{"id":476,"date":"2018-01-21T18:38:43","date_gmt":"2018-01-21T23:38:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.davidredd.com\/doctorwho\/?p=476"},"modified":"2023-07-19T07:52:12","modified_gmt":"2023-07-19T11:52:12","slug":"the-faceless-ones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.davidredd.com\/doctorwho\/second-doctor\/the-faceless-ones\/","title":{"rendered":"The Faceless Ones"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThings are not always what they seem.\u201d \u2013 The Doctor<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This story has long been a big favorite of mine based just on the novelization which I read many times over. When I finally found the existing episodes and audio, they didn\u2019t disappoint because they reflected the same pacing and atmosphere that make it an exciting story. With a setting of international travel, suave villains, and secret kidnapping plots, it almost feels like a high-tech spy story. (Complete with a stereotypical \u201cbad guy leaves the good guys to be killed in a slow and overly complicated way from which they are able to escape in the nick of time\u201d scene in the fourth episode!) One could easily believe that it is in fact a story of international intrigue and spies, right up until the ending of the first episode when an otherworldly hand suddenly comes out of storage and we catch sight of one of the \u201cfaceless\u201d aliens that give the story its name.<\/p>\n

This body snatchers type story has a lot of great elements from a solid and engaging plot and great setting to strong acting performances and rounded characters, even the aliens have decent costumes. Some of the touches are subtle\u2014the calmness of the airplane personnel in dealing with the seemingly mad Doctor; having the copied alien be able to correct the personnel file on himself; the Doctor\u2019s little digs at the underling aliens to put them off guard (\u201cHaven\u2019t I med you somewhere before?…You must have a double.\u201d); the Doctor\u2019s \u2018aw nuts!\u2019 reaction at being tricked into the room.<\/p>\n

The setting for the story is very modern since stewardesses and travel on airplanes (or as Jamie puts it \u201cflying beasties\u201d) were quite trendy and \u201cin\u201d at this point. The \u201cChameleons\u201d (the actual name of their race is never mentioned) are well-thought out and written. Not only the story behind their invasion and the grand scale of their space station, but also how they are given varied personalities (some very confident, some more nervous, some loyal, some self-serving) and that there are little bits of in-fighting and suspicion amongst them that the Doctor is able to exploit. The arch Captain Blade-Chameleon gets some great withering lines too. ( One underling on his failure to kill the Doctor: \u201cHis intelligence is far above normal beings.\u201d Blade cooly replies: \u201cAbove yours, perhaps.\u201d; Inspector Crossland: \u201cI must warn you of the long arm of the British law.\u201d Blade: \u201cI don’t think it’ll reach where you’re going.\u201d)<\/p>\n

The Doctor is great in this story in following hunches and pursuing clues. It\u2019s funny to see a bit of his seeming naivety in indignantly expecting them to accept his unbelievable story, but then again his constant insistence in spite of their refusals wins in the end. Though he masterfully corners the villains into defeat, I was worried that he seemed to be consigning their entire race to possible extinction by simply telling them they have to go back and have their scientists figure out another way to survive. But once they agree to this, he suddenly adds with a twinkle in his eye: \u201cI may be able to give them one or two ideas of my own.\u201d Ah, there\u2019s the Doctor we know with his unerring sense of right and compassion.<\/p>\n

Jamie and the Doctor\u2019s famous double act begins here, particularly in the scene when they are talking to the Commandant and Jamie keeps interjecting with what he thinks his helpful information such that the Doctor keeps comically stamping on his foot. Of course, it\u2019s also goodbye to Polly and Ben which is kind of sad. (At least Polly\u2019s signature long locks are back\u2014they must have been travelling with the Doctor and Jamie for quite some time between this and the last story.) Funnily enough, I never realized how much of the story they don\u2019t appear in; they are absent for several episodes after being kidnapped. They do get a nice, sentimental leaving scene. Excited to be back in their own time, Ben nevertheless loyally says they will stay with the Doctor if needed, even though it\u2019s obvious he doesn\u2019t want to. Polly goes on to admit, \u201cThe thing is, it… it is our world.\u201d The Doctor replies \u201cYes, I know. You’re lucky, I never got back to mine\u2026\u201d before giving his blessing on them to go lead their lives.<\/p>\n

A lot of the other cast for this show are very strong as well with personalities that stand out and involvement in the action that moves the story along. The Commandant\u2019s arc from thinking the Doctor to be mad to taking the lead in helping his plan to defeat the enemy is gradually paced and thus believable. There are also several strong female characters like the assistant Jean (who takes a lot of initiative and makes a lot of connections), Nurse Pinto, and most especially the plucky Samantha Brigg who is constantly cited as a \u201cshould\u2019ve been\u201d companion. (She was apparently offered but refused). She leaps of the screen from her first appearance, even more so than I had imagined reading her character in the book. (I only recently learned that she is the actress that played the equally memorable Queen Victoria in the revived series of the show. I guess Samantha has a bit of royal blood in her!)<\/p>\n

Best (or worst) unsettling moment:<\/h4>\n

On watching this time, I found the downing of the RAF fighter jet to be very disheartening somehow. Perhaps because it felt like it was such a clever tactic by the Commandant that was going to discover what was going on and yet it, and the life of the innocent pilot, are tragically cut short.<\/p>\n

Firsts:<\/h4>\n
    \n
  • Body snatcher type aliens<\/li>\n
  • Scenes at an airport<\/li>\n
  • Companions who are able to return to the same time they left<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Regrets:<\/h4>\n

    Oh how I wish that we could see all the actual episodes\u2014especially the special effects of the plane folding its wings into a rocket shape and going to the space station. Of course, don\u2019t dig too deeply into the intricacies of the plot: To get 50,000 young people at 8 flights a day on even the biggest planes of the time (about 200 passengers) would take a full month. Nobody missed that many kids during that whole time? Not to mention that all the foreign airports should have been sounding alarm bells at all the expected flights that never came.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    \u201cThings are not always what they seem.\u201d \u2013 The Doctor This story has long been a big favorite of mine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidredd.com\/doctorwho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidredd.com\/doctorwho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidredd.com\/doctorwho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidredd.com\/doctorwho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidredd.com\/doctorwho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=476"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidredd.com\/doctorwho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1484,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidredd.com\/doctorwho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476\/revisions\/1484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidredd.com\/doctorwho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidredd.com\/doctorwho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidredd.com\/doctorwho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}