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In the Doctor Who's later years, the TARDIS arriving on contemporary Earth wasn't a remarkable event, but when it returned to 1966 for the penultimate story, it was only the second story to take place in a contemporary setting. The first was, of course, The War Machines, which saw the debut of companions Ben and Polly, so it's appropriate that The Faceless Ones is their farewell story. Sadly they don't get a decent send-off, with the production team treating the pair rather shoddily. After wandering around Gatwick airport for the first two episodes, they then disappear until a brief film sequence in the final episode where they say their goodbyes to the Doctor and Jamie. Whatever the production team thought of the pair, that's a pretty poor way to write them out of the series. Personally, I've always had a lot of time for the characters, and it's certainly a shame that Anneke Wills didn't stay on/wasn't kept on (delete as applicable). That's nothing against Michael Craze, but while I haven't really got any strong preference for Ben over Jamie, I'd Polly over Victoria any day. With Ben and Polly sidelined, Jamie is paired with Pauline Collins' character of Samantha Briggs for a lot of the time. Sam is clearly a potential companion and makes a good team with the young Scot. On the subject of Sam, it does seem strange that she's the only person to have noticed that Chameleon Tours' holidaymakers don't return home. Even in an era before the Internet or 24 hour news channels, surely someone else would have picked up on all the disappearances? Plot-wise that's not the only problem with The Faceless Ones, and you do have to wonder why the Chameleons couldn't have come up with a solution to their problem which didn't involve kidnapping thousands of young people. Additionally, at six episodes, the story is too long and would have been have it been tightened up for a four-part story. On the plus side, there are some good moments - notably the end of episode 3 - and a strong cast, including Colin Gordon, Wanda Ventham and Bernard Kay. Frazer Hines isn't my favourite missing stories narrator and he appears to be trying to instill a sense of urgency into the proceedings early on. This doesn't really work given the story's generally slow pacing, so it's a good job that he doesn't keep this up for the entire story. The Faceless Ones is a pretty average story, but a disappointing exit story for the underrated Ben and Polly, who don't get the send-off that I would have liked to have seen. Not a classic, but not a clunker either. back to the top |
THE FACELESS
ONES |
