User:Bongolium500/The Faceless Ones (TV story)/Home media

The Faceless Ones has been released in various formats, both incomplete (due to missing episodes) and completed via animation and other forms of reconstruction.

Visual timeline of releases

1998: The Faceless Ones (LC VHS)
Loose Cannon Productions released an unofficial reconstruction of The Faceless Ones on VHS in June 1998, labelled "LC02". The reconstruction was made using: This release was superceeded by the 2009 Loose Cannon reconstruction (LC32).
 * John Cura's telesnaps
 * Audio recorded by Graham Strong
 * Surviving clips
 * Other authentic pictures

2002: The Faceless Ones (CD)
The soundtrack of The Faceless Ones was released across 2 discs as part of the BBC Radio Collection on 4 February 2002. It featured narration by Frazer Hines (actor, Jamie McCrimmon). Disc 1 included episodes 1 to 3 while disc 2 included episodes 4 to 6.

The release had ISBN 0-563-53501-6. The cover illustration was created by Max Ellis and the remastering was completed by Mark Ayres with the linking narration being written by Michael Stevens.

This narrated soundtrack was later re-released as part of The Lost TV Episodes - Collection Four in 2012.

2003: The Reign of Terror (VHS)
Surviving episodes 1 and 3 of The Faceless Ones was included in the VHS release of The Reign of Terror, alongside surviving episode 1 and clips of episodes 2, 4 and 5 of The Web of Fear. The release included 2 tapes in the UK and US and 1 tape in Australia. It was the last Doctor Who VHS released in the UK by the BBC.

The UK edition was numbered and limited to 8,000 copies and came with a Doctor Who 40th anniversary metal pin badge. The US release was included on The End of the Universe Collection box set.

Editing for the release was done by the Doctor Who Restoration Team.

The Reign of Terror
The first tape of the set contained The Reign of Terrors surviving episodes 1, 2, 3 and 6, as well as a summarisation of The Reign of Terrors missing episodes 4 and 5 by Carole Ann Ford (actor, Susan) and clips and stills from these episodes.

The Faceless Ones episodes 1 and 3
The second tape of the set included the surviving episodes 1 and 3 of The Faceless Ones.

While episode 1 had always been in the BBC Archives (being found by Sue Malden BBC Archive Selector at the time while on a visit to BBC Enterprises), episode 3 had only been recovered by Gordon Hendry at a car boot sale in the mid 1980s. The print was in bad condition and comparison with the surviving full soundtrack by Mark Ayres revealed 27 total breaks ranging from a single frame to multiple second and totaling to over 20 seconds.

Jonathan Wood (BBC Resources' senior colourist) was responsible for teleclining (transferring film to video) and rebuilding missing material where possible. Following the teleclining, Mark Ayres was responsible for cleaning the soundtrack before Wood continued with rebuilding the missing material. For the smaller 1 frame gaps of episode 3, the soundtrack was edited to fit the pictures where possible. Moreover, longer missing sections were shortened if purely ambient sound. This meant that less filler would have to be found. The film print had been teleclined with variable levels of zoom to create cut aways. More were created later and these were used to fill many gaps. At the start of the episode, multiple seconds of footage were missing from when the Second Doctor enters the inner room the the Chameleon Tours hanger just as a vent panel closes, causing the panel to jump from open to closed on the print. To fix this, the vision mixer was used to recreate the sliding panel.

Peter Finklestone was then responsible for cleanup and VidFIRE processing. For episode 1, this only involved removing some minor dirt and scratches. The end credits were also remade to be sharper and more in line with the original broadcast. Episode 3 had far more dirt and scratches that had to be removed. 4 gaps of less than 4 frames were also repaired using paintbox techniques and interpolation. Moreover, various other fixes were made around repaired sections. For example, one cuttaway created by Wood showed the Second Doctor with an incorrect facial expression so the frames either side were retouched to make it match better. One section of stock footage had been slowed down by Wood but Finklestone considered the effect too obvious so cleaned the relevant footage and and time stretched using interpolation to arrive at the correct duration. One missing shot (where the bulkhead door between the cabins was closed by Ann Davidson) had been replaced by Wood with a cutaway to another part of the set. Finklestone felt this was too distracting and so used a combination of interpolation and paintbox techniques to create a composite of Ann closing the door. Once again, the end credits were remade.

The Web of Fear
The second tape of the set included episode 1 (the only surviving episode at the time) of The Web of Fear, as well as surviving 16mm black and white film clips from episodes 2, 4 and 5 (which, along with episode 6, wouldn't be returned to the BBC until 2013).

2003: The End of the Universe Collection (VHS)
The End of the Universe Collection was a boxset of VHS tapes released in the US in October 2003. The set was made up of all videos not yet released in the American market, including the The Reign of Terror set that included the surviving episodes 1 and 3 of The Faceless Ones. Each of the included tapes were also released individually.

2004: Lost in Time (DVD)
to be added

2004: Lost in Time: The Patrick Troughton Years (DVD)
to be added

2006: The Faceless Ones (DVD)
to be added

2009: The Faceless Ones (LC VHS)
Loose Cannon Productions released a second unofficial reconstruction of The Faceless Ones on VHS in August 2009, labelled "LC32" and superceeding 1998's LC02. The reconstruction was made using: The release also included:
 * John Cura's telesnaps
 * Audio recorded by Graham Strong
 * Surviving clips
 * Other authentic pictures
 * Composite pictures
 * CGI
 * Pictures from other stories/sources
 * Specially created material
 * An introduction by Anneke Wills (actor, Polly Wright)
 * An interview with Anneke Wills (actor, Polly Wright)
 * An interview with Peter Roy (actor)
 * A reconstruction of the trailer to The Faceless Ones that would have been shown at the end of the previous story, The Macra Terror
 * A production featurette on the making of The Faceless Ones, narrated by Anneke Wills (actor, Polly Wright)

2012: The Lost TV Episodes - Collection Four (CD)
The Lost TV Episodes - Collection Four was a set of 12 CDs containing narrated soundtracks of missing episodes, released by BBC Audio on 2 February 2012. The set included (on discs 3 and 4 ) the soundtrack for The Faceless Ones (remastered by Mark Ayres ) with narration by Frazer Hines (actor, Jamie McCrimmon) that was previously released separately as part of the BBC Radio Collection. The set also included interviews with Anneke Wills (actor, Polly Wright) and Frazer Hines (actor, Jamie McCrimmon) (conducted by Mark Ayres ) as well as PDFs of scans of the original camera scripts for each serial included on the set (which included The Faceless Ones), all of which was on disc 8. This release had ISBN 978-1-4084-6754-1.

The set was re-released by BBC Physical Audio on 5 November 2020 with a new cover and had ISBN 978-1-5291-2950-2. This edition was also available for digital download. The digital version was released by BBC Digital Audio and had ISBN 978-1-5291-2854-3.

Interviews with Anneke Wills and Frazer Hines
Included on a bonus disc 8 of the release were interviews, conducted by Mark Ayres, with: more to be added
 * Anneke Wills (actor, Polly Wright) - tracks 1 to 6
 * Frazer Hines (actor, Jamie McCrimmon) - tracks 7 to 11

Camera scripts
Included on a bonus disc 8 of the release were PDF scans of the camera scripts for each serial included in the box set that could be accessed via a computer. This included the camera scripts of each episode of The Faceless Ones.

more to be added

2020: The Faceless Ones (DVD, Blu-ray and steelbook)
The Faceless Ones was completed via animation and released on DVD and Blu-ray (both in standard packaging and as a steelbook) on three discs.

All versions of each episode included on this release included remastered audio by Mark Ayres.

The DVD and standard Blu-ray versions of this release included a cardboard sleeve and reversible covers with the traditional classic-Doctor Who DVD design on the other side.

Animated reconstruction
to be added

Original episodes 1 and 3
to be added

Commentary tracks
This release of The Faceless Ones included commentary tracks for some form of each episode except episode 2. They are summarised below:

Telesnap reconstruction
This release of The Faceless Ones included a reconstruction of episodes 2, 4, 5 and 6 that was produced by Derek Handley using telesnaps, fragments of existing footage and set photographs, alongside the full recordings of episodes 1 and 3. Featuring remastered audio by Mark Ayres, the recosntruction included an optional narration track by Frazer Hines (actor, Jamie McCrimmon), previously released on CD in 2002 and then included in 2012's The Lost TV Episodes - Collection Four.

Face to Face with the Faceless Ones
to be added

Stock footage from original production
to be added

Surviving film fragments
to be added

Trailer - Fury from the Deep
to be added

Production stills
to be added

Camera scripts
to be added

Booklet
This release of The Faceless Ones included a staple-bound booklet (LEAFLET136). Page 1 (the cover) of the leaflet was a version of the release's cover art, minus any age-rating symbols. Page 2 contained an introduction by AnneMarie Walsh (director and producer of the animated reconstruction), alongside a still from the colour animation. Pages 3-6 featured production notes, both from the original production and the animation. Included here are stills from the original production, an animatic frame for the animated reconstruction (alongside the corresponding finished frame from the colour animation), and a lineup of animated designs for each character. Page 7 listed the available special features, alongside 2 stills from the colour animation. Page 8 (the back page) included an abridged list of the key crew for both the original production and animation, the cast list and the original transmision dates, final transmision dates and approximate viewing figures for each episode. Presumably with the exception of the introduction, the booklet was written by Charles Norton.

Also included in the release was LEAFLET135 which included an advert for At Childhood's End on one side and an advert for The Edge of Time on the other side.