Directed by Gerry Mill
Main Cast-
The Doctor - Patrick Troughton
Polly - Anneke Wills (last appearance as regular)
Ben - Michael Craze (last appearance as regular)
Jamie - Frazer Hines
Main Guest Cast-
Blade - Donald Pickering
Commandant - Colin Gordon
Meadows - George Selway
Samantha Briggs - Pauline Collins
Inspector Crossland - Bernard Kay
Spencer - Victor Winding
Nurse Pinto - Madalena Nicol
Synopsis-
The time travelers return to 1966, where the Tardis lands in the middle of Gatwick Airport. The four time travelers scatter to avoid being caught by the airport police. Polly ducks into a hangar owned by Chameleon Tours. While inside, she watches as a man is killed by Spencer, an employee of Chameleon Tours. Polly shows The Doctor and Jamie the body, and they agree to inform the authorities. On their way to report the murder, Polly is kidnapped by Spencer and his boss, Blade and held prisoner.
The Doctor and Jamie discover the disappearance of Polly and are taken to see the Commandant when they are unable to produce passports. The Commandant doesn't believe their story, but humors the pair as they return to the Chameleon hangar. Once there, the body has disappeared. The Doctor and Jamie eventually make a break for it, and continue the investigation of Chameleon on their own.
Ben, who agrees to investigate the hangar, is also taken prisoner by the Chameleon personnel. Jamie watches the Chameleon booth at the airport and meets up with Samantha Briggs (played by a very young Pauline Collins of Upstairs, Downstairs fame). Samantha is looking for her brother, who went on a Chameleon tour and never returned home. The Doctor, meanwhile, returns to the Commandant, hoping to convince him to investigate Chameleon. While still skeptical, the Commandant allows The Doctor twelve hours to do his own investigation after talking things over with just arrived Inspector Crossland, who is also investigating Chameleon.
The tours are simply a cover-up for a larger scheme to kidnap young people, so that they can be replaced by Chameleons. As we learn later in the story, the Chameleons' homeworld was damaged in an explosion and the plan is to use the kidnapped humans as replacement bodies for the Chameleons.
Inspector Crossland boards the next Chameleon flight and is kidnapped by Blade. The Doctor, meanwhile, exposes air traffic controller Meadows as a Chameleon and he reveals the entire plot. The Doctor is able to free the first aid station nurse Pinto and destroy her Chameleon. The Doctor and Nurse Pinto pretend to be Chameleons and board the last Chameleon flight of the season.
Meanwhile, Samantha had intended to board a Chameleon flight in hopes of learning the whereabouts of her brother. Jamie stole her ticket to protect her, and arrives at a space station in orbit around the Earth where he discovers that the kidnapped people are miniaturized and stored for the journey to the Chameleon's homeworld.
The Doctor and Nurse Pinto arrive and tell Blade and the other Chameleon's that they have found the original bodies that they've copied. The Doctor tell the Chameleons that if they don't let the kidnapped people go, he will have the Commandant revive the originals, destroying the Chameleons. The Chameleons agree to return to their native form, and the kidnapped people are returned to Earth. Ben and Polly decide to remain, and bid goodbye to The Doctor and Jamie.
The story ends with the Tardis being taken away in a lorry, with The Doctor and Jamie chasing behind it.
Review-
As I mentioned in my review of the Macra Terror, I was surprised how much that story reminded me of The Prisoner. The Faceless Ones is, basically, a Doctor Who spin on Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
Pauline Collins is quite appealing as Samantha. I wouldn't have minded very much if they had decided to make her the next companion, but that wasn't to be. Samantha's scenes with Jamie were some of my favorite moments from this particular story.
I didn't think the Body Snatchers-like theme worked as well for the Faceless Ones as the Prisoner-like theme worked for the Macra Terror. Not everyone is affected by the Chameleons, only those who board their flights are affected. This takes away a bit of the suspense, since one already knows that there's no way that the Commandant will be affected by the Chameleons' scheme.
My biggest complaint with the Faceless Ones is how Ben and Polly are basically missing through most of their last story. It's a shame the writers couldn't have given Ben and Polly more to do given that this would be their last appearance on the program. Still, I guess one should be grateful that they were given a proper farewell scene, since the previous companion Dodo Chaplet wasn't even given that courtesy.
Outside of that, I found the Faceless Ones to be fun and suspenseful story and it shows that we can expect good things ahead with The Doctor and Jamie, as they worked well together as a team in this particular story.
