The Faceless Ones Episode 6

The one where Ben and Polly go back to the start...

In keeping with the sedate pace of the preceding five episodes, the "finale" of The Faceless Ones jogs to the finish line rather than races. Writers David Ellis and Malcolm Hulke have an essentially interesting story on their hands, but it's been plotted and executed somewhat clumsily, making anything which could have been exciting mildly underwhelming. Hulke would go on to pen some of Doctor Who's most intelligently written stories in the Pertwee era (not always the most dynamic, though), while this was Ellis's only successful contribution to the show (he'd submitted various storylines to the Doctor Who office previously, including one called The People Who Couldn't Remember). Sadly, both writers died just 12 months and one week apart, in June 1978 and July 1979.

Their combined legacy has to be regarded as one of the weakest stories in Season 4, but that's not to say there aren't kernels of strong ideas. It's just executed in such a disappointingly uncertain way. Credulity is stretched regularly. For instance, could the Commandant really put a very sudden halt to all outgoing flights from Gatwick just to rally the airport staff to search for 25 hidden bodies? The repercussions for international air traffic would be devastating (which is probably why Brussels gives him a call at the end of the episode!).

The Faceless Ones Episode 5

The one where the Doctor loses a third companion...

The Doctor proves to be a pretty ineffective force for good in this story. I've already written about how writers David Ellis and Malcolm Hulke seem obsessed with having the Doctor seek the support of the authorities, and despite making some of his own investigations last episode, he's still at it now, in episode 5, where he questions the fake Meadows in an effort to convince the Commandant once and for all that something alien is afoot. It doesn't make for very dynamic viewing when your hero spends most of his time lobbying middle managers.

"First Polly, then Ben, now Jamie!" laments the Doctor when Sam tells him that the Highlander has disappeared aboard Flight 419. The Doctor has been clumsily remiss with his burgeoning bunch of companions in this story. Not content to have one companion to get into danger, here he has no fewer than three, who he mislays with the greatest of ease. We haven't seen Ben or Polly since episode 3, and are to understand that they have been taken aboard the Chameleon satellite. Now Jamie's stowed aboard too.

The Faceless Ones Episode 4

The one where Jamie goes on a trip to Rome - in outer space...

As I mentioned in my review for last episode, Spencer is a real thicko. He's given so much responsibility by Blade, and continually cocks up. After numerous failed attempts to kill the Doctor, this time he manages to paralyse him, along with Jamie and Samantha, and lines them up on the hangar floor before training a laser beam on them.

And in true Rubbish Villain fashion (seen too often in Doctor Who, as well as in Bond films and other action-adventure franchises), Spencer then decides to leave before the laser has done its job, content in the misplaced belief that his plan is bound to succeed. A proper villain would hang around to make sure his prisoners are killed before leaving, but not thicko Spencer. I'd find it all much more entertaining and believable if the writers (and actor Victor Winding) made Spencer intentionally incompetent, adding a much-needed element of comedy to proceedings (such as Packer in The Invasion), but this chance to go a bit tongue in cheek is missed completely. Later, fake Jenkins tells Spencer the Doctor must be killed, and Spencer replies: "I tried. They must have escaped." Well, duh!

The Faceless Ones Episode 3

The one where an aeroplane full of passengers disappears in an instant...

We pick this slow-moving but suitably intriguing tale up with the Doctor being frozen to death by icy gas jets in the Chameleon Tours hangar. Almost immediately, the Doctor hunkers into his coat, collar up around his ears, but it would be much simpler to move as far away from the icy jets as possible, rather than just flop down beside them. Still, at least the Doctor manages to outwit thicko Spencer with his own gas pen, and escape. It's funny, but during the brief moment where Troughton is in his shirt sleeves, he looks remarkably like he would in The Two Doctors, 18 years hence!

I said thicko Spencer because he just is. He's very straight and humourless (as all the Chameleons are) but he's also appallingly rubbish at any job he's given. Captain Blade really has got a liability on his hands (or "a fool" as Doctor Who villains prefer). Later on Spencer tries yet again to kill the Doctor, this time by getting bumbling Meadows to attach a destructive device to him. He's so desperate to have the Doctor dead, why doesn't he use a ray gun, or a gas pen? Why all these extravagantly silly methods of dispatch?

The Faceless Ones Episode 2

The one where the Doctor, Ben and Jamie have fun in a photo booth...

A week too late, Delia Derbyshire's fresh version of the Doctor Who theme tune makes its debut here, and its much busier and more frantic than the ethereal original. She's added pace and some shrill expressions which match the new title sequence well (we won't get the full effect of this until the visual episode 3). This 1967 theme will last Doctor Who a long time - 13 years in fact!

I really am fond of the stock music used in The Faceless Ones. It's very low-key, but its a sombre soundscape underpinning some of the intriguing and mysterious goings-on in the story. The scene where the Chameleon morphs into Meadows is chilling stuff, judging by John Cura's telesnaps. A simple cross-fade effect was probably used (similar to the regeneration in The Tenth Planet episode 4), but the fading between a normal human face and the mottled alien head is really quite unsettling, even 50 years later (to me, anyway!).

The Faceless Ones Episode 1

The one where the Doctor is asked for his passport...

Ooh, a new title sequence! Although the new look opening titles had been running since the previous serial, The Faceless Ones Episode 1 is the first time we can actually see them (until somebody finds an episode of The Macra Terror). It's quite strange to suddenly see Patrick Troughton's face in the howlaround effects, and despite it being a happy, smiley Doctor, the visual effect is quite disconcerting. His face fades into solidity, but just as it first appears it looks mutated and fractured, and as if he has more than two eyes. Weird... I can understand why some contemporary viewers were freaked out by the Doctor Who titles when they were growing up! It's also strange to see the new titles over the original theme tune, but this would change with Episode 2 with the debut of a revamped theme too.

The episode opens with some exciting location footage at Gatwick Airport. It's the first time we've had any location footage since The Underwater Menace, and the first time the Doctor has visited contemporary Earth since The War Machines. In fact, this episode feels very much like The War Machines, with its modern-day setting and plenty of warehouses and creeping about.