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?

Thanks to the icy blasts of the opening scene, Patrick Troughton has to spend the rest of the episode looking rather tousled and wet, with a Billie Joe Armstrong fringe. The Doctor sets about trying YET AGAIN to convince the Commandant of all he's seen and learnt. This is episode 3, for Pete's sake. Writers Malcolm Hulke and David Ellis really are treading water here, holding story progression back because they know they have six weeks to fill and probably not enough plot to do it in. By now most other Doctors would have long given up trying to get the authorities on his side and got on with it himself (it doesn't take very long at all for the Seventh Doctor to ditch all ideas of getting the Queen on his side in Silver Nemesis, for instance!). Can you imagine the Fourth Doctor wasting three episodes trying to get the police force to believe his fantastic story of aliens and murders?

This time, the Doctor has a remarkably acquiescent Detective Inspector Crossland to back him up with the cynical Commandant, and Bernard Kay makes the best of an otherwise blandly written character by giving him a Scottish accent and a pipe to play with. Kay was a solid and dependable character actor whose numerous turns in Doctor Who were always sensitively played. Arguably, his role here is the least of the bunch (the others being in The Dalek Invasion of Earth, The Crusade and Colony in Space), but he makes Crossland a reliable ally for the good guys here.

Meanwhile, Jamie and Samantha are forging a lovely little dynamic all their own, with hints of romance. Sam likes the idea of having a man with her when she investigates the Chameleon Tours hangar, and teasingly remonstrates with him when he dilly-dallies over disobeying the Doctor and going with her. "After all, they can only murder me! Ta-ra!" she taunts. Later, when she discovers a pile of postcards from missing passengers, the loss of her brother Brian overwhelms her, and she breaks down. She insists she only has something in her eye, but Jamie gives her a hug and reassures: "You're a brave wee lassie!" Later, she returns the favour and hugs him back. It's a lovely little dynamic which it'll be a pity to lose when Samantha doesn't join the TARDIS crew, as originally hoped.

Once the Commandant has been convinced there's something fishy going on, he allows the Doctor 12 hours to investigate before reporting back with evidence. Surprisingly, the already pretty laid-back Crossland allows the Doctor this free reign too, rather than call in his own reinforcements to investigate. This is surely a copper-bottomed Metropolitan Police inquiry, not a Scooby-Doo mystery to be solved by a complete and utter stranger. I mean, from Crossland's point of view, who is this funny little Doctor and his kilted sidekick? How Crossland got to be a DI without being a little more proactive than this escapes me!

Still, the scenes with the Doctor fussing about in Air Traffic Control are lovely to watch, with one shot managing to capture three truly great character actors at once (Troughton, Ventham and Gordon). The action soon moves to a Chameleon Tours flight, where Crossland insists he needs to make some inquiries before he'll allow the plane to take off. He and Blade discuss murders and disappearing policemen openly and freely while youthful passengers about them listen in (one of them looks remarkably like Sandie Shaw!). But, as Crossland soon discovers, this is no ordinary plane, as the cockpit is decked out with futuristic alien computer banks! When Blade twists a dial and all the passengers disappear from their seats, it's a genuinely surprising cliffhanger which puts you on the back foot. I do love how the Chameleons seem to have a roving CCTV camera in the plane, moving along almost like a television camera would in a studio...

All this, but no Ben and Polly. Presumably they've both been abducted and taken to wherever all the other missing youths are going, but the Doctor and Jamie don't seem too concerned about their safety. Still, we have the intrepid adventures of the Doctor, Jamie and Sam now, don't we?

First broadcast: April 22nd, 1967

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: That cliffhanger really puts you on the back foot. The Chameleons don't wait until they're in flight to abduct the youths!
The Bad: The almost total lack of plot development is getting tiring now, especially the Doctor's inaction. We need our hero to do something, not flirt with the authorities!
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆

NEXT TIME: Episode 4...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Episode 1; Episode 2; Episode 4; Episode 5; Episode 6

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site: http://doctorwhocastandcrew.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/the-faceless-ones.html

The Faceless Ones is available on BBC soundtrack CD. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Faceless-Frazer-Hines/dp/0563535016. Episode 1 and 3 are the only surviving episodes, and can be found on the Lost in Time DVD box set here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Lost-Time-DVD/dp/B0002XOZW4