Day 80 — March 21st 2021
The Faceless Ones Episodes One and Two
The Faceless Ones — Episode One
I’m so glad that this episode is one of the surviving ones from this story, because the idea of the TARDIS landing right in the middle of a runway and a plane flying directly at it is brilliant, and it looks brilliant too! I’m amazed they’ve not tried to do something like this again in the ‘new’ series, because it’s a sure-fire winner in my book.
As a side note, they seem to remove the base of the TARDIS prop between shots during filming. When the Police Box first appears on the runway you can quite clearly make out the prop’s castors underneath, but when we move in close to see our heroes running away, the box seems to be placed flat on the floor without a base! It looks a little sad in that second shot, it has to be said.
Indeed, the whole opening sequence of this one is great, and we spend a surprising amount of time on film before doing any cutting away to studio material. Once again the programme feels like it’s opened up. And much like The War Machines the previous year, we’re back in contemporary London, and it’s fascinating to get a glimpse of Gatwick in 1967. I love it when Doctor Who does this kind of thing.
As openings to a new adventure go, this is one of the more successful. Even when our heroes have finished running away from the ‘flying beasties’, we’re straight into the action with Polly witnessing a murder. It sets up my favourite part of the episode, too, where Doctor Who announces that even though she saw the man shot, he was electrocuted to death. It’s the kind of idea that would have absolutely gripped me as a kid, and it still works for me now. There’s something special in Patrick Troughton’s delivery of the line which really sells it.
I’m also impressed by the use of of TV screens to communicate with other people and places, and simply to spy on the action happening in other rooms. The idea of CCTV is commonplace now, and this kind of thing will happen more and more in the series, but at this point, and transposed with the very 1960s shots of the airport, it feels incredibly modern, and almost more futuristic than anything we’ve had in the last few genuinely futuristic tales.
And as if that weren’t enough, we’ve got a belter of a cliffhanger, where Anneke Wills turns up in passport control… and reveals that she’s not Polly at all! It’s a great thing to end on, and when I look back on the episode like this and single out all the things I’ve enjoyed about it, it sounds pretty good.
But somehow… it didn’t entirely work for me. The episode felt oddly slow, and although it was packed with good ideas I was never quite sure that I was actually enjoying it. I know that’s probably come as a bit of a bolt from the blue given I’ve just been talking about how brilliant much of the episode is, but I think it ends up being far less than the sum of its parts, and that’s disappointed me.
Also disappointing is the bizarre way Ben gets sidelined here. He spends most of his time in this episode on film, running away from a policeman, to the point that I originally made a note that Michael Craze must have been on holiday this week… but then he shows up for a single scene in studio about four minutes from the end of the episode! This episode must have been the easiest paycheque he ever made in studio! I wouldn’t usually mind, but today is the last time I’ll be seeing ben and Polly* so I feel cheated out of some good material for one of my favourite companions.
A weak start, but filled with good ideas which makes this one hard to score. I think I’m settling on a 7/10, with hopes that the good ideas help to carry the story along.
*The goodbye in Episode Six doesn’t really count, does it?
The Faceless Ones — Episode Two
I find the way the Chameleons are revealed in this story a bit… weird.
The cliffhanger to the first episode features one shot only from behind, which would be really effective if they weren’t then just… seen, minutes into this episode. I can’t say for certain how clearly they who up on screen here, but the telesnaps of the transformation sequence definitely show what we know to be the ‘front’ of a Chameleon, so they can’t have tried too hard to keep it mysterious.
It’s another example of this story being packed with brilliant ideas but not really doing a lot with them. There’s something really interesting in only revealing the monster from behind in the cliffhanger, if you’re then going to make a big deal about the lack of face on the other side when they turn around. We can’t be sure that they didn’t — we can’t see it after all — but there certainly doesn’t seem to be any indication of it on the Narrated Soundtrack.
The narration does describe the Chameleon as ‘the raw-state template of some humanoid species’, though, which I thought was a great description. I talk about the Narrated Soundtracks a lot when writing this blog, but I don’t think I ever give enough praise to just how well made they are. The narration is always brilliantly performed by the actors, but it’s also incredibly well written. The narration for The Faceless Ones was written by Michael Stevens, but we’ve also had great work from the likes of Stephen Cole, Sue Cowley, and Robert Ayres. I’d love to read an article about how the soundtracks came together and the work that went into writing such effective linking narration for them. And actually, maybe I’ll look at writing one? If a job’s worth doing and all that…!
Anyway, elsewhere this episode marks the end for Ben and Polly (I refer you to my above comment about Episode Six not counting), and it’s such a… strange way to go. We all talk about Dodo vanishing mid-way through a story, but these two get almost an even worse deal. They’re not sent away to the country, but rather are active participants in the story when they suddenly vanish! Polly’s doppelgänger is sent back to the Chameleon ship, while Ben is frozen and then… well, gone. I can’t remember what get’s said when they return for their brief departure scene — I suppose I’ll find out in a few days — but it seems bizarre to drop them like this. Especially as both actors were paid off to leave early; their contracts covered them right through until the second episode of The Evil of the Daleks. It’s sad to think that there’s a world out there where both of them play an active role in this story before opting to part ways with Doctor Who before he heads off to the Victorian era.
I’ve really loved them as companions, and I think I’d even go so far as to say that they might be my favourites so far, and that’s up against some pretty fierce competition. It helps that they’ve been involved in some of my very favourite stories — they appear in four out of my seven highest-rated-stories so far, and it’ll take a lot to topple those tales.
But now’s probably the time to address the elephant in the room when it comes to Ben and Polly, because while everyone likes to imagine they end up together once they’re back in ‘good old’ 1966… I just don’t believe that. They have feelings for each other, certainly, and maybe they even gave it a go for a bit, but I just can’t imagine them lasting the long haul. In my head, by the 1970s they’d have drifted apart and probably only saw each other sporadically in the decades since. I know The Sarah Jane Adventures suggested that they ended up running an orphanage together in India, but… no. I just don’t believe it. I love them, and I’ve no doubt they love each other, but I just don’t see them together forever.
I think I’m going with a 6/10 for this one. Like the first episode, there’s lots to like but it’s just not grabbing me as much as I want it to.
