Doctor Who: The Faceless Ones (Review) 

I’d love for the highlanders to be animated

1:31 In part 5 when the doctor and nurse pinto are on the plane, in the audio you can hear the nurse speak but in the animation her mouth doesn’t move

The story itself is pretty good and I'm so glad a wider audience has access to it now.

I really enjoyed the faceless ones, and overall a 7/10. The animation is at its best in this, Jamie and the Doctor were great as always but Ben and polly didn’t really do much in this story. But I can’t wait for Fury from the Deep later this year.

Great review and I pretty much agreed with you, especially about Ben & Polly’s exit. One thing I’d add is that I really loved the Samantha Briggs character: she was feisty but likeable and was wonderfully portrayed by Pauline Collins. Not sure if she would have suited Pat’s Doctor, but had she been around later, she’d have fitted in well with Peter Capaldi or Colin Baker’s Doctor, I think, because she wouldn’t put up with any nonsense. (Potential for Big Finish story there, perhaps?). Still, nice to see her in this story, all the same. 👍

Ben is one of my favourite companions so the only disappointment was not having a good send off for him. I don’t agree about the climax though, I think it’s refreshing that the ‘villains’ concede. Because after all they just want to survive so aren’t really typical baddies.

Great Review Again! =)

Excellent Review, it's a large achievement in Doctor Who recovering these stories. I love the animation, the beast quality I've seen in years and this story was a game changer as this isn't your classic who monster adventure, the earth bound stories tend to have more a disappearing of characters and a good mystery feel and with The Doctor And Jamie, I think this is when these two click together and the companion / doctor relationship like a teacher teaching his apprentice. I like the fact we don't get much of the faceless creatures, the more they are left as an imposing figure and they provide a greater threat towards The Doctor. Its a criminally underrated gem and definitely one that opens my eyes to stories with something special about them.

An animation mistake: When the chameleons used that button weapon thing on The Doctor and Jamie has to pull it off of him, there are a few frames where The Doctor moves on the ground but the button attached to his back stays stationary.

I actually really liked the ending because it was one of the few times where the Doctor negotiating a peace plan without bloodshed actually worked. Normally he tries to do that but fails and people start killing each other.

I'm happy with this release. Improved animation from the previous projects, as you say. Unlike yourself I find that as a story The Faceless Ones has the same problem as a lot of Troughton's 6-parters, it could have easily been 4 parts, and it doesn't really feel like the stakes are very high. Good take on a middling story.

I'm really hoping for a Daleks Master Plan animation. It's one of my favourite First Doctor serials. Except for The Feast of Steven. We speak not of that episode

Thx for this video. i have been on the fence for months about whether or not to get this, due to hearing mixed reviews about the animation, but now i'm leaning more towards buying it. so, thanks again :D

Hasn’t been released in America on Amazon but I’m so excited when it does. For awhile Faceless Ones was one if not my favorite Troughton story it’s gone down but still excited to see it

Would love to see a ranking video for the animated episodes when it looks like they’ve done all the ones they plan to.

Great review. I’d like to ask though, would you like to see the celestial toymaker animated? Also I spotted some Easter eggs. On a police bulletin board, there are wanted posters for The Delgado Master and Sacha Dhawan Master and there is a sign for magpie electronics ( from idiots lantern)

hey without any spoilers can someone tell me how to download it on mobile (so no dvd buying or something)

Do all the fully animated ones have reversible covers to match the existing ones?

You guys are so lucky, they haven't revealed when they are going to release it in Canada yet. :( Great review tho, makes me want it even more!!!

I love the story but the ending wasn’t handled well. The way the Chameleons are defeated is anti climactic and Ben and Polly just sort of swan off at the end. but the story as a whole is a fantastic. It seems like they wrote a great story but didn’t know how to end it so just cut it off. Still I really enjoy the story

I'm EXCITED that they're doing Fury From the Deep next, but I hope they do Evil of the Daleks as the end of The Faceless Ones kind of leads right into Evil.

i really enjoyed the faceless ones, i just hope they animate the rest of the missing stories. what do you think of the classic who blu ray box sets? are you collecting them?

Evil Of The Daleks is meant to be up next for animation. Hope it is. Been dying to see that one for a long time now.

Great video

There was a mistake in either Ep5 or 6 I cant quite recall when the doctor and the nurse are on the plane, she talks but her lips do not move 🤷‍♂️

I’m not a huge fan of the animation per se, but it depends a lot on the story because for the invasion i was along for the ride 100 . This isn’t out in region 1 yet but I might wanna check it out when I can. Yes, fury from the deep is a reason to get excited and I’d like to see abominable snowmen.

I'm not looking at mistakes but overall I think the macra terror is the best animation just because it has the most fluent movement and I thought it looked better than all the others

i saw some of this on dailymotion i think it was ok from what it saw with the loose cannon

Why do they put Black & White versions on? You can just turn-down the color on your tv. It takes like 15 Seconds.

Nice to see another review of a Classic Who release from you. I always like it how you present the aspects of how parts of stories do and don't work for you. I always like seeing your reviews as I think you're very good at balancing being enthusiatic and obviously genuinely emotionally-invested in the world of Who, but don't just kiss the series arse. I absolutely agree with everything you have said here. I think that the biggest problems with The Faceless Ones are the climax in terms of how The Doctor defeats (or doesn't...) the alien menace, and Ben and Polly's leaving scene- as you say- is rather infuriating. Especially when both of these have come off the back of a 5th episode where very little has happened. This is a top animation of a reasonably good story though, I would be more than happy if they did the rest of them in this quality.

I'd love to see what they do with Fury From the Deep, I hope they make it a 12+ so they can really make stuff scary.

But Wingy .... they arrived on the same day they left, so they couldn't miss this opportunity to go home.

Fingers crossed for The Evil of the Daleks soon 🤞

I ordered a copy. Don't have my copy yet. Waiting for Fury from the Deep. Got my copy of the Macra Terror. About to get The Ice Warriors. Long live Classic Dr. Who

I thought this story was really good and the animation really improved the story. I did notice that when the Chameleons find Jamie on the space station in part 5 it sounds like they drag him away but he just stands there as they come towards him. That’s just a nitpick and overall this was great with the animation. It was fantastic seeing everything moving instead of still pictures.

I’d love all the Patrick Troughton one’s to be animated but If I had to pick one I’d pick evil of the Daleks, Victoria’s first episode 💘

I hate how we in North America have to wait so long after these come out in the U.K.

Great review and video. I like this story a lot particularly the airport and the Chameleons. Its a strong story but my opinion of it did go down slightly than when I watched the loose canon reconstructions. I think the animation was good but a step down from the Macra Terror. I just made my own review of the story if anyone wants to check it out

I hate how Polly got the attention throughout her run. Ben was Yaz of the 60s! The only story focused on him was the macra Terror, he should have been in the alien plot not Polly in episode 1 and 2.

As a fan of ben and polly I was disappointed on the way the characters exists were handled but I think that was due to them only having up to episode 2 until their contracts ran out. We were lucky to have the final goodbye or else it might of been another dodo. The animation is great I think I prefer the colour version, the side cast sell this story especially Samantha Briggs. I'm with you on how you feel towards the animation for fury from the deep

Why are the character designs different to those from Macra Terror?

Love this story! Rele looking forward to fury from the deep. Troughton is my fave doctor and these animation releases are great! But i wish they would give the hartnell era sum of the animation treatment. Fill some of the gaps in season 3! ‘The myth makers’, ‘the massacre’ ‘the savages’

What do you think of life on Mars being brought back??!

it’s ok

Faceless Ones is one of my favorite Doctor stories even though only 2 episodes exist. Now watch, once I see the full story I may not like it as much? Lol 😂

I absolutely hated the ending of Macra Terror so much preferred this one! The only thing (unsurprisingly) is that Troughton used his face a lot to exaggerate what he's trying to say - the animation will never pick that up but it's still very good.

I can’t wait for this to get released in North America. We have to wait until October. That sucks!! Us fans across the pond really get shitted on. We didn’t even get season 14 blu ray yet. Lol not until August lol on top of that our releases look basic and generic as hell. No steelbook versions no cool blu ray sets just generic looking releases lol 😂

What would you want to see next animated after furry from the deep?

A bunch of lost Cyberman episodes they could re-create and they do the Macra Terror & The Faceless Ones. I don't get it.

time for a funny mistake from faceless lol watch the ep 1 animation and listen to JAMIES line polly over here and laugh as the 2nd doctor says it loli ould excuse this if ep 1 didnt already exist lol

WHY DID POLLY HAVE LONG HAIR AGAIN?!

Part 1 I thought was eh. Beyond that absolutely brilliant writing. Didn’t rate the animation that much tbh. As a farewell to Ben and Polly it’s pretty underwhelming too

I feel like I'm one of the few people to actually own the Steelbook why does everyone own the DVD? The DVD and regular Blu-ray artwork is lazy as fuck.

I'm early as fuck this time

I liked Ben and Polly's exit. So tired of (especially new Who) that every ending has to be super dramatic and the companion has to be forced to leave. With some of them, it's just time to go home. Ben wanted to go home, and this story was set before the days where the Tardis was an Uber. And Polly deciding to she'd rather stay with Ben, then see the universe was kind of sweet.

What a hideous cover. I can't stand the animation. I'll wait until they find it for real.