The Faceless Ones

035 – The Faceless Ones
Doctor Who serial
The Doctor hides at Gatwick Airport
Cast
Doctor Patrick Troughton (Second Doctor)
Companions Anneke Wills (Polly) Michael Craze (Ben Jackson) Frazer Hines (Jamie McCrimmon)
Others Colin Gordon — Commandant Donald Pickering — Blade Wanda Ventham — Jean Rock Pauline Collins — Samantha Briggs Bernard Kay — Inspector Crossland George Selway — Meadows Gilly Fraser — Ann Davidson Victor Winding — Spencer Christopher Tranchell — Jenkins Peter Whitaker — Inspector Gascoigne Barry Wilsher — Heslington Madalena Nicol — Nurse Pinto Leonard Trolley — Supt. Reynolds James Appleby — Policeman Brigit Paul — Announcer Michael Ladkin — RAF Pilot
Production
Directed by	Gerry Mill
Written by	David Ellis and Malcolm Hulke
Script editor	Gerry Davis
Produced by	Innes Lloyd Peter Bryant (associate producer, episodes 1-3)
Executive producer(s)	None
Incidental music composer
Production code	KK
Series	Season 4
Length	6 episodes, 25 minutes each
Episode(s) missing	4 episodes (2, 4-6) (material missing from episode 3 due to damaged print)
Date started	8 April 1967
Date ended	13 May 1967
Chronology
← Preceded by Followed by → The Macra Terror The Evil of the Daleks
List of Doctor Who serials

The Faceless Ones

Author	Terrance Dicks
Cover artist	Tony Masero
Series	Doctor Who book: Target novelisations
Release number	116
Publisher	Target Books
Publication date	December 1986 (Hardback) 21 May 1987 (Paperback)
ISBN

The Faceless Ones is the partly missing eighth serial of the fourth season in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 8 April to 13 May 1967. The story concerns a race of identity-stealing aliens known as the Chameleons. It sees the departure of Michael Craze and Anneke Wills as the Doctor's companions Ben Jackson and Polly. Only two of the six episodes are held in the BBC archives; four remain missing.

The TARDIS materializes on the runway of Gatwick Airport. The Doctor, Ben, Polly and Jamie emerge only to discover that they are in the path of an oncoming plane. They see a security officer coming for them, so they split up to flee him. Airport security confiscates the TARDIS after thinking the police are playing a practical joke on them. Polly ducks in the Chameleon Tours agency hangar, where she sees Spencer kill another man and report to his superior, Captain Blade. Polly flees, and runs into the Doctor and Jamie. After telling them what she saw, she brings them to the hangar. They examine the body and the Doctor notes that the victim was electrocuted by a weapon that can't possibly exist on Earth at that time. They leave to find someone in authority, and Blade captures Polly without the Doctor or Jamie noticing. He hides her along with the corpse before Jamie and the Doctor return with sceptical airport authorities.

Alone again, Spencer revives an alien, a faceless green humanoid with prominent veins. Nurse Pinto brings in unconscious air traffic controller Meadows, and connects him to the alien and a machine. The alien transforms into a doppelganger of Meadows, and goes to his airport job. Polly exits from a newly landed plane, but rejects the Doctor and Jamie, claiming to be Michelle Leuppi from Zurich.