User:Bongolium500/The Faceless Ones (TV story)/Missing status

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As of 2023, episodes 2, 4, 5 and 6 of The Faceless Ones are among the 97 missing episodes of Doctor Who.

Rewrite

Junking of the original videotapes

Like almost all episodes at the time, The Faceless Ones was recorded on two-inch black and white videotapes which were reguarly wiped and reused. However, it was standard for BBC Enterprises to issue retention orders for almost all episodes, preventing them being wiped so that copies could be made for overseas sale. This occured with The Faceles Ones. However, while these orders were normally issued on a per-episode basis each week, this was done in one go for all 6 episodes in a retention order dating from May 1967.

Following the production of film copies of episodes, it was standard for Enterprises to issue Wipe/Junk Authorisation forms and this was done for The Faceless Ones episodes 1-4 in a block dating from 31 January 1969. However, it is considered unlikely that the episodes were wiped at this time: paperwork noted that the episodes were "No loner required by Enterprises but held by Drama Serials", implying that, while no paperwork for this survives, the episodes were still being retained by the BBC Drama and Serials department.

On 21 July 1969, Wipe/Junk Authorisation forms were issued by BBC Drama for a number of Second Doctor serials, including all 6 episodes of The Faceless Ones. However, only episodes 1-4 had been cleared for wiping by BBC Enterprises. As such, while episodes 1-4 were certainly wiped at this time, episode 5 was not due to Enterprise's outstanding retention order for it. However, episode 6 was also wiped, despite it also still having an Enterprises retention order.. The paperwork for these wipings was annotated by hand, explaining that the wipings had occured on the same day as they were ordered. Episode 5 was later wiped on 22 September 1969.

Overseas sales, returns and junkings

BBC Enterprises issued Retention Authorisation forms for all 6 episodes of The Faceless Ones in the week commencing 8 May 1967 which was the week following episode 5's transmission. This was likely so that stored field 16mm telerecordings could be made of the episodes for overseas sales. From the negative produced, a number of prints would have then been made and distributed to various purchasing countries. The exact number of prints and their journeys across the globe are unkown. However, it is likely that there were 4 prints and that, in total, these were sent to Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Singapore, Uganada and Zambia. The Faceless Ones was listed, in paper-work, as having a Spanish soundtrack available. However, this is unlikely to be correct and there is no evidence of the serial being sold to a Spanish-speaking country.

Under the standard BBC writer's contract, the sales rights for the serial would have expired on 12 May 1972 (5 years after the original broadcast of the final episode). In deed, it seems that the sales rights were not renewed as the final sale occured in 1970. However, The Faceless Ones was listed in the sales brochure A Quick Guide to Dr Who as still available for purchase and, although undated, it is likely that this brochure was from the last few months of 1974 as it included Planet of the Spiders which finished broadcasting in June of 1974. In the next edition of the brochure, which included Revenge of the Cybermen which finished broadcasting in May 1975, The Faceless Ones was no longer available for purchase.

This is corroborated by the fact that Ian Levine, who had access to BBC Enterprises records in 1978, recalled seeing that The Faceless Ones had been Withdrawn, De-Accessioned and Junked in 1974, meaning that Enterprises would have disposed of the 16mm film it held for The Faceless Ones and that any copies subsequently returned from overseas would likely be disposed of as well. However, it is suspected that this process was flawed and could be how episode 1 ended up in the BBC Film Library. Moreover, it is likely that this process not being carried out properly could be how episode 3 later ended up in a private collection.

Episode recovery

In November 1976, the production team for the then upcoming Whose Doctor Who documentary compiled a list of the Doctor Who material held at the BBC Film Library or at BBC Enterprises. Included on this list was The Faceless Ones episode 1 as a 16mm film black and white film negative with optical soundtrack, held, at that time, by the Film Library. This episode was also included on list compiled in 1977 of material held at the Film Library when the BBC began making private sales of Doctor Who episodes to individuals such as Ian Levine, who would have purchased a copy at that time. It was included again on a list, compiled by Sue Malden (BBC Archive Selector) in 1978 of material held by the Film Library and was one of the episodes listed as surviving in the Doctor Who Magazine Winter Special 1981 when the Film Library's holdings was made known to the wider fandom. This episode likely came from BBC Enterprises when The Faceless Ones was Withdrawn, De-Accessioned and Junked in 1974 due to some error or deliberate action that caused the film to be sent to the Film Library instead of being junked.

Another 16mm copy of episode 1, edited by Australian censors, was obtained by an Australian film collector following a 1968 run of repeats, alongside The Chase episode 1 and The War Machines episode 2. In 1970, this collector passed the films on to his son, David Gee who, in 1977, arranged with the UK-based fan Jeremy Bentham to have the episodes copied onto U-MATIC videotape and sent to England. These episodes were then shown to Ian Levine in 1978.

Old text

Episode junking

The master tapes for episodes 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 were errased on 21 July 1969 with episode 5 following on 22 September. However, episode 1 continued to exist in the BBC Archives in a different format, presumably after having been returned from overseas.

Certainly, the NZBC in New Zealand returned their (unaired and hence uncensored) 16mm copies of each episode back to the BBC in 3 July 1970. 1974 then saw BBC Enterprises at Villiers House junk The Faceless Ones film prints as part of their routine junking of episodes returned from overseas. 4 June 1975 saw the return of each episode from the ABC in Australia which were later scheduled for destruction as was routine. It is possible that episode 3 escaped being junked here, hence its eventual discovery.

Soundtrack recording and recovery

Soundtracks for all 6 episodes survive, the best quality copies being recorded off-air by Graham Strong. These were recorded directly off the TV and so are of very high quality.

This soundtrack recording has been used in the following:

• Loose Cannon Productions' 1998 LC02: The Faceless Ones reconstruction
• The BBC Radio Collection's The Faceless Ones narrated soundtrack
• Surviving episodes 1 and 3 restored by the Doctor Who Restoration Team included on the Reign of Terror VHS set, Lost in Time (and, by extension, Lost in Time: The Patrick Troughton Years and 2006's The Faceless Ones DVD) and seemingly the 2020 DVD, Blu-ray and steelbook The Faceless Ones release
• Loose Cannon Productions' 2009 LC32: The Faceless Ones reconstruction
• Color animation included on The Faceless Ones' DVD, Blu-ray and steelbook
• Black and white animation included on The Faceless Ones' DVD, Blu-ray and steelbook
• Telesnap reconstruction included on The Faceless Ones' DVD, Blu-ray and steelbook (for episode 2, 4, 5 and 6 only)

Episode recovery

Episode 1 was always in the BBC Archives. The episode was included in a list of surviving episodes created in November 1976 in order to assertain which episodes could be used to source clips for a docummentary in the Lively Arts series. It was later included in the list produced by an audit in 1977. An edited copy of the episode was also found in the collection of David Gee in 1978.

The film can for The Faceless Ones episode 3 showing the label that Gordan Hendry added himself.

Episode 3 was found in a film fair in Buckingham by the new film collector Gordon Hendry in 1982, alongside episode 2 of The Evil of the Daleks. These films were attempted to be screened at a cinema in 1985 and an associate of Hendry, Saied Marham, attempted to publicise the event at that year's PanoptiCon convention. However, the event was branded a hoax. Paul Vanezis then spent the next 15 months attempting to convince Marham to return the prints. On 18 April 1987, a tribute was held for Patrick Troughton who had died recently and, after some uncertainty, The Faceless Ones episode 3 was provided by Marham in time to be shown at the convention. In the following weeks, Ian Levine was able to make duplicate prints of both films in return for providing Hendry and Marham with a number of other films. Steve Bryant (BBC Archive Selector) was also able to make duplicates after being given the films by Hendry. Both films were later borrowed by the Doctor Who Restoration Team to be telecined (transferred to video), The Evil of the Daleks episode 2 for archival reasons but The Faceless Ones episode 3 to be included on the 2003 The Reign of Terror VHS set. The episode was found to be badly damaged with over 20 seconds of footage missing. Hence, the episode went through heavy restoration.

Pottential leads

The episode's master tapes were errased in 1969.

The Faceless Ones was broadcast in 5 countries other than the UK: Australia, Uganda, Singapore, Hong Kong and Zambia. The episodes were also sent to New Zealand but were not broadcast due to being deemed unsuitable by censors.

Australia's prints were sent back to the BBC on 4 June 1975 and subsequently scheduled for destruction. An edited copy of episode 1 from Australia was found in 1978, but no further episodes have been found from this.

New Zealand's prints were sent back to the BBC on 3 July 1970. They were then junked in 1974.

Philip Morris visited ZTV in Zambia in 2008 and was able to confirm that they no longer hold any BBC episodes. As such, the fate of these prints are unkown.

The fate of Uganda, Singapore and Hong Kong's prints are unkown.

Telesnaps

Telesnaps are known to exist for all 6 episodes. These are summarised as follows:

Episode	# of telesnaps
1	64
2	68
3	62
4	64
5	63
6	61

They have been used or featured in the following:

• Loose Cannon Productions' 1998 LC02: The Faceless Ones reconstruction
• BBC Cult's photonovel, available online
• Loose Cannon Productions' 2009 LC32: The Faceless Ones reconstruction
• Panini Comics' The Faceless Ones telesnap reconstruction in Doctor Who Magazine Special Edition 35 The Missing Episodes - The Second Doctor Volume 1 (includes telesnaps for episode 2, 4, 5 and 6 only)
• Telesnap reconstruction included on The Faceless Ones' DVD, Blu-ray and steelbook (for episode 2, 4, 5 and 6 only)

These telesnaps were found along with many others in a number of files labeled "Tele-Snaps : Series Z-UU" at the BBC Written Archives Centre in Reading by Marcus Hearn in 1993. He immediately contacted Gary Russell (then Doctor Who Monthly editor) who agreed that the telesnaps should be published as soon as possible. Stephen James Walker also found these files at around the same time but did not have the resources or contacts to get them published.

Other surviving material

Surviving clips

There are 4 surviving clips from the otherwise missing episodes 2, 4, 5 and 6 of The Faceless Ones: 1 from episode 2 and 3 from episode 4.

Episode 2

An example still from the clip, demonstrating the image quality

From episode 2, there is a surviving clip of approximately 5 seconds from near the start of the episode when the Second Doctor was questioning Michelle Leupi (the woman who looked like Polly). When matched with the episode's soundtrack, it shows him asking her how she has such good English. She responds by telling the Doctor that she had an English governess and then asks "Would you mind telling me what's happening?" while turning away from the Doctor. The clip then ends.

This clip was part of a 15 minute silent reel of 8mm off-screen footage from various episodes, shot during their transmission on ABC in the seventies and obtained in 1998 from Jan Vincent Rudzki by Graham Howard for The Missing Years documentary.

The clip was included, along with other 8mm clips, on disc 2 of 2004's Lost in Time DVD, and as part of the "surviving film fragments" special feature on 2020's The Faceless Ones DVD, Blu-ray and steelbook.

Episode 4

There are 3 surviving clips from episode 4, each made up (at least partially) of stock footage showing planes in flight.

The first clip comprises of the title sequence and title card. The title card uses stock footage of a plane flying away from the camera. The second clip is of a plane flying away from the camera, emitting a long smoke trail. The third clip is of a plane flying very close to the camera and towards it.

All of the stock footage used survives in colour, or has been colourised.

These clips have been released as part of the "surviving film fragments" special feature on 2020's The Faceless Ones DVD, Blu-ray and steelbook.

• 

  The title card from the first clip.

• 

  A still from the second clip.

• 

  A still from the third clip.

Stock footage

to be added

Production stills

to be added

Common to old and new version

Alternate ways to experience the story

A number alternate ways to experience this story in full have been released over the years. These range in completeness/comprehensiveness and accuracy to the original broadcast.

Release date	Name	Part of	Author	Publisher	Notes
21 May 1981	(KK) The Faceless Ones	The Doctor Who Programme Guide: Volume 1	Jean-Marc Lofficier	W.H. Allen & Co (1st edition), Virgin Books (2nd and 3rd editions)	Very brief synopses of the serial.
13 August 1981	Doctor Who Episode Guide: The Faceless Ones	Doctor Who - A Marvel Monthly 56		Marvel Comics UK	Brief synopses of each episode.
21 May 1987	The Faceless Ones novelisation	Target novelisations	Terrance Dicks	Target Books, W.H. Allen & Co	Novelisation of The Faceless Ones
14 April 1994	Archive Feature: The Faceless Ones	Doctor Who Magazine 212	Andrew Pixley	Marvel Comics UK	Synopses of each episode.
6 November 1997	The Faceless Ones (KK)	Doctor Who The Handbook: The Second Doctor	David J Howe, Mark Stammers and Stephen James Walker	Doctor Who Books	Synopses of the serial.
June 1998	LC02: The Faceless Ones	Loose Cannon reconstructions		Loose Cannon Productions	Unofficial reconstruction made using John Cura's telesnaps, audio recorded by Graham Strong, surviving clips and other authentic pictures. This release was superceeded by the 2009 Loose Cannon reconstruction (LC32).
4 February 2002	The Faceless Ones narrated soundtrack	BBC Radio Collection		BBC Spoken Word	Soundtrack of the original serial with narration by Frazer Hines (actor, Jamie McCrimmon). Later optionally available with the telesnap reconstruction in the 2020 The Faceless Ones DVD, Blu-ray and steelbook release.
4 June 2003	Magical Mystery Tour	Doctor Who Magazine Special Edition 4 The Complete Second Doctor:	J Jeremy Bentham	Panini Comics	Summary of The Faceless Ones.
2006	Photonovel	Doctor Who website		BBC Cult	Photonovel constructed out of the serial's telesnaps with accompanying text. Available online.
August 2009	LC32: The Faceless Ones	Loose Cannon reconstructions		Loose Cannon Productions	Unofficial reconstruction made using John Cura's telesnaps, audio recorded by Graham Strong, surviving clips, other authentic pictures, composite pictures, CGI, pictures from other stories/sources and specially created material. This release superceeded the 1998 Loose Cannon reconstruction (LC02).
11 July 2013	The Faceless Ones	Doctor Who Magazine Special Edition 35 The Missing Episodes - The Second Doctor Volume 1	Jonathan Morris (surviving episode summaries), Matthew Pereira (telesnap reconstructions)	Panini Comics	Summaries for the surviving episodes 1 and 3 and telesnap reconstructions for the missing episodes.
2 May 2019	The Faceless Ones novelisation audiobook	Novelisation audiobooks	Terrance Dicks	BBC Audio	Unabridged audiobook of the novelisation of The Faceless Ones, read by Anneke Wills (actor, Polly Wright).
16 March 2020	Color animation	The Faceless Ones DVD, Blu-ray and steelbook		BBC Studios	Widescreen colour animation of all 6 episodes. Also broadcast in America and shown at the British Film Institute.
	Black and white animation				4:3 (the original aspect ratio) black and white version of the above animation of all 6 episodes.
	Telesnap reconstruction				Telesnap reconstruction of episodes 2, 4, 5 and 6, produced by Derek Handley using telesnaps, fragments of existing footage and set photographs. Optionally available to watch with the The Faceless Ones soundtrack, narrated by Frazer Hines (actor, Jamie McCrimmon) and originally released on CD in 2002.