The Faceless Ones is sadly one of those stories that doesn’t exist in its entirety on film and it’s a massive shame because from what does exist, there are clear signs that this story would be one of the best Troughton stories had all the episodes exist. This story was written by David Ellis and the fantastic Malcolm Hulke. Who couldn’t write a poor story if his life depended on it. The story has a modern feeling and set at an airport.
The main ‘enemy’ of this story are the people of Chameleons Tours but as the story progresses, it turns out that their entire race have lost their identities and faces and are dying out. The story starts off with a death and the Doctor trying to get the airport authorities to take the matter serious. Slowly the authorities start to co-operate just as the Chameleon Tours’ plan get going. With a six part adventure, at some point the story is going to need something different or something fresh. In this story it’s Samantha Briggs (played by Pauline Collins), her brother is missing and wants to know what’s going on. With Ben and Polly out of the picture, Jamie needs someone to share his scenes with and Collins does the job well. As a mouthy scouser she soon becomes an immediate presence and it’s a shame that she doesn’t become a companion at the end.
I thought that Patrick Troughton and Frazer Hines performed well in this story. But it was the supporting cast members that deserve a mention. Colin Gordon was brilliant as the Commandant. His refusal to accept what was going on in front of him was well acted. Also Bernard Kay did a great job being the voice of reason and common sense as Crossland. Kay is making his second appearance after previously appearing in The Dalek Invasion of Earth. As Crossland he gave the Doctor the benefit of the doubt even though he himself was 100% sure of things. The story has some wonderful cliffhangers. Cliffhanger #1 was a nice one because it was strangely mysterious. Though the Episode 3 is the best one, one moment there are passengers on the plane and then they just disappear with no weird noise or explosion. Just gone, I would love to have actually seen what that was like instead of listening to it.
This story marks the end of Polly and Ben’s involvement in the series It’s a shame that they didn’t get a better send off. It’s as if the production team remembered that they had more regulars than Patrick & Frazer and so there was a rush scene where once Polly and Ben realise that the TARDIS has landed on the exact day that they left Earth in The War Machines. It follows the equally bad exit for Dodo in that same story. The story does something quite strange where it leads into the next story ‘The Evil of the Daleks’. The TARDIS is stolen but the question is by whom.
David Ellis & Malcolm Hulke did a great job with this one. The Faceless Ones is a wonderful story and its just a shame that it doesn’t exist in its entirety on film as I think that it would rank higher than it did in the DWM Mighty 200.
The main ‘enemy’ of this story are the people of Chameleons Tours but as the story progresses, it turns out that their entire race have lost their identities and faces and are dying out. The story starts off with a death and the Doctor trying to get the airport authorities to take the matter serious. Slowly the authorities start to co-operate just as the Chameleon Tours’ plan get going. With a six part adventure, at some point the story is going to need something different or something fresh. In this story it’s Samantha Briggs (played by Pauline Collins), her brother is missing and wants to know what’s going on. With Ben and Polly out of the picture, Jamie needs someone to share his scenes with and Collins does the job well. As a mouthy scouser she soon becomes an immediate presence and it’s a shame that she doesn’t become a companion at the end.
I thought that Patrick Troughton and Frazer Hines performed well in this story. But it was the supporting cast members that deserve a mention. Colin Gordon was brilliant as the Commandant. His refusal to accept what was going on in front of him was well acted. Also Bernard Kay did a great job being the voice of reason and common sense as Crossland. Kay is making his second appearance after previously appearing in The Dalek Invasion of Earth. As Crossland he gave the Doctor the benefit of the doubt even though he himself was 100% sure of things. The story has some wonderful cliffhangers. Cliffhanger #1 was a nice one because it was strangely mysterious. Though the Episode 3 is the best one, one moment there are passengers on the plane and then they just disappear with no weird noise or explosion. Just gone, I would love to have actually seen what that was like instead of listening to it.
This story marks the end of Polly and Ben’s involvement in the series It’s a shame that they didn’t get a better send off. It’s as if the production team remembered that they had more regulars than Patrick & Frazer and so there was a rush scene where once Polly and Ben realise that the TARDIS has landed on the exact day that they left Earth in The War Machines. It follows the equally bad exit for Dodo in that same story. The story does something quite strange where it leads into the next story ‘The Evil of the Daleks’. The TARDIS is stolen but the question is by whom.
David Ellis & Malcolm Hulke did a great job with this one. The Faceless Ones is a wonderful story and its just a shame that it doesn’t exist in its entirety on film as I think that it would rank higher than it did in the DWM Mighty 200.
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