It’s almost holiday time so what better time to book a flight with Chameleon Tours. TV Club is discussing The Faceless Ones.
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While I find myself usually struggling with '60s six-parters (and this is unfortunately no exception), I still quite liked this one. I like its initial premise (what if people on planes were replaced by doppelgangers in mid-air?), it has a nice Avengers-style aesthetic to it, and even though I think some of the tenser moments are a bit sapped by the run time, there’s still quite a bit of tension to this one.
6 Likes
Wasn’t a bad one, though it did kinda drag on for my liking. It’s where Ben and Polly departed, unfortunately. I remember feeling like Samantha Briggs could’ve been a companion when watching it, and apparently the actor was offered to continue on in the role and declined it.
She did come back to Doctor Who eventually, though, as Queen Victoria.
4 Likes
This is what I wrote about this story for my last rewatch 
5 Likes
One of the more endurable Season 5 serial Another cracking Season 4 serial - I love a present day invasion story. The twist is awesome, and the animation does rare justice to it:
This must have been so ■■■■■■■ cool back in the 60s.
4 Likes
My opinion on this episode has really waned over the years.
I remember really enjoying it but on a recent rewatch, it just dragged. The plot is quaint and the runtime is far, far too long.
I’ve seen worse companion exits but this one isn’t exactly fantastic.
5/10
5 Likes
Well, yes, it is classic Who.
4 Likes
Isn’t it funny how Dodo has both the worst departure and the worst entrance? Do you ever think about how Dodo ran towards the TARDIS (thinking she could call the police) because a kid had been in an accident, and then said child is never addressed again? Because I think about it quite a lot.
6 Likes
Not to be that one, but it’s actually a Season 4 story 
5 Likes
Season 5: A season with a front-end so excruciating that I subconsciously grafted a fourth season story onto it as an act of charity. 
3 Likes
Yeah this one wasn’t it for me. Started as a decent enough mystery and the airport is a unique enough setting, but it just dragged. Also I hate Ben and Polly’s exit, one of the weakest in classic who imo.
3 Likes
I quite like this one, while not as great as what came before or after, I think this one is a lovely Story. One might argue it drags, and I do agree, but to me it works here since I do think it enhances the Atmosphere of a Location. I mean, at least to me, whenever I am on an Airport, things drag massively or at least it seems to do so. The Setting itself is a great and gives this one a unique feeling to it, I’d argue this Story without the TARDIS Team could have made a decent Entry into the Twilight Zone. The titular Faceless ones or Chameleons are a fun force, even if they aren’t the best Shapeshifter in Who’s History, I find them quite charming and a bit shocked they haven’t been used again (but then again you have the Zygons so is there a Need for the Chameleons anymore?) Throughton and Hines are top-notch, I particularly enjoy the Opening Scene where 2 shouts that they should all scatter, mainly because after that we see less & less from Ben & Polly, until they just kinda start to vanish. And while I do like their departure Scene, it’s another War Machine Situation, where as a Companion Exit they feel like an Afterthought, oh well at least we actually see them have an exit this time around.
This is probably also my biggest Issue with the Serial, since the rest really holds itself together quite well, sure there are some Things I am not sold on, but the Things that work here, really work. Samantha is a great ‘Could have been’-Companion, even if I am not thrilled with each Choice they made with her Character in this Story. The Cliffhangers are usually great, with a few that are a bit what ever. And the ending how it all gets resolved is just great, I quite like this one! A great one for sure!
As for the Animation: To me this is the perfect middle ground between keeping true to the original and changing things, the things that get changed come only around the later parts with no surviving Episodes, despite being the first Release with all Episodes animated, I think you can easily watch the surviving ones with the Animation without any Problems, something, which can’t be said for the other ones often (which isn’t bad, just an approach I am not personally too fond of). The likenesses are a bit hit-and-miss, especially Throughton, but it’s still a quite solid Animation!
3 Likes