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!

There are lots of familiar ripping yarn tropes like this in The Faceless Ones, including the old mirror trick on the laser beam (thank goodness Sam had the strength to get into her handbag!) and that awful habit of villains giving their captives a set amount of time to comply to their demands. Villains who give people any time to comply deserve to fail. Proper villains would demand things straight away or else, that's how you get real results. Here, Spencer gives Jamie "five seconds" to change his mind about not going with him. It's all so silly and hackneyed. It's also annoyingly convenient that the Doctor, Jamie and Sam recover full mobility as soon as the laser is destroyed.

It's the women in this episode who actually get things done. For four episodes now, the Doctor and Jamie have been running round like headless chickens getting nothing very much done, while the female characters quietly make progress in various ways. It's Sam and her mirror which get the Doctor and Jamie out of danger; Nurse Pinto continues to transform Chameleons in the medical bay; and the beautiful Jean Rock makes one of the greatest breakthroughs by phoning every country which receives a Chameleon Tours plane and finding out they're always empty. She does this without being asked or told, and presents the information calmly and eloquently (despite the Commandant worrying about the phone bill!).

Later, she colludes with the Doctor and pretends to faint so that Nurse Pinto has to leave the medical bay, allowing the Doctor to snoop about (I love the fact he finds the original template Nurse Pinto - it seems that aliens who can clone bodies really like copying medical staff, such as in Terror of the Zygons, The Android Invasion and The Sontaran Stratagem!). I love the telesnap which captures Jean's crafty wink to the Doctor! Also, it is Samantha Briggs who purchases a ticket to Rome on CT Flight 419, hellbent on getting to the bottom of the mystery. The best way to find out where the disappearing youths are going is to go on one of these fateful flights, she asserts. This story needs someone this forthright and proactive, because everybody else is bumbling about doing very little (except for Jean Rock and Nurse Pinto!). It's lovely that Jamie won't let her go alone, and steals her ticket at the same time as stealing a wee kiss.

On board Flight 419, all of the passengers vanish, leaving something in their seats which stewardess Ann Davidson gathers up. Little does she know that Jamie is still aboard, having avoided being "disappeared" by hiding in the loo! So this means that the Chameleons don't actually take the missing youngsters anywhere, they're beamed off the plane before arriving at their Earthbound destination. How this hasn't alerted mass international panic already is incredible!

This episode has a knockout cliffhanger too which totally raises the game and will hopefully see the plot move on at long last. The aeroplane stops in mid-air and transforms (like a Decepticon) into a sleek rocket, then flies vertically more than 100 miles to enter Earth's orbit. We then see it fly into a satellite in orbit, presumably the Chameleons' base of operations. I hope we find Ben and Polly there.

First broadcast: April 29th, 1967

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: The transforming aeroplane model is a cracking model effect, and a bolt from the blue!
The Bad: Spencer is such a rubbish baddie.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆

NEXT TIME: Episode 5...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Episode 1; Episode 2; Episode 3; 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