Faceless, perhaps not faultless but certainly not fruitless - this is really good.

Lime Grove Studios, Lime Grove, Shepherd's Bush, London, England, UK

Pauline Collins and Patrick Troughton in Doctor Who (1963)

Patrick Troughton

Michael Craze

Anneke Wills

David Ellis

Malcolm Hulke

The TARDIS materialises on the runway of Gatwick Airport, where Polly witnesses a murder only to be kidnapped before she can report it.

Gerry Mill

The Faceless Ones: Episode 1

Invasion of the Body Doubles

Although two episodes of &quot;The Faceless Ones&quot; survive, when an animated version of the serial was produced, the decision was taken to animate all six of the original episodes, ignoring the two existing ones. The general rule with &quot;Doctor Who&quot; is that when the majority of the episodes survive, as with &quot;The Reign of Terror&quot; or &quot;The Tenth Planet&quot;, they will be used as the basis of the new programme, with the missing episodes recreated in black-and-white, in a style similar to the original programme. When the majority of the episodes are missing, as here or with &quot;Galaxy 4&quot;, the animators are given a free hand to recreate all the episodes in colour, using whatever style they deem appropriate.

The Second Doctor and his companions Jamie, Ben and Polly arrive at Gatwick Airport in July 1966. Although the serial was made and broadcast in 1967, there is a reason why the action needed to take place during the previous year. They discover that an alien race known as the Chameleons have set up a bogus airline and tour company in order to kidnap young people. Although in their natural form the Chameleons are only vaguely humanoid, they have the ability to disguise themselves as individual human beings, an ability which they use to infiltrate the airport and pose as members of its staff. We learn that their own planet has suffered some catastrophe, which has wiped out most of the population, which is why they need to kidnap humans as replacements. It falls to the Doctor and his companions, assisted by the police, various members of the airport personnel and Samantha, a feisty young woman from Liverpool whose brother is one of the kidnap victims, to foil their scheme.

Samantha is played by Pauline Collins, later to become a big star on British television and in the cinema. This was the serial which saw the departure from the series of Michael Craze and Anneke Wills as Ben and Polly, and Collins was offered the chance of becoming a regular companion to the Doctor, but she turned it down, something I have always regretted. Samantha would have been a welcome addition to the crew of the TARDIS, especially as this serial hints at a developing romance between her and Jamie.

This was only the third &quot;Doctor Who&quot; serial to be set in contemporary Britain after &quot;Planet of the Giants&quot; and &quot;The War Machines&quot; and only the second to feature the theme of an alien invasion. (In later seasons, especially during the Jon Pertwee years, the Doctor seemed to be fending off another alien invasion every week). The first serial with such a theme was &quot;The Daleks&apos; Invasion of Earth&quot;, where the invasion is a straightforward war of military conquest. The Chameleons&apos; invasion is more subtle, something along the lines of &quot;Invasion of the Body-Snatchers&quot;.

This could have been an intriguing story, but there are two problems with the serial as we currently have it. The first is that it is overlong. The original script (which was set in a department store rather than an airport) only contained four episodes (which would have been ample time in which to tell the story), but for some reason the producer insisted on six. As a result the story is told in a very leisurely manner, with little real suspense until the last couple of episodes. The other problem is that the animation (like that in &quot;Galaxy 4&quot;) is not very well done, particularly in its depiction of movement and of human feelings. The actors&apos; voices might reveal the characters&apos; emotions, but these are not always reflected in their faces. For these reasons I cannot award the serial more than 5/10, but (as always with missing or partly-missing serials) I reserve the right to revisit that mark should the missing episodes ever turn up.

Although two episodes of "The Faceless Ones" survive, when an animated version of the serial was produced, the decision was taken to animate all six of the original episodes, ignoring the two existing ones. The general rule with "Doctor Who" is that when the majority of the episodes survive, as with "The Reign of Terror" or "The Tenth Planet", they will be used as the basis of the new programme, with the missing episodes recreated in black-and-white, in a style similar to the original programme. When the majority of the episodes are missing, as here or with "Galaxy 4", the animators are given a free hand to recreate all the episodes in colour, using whatever style they deem appropriate.

The Second Doctor and his companions Jamie, Ben and Polly arrive at Gatwick Airport in July 1966. Although the serial was made and broadcast in 1967, there is a reason why the action needed to take place during the previous year. They discover that an alien race known as the Chameleons have set up a bogus airline and tour company in order to kidnap young people. Although in their natural form the Chameleons are only vaguely humanoid, they have the ability to disguise themselves as individual human beings, an ability which they use to infiltrate the airport and pose as members of its staff. We learn that their own planet has suffered some catastrophe, which has wiped out most of the population, which is why they need to kidnap humans as replacements. It falls to the Doctor and his companions, assisted by the police, various members of the airport personnel and Samantha, a feisty young woman from Liverpool whose brother is one of the kidnap victims, to foil their scheme.

Samantha is played by Pauline Collins, later to become a big star on British television and in the cinema. This was the serial which saw the departure from the series of Michael Craze and Anneke Wills as Ben and Polly, and Collins was offered the chance of becoming a regular companion to the Doctor, but she turned it down, something I have always regretted. Samantha would have been a welcome addition to the crew of the TARDIS, especially as this serial hints at a developing romance between her and Jamie.

This was only the third "Doctor Who" serial to be set in contemporary Britain after "Planet of the Giants" and "The War Machines" and only the second to feature the theme of an alien invasion. (In later seasons, especially during the Jon Pertwee years, the Doctor seemed to be fending off another alien invasion every week). The first serial with such a theme was "The Daleks' Invasion of Earth", where the invasion is a straightforward war of military conquest. The Chameleons' invasion is more subtle, something along the lines of "Invasion of the Body-Snatchers".

This could have been an intriguing story, but there are two problems with the serial as we currently have it. The first is that it is overlong. The original script (which was set in a department store rather than an airport) only contained four episodes (which would have been ample time in which to tell the story), but for some reason the producer insisted on six. As a result the story is told in a very leisurely manner, with little real suspense until the last couple of episodes. The other problem is that the animation (like that in "Galaxy 4") is not very well done, particularly in its depiction of movement and of human feelings. The actors' voices might reveal the characters' emotions, but these are not always reflected in their faces. For these reasons I cannot award the serial more than 5/10, but (as always with missing or partly-missing serials) I reserve the right to revisit that mark should the missing episodes ever turn up.

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The Faceless Ones: Episode 1

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