The Faceless Ones (TV story)

The Faceless Ones was the eighth story of Season 4 of Doctor Who. Companions Ben Jackson and Polly, played by Michael Craze and Anneke Wills respectively, left the series at the end of this story.

Synopsis
The TARDIS arrives on Earth in July, 1966, on a runway at Gatwick airport. Polly witnesses a murder in a nearby hangar and is then kidnapped by the perpetrator, Spencer of Chameleon Tours. Ben also vanishes. The Second Doctor and Jamie are left to convince the sceptical airport Commandant there has been foul play.

A great many other young people have also vanished, all of them on Chameleon Tours holidays. With the help of Samantha Briggs, the sister of one of the missing youths, the Doctor and Jamie uncover a plot by the alien Chameleons to kidnap human youngsters to take their identities, for the Chameleons have lost their own identities in an accident on their home planet.

The Doctor offers to help the Chameleons find another solution to their problem and the kidnapped humans are released.

Episode 1
The TARDIS lands on a runway at Gatwick Airport and the Doctor, Ben, Polly, and Jamie run for their lives as a jet airplane tries to land on them. The jet avoids collision, but the four intruders are spotted by a police officer and they split up. The airport's Commandant is informed by an air traffic controller of the reason given by the jet's pilot. He incredulously orders the obstruction investigated. The police box is quickly hauled away.

The officer pursuing Ben has lost him and Jamie meets up with the Doctor beneath a parked airplane. Polly, meanwhile, has hidden in the hangar for Chameleon Tours. She sees a man holding an envelope killed by another man wearing a pilot's uniform, with some kind of futuristic weapon. The pilot enters a hidden control chamber filled with high-tech equipment and reports via a monitor to another pilot. An alarm sounds, and a monitor shows Polly examining the body. The man goes out to catch her, but she escapes.

The Commandant is flabbergasted to hear that the obstruction actually was a police box. Polly finds the Doctor and Jamie. She tells them what she saw; the Doctor insists she show them. The two pilots in the hangar learn they have killed Detective Inspector Gascoigne and are concerned a parent may have sent him. They dispose of the man's effects and two suitcases. An alarm sounds and they see the Doctor, Jamie, and Polly in the hangar.

The second pilot is furious at the first pilot, Spencer, when Polly says she could recognise him anywhere. The Doctor is surprised to find the man Polly said was killed by a gun has been electrocuted. The time travellers leave to find someone in charge. As they go, Polly lags behind and is knocked unconscious by Spencer, who uses a pen-shaped device. Inside the hidden chamber, Polly is questioned. When the Doctor and Jamie cannot find her in the hangar, they resume their quest for help from the authorities. Polly warns the pilots her friends will worry about her. They say they must do something about that.

The Doctor and Jamie arrive at the Immigration & Customs desk, but cannot get by the officer, Jenkins, as they haven't got passports. The officer is moved to action when Jamie mentions the TARDIS. Suspecting they may be involved with the police box affair, Jenkins asks them to wait while he contacts the Commandant. Meanwhile, Ben finds the Chameleon hangar and is drawn inside by sounds of hammering. Captain Blade, the second pilot, is securing a packing case. Before he can draw his weapon, Jean Rock, the Commandant's assistant, arrives to give Blade flight schedules. Blade shows Ben the way out.

The Commandant is extremely dubious at the Doctor's story and disturbed by their lack of passports, but eventually relents and follows the Doctor and Jamie to the hangar. In the hangar's hidden chamber, Blade is affixing stamps to postcards. Spencer tells him that Polly has been "processed" and can be taken on the next flight. Blade opens a refrigerated cabinet. A scaly, humanoid arm is seen. He injects the arm. The pilots are alerted to the presence of the Doctor, Jamie and the Commandant in the hangar. The body is gone, but the Doctor reveals an unused Spanish postage stamp, the only thing found on the body. Jamie and the Doctor find burnt fibres and a burn mark. They move to open a packing case as Blade emerges from the back. Blade opens the case, revealing... plastic cups. The Commandant takes the two suspects away. Spencer is ordered to bring the creature from the compartment. Blade and he help it out of the hangar.

Back at Immigration & Customs, the Doctor and Jamie spot a familiar young lady arriving. The woman looks exactly like Polly, but she claims not to know either of them. The two pilots guide the disguised creature through the airport concourse to the medical centre. The creature has a featureless face on a misshapen head and is breathing heavily...

Episode 2
As the creature waits, Meadows, an air traffic controller, lies unconscious on a bed. At the I&C desk, the woman says she is from Zurich, this is her first visit to England and she is here on a work permit. She leaves as Jamie forlornly calls after her. As the Commandant calls for the police, the Doctor and Jamie make a dash for it.

Nurse Pinto arrives. Armbands are attached to the creature and Meadows. Headsets are attached. As the real Meadows twitches, the creature transforms into his duplicate. The Doctor spots an advertisement for Chameleon Tours, catering for people ages eighteen to twenty-five. Ben finds them and they go off. At the medical centre, they adjust the new Meadows' senses and test his self-knowledge.

Ben spots the woman who looks like Polly working at the Chameleon Tours desk. The Doctor tries to speak to her, but she denies everything; however, she mentions "someone shot" without prompting. The Doctor and his friends leave. Polly reports behind the kiosk to Blade. Blade orders her to leave on the next flight back to base and intends to deal with the Doctor.

The duplicate Meadows takes his place at air traffic control. DI Crossland has arrived and is investigating Chameleon. Meanwhile, the Doctor, Ben, and Jamie hide in a photo booth and decide Ben should investigate the hangar, Jamie will keep an eye on the kiosk and the Doctor will see the Commandant. As Jamie watches, Samantha Briggs arrives and interrogates Polly about her brother Brian, supposedly in Rome on a Chameleon Tour; the hotel he's supposed to be staying at doesn't exist, and he can't be found — yet they've received a postcard from him posted in Rome. Polly says she'll make inquiries and goes back to contact Blade, but reaches Spencer; Polly tries to stall, as Jamie meets Samantha.

The Commandant absolutely refuses to listen to the Doctor so he is forced to run. Samantha gets very little out of Polly as she closes the kiosk. Ben arrives in the hangar and opens a packing case to find the real Polly, sitting in a trance. He tries to call the Commandant. The Doctor is introduced to Samantha and investigates the rear of the kiosk. He sees Ben on the monitor, then sees Spencer attack Ben with the pen-shaped freezing device. Blade and Spencer prepare for the Doctor's approach. DI Crossland speaks to Jenkins about Brian Briggs and DI Gascoigne, and hears about the Doctor and Jamie.

Samantha flirts with Jamie. A different woman re-opens the Chameleon kiosk. A Chameleon flight to Zurich is announced. Jamie worries about where Polly is. The Doctor reaches the hangar. With no sign of Ben, he searches the office and pockets the pen-like device. The new kiosk attendant, Ann Davidson, hands stamped postcards to the Zurich passengers for them to write before they depart. Samantha realises the implications. Jamie and she go to find the Doctor, but are stopped by DI Crossland.

The Doctor opens a packing case to discover the trance-like body of Meadows. Suddenly a pleading voice is heard over a loudspeaker. The Doctor is drawn into the office, where he is sealed inside. A freezing vapour seeps through grilles in the walls.

Episode 3
Spencer watches from the hidden chamber. The Doctor tries to block one grille. He opens another. The Doctor notices a closed-circuit camera watching him and blocks that. Spencer comes out to find the Doctor huddled on the ground. As he bends down to check on him, the Doctor fires the freezing device at him and escapes.

The Doctor finds Jamie and Samantha with DI Crossland. The Doctor identifies a picture of Gascoigne. Blade finds Spencer and orders him to kill the Doctor. Blade departs to pilot the Zurich flight. Crossland insists on taking the Doctor's story to the Commandant one more time. The Doctor doubtfully agrees and leaves Jamie and Samantha to watch the kiosk. Samantha decides to investigate the hangar herself and goads Jamie into accompanying her.

The Doctor, with Crossland's encouragement, tells the Commandant about the stupefied man in the packing case. He finds Meadows working at air traffic control. He explains his conviction that Gascoigne was murdered by a ray gun — a weapon unknown on Earth — and that Chameleon Tours is a front for the mass abduction of young men and women. The Doctor shows them the pen-like freezing device and demonstrates it with "Meadows'" reluctant help. Meadows runs off as the Doctor fires the device at a china cup Meadows is holding.

Samantha finds an envelope full of signed postcards in the Chameleon office. They go to the Commandant's office. Sam shows that the envelope is addressed to a Chameleon Tours office in Germany and explains the ramifications. The Commandant gives the Doctor the freedom of the airport for twelve hours. Meadows reports back to Spencer, who orders him to attach a button-like device to the Doctor. Meadows returns to air traffic control.

Captain Blade's flight is returning and the Doctor questions another controller about the range of their radar. Meadows bumps into the Doctor, planting the device. The Doctor playfully wonders if Meadows has a double. Crossland is given permission to meet Blade aboard his next flight. Searching the Chameleon office, the grilles are hidden, but the Doctor suspects there is a secret chamber. Jamie and he tear apart the room. Crossland confronts Blade and forces his way onto the flight deck, an alien control room. Blade and Ann Davidson clamp him in a chair and the flight takes off.

The Doctor and Jamie find the opening mechanism and discover the high-tech contents of the room, including the cabinet "for someone who's not used to the Earth's atmosphere". They see on a monitor the inside of the medical centre and go in search of it; Spencer watches this from the kiosk and activates the device on the Doctor's back, causing him to fall in pain. Ann passes out refreshments to the passengers on the plane and returns to the flight deck, where Blade activates a device. As Crossland watches on a monitor, the passengers disappear.

Episode 4
Spencer threatens Jamie with his ray-gun. Samantha knocks away the gun and a fight ensues. However, Spencer has another freezing device and they are soon frozen. Laid out on the floor, they are powerless to evade a slowly arcing laser beam which will soon cut them in two. Blade reports that he has an "original" for the Director. He will deliver him and return to Gatwick. Nurse Pinto transfers I&C officer Jenkins into a Chameleon body.

With enormous effort, Samantha pulls a mirror from her handbag and hands it to Jamie. He reflects the laser light back onto itself, destroying the machine. The three recover and Samantha is dispatched to spy on the Chameleon kiosk. The Doctor and Jamie go to the medical centre. Jamie feigns sickness as the Doctor helps him into the centre. The Doctor tries to bluff Nurse Pinto, who will not allow them into the x-ray room. Spencer and "Jenkins" see via the kiosk monitor that their quarry has escaped death. Jenkins promises to deal with them.

Jean Rock is placing calls to Chameleon Tours destinations and awaiting replies. When the Doctor returns, she tells him no-one can find DI Crossland. The Doctor sends Jamie to keep an eye on Samantha. As the Doctor talks to the Commandant about Crossland, Jean breathlessly reports that all the airports she's contacted say the same thing; Chameleon picks up passengers, but none have arrived at any airport. The Commandant thinks they've been taken to a private airfield, but the Doctor is thinking out of the box and off the Earth. He asks Jean Rock to call Nurse Pinto away from the medical centre so he can have a proper look around.

Jamie cannot talk Sam out of buying a ticket for the next Chameleon flight to Rome, but with a clever flirtation steals the ticket from her handbag. The Commandant gets an RAF fighter to follow the Rome flight. Jean Rock feigns sickness and Pinto, to her chagrin, is ordered by the Commandant to come to Air Traffic Control to help her. The Doctor goes into the medical centre after she leaves and investigates the x-ray room. He is unaware that one of the electrical switches reveals the real Nurse Pinto behind a screen, complete with white armband. As he picks the lock of a cupboard, Jenkins peeks through the outer door and aims a ray-gun at him. A passenger enters the centre, forcing Jenkins to hide the gun. The Doctor leaves carrying two armbands, one black, one white.

As Nurse Pinto watches over her, Jean makes a miraculous recovery when the Doctor returns. He hopes to ask the fake Meadows about the armbands, but he is off duty. As Ann passes out postcards for the Rome passengers, Samantha desperately looks for her ticket, only to hear from Ann that "S. Briggs" has already checked in. Spencer intercedes and has Samantha sent behind the kiosk to see him; he pulls a ray-gun on her. Jamie boards the plane and it takes off. The Doctor is unimpressed that the fighter plane can go "only" ten miles up.

Ann hands out refreshments to the passengers, but Jamie feels very ill and runs to the lavatories at the back of the plane. The Commandant monitors the situation with the fighter closely. As Ann reports to Blade, he announces they're being followed. He gets the fighter's coordinates and fires a laser beam directly into the cockpit. Air traffic control sees the fighter go off course. The Commandant is horrified when it disappears from the screen. Suddenly they notice the Chameleon flight appears to be standing still; the Commandant believes it must be crashing too.

In fact, the plane slowly transforms into something resembling a rocket ship. As Ann collects tiny objects from each seat into a tray, she is called back to the flight deck before noticing that Jamie's seat has nothing to collect. The Commandant tells the Doctor that when a radar signal appears stationary, it is going straight down; the Doctor suggests it might be going straight up. In outer space, the transformed plane docks with a vast, orbiting satellite.

Episode 5
Ann Davidson, carrying the tray, and Blade disembark. Questioning the wisdom of destroying the fighter, Ann is corrected by Blade, who reminds her of their Director's teachings: the intelligence of humans is comparable only to animals from their planet. Jamie emerges from hiding in the galley, but must wait until two raw-state Chameleons arrive to remove luggage. Jamie watches Ann deliver the tray to a stockroom, then hides there himself. In a file drawer, he discovers miniaturised humans. Ann, ray-gun in hand, finds him and Jamie is seized by two Chameleons.

Jean Rock reports there's been no sign of remains of the Chameleon flight. The RAF reports finding wreckage of their plane; the pilot was electrocuted. The Commandant wants to believe the Doctor, but needs proof; providentially, Meadows returns to duty. The Doctor confronts him with the armbands. He says staff have been systematically replaced and asks him to roll up his sleeve; the Commandant agrees. Meadows attempts to escape but is foiled when Jean rolls a chair in his way and he crashes to the floor. They forcibly reveal the black armband around his left arm.

Meadows relents, telling of the satellite in space. He says a catastrophe on their planet has robbed them of their identities. The armbands are part of a process to assume the identities of others. They hope to collect fifty thousand young people on this trip. He denies knowing who has been replaced and begs them not to search for the originals which are hidden somewhere at the airport. He explains Nurse Pinto is in charge of the transfer process in the medical centre and she is the only one who knows where her original is. The Doctor forces Meadows to go with him to the centre under police guard; Meadows says they'll never see those fifty thousand people again.

Nurse Pinto has Samantha bound and gagged in the x-ray room. Spencer tells her over a monitor that Samantha is to be an original. The Doctor and his party arrive outside and the Doctor confiscates Pinto's freezing pen. He discovers Samantha and releases her. Meadows shows him where the real Pinto is. Outside, Pinto produces a ray gun and kills a policeman. Entering the x-ray room, she is about to kill Meadows when he grabs the real Pinto's armband and she dissolves into an amoebic mass. The real Pinto begins to revive. The Doctor notices some personnel files, but Samantha interrupts to tell about Jamie stealing her ticket.

Jamie is tied up in the satellite's stockroom when Crossland enters to release him. He calmly asks him about the Doctor and the situation on Earth. Jamie grows suspicious and Crossland tells him the Doctor is facing a superior mind, the Director. Crossland is the Director. The plane leaves the satellite and begins its return journey to Gatwick. The Doctor shows the Commandant the twenty-five personnel files from the medical centre; all of them have been taken over by Chameleons. When the Doctor hears that Chameleon Tours' last flight of the season is leaving in one hour, he begs that the twenty-five people not be arrested. He plans to pretend he is a Chameleon (by saying he was previously Meadows) and get on that last flight with Nurse Pinto's help. The Commandant will try to find where the originals are hidden, to be used to bargain with the Chameleons.

The Doctor and Nurse Pinto meet Captain Blade at the medical centre. Blade is suspicious but seems to accept the story; the Doctor cannot get out of him where the originals are hidden. They all board the plane and allowed to take off as normal. Air traffic control observes the plane's disappearance as the Commandant coordinates search efforts with Airport Police Chief Reynolds. Samantha and Jean have searched the kiosk and medical centre for clues and report to the Commandant together; they have had no luck.

The plane docks at the satellite. Blade instructs the passengers to report to the Accommodation Centre for reallocation of quarters; owing to the success of their plan, living space is at a minimum. The Director is fitting and testing the armband for a Chameleon Jamie when Blade reports they have two impostors aboard. Blade wants them destroyed, but the Director questions 'Jamie' about the Doctor, who explains (with no Scots accent) the truth about him. The Director decides he wants the Doctor alive. Blade finds the Doctor and Nurse Pinto. As they are surrounded by raw-state Chameleons, he says they won't need living space.

Episode 6
Blade, Spencer and the Chameleons surround the Doctor and Nurse Pinto. Blade says they want the Doctor's brain. The Commandant and Reynolds interrogate Meadows, but he is no help to them and is removed. The Commandant has the airport closed and orders the staff to begin searching the airport en masse.

In the Director's office, the Doctor meets the duplicate Jamie. The Director will personally decide which Chameleon gets the Doctor's identity. The Doctor needles the Director how he's perfectly safe since his original is on board, but what about the others? On Earth, Meadows escapes from his guards.

With the Director away, Blade prepares to process the Doctor, but the Doctor continues his point: you'd better hurry up before you cease to exist. He threatens the Chameleons, claiming the originals have been found. Blade was the first to have his armband removed. Blade calls the Doctor's bluff, contacting Gatwick. The Commandant smartly plays along, but worries how much time they have.

Samantha and Jean make a breakthrough: they discover a list of twenty-five car registration numbers in the office behind the Chameleon kiosk. As the Commandant continues to stall, he receives a call from the ladies. The Chameleons cut off contact and ignore further calls. On the satellite, the Director returns; Blade realises the Doctor was bluffing. As the Doctor carries on, he sabotages the processing machine. It explodes. As Samantha and Jean scour the car park for the registration numbers, a new processing unit arrives and the Doctor is prepared.

Meadows emerges from hiding and attacks Samantha in the car park. She and Jean subdue him as police arrive. Jean spots Jenkins' prone body inside a car. With the satellite ignoring their calls, the Commandant orders Jenkins' armband removed. The duplicate Jenkins, manning the processing machine, disintegrates. The Doctor delightedly points out that soon they'll all have disintegrated — except for the Director. Blade levels his gun at the Director and orders contact with Gatwick re-established. The Director orders 'Jamie' to destroy the transmitter, but Spencer has him covered and contact is made.

The Commandant explains where the originals were found and demands to speak to the Doctor or Blade will be eliminated. The Doctor has Nurse Pinto released. Negotiations begin. The Doctor offers a guarantee of continued existence (in their "faceless state") so long as all humans are released. The Director says the humans cannot be returned to normal, as the only equipment to reverse the process is on their home planet. However, Blade says this is not the case, explaining that the planes are the miniaturisation chambers and the process works both ways. Spencer and Blade accept, but the Director and 'Jamie' try to escape; Blade shoots them down. Spencer takes the Doctor to find Ben, Polly and the real Jamie and DI Crossland. Gatwick Airport returns to normal.

Blade asks the Doctor about the future of his people and the Doctor tells him he has a few ideas which may improve it. Back on Earth, goodbyes are said to the Commandant and Jean, and Jamie has an awkward goodbye with Samantha. The four friends are reunited, but Ben and Polly decide to stay on Earth in London on the very day they left in the TARDIS: 20 July 1966. The Doctor is a little envious, as he never got back to his world. They all offer their heartfelt goodbyes.

After Ben and Polly have gone, the Doctor reveals to Jamie that they have a pressing problem: the TARDIS was outside the hangar, but now it has gone...

Cast

 * The Doctor - Patrick Troughton
 * Ben Jackson - Michael Craze
 * Polly - Anneke Wills
 * Jamie McCrimmon - Frazer Hines
 * Samantha Briggs - Pauline Collins
 * Policeman - James Appleby
 * Commandant - Colin Gordon
 * Meadows - George Selway
 * Jean Rock - Wanda Ventham
 * Spencer - Victor Winding
 * Inspector Gascoigne - Peter Whitaker
 * Blade - Donald Pickering
 * Jenkins - Christopher Tranchell
 * Nurse Pinto - Madalena Nicol
 * Crossland - Bernard Kay
 * Ann Davidson - Gilly Fraser
 * Announcer - Brigit Paul
 * Heslington - Barry Wilsher
 * R.A.F. Pilot - Michael Ladkin
 * Supt. Reynolds - Leonard Trolley

Crew

 * Assistant Floor Manager - Sue Marlborough
 * Associate Producer - Peter Bryant
 * Costumes - Daphne Dare, Sandra Reid
 * Designer - Geoffrey Kirkland
 * Film Cameraman - Tony Imi
 * Film Editor - Chris Hayden
 * Make-Up - Gillian James
 * Producer - Innes Lloyd
 * Production Assistant - Richard Brooks
 * Script Editor - Gerry Davis
 * Special Sounds - Brian Hodgson
 * Studio Lighting - Howard King
 * Studio Sound - Gordon Mackie
 * Theme Arrangement - Delia Derbyshire
 * Title Music - Ron Grainer

Story notes

 * This story had a working title of The Chameleons.
 * A new arrangement of the theme tune produced by Delia Derbyshire (with assistance from Dick Mills) to match the new title sequence makes its debut in episode two. The new title sequence featuring Patrick Troughton's face was first used in the previous story, but with the original theme tune used (as well as on Episode One of this story) due to a production mistake. This new arrangement remained in use (with some variations) until 1980.
 * As well as the complete print of Episode 1, the BBC Archives also hold an incomplete copy returned from ABC in Australia in 1981 after censors had removed the following scenes: 'Spencer' killing Inspector Gascoigne with a Chameleon ray-gun; the alien arm emerging from the cupboard; and panning shots of the alien figure – seen only from behind – at the end of the episode.
 * Ben Jackson and Polly depart in this story after having appeared only in Episodes 1, 2 and 6.
 * Samantha Briggs was originally intended to be a companion, but Pauline Collins turned down the offer of a regular role with the series.
 * Pauline Collins (Samantha Briggs) would later play Queen Victoria in DW: Tooth and Claw.
 * Donald Pickering (Blade) and Wanda Ventham (Jean Rock) would later appear in DW: Time and the Rani together, in which they played Beyus and Faroon respectively. Pickering had previously played Eyesen in DW: The Keys of Marinus whereas Ventham would later play Thea Ransome and the Fendahl Core in DW: Image of the Fendahl.''

Ratings

 * Episode 1 - 8.0 million viewers
 * Episode 2 - 6.4 million viewers
 * Episode 3 - 7.9 million viewers
 * Episode 4 - 6.9 million viewers
 * Episode 5 - 7.1 million viewers
 * Episode 6 - 8.0 million viewers

Myths

 * The only surviving copy of Episode 1 is a print edited by the censors in Australia. (The copy of this episode in the BBC Archives is complete and unedited – see Story notes above.)

Filming locations

 * Gatwick Airport, Gatwick, Surrey
 * Ealing Television Film Studios, Ealing Green, Ealing
 * Lime Grove Studios (Studio D), Lime Grove, London

Production errors

 * The man shot in episode one had his back to Polly when he was shot, yet manages to fall with his face on the ground.

Continuity

 * The conclusion of this story leads straight into DW: The Evil of the Daleks.
 * The Chameleons appear again in ST: Face Value.

DVD Release
The surviving episodes (Episodes 1 & 3) were released in digitally re-mastered form as part of the Lost in Time 3-disc DVD set.

Released:
 * Region 2 1 November 2005
 * PAL - BBC DVD BBCDVD1353


 * Region 4 2 December 2005
 * Region 1 2 November 2005
 * NTSC - Warner Video E2082 (Troughton 2 disc set) / E2083 (Box set)

VHS releases
The surviving episodes (Episodes 1 & 3) were released alongside The Web of Fear Episode 1 and the remaining episodes of The Reign of Terror all in digitally re-mastered form as part of a two-cassette release entitled Doctor Who: The Reign of Terror.

Released:
 * UK November 2003
 * PAL - BBC Video BBCV7335


 * US October 2003
 * NTSC - Warner Video E1853

Notes: The US release was also located in The End of the Universe Collection.


 * Editing of surviving episodes for the VHS and DVD releases was completed by the Doctor Who Restoration Team.

Audio releases

 * The soundtrack to this story was released on CD with linking narration by Frazer Hines on 4 February 2002.
 * It was re-released on 2 February 2012 as part of the box set Doctor Who: The Lost TV Episodes - Collection Four.