The Faceless Ones - Episode 3

The final episode of this story to exist on DVD and we get to see the wonderful cliffhanger where the Doctor is frozen.  I like this first scene as it means that the Doctor can be creative and show that despite not being in control of the situation that he is smarter than the people from Chameleon Tours.  The best thing about this episode is that we get to see Bernard Kay and Pauline Collins in the flesh so to speak.  Both of them are instantly likeable as they are used to help the Doctor and Jamie in their story.  Kay’s character is used to help the Doctor convince the Commandant. Kay is one of those people that is instantly likeable no matter what character he plays (except for his role in The Crusaders).  

The moment that the Commandant believes or is willing to be less suspicious of the Doctor is a welcoming moment because it allows the story to move on. The Doctor becomes a target for the Chaemleon Tours people. Their real race name hasn’t been revealed which on one hand adds to their mystery but it would be good if we knew. We finally get to see what they actually do on these plans and when it does happen then it’s a great moment because there is a shot of a cabin full of people then after a shocked look on Kay’s face we see an empty cabin. It’s not the great reveal that we had been hoping for but at least its something that makes these bad people seem bad for a reason instead of just talking about the bad things they do.

Something that I have noticed in this episode is that there are some weird shots which don’t make sense. It involves close ups of various people with a high pitch noise. Not quite sure what the point of this is and it seems that it serves no real purpose. A even more noticeable example of this is when Blade and Crossland are in the cockpit and there is a close-up of Blade and then of Crossland and then back to Blade.

This episode did a good job of progressing and its using its six episode run well. We get to know a bit more about the villains of the story and it feels like some of the supporting characters have settled down and matured and I refer to the Commandant in that instance. At the half way mark the story has maintained my interest and it feels like the evolution of the show from the Hartnell era to the Troughton era has been completed and the second half of the story should be just as good.