Doctor Who (TV Series) The Faceless Ones: Episode 6 (1967) User Reviews

Doctor vs Director.....only one winner.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 8/10 · 7 November 2015]

The Chameleons are not fooled, The Doctor and Nurse Pinto are discovered an taken to the Director. The Commandant orders all personnel to search the Airport for the originals. The Doctor bluffs The Director, claiming he's in possession of the originals, their discovery could end the Chameleons. The Commandant goes along with the Doctor's bluff. The Director is not fooled, but The Doctor causes enough mischief to delay his being processed. In that time the bodies on Earth are found, and The Doctor is in control holding all the cards, he negotiates the return of the young people and offers to help them find a continued existence. Ben and Polly decide to go their own way. The Doctor and Jamie have to go in search of the TARDIS.......

We get to see something a little different from Frazer in this one, two roles in effect from him, I'm sure the scene of him saying goodbye to Samantha is lots of fun. Nice bit of humour throughout, mainly provided by the Commandant, he's been fun.

It's been a really strong serial, really enjoyable with some excellent concepts, sadly you find yourself wondering what's happened to Ben and Polly, they were excellent assistants that deserved more somehow. Their last appearance, and they literally got 3-4 minutes of screen time. The Chameleons themselves are imaginatively designed they look really good. The Doctor feels very much in character, the resolution he obtained is exactly what I'd have expected him to do.

It's so much more then just a great lead in to evil of the Daleks. 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