An Unexpected Gem! - Doctor Who: The Faceless Ones REVIEW 

One of my favourite Patrick Troughton stories. Has a very sinister and mysterious quality to it. I think that if the rest of it gets found, it’ll be appreciated a lot more. That happened with ‘The Enemy of the World’. Nobody really thought much of it until it was found, so fingers crossed 🤞

I need to watch more Patrick troughton stories I might give this story a try - good video Elliot

I love the cliffhanger where the plane flies into space

I love this story too! It gets so overlooked from Patrick Troughton’s stories.

Totally agree with your assessment that a number of Troughton stories would fit in with Pertwee and Baker! Really wish that this story wasn't one of the lost ones! Thanks for the great vid!

It would be great if 'The Faceless Ones' was released with animated reconstructions of the episodes. Can't wait for 'The Macra Terror' to be released next month.

Although Ben and Polly's farewell was rather perfunctory, the actors were actually treated quite well by the producers who paid them up to the second episode of the following story while releasing them after shooting the second episode of The Faceless Ones--effectively giving them a six week paid holiday. Pauline Collins (Samantha Briggs) was written in as a potential companion but turned down the offer as she didn't want to be tied into a long run. She would, of course, return to Who about 50 years later in a much different role!

Hello EMS Productions great review lovely your retro reviews of classic Who keep up great work also just side note second doctor also include first apperances of the unit.

I love this story. When I first saw it, I didn't know much about it either. I think it's really underrated and it would have a better reputation if all the episodes existed. The plot is great and the Chameleons are effective villians, especially as they are well developed. The one downside is that Ben and Polly don't have a great exit, but overlooking that, it's one of Troughton's best stories :)

This is a pretty good story, and it's a shame so many parts are missing. I watched it via the Loose Cannon recon. They did good work to give us some form in which we can watch these stories, but they do take more presence and effort on the part of the viewer to put the story together in your imagination. It doesn't fit the original criteria for stories the BBC might animate - that at least half the episodes need to exist - but I don't see a reason why they couldn't eventually animate all of them as long as the public interest is there since the audio exists, and that's the hardest part of good animation. But there are no current plans, and till then we have Loose Cannon (or possibly other similar efforts). Troughton accomplished a miracle, and it's not often appreciated enough. He had an impossible job to do and he nailed it. "Play a well established character in such a way that you're recognizably the same person - yet at the same time you're entirely different." If he had failed that, DW would just be another footnote in mid-century television, instead of the giant expanding myth that it became and is today. It's entirely likely that we would reevaluate many of the 2nd Doctor's stories were the missing episodes returned. I think that happened with Web of Fear and Enemy of the World, although at least the first one was well thought of already. But to actually see it is something entirely different. I knew Galaxy 4 from the Loose Cannon recon, and then they discovered a copy of the missing episode Airlock. I thought of Galaxy 4 as typical B&W era sci-fi, sort of cheesy '50s sci-fi, fun but really silly, and then was blown away by how good Airlock was. I'm sure that would happen over and over (and probably in both directions) were more missing episodes found: overlooked stories would go up in esteem, and stories we think were probably pretty good might seem weaker than we imagine them. (For the 2nd Doctor I would love to see more of the Evil of the Daleks. For the first I would love to see something from The Myth Makers!)

So.. these are the first Classic Doctor Who (‘63-‘89) stories that I’ve seen: 1st - “The Daleks’ Master Plan” 2nd - “The Faceless Ones” 3rd - “Spearhead From Space” 4th - “The Robots Of Death” 5th - “Earthshock” 6th - “The Two Doctors” 7th - “Silver Nemesis”

It's getting animated!!!

I think this s the Cheapo version -outside is Gatwick airport, this can be matched by where the manager lives and where Samatha Briggs is. The interior consists of the inside of the plane. And the script revolves round it. At six episodes it goes on far too long.