Doctor Who (TV Series) The Faceless Ones: Episode 1 (1967) User Reviews

Part 1 jets off in style.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 8/10 · 1 November 2015]

The Doctor, Jamie, Ben and Polly land slap back on a runway in the middle of Gatwick Airport, the quartet run off to elude Police capture. Polly witnesses a man being shot by another, the weapon used is a futuristic ray gun that could only belong to an alien being. The travellers return to the scene of the crime and go in search of the authorities. Ben is working solo, Polly is snatched at the command of Captain Blade of Chameleon tours, the man at the top of the Aliens at Chameleon Tours. The Doctor and Jamie have trouble explaining their presence in the Airport, they insist that The Commandant accompanies them to the Hanger, the body has disappeared. At the Chameleon tours base Polly is 'processed.' Polly later reappears, claiming her name isn't Polly and that she has no idea who the Doctor or Jamie are. A faceless, featureless veiny creature is later revealed, and set to be processed.

I'm always surprise by the amount of stick The Faceless ones gets, I know it's not the best production of all, but it's original, it's different and it flows well.

It's a good example of the four members of the TARDIS working well together, everyone has something to do, nobody is shunned.

Incredibly 60's music throughout, it's a fitting score that could only belong to that era.

Some great performances, I've always been a big fan of the velvet voiced Wanda Ventham, a great servant to Doctor Who, she would return in Image of the Fendahl and Time and the Rani (least said about the latter the better.)

Really good start to a pretty good serial. 8/10

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

[A_Kind_Of_CineMagic · 10/10 · 28 August 2014]

Review for all 6 episodes:

This adventure sadly at present cannot be seen in all its glory due to BBC wiping of tapes leading to these being some of the 'lost' classics. Reconstructions available using what is left (all the sound of every Doctor Who episode survive thank goodness, added to still photographs and surviving portions of film) still provide thoroughly impressive sci-fi entertainment.

The adventure involves an alien race stealing humans from 1966 Gatwick Airport in order to use their bodies to replace their own damaged forms.

The contemporary Earth setting was still hardly used at this stage so this was a forerunner of the numerous Quatermass type, 'Earth under attack in the present day' stories which were to follow. It is a great prototype as it has good thrills, action, good intelligent alien threat, great relevance to viewers fears of alien attack on their own world with sufficient realism. The writing by Malcolm Hulke (the first of his great writing contributions) and David Ellis, acting by the whole cast and direction from Gerry Mill are all of high quality and the characters are good.

The lovely extra companion for this adventure, Samantha played by future film star Pauline Collins, works well. It is sad though that Polly (Anneke Wills) and Ben (Michael Craze) are sidelined in their last adventure. Polly had not quite maintained her feisty early form and had been turned into more of a 'screamer' but she was still a good companion and Ben was a great, tough companion throughout his time.

This story is very strong all round with aliens which are well realised and cleverly characterised. The only substantial flaw is two snippets of dialogue in episode 5 regarding how many people are missing. A captured villain reveals 50,000 young people are to be taken which is highly unbelievable without it being very noticeable to many relatives. We could imagine this plan, which would bring about huge attention, is in the early stages except he then compounds his comment by saying it is too late to save the 50,000 young people. I suppose if the events we see are part of a worldwide operation it is remotely possible a rapid set of disappearances are only starting to come to light but this revelation is hard to accept. As a result I mark that otherwise superb episode down to 7/10 but the rest of the adventure is brilliant.

My Ratings: Episodes 1, 2, 3, 4 & 6 - 10/10, Episode 5 - 7/10

Overall: 9.5/10

The Faceless Ones!

[wetmars · 6/10 · 8 November 2020]

The TARDIS arrives at Gatwick Airport in July 1966. A great many young people have vanished, including Ben and Polly. With the help of Samantha Briggs, the sister of one of the missing youths, the Second Doctor and Jamie must uncover the plot of the Chameleons.

Review of all six episodes -

I have mixed feelings about this episode. It wasn't engaging. The plot was hard to follow, just not great.

On the positive side, the creatures themselves have a terrifying appearance and the departure scene. It was sad to see Polly go. She's seriously a very underrated companion. Shame that the stories are lost. I rate this higher if it gets found.

Yeah. There's not that much to talk about this one until I get to The Evil of the Daleks!