The Faceless Ones (1967) Review

Ben felt like giving autographs...

The Faceless Ones is a mixed bag. While I can't deny the uniqueness of the story and the awesome location filming, it's very confusing and not terribly interesting.

PLOT

An alien race is kidnapping people from planes(kind of like the Langoliers). Meanwhile, the TARDIS lands near an airport and the Doctor and co wander around until they, almost by coincidence, get the people to trust them. Seriously, this Doctor constantly sucks at and is great at, lying. And since it's magically the 20th July(as we've seen before in The Ark, the TARDIS just does whatever it feels appropriate), 1966, Ben and Polly manage to return home. I kinda miss William Hartnell and I honestly can't tell why.

CHARACTERS

The Faceless Ones marks the birth of the famous Doctor/Jamie double-act. The two really do have just a fantastic chemistry together. In addition, Jamie gets a love interest who did nothing besides be a plausible new companion.

The Commandant was a pretty funny, stubborn character who couldn't cope outside his comfort zone until he, y'know, did.

The Chameleons were a great alien race. Very memorable. I also loved the miniaturisation(one wonders whether or not the Master had anything to do with that explosion. Hell yeah.)

NOTES

*The Doctor says "I'll be back in a moment" and later Jamie says he promised to be back in half an hour?

*The scene where Sam accuses Jamie of always following the Doctor is eerily similar to a scene from The Lion King 2, one of my all time favorites.

*I liked the reference to the Doctor's inability to return home.

*Why does one of the Chameleons say his original's full name, while the other just says "Jamie"?

*This is the first time three stories take place over one day for the Doctor. Another instance is The End Of Time - The Beast Below(possibly also including The Day Of The Doctor and Victory Of The Daleks)

BEST LINE

"Oh, my back! Jamie, my back!"

CONCLUSION

An ambitious story, but unlike stories like The Web Planet, not very interesting at all in its execution.