2.6: The Faceless Ones

In which faceless aliens steal people’s identities at Gatwick Airport. Which makes no sense, but is nonetheless very cool.

Broadcast: April-May 1967.

Watched/listened: September 2019

Another largely missing story that’s since been animated. That, though, happened after I got to it, so these notes are only about the audio, except for episodes 1 and 3, which I watched because they actually exist.

The Faceless Ones, Episode 1

“Scatter!” LOVE the intro with the stock footage, then everyone falling out of the TARDIS and legging it. It’s just so fun. 

Also Polly instantly getting into trouble. “He found the postcards,” is a nicely baffling mystery too. Although why they all just hide under planes is a bit of a mystery too, mind.

The way Ben disappears without a single line of dialogue is a bit ooh wait he’s back.

This was the first novelisation I read btw, before I was a fan, so lots of affection for it. Another very visual story that’ll benefit from animation too. [By all accounts, it has.] What we do see of the Chameleons is incredibly creepy.

Odd cliffhanger though. “Polly has a double” seems a better ending than “unseen alien has unseen medical procedure” but there we are.

The Faceless Ones, Episode 2

This one’s really creepy, isn’t it? It’s probably the creepiest concept the show has yet attempted, the idea of aliens stealing our identities rather than just killing us. A version of Polly who isn’t Polly is deeply unsettling. So is the idea of teenagers basically being kidnapped. Shame we can’t see any of it.

“Chameleon Tours” is not a subtle name. Neither is “Blade”, possibly.

I am not buying Pauline Collins’ Scouse accent, although her trying to bang Jamie is quite funny. [I should have bought it: she grew up on the Wirral.] Lots of good business in this story actually, to balance out the scary stuff – sneaking around plane wheels, hiding in photo booths or behind newspapers... It’s good. I like it.

The Faceless Ones, Episode 3

The resolution of the “frozen Doctor” cliffhanger, and the comatose man in a box, and the cliffhanger to this one with the passengers disappearing... All bring home quite how visual this story is. Real shame we don’t have the rest of it.

The police officer is about ten years older and four shades wetter than I imagined him to be. Although having someone in authority vouch for the Doctor then get himself captured and/or killed is a neat way of raising the stakes.

Sam trying to bang Jamie is great. Also the way she is clearly framed as the new companion (”Sam, Jamie, come on”). They must have been quite a way in before they knew Collins wouldn’t take the job. Also I know it was for contractual reasons, but the absence of Ben and Polly is strange and annoying. [It was not for contractual reasons! They’re still being paid for these episodes, even though they barely appear. Which feels like a cock up.]

The way the postcards being fake is played as a revelation is a bit odd. We’ve known all this for an entire episode surely?

Anyway, I’ve just done some maths. By my count there are 653 episodes of old Who (counting all the 45 minute ones and The Five Doctors as one each, not by length). This was number 159. I’m almost a quarter of the way through and I’m barely into the second Doctor yet.

The Faceless Ones, Episode 4

Sam continues to act like she knows she’s a Doctor Who companion.

The thought occurs that, like The War Machines, large chunks of what make this stand out – the real world technology, the role of authority figures, the way it feels so different from earlier stories – flow entirely from its contemporary setting. In 1967 that still feels fresh and original rather than hackneyed.

I wish we could see the plane transform into a shuttle, though.

The Faceless Ones, Episode 5

The idea of “a gigantic explosion” wiping out an entire species’ identities is stupid, but charitably he just doesn’t know how to describe what happened so describes how it felt instead.

Jamie is an idiot for not noticing that Crosland very obviously isn’t Crosland. Although why being a chameleon means he’s suddenly English rather than Scottish is not exactly clear. Hilarious insight into the post-war assumption that RP was neutral. 

The Faceless Ones, Episode 6

It’s kind of funny the way this has so many companions or pseudo-companions in it, yet the resolution turns on one off characters doing stuff to help.

The Chameleons’ collapse is fucking stupid. I know it’s always an issue with implacable foes but they turn against each other very easily and over very little, and also how is “we left them in a car park” a secure way of hiding some bodies? Fake Jamie being shot dead is fun. 

Ben and Polly deciding to go is more touching than I expected.

Anyway. Enjoyed that one. Different to anything we’ve seen before, which is always good.

And here’s a trailer for the animated version: