor of the Tours hangar. They see Ben find Polly suspended comatose in a metal cabinet, then be himself caught and frozen by Blade and Spencer. The Doctor goes alone to the hangar and tells Jamie and Samantha to stay.
They meet DI Crossland investigating disappearing Chameleon customers, and realize the first body was his missing partner, DI Gascoigne. The Doctor finds only comatose Meadows and returns to demonstrate freezing gun to the Airport Commandant, who gives them 12 hours to investigate. Blade points ray gun at Crossland to stop him boarding next flight, and shows him all passengers have vanished.
Spencer attacks Jamie and Samantha, but they escape. Jamie steals Samantha's ticket and boards. Samantha finds Spencer instead of the airport manager; he ties her up for Pinto to duplicate. Meanwhile the Doctor and Commandant learns from other airports that Chameleon passengers never arrive.
Blade eliminates pursuing RAF fighter and diverts Jamie's plane up to dock in vast alien craft. When airsick Jamie emerges from toilet, he finds passengers miniaturised in drawers. Blade's assistant Ann catches him, and traps him in a room with two misshapen aliens.
The Doctor followed the radar signals to the plane destination, threatens to remove alien Meadows' life-supporting black armband, and elicits an explanation. An explosion damaged the alien homeworld, so they want to replace 50,000 humans left comatose in orbit. The Doctor uses alien Meadows to get at alien Pinto. She resists and disintegrates, so real Pinto revives, frees Samantha. She tells the Doctor that Jamie left.
Jamie meets the Director of the aliens, a Crossland copy, who says the plane will return to the airport for remaining Chameleons. The Doctor keeps identities of copied staff secret, so the Commandant can find their hidden originals.
The Doctor pretends to be alien Meadows and Pinto impersonates her double. They board the last flight to space. Alien Jamie reveals the threat of the Doctor, so Blade sends undisguised Chameleons capture them. The Doctor offers to spare Gatwick original aliens, when one onboard disintegrates, proving Samantha found real staff in parking lot cars. Blade and Spencer kill the Director and fake Jamie, whose originals revive. Crossland stays behind when the Doctor, Jamie and Pinto return with freed humans.
In the airport, Samantha kisses Jamie goodbye. Ben and Polly learn the day is 20 July 1966, when they first left in the TARDIS. They leave for home. The Doctor reveals to Jamie that the TARDIS has been released from airport storage, and stolen.
[edit] Continuity
20 July 1966 is noted as the busiest day for the Doctor in his time on Earth. The First Doctor defeats the War Machines and WOTAN. As noted in the synopsis above the plans of the Chameleons have been foiled and the TARDIS has been stolen at the beginning of the Second Doctor and Jamie's adventure against the Daleks.
[edit] Production
| Episode | Broadcast date | Run time | Viewership (in millions) |
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| "Episode 1" | 8 April 1967 | 23:47 | 8.0 | 16mm t/r |
| "Episode 2" | 15 April 1967 | 25:22 | 6.4 | Only stills and/or fragments exist |
| "Episode 3" | 22 April 1967 | 23:10 | 7.9 | 16mm t/r |
| "Episode 4" | 29 April 1967 | 24:28 | 6.9 | Only stills and/or fragments exist |
| "Episode 5" | 6 May 1967 | 23:34 | 7.1 | Only stills and/or fragments exist |
| "Episode 6" | 13 May 1967 | 23:38 | 8.0 | Only stills and/or fragments exist |
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- Working titles for this story include The Chameleons.
- This story had its origins in a planned Hartnell story by Hulke-Ellis called The Big Store, in which aliens occupied mannequins in a busy department store, while waiting for human hosts to possess. The idea was adapted for the Troughton era and its setting changed to a metropolitan airport.
- Filmed on location at London Gatwick Airport. Heathrow also accepted the production team's offer, but the team chose Gatwick as the cost was lower. Doctor Who did film at Heathrow for Time-Flight in 1982.
- There is a fan myth that this was the first story to feature the Doctor's face in the opening credits (exact determination having been difficult due to the number of episodes missing from this era of the programme). In reality, it was The Macra Terror that saw the debut of the new title sequence. However, the revised arrangement of the theme music that accompanied this new sequence made its debut in Episode 2 of The Faceless Ones.
[edit] Cast notes
- Pauline Collins was offered the chance to continue playing the character of Sam Briggs (who appears only in this story) as a new companion, but declined the offer. Collins guest-starred, years later, as Queen Victoria in "Tooth and Claw".
- Bernard Kay appears as Inspector Crossland. He had previously appeared as Tyler in The Dalek Invasion of Earth and Saladin in The Crusade. He later appeared as Caldwell in Colony in Space.
- Wanda Ventham and Donald Pickering would later star as husband and wife in Time and the Rani. Pickering had previously appeared as Eyesen in The Keys of Marinus and Ventham would go on to play Thea Ransom in Image of the Fendahl.
- Christopher Tranchell would return as Leela's love interest Andred in The Invasion of Time and had previously appeared in the first Doctor serial The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve as Roger Colbert.
[edit] Missing episodes
- Episodes one and three of this serial exist in the BBC archives.
- In addition to the complete version, the archives hold an incomplete print of episode one, returned from ABC in Australia in the early 1980s. The Australian Film Censorship Board saw fit to remove the following scenes: Spencer killing Inspector Gascoigne with a Chameleon ray-gun; the alien arm emerging from the cupboard; and panning shots of the alien figure (seen only from behind) at the end of the episode.
- Also, around 14 seconds of material is missing from Episode three, due to a damaged print, as stated above.
[edit] In print
A novelisation of this serial, written by Terrance Dicks, was published by Target Books in December 1986.
| Doctor Who book | |
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| The Faceless Ones | |
| Series | Target novelisations |
| Release number | 116 |
| Writer | Terrance Dicks |
| Publisher | Target Books |
| Cover artist | Tony Masero |
| ISBN | 0-426-20294-5 |
| Release date |
December 1986 (Hardback) 21 May 1987 (Paperback) |
| Preceded by | ' |
| Followed by | ' |
[edit] VHS, DVD and CD releases
- As with all missing episodes, off-air recordings of the soundtrack exist due to contemporary fan efforts. In February 2002 these were released on CD, accompanied by linking narration from Frazer Hines.
- In 2003, Episodes one and three of this serial were released on VHS by BBC Worldwide, along with Episode One of The Web of Fear as part of The Reign of Terror boxset.
- In November 2004, they were included in the three-disc Lost in Time DVD set.
[edit] References
- ^ Shaun Lyon et al. (2007-03-31). "The Faceless Ones". Outpost Gallifrey. Archived from the original on 2008-06-18. http://web.archive.org/web/20080618190252/http://www.gallifreyone.com/episode.php?id=kk. Retrieved 2008-08-30.
- ^ "The Faceless Ones". Doctor Who Reference Guide. http://www.drwhoguide.com/who_2k.htm. Retrieved 2008-08-30.
- ^ Sullivan, Shannon (2005-05-08). "The Faceless Ones". A Brief History of Time Travel. http://www.shannonsullivan.com/drwho/serials/kk.html. Retrieved 2008-08-30.
[edit] External links
- The Faceless Ones at BBC Online
- Photonovel of The Faceless Ones, on the BBC website
- The Faceless Ones at Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time (Travel)
- The Faceless Ones at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
- Doctor Who Locations - The Faceless Ones
[edit] Reviews
- The Faceless Ones reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide
[edit] Target novelisation
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