The Faceless Ones is the mostly missing eighth serial of the fourth season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 8 April to 13 May 1967.
In this serial, the Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton) and his travelling companions Jamie (Frazer Hines), Ben (Michael Craze) and Polly (Anneke Wills) arrive at Gatwick Airport where identity-stealing aliens known as the Chameleons have taken refuge after their planet was destroyed, preying on university students by abducting them using the false holiday flight organisation 'Chameleon Tours'. It sees the departure of Craze and Wills as Ben and Polly. Only two of the six episodes are held in the BBC archives; four remain missing.
An animated version of the serial from BBC Studios was released on 16 March 2020. It became the eighth incomplete Doctor Who serial to receive full-length animated reconstructions of its missing episodes.
Plot
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The TARDIS materialises on the runway of Gatwick Airport. The Doctor and his companions Ben, Polly and Jamie split up when a police officer appears. Polly ducks into the Chameleon Tours agency hangar and witnesses a murder by Spencer, who then reports back to his superior, Captain Blade. She returns to the hangar with the Doctor and Jamie to examine the body. Meanwhile, airport authorities impound the TARDIS.
The Doctor notes that the murder weapon is extraterrestrial. They run to inform the authorities, but Blade captures Polly without anyone noticing. Nurse Pinto brings in the unconscious air traffic controller Meadows to replace him with an alien doppelgänger.
The Doctor and Jamie meet Samantha Briggs, who is searching for her brother who disappeared on a Chameleon youth tour. Ben finds Polly suspended comatose in a cabinet, before being caught and frozen. The Doctor and his friends meet DI Crossland, who is also investigating Chameleon Tours. The Doctor realises that the murder was that of Crossland's missing partner, Gascoigne, and convinces the Airport Commandant to allow them to investigate.
In the hangar, Samantha and Jamie find fake postcards from missing tourists. Blade captures Crossland and Spencer captures Samantha, as Jamie boards a plane. When an airsick Jamie emerges from the toilet, he finds the passengers miniaturised by Blade's assistant Ann, who catches him.
Meanwhile, the Doctor captures Meadows' double. He threatens to remove "Meadows'" life-supporting armband, who then explains that an explosion ruined the aliens' home world. They therefore intend to use comatose humans in orbit to sustain themselves. The Doctor and Meadows' doppelgänger rescue the real Pinto, causing her double to disintegrate. Pinto frees Samantha, while Jamie meets the Director of the aliens, disguised as Crossland, and is replicated.
The Doctor and Pinto board the last flight to space, but Blade sends Chameleons to capture them. The Doctor offers to spare the aliens, in exchange for returning the humans. One alien disintegrates, proving that Samantha found the real staff in the car park, as Blade and Spencer rebel by killing the Director and Chameleon Jamie. The originals revive and Crossland stays behind longer, while the Doctor, Jamie and Pinto return with freed humans.
Back at the airport, Ben and Polly learn that the day is 20 July 1966, when they first left in the TARDIS. They leave for home, as the Doctor reveals that the TARDIS has been stolen.
Production
David Ellis and Malcolm Hulke had both been attempting to write Doctor Who properties (since the programme's beginning in Hulke's case), including a rejected joint effort in 1966. Instead, script editor Gerry Davis tasked the team with a story with a scientific concept and menace, as well as a singular set such as a department store. Hulke and Ellis created a storyline called The Big Store in which the Chameleons took the form of mannequins. Producer Innes Lloyd suggested the setting change to an airport instead and be a six-part story instead of four. The story was officially commissioned as Dr Who & The Chameleons on 3 January 1967. A storyline for the first four episodes was submitted 7 January. Scripts were delivered from 24 to 31 January.
Some of The Faceless Ones was filmed on location at Gatwick Airport in March 1967.
Cast notes
Both Michael Craze and Anneke Wills were released from their contracts after episode 2, leading to their departures during this serial. Their contracts originally ran out in episode two of the next serial, and they were compensated for this. The characters appear in episode 6 in scenes shot on location prior to the studio recording. Meanwhile, Frazer Hines was contracted through The Faceless Ones and the following serial, The Evil of the Daleks.
Pauline Collins was offered the chance to continue playing the character of Sam Briggs as a new companion, but she declined the offer. The character was originally named Cleopatra Briggs. Collins guest-starred, years later, as Queen Victoria in "Tooth and Claw" (2006).
Bernard Kay appears as Inspector Crossland. He had previously appeared as Tyler in The Dalek Invasion of Earth (1964) and Saladin in The Crusade (1965), then later appeared as Caldwell in Colony in Space (1971). Donald Pickering and Wanda Ventham would later star as husband and wife in Time and the Rani (1987). Pickering had previously appeared as Eyesen in The Keys of Marinus (1964) and Ventham would go on to play Thea Ransom in Image of the Fendahl (1977). Christopher Tranchell previously appeared as Roger Colbert in The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve (1966) and would return as Leela's love interest Andred in The Invasion of Time (1978).