User:Bongolium500/The Faceless Ones (TV story)/Home media

User:Bongolium500/The Faceless Ones

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Doctor Who
← The Macra Terror	The Evil of the Daleks →

The Faceless Ones, originally broadcast in 1967 as part of Doctor Who season 4, has been released in various formats, both incomplete (due to missing episodes) and completed via animation and other forms of reconstruction.

Timeline of releases

Year	Release
1998	Unofficial Loose Cannon reconstruction: The Faceless Ones (VHS)
2002	The Faceless Ones (CD)
2003	The Reign of Terror (VHS)
	The End of the Universe Collection (VHS)
2004	Lost in Time (DVD)
	Lost in Time: The Patrick Troughton Years (DVD)
2006	The Faceless Ones (DVD)
2009	Unofficial Loose Cannon reconstruction: The Faceless Ones (VHS)
2012	The Lost TV Episodes - Collection Four (CD)
2020	The Faceless Ones (DVD, Blu-ray and steelbook)

Visual timeline of releases

1998: The Faceless Ones (LC VHS)

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Loose Cannon Reconstructions
← The Macra Terror	The Myth Makers →

Loose Cannon Productions released an unofficial reconstruction of The Faceless Ones on VHS in June 1998, labelled "LC02". The reconstruction was made using:

• John Cura's telesnaps
• Audio recorded by Graham Strong
• Surviving clips
• Other authentic pictures

This release was superceeded by the 2009 Loose Cannon reconstruction (LC32).

2002: The Faceless Ones (CD)

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Doctor Who TV soundtrack releases
← Mission to the Unknown and The Daleks' Master Plan	The Smugglers →

The soundtrack of The Faceless Ones was released across 2 discs as part of the BBC Radio Collection on 4 February 2002. It featured narration by Frazer Hines (actor, Jamie McCrimmon). Disc 1 included episodes 1 to 3 while disc 2 included episodes 4 to 6.

The release had ISBN 0-563-53501-6. The cover illustration was created by Max Ellis and the remastering was completed by Mark Ayres with the linking narration being written by Michael Stevens.

This narrated soundtrack was later re-released as part of The Lost TV Episodes - Collection Four in 2012.

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  Cover

2003: The Reign of Terror (VHS)

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Main article: The Reign of Terror (TV story)/Home video#2003: The Reign of Terror (VHS)

Surviving episodes 1 and 3 of The Faceless Ones was included in the VHS release of The Reign of Terror, alongside surviving episode 1 and clips of episodes 2, 4 and 5 of The Web of Fear. The release included 2 tapes in the UK and US and 1 tape in Australia. It was the last Doctor Who VHS released in the UK by the BBC.

BBC VHS releases
← Invasion of the Dinosaurs

The UK edition was numbered and limited to 8,000 copies and came with a Doctor Who 40th anniversary metal pin badge. The US release was included on The End of the Universe Collection box set.

Editing for the release was done by the Doctor Who Restoration Team.

Age ratings

UK
Australia

Release details

Format	NTSC	PAL
Market	US	UK	Australia
Release dates	October 2003	24 November 2003	December 2003
Distributed by	Warner Video	BBC Video	tba
Catalogue number	BBCV7335	E1853	tba

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  US cover

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  UK cover

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  Limited Edition UK cover

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  Australian cover

The Reign of Terror

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Main article: The Reign of Terror (TV story)

The first tape of the set contained The Reign of Terror's surviving episodes 1, 2, 3 and 6, as well as a summarisation of The Reign of Terror's missing episodes 4 and 5 by Carole Ann Ford (actor, Susan) and clips and stills from these episodes.

The Faceless Ones episodes 1 and 3

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The second tape of the set included the surviving episodes 1 and 3 of The Faceless Ones.

While episode 1 had always been in the BBC Archives (being found by Sue Malden (BBC Archive Selector at the time) while on a visit to BBC Enterprises), episode 3 had only been recovered by Gordon Hendry at a car boot sale in the mid 1980s. The print was in bad condition and comparison with the surviving full soundtrack by Mark Ayres revealed 27 total breaks ranging from a single frame to multiple second and totaling to over 20 seconds.

Jonathan Wood (BBC Resources' senior colourist) was responsible for teleclining (transferring film to video) and rebuilding missing material where possible. Following the teleclining, Mark Ayres was responsible for cleaning the soundtrack before Wood continued with rebuilding the missing material. For the smaller 1 frame gaps of episode 3, the soundtrack was edited to fit the pictures where possible. Moreover, longer missing sections were shortened if purely ambient sound. This meant that less filler would have to be found. The film print had been teleclined with variable levels of zoom to create cut aways. More were created later and these were used to fill many gaps. At the start of the episode, multiple seconds of footage were missing from when the Second Doctor enters the inner room the the Chameleon Tours hanger just as a vent panel closes, causing the panel to jump from open to closed on the print. To fix this, the vision mixer was used to recreate the sliding panel.

Peter Finklestone was then responsible for cleanup and VidFIRE processing. For episode 1, this only involved removing some minor dirt and scratches. The end credits were also remade to be sharper and more in line with the original broadcast. Episode 3 had far more dirt and scratches that had to be removed. 4 gaps of less than 4 frames were also repaired using paintbox techniques and interpolation. Moreover, various other fixes were made around repaired sections. For example, one cuttaway created by Wood showed the Second Doctor with an incorrect facial expression so the frames either side were retouched to make it match better. One section of stock footage had been slowed down by Wood but Finklestone considered the effect too obvious so cleaned the relevant footage and and time stretched using interpolation to arrive at the correct duration. One missing shot (where the bulkhead door between the cabins was closed by Ann Davidson) had been replaced by Wood with a cutaway to another part of the set. Finklestone felt this was too distracting and so used a combination of interpolation and paintbox techniques to create a composite of Ann closing the door. Once again, the end credits were remade.

These restored edits were later used on the 2004 Lost in Time DVD (and so, by extension, Lost in Time: The Patrick Troughton Years and 2006's The Faceless Ones DVD). They also seem to have been used on the 2020 release.

The Web of Fear

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Main article: The Web of Fear (TV story)

The second tape of the set included episode 1 (the only surviving episode at the time) of The Web of Fear, as well as surviving 16mm black and white film clips from episodes 2, 4 and 5 (which, along with episode 6, wouldn't be returned to the BBC until 2013).

2003: The End of the Universe Collection (VHS)

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Main article: The End of the Universe Collection

The End of the Universe Collection was a boxset of VHS tapes released in the US in October 2003. The set was made up of all videos not yet released in the American market, including the The Reign of Terror set that included the surviving episodes 1 and 3 of The Faceless Ones. Each of the included tapes were also released individually.

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  Cover and spines of the included VHSes

2004: Lost in Time (DVD)

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Overview • The Faceless Ones episodes 1 and 3 • 8mm off-screen footage • Booklet

BBC DVD releases
← Ghost Light	Horror of Fang Rock →

Main article: Lost in Time (DVD box set)

Lost in Time was a 3 disc DVD set containing orphaned episodes (episode from stories with half or more of their episodes missing), including episodes 1 and 3 of The Faceless Ones.

The content of the DVD set relevant to The Faceless Ones is listed below (the full contents is available here):

• The Faceless Ones episodes 1 and 3
• 8mm off-screen footage (includes footage of The Faceless Ones episode 2)
• Booklet

Age ratings

UK
Australia
Canada

Release details

DVD region	Region 2		Region 1
Market	UK	Australia	US
Release dates	1 November 2003 Re-released "late 2016"	2 November 2003 Re-released 1 July 2010	2 November 2003
Distributed by	BBC DVD	tba Roadshow Entertainment	Warner Video
Catalogue number	BBCDVD1353	tba	E2083

The UK and Australian released were both presented in a single DVD case. The US release, however, was presented in 2 DVD cases (one for "The William Hartnell Years" and one for "The Patrick Troughton Years"), both of which were released separately.

The cover of the UK and Australian release was designed by Clayton Hickman.

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  UK cover

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  Original Australian cover

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  Re-released Australian cover

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  US cover

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  US disc 1 cover

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  US discs 2 and 3 cover

The Faceless Ones episodes 1 and 3

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The Faceless Ones's surviving episodes 1 and 3 were included on disc 2 of this set. They were the same versions as was included on The Regin of Terror's VHS release.

8mm off-screen footage

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Lost in Time included a few short pieces 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 while working on The Missing Years documentary.

Included on disc 2 was a brief clip from The Faceless Ones episode 2. This approximately 5 second clip was from near the start of the episode when the Second Doctor was questioning Michelle Leupi (the woman who looked like Polly) and 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 is the final such clip on disc 2.

This clip was later included as part of the "surviving film fragments" special feature on the 2020 The Faceless Ones release.

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  The title card that proceeded the clip

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  An example still from the clip, demonstrating the image quality

Lost in Time booklet

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Lost in Time included an 8 page staple-bound booklet. Pages 1 and 8 contained a brief overview and history of missing episodes, explaining the reasons why they exist. Pages 2 and 3 detailed the content of disc 1. Pages 4 and 5 did the same for disc 2 and pages 6 and 7 for disc 3. These pages included brief blurbs of the included episodes. The following was given for episode 1 on page 4:

The Faceless Ones
Episode 1, first shown 8 April 1967
Gatwick Airport - and the TARDIS lands in the path of an incoming jet!

The following was given for episode 3 on page 5:

The Faceless Ones
Episode 3, first shown 22 April 1967
Jamie has met Samantha Briggs, whose brother disappeared on a Chameleon
Tours package holiday. Investigating the office in the Chameleon hanger, the
Doctor walks into a trap...

2004: Lost in Time: The Patrick Troughton Years (DVD)

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Main article: Lost in Time (DVD box set)

The 2 DVD sets ("The William Hartnell Years" and "The Patrick Troughton Years") that made up the US release of the Lost in Time DVD box set were each released seperately on the same day as the main set (2 November 2004 by Warner Video. Lost in Time: The Patrick Troughton Years is of particular note here for including The Faceless Ones episodes 1 and 3 on its second disc. As this is simply one of the constituent DVDs that make up the main Lost in Time box-set, the episode's presentation and edit is identical.

The set had the catalogue number E2082.

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  Cover

2006: The Faceless Ones (DVD)

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The Sun 2006 DVD giveaways
← Rose	The Robots of Death part 1 →

Main article: The Sun 2006 DVD giveaways

In April 2006, 2|entertain had 6 promotional DVDs given away via The Sun, a newspaper. This included episode 1 of The Faceless Ones, taken from 2004's Lost in Time.

Age ratings

UK
Ireland

The disc was in a cardboard sleeve and could be redeemed from various newsagents or by post for £2.99. The cover reused the image of the Second Doctor's head and the image of the TARDIS (albeit flipped horizontally) from Lost in Time. Indeed, Lost in Time's cover artist, Clayton Hickman, was credited as designing the original cover on the back of the DVD's sleeve.

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  Cover

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  Disc

The back cover included the following blurb, abridged credits and advert:

The TARDIS lands at Gatwick Airport, where companion
Polly witnesses a murder before herself being kidnapped.
Can the Doctor and Jamie persuade the doubting Commandant
that foul play is at work. And what of the terrifying
alien Chameleons...?

Written by David Ellis and Malcolm Hulke • Directed by Gerry Mill
Produced by Innes Lloyd • Associate Producer: Peter Bryant

Taken from LOST IN TIME, a digitally restored collection of lost
Doctor Who episodes from the archives. Box set features a
myriad of 'missing' clips and commentaries. Available from all
good retailers.

As well as including logos for The Sun, DVD, 2|entertain and the BBC on the back of the sleeve, the logo for The Communications Practise, a "communications agency offering specialist marketing, creative and digital media services", was also present.

The DVD's region was 2 and 4.

The DVD had no menu and started directly with the episode's title sequence. Following the episode, the DVD included another track with the following:

• A copyright warning screen
• The 2|entertain ident
• An advert for Lost in Time (the same text as on the back of the sleeve but without the final sentance)
• A BBC ident

2009: The Faceless Ones (LC VHS)

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Loose Cannon Reconstructions
← The Evil of the Daleks	The Crusade →

Loose Cannon Productions released a second unofficial reconstruction of The Faceless Ones on VHS in August 2009, labelled "LC32" and superceeding 1998's LC02. The reconstruction was made using:

• John Cura's telesnaps
• Audio recorded by Graham Strong
• Surviving clips
• Other authentic pictures
• Composite pictures
• CGI
• Pictures from other stories/sources
• Specially created material

The release also included:

• An introduction by Anneke Wills (actor, Polly Wright)
• An interview with Anneke Wills (actor, Polly Wright)
• An interview with Peter Roy (actor)
• A reconstruction of the trailer to The Faceless Ones that would have been shown at the end of the previous story, The Macra Terror
• A production featurette on the making of The Faceless Ones, narrated by Anneke Wills (actor, Polly Wright)

2012: The Lost TV Episodes - Collection Four (CD)

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Overview • Interviews • Camera scripts

The Lost TV Episodes
← Collection Three	Collection Five →

Main article: The Lost TV Episodes - Collection Four

The Lost TV Episodes - Collection Four was a set of 12 CDs containing narrated soundtracks of missing episodes, released by BBC Audio on 2 February 2012. The set included (on discs 3 and 4) the soundtrack for The Faceless Ones (remastered by Mark Ayres) with narration by Frazer Hines (actor, Jamie McCrimmon) that was previously released separately as part of the BBC Radio Collection. The set also included interviews with Anneke Wills (actor, Polly Wright) and Frazer Hines (actor, Jamie McCrimmon) (conducted by Mark Ayres) as well as PDFs of scans of the original camera scripts for each serial included on the set (which included The Faceless Ones), all of which was on disc 8. This release had ISBN 978-1-4084-6754-1.

The set was re-released by BBC Physical Audio on 5 November 2020 with a new cover and had ISBN 978-1-5291-2950-2. This edition was also available for digital download. The digital version was released by BBC Digital Audio and had ISBN 978-1-5291-2854-3.

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  Original (2012) cover

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  Rereleased (2020) cover

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  Individual cover for The Faceless Ones

Interviews with Anneke Wills and Frazer Hines

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Included on a bonus disc 8 of the release were interviews, conducted by Mark Ayres, with:

• Anneke Wills (actor, Polly Wright) - tracks 1 to 6
• Frazer Hines (actor, Jamie McCrimmon) - tracks 7 to 11

Camera scripts

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Included on a bonus disc 8 of the release were PDF scans of the camera scripts for each serial included in the box set that could be accessed via a computer. This included the camera scripts of each episode of The Faceless Ones.

2020: The Faceless Ones (DVD, Blu-ray and steelbook)

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The Faceless Ones was completed via animation and released on DVD and Blu-ray (both in standard packaging and as a steelbook) on three discs.

BBC DVD releases
← The Macra Terror	Series 12 →

BBC Blu-ray releases
← The Collection - Season 26	The Complete Twelfth Series →

All versions of each episode included on this release included remastered audio by Mark Ayres.

Age ratings

UK
Ireland
Australia

Release dates

DVD region	Region 2	Region 4	Region 1
Blu-ray region	Region A		Region B
Market	UK	Australia	North America
DVD	16 March 2020	8 April 2020	20 October 2020
Blu-ray	16 March 2020	8 April 2020
Steelbook	16 March 2020

This set was distributed by the BBC and had the catalogue number BBCDVD4402 on DVD and BBCBD0481 on Blu-ray.

The DVD and standard Blu-ray versions of this release included a cardboard sleeve and reversible covers with the traditional classic-Doctor Who DVD design on the other side. According to the copyright notes, the cover was designed by Paul McNulty.

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  UK DVD cover

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  UK DVD reverse cover

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  Australia DVD cover

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  US DVD cover

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  UK Blu-ray cover

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  Australia Blu-ray cover

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  UK Steelbook cover

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  UK Steelbook front cover

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  UK Steelbook back cover

Back cover

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Overview • Blurb • Listed credits

The back cover on the DVD and standard Blu-ray release included a blurb for the The Faceless Ones, a list of the included special features, abridged credits for the story, copyright information and technical details.

Blurb

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The back cover contained a blurb teasing the plot of The Faceless Ones and giving a brief paragraph of context as to the story's missing episode status and subsequent animated reconstruction. The full blurb is given below.

The Doctor and his friends Ben, Polly and Jamie arrive at Gatwick airport. They quickly stumble upon an alien plot, centring upon the mysterious ‘Chameleon Tours’ — a low-price holiday company, whose young passengers have been vanishing in unexplained circumstances.

With the help of Scotland Yard and the airport staff, The Doctor investigates further, but it isn’t long before his own friends start disappearing too.

What is happening to the passengers of Chameleon Tours? Where are the company’s planes really going? Can the Doctor unravel the mystery of Chameleon Tours before it’s too late?

Most of the BBC’s original 1967 master recordings for ‘The Faceless Ones’ were lost soon after the programme’s original transmission. However, audio-only recordings have survived and have been used here to create a brand new fully animated reconstruction of this lost classic.

Listed credits

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The back cover listed a few of the most key crew positions, as well as some of the cast. These credits are given below.

Written by David Ellis and Malcolm Hulke • Directed by AnneMarie Walsh and Gerry Mill
• Produced by Innes Lloyd and Paul Hembury
Staring Patrick Troughton, Anneke Wills, Frazer Hines, Pauline Collins, Michael Craze, Colin Gordon,
Wanda Ventham, Bernard Kay, Donald Pickering, Christopher Tranchell and Victor Winding

For the roles of director and producer, both the person holding the position on the original production (Gerry Mill and Innes Lloyd) and on the animation (AnneMarie Walsh and Paul Hembury) are listed. However, while Paul Hembury is the only animation team member to recieve the producer credit here, he is actually credited as executive producer in the end credits of the animation, alongside Rebecca Richmond, and AnneMarie Walsh is credited as both director and producer. Many more roles from both the cast and the crew are missed out.

See also:

• The full cast listing
• The full crew listing
  • The full crew listing for the animation

Animated reconstruction

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Overview • Production • Crew

As only episodes 1 and 3 of The Faceless Ones survive, the other missing episodes, were animated before their release on this set. The animation was completed in colour by BBC Studios, directed and produced by AnneMarrie Walsh. This widescreen colour animation was included on disc 2. A 4:3 black and white version was also available on disc 1, available to watch with or without the surviving episodes 1 and 3 (replacing the animated episodes 1 and 3).

Work on the animation started in February 2019 and concluded on 15 January 2020. A premiere screening was held at the National Film Theatre (London) by the British Film Institute on 29 February 2020. The animation was broadcast on BBC America, the first 3 episodes being shown on 7 October 2020 and the final 3 on 8 October 2020.

The animation was primarily 2D with 3D backgrounds. The colour animation included a colourisation of the title sequence which was also extended to widescreen.

• Colourised widescreen title sequence from The Faceless Ones animation.jpg

  Widescreen colour title sequence

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  A shot from the colour animation of episode 1

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  The same shot from the black and white animation of episode 1

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  The same shot from the original episode 1

Production

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Martin Geraghty's character art, showing layering.

Work on the animation started in February 2019. AnneMarie Walsh (director/producer)'s first step was contacting Martin Geraghty (character artist). Geraghty's job was to take the characters and aliens in the story and draw them in layers. This means there are separate arms, legs, torsos and heads. This was mostly done by hand using pencil and was digitised later in the process. Geraghty also drew "turn-arounds" which are illustrations of the characters at various angles.

Some of Martin Geraghty's variant designs for the Second Doctor's mouth.

Due to the range of the Patrick Troughton's facial expressions in the surviving episodes, Geraghty drew multiple facial expressions for the Second Doctor. Geraghty reguarly worked in branding which he was able to bring into the design of the uniforms and the Chameleon Tours logo. He felt that the Chameleon's planet perhaps looked like their logo.

Geraghty went through multiple designs for the Chameleons before eventually sending one to Walsh. Walsh's only request was to lengthen their tunic from above to below the knee which made them easier to animate.

An example of a storyboard still.

The first step of animating was storyboarding. There were initially 2 storyboard artists (Barry Baker and Malcolm Hartley) and so each was assigned 3 episodes: 1 surviving and 2 missing. Baker started with the surviving episode 3 and broke it up into shots that would describe each piece of the action. As part of this process, he would trace over the episode to produce line art. This could then be combined with backgrounds to produce an animatic. Baker decided to not always follow the original shots as they were often long and contained many characters, making animation harder and creating a "rather static look". Hence, these shots were broken up into multiple shorter ones.

Barry Baker storyboarding a missing episode in a 3D environment.

For the missing episode storyboards, Baker focussed more on the positions of characters rather than the acting. He used the 3D models of the backgrounds along with the flash character models. He was able to make these characters move from one place to another, creating a primative form of the animation without lip syncing or acting (which is normally indicated in Baker's storyboards). Baker enjoyed this method and felt that it saved time.

The storyboard artists primarily followed the soundtracks rather than the scripts, attempting to match up character's distance from microphones and sound effects such as footsteps. The team tried to keep the camera angles true to what would have been possible with the original production.

Kate Sullivan and her drawing tablet.

The animation was a mix of symbol-based and hand-drawn, traditional, animation, which was done in Flash. The animation was completed at 25 frames per second and was over 9,000 seconds long. 15 animators worked on this project. 12 were based in the UK. 1 was in Vietnam (although from the UK originally), 1 in Spain and another in Italy. The animators draw over Martin Geraghty (character artist)'s designs to produce character assets. These assets were reused as much as possible due to the budget. The animators used Adobe Animate software.

Kate Sullivan's friend Theo.

Kate Sullivan (2D animator) used a drawing tablet. She drew many shots straight away but, for tricky angles, would photograph herself in her mirror or get her friend Theo to take a photo of her. Sometimes, she would use Theo to model male characters. Her least favourite part of the whole process was aligning the shoulders.

Tom Bland modelling the Second Doctor throughing a ball. He will later trace over the photograph of his hand that he takes.

Tom Bland (2D animator) would model difficult shots in his mirror and take a photo of parts of his body such as his hands before sending them to his computer to be traced in order to get accurate movements and positions.

In the making-off documentary, Kevin Baldwin (2D animator) described how the animation was not a cartoon and that this made it harder to do.

The animators used the audio track to sync the lip movements to dialogue. To achieve this, the mouth was on a separate layer.

A shot part way through the compositing process being done by Rob Ritchie. Next, clouds will be added to the pilot's right, along with his reflection.

Following animation, Rob Ritchie (3D animator and compositing) was then responsible for compositing the character animations and backgrounds together, as well as setting up the lighting.

Work on the animation was concluded on 15 January 2020.

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  Animatic

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  Corresponding finished shot

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  Tom Bland tracing a photo of himself to get the correct hand position for the Second Doctor

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  "Doctor, help! The shoulders! Ahhh" - Kate Sullivan bemoans about aligning the shoulders

Crew

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• Character Artist - Martin Geraghty
• Storyboard Artists - Barry Baker, Malcolm Hartley and Studio 35
• 3D Animation and Compositing - Rob Ritchie
• 2D Animation Leads - Gaia Satya Matteucci and Ana García Sebastiá
• 2D Animators - Shaun Askew, Kevin Baldwin, Thomas Bland, Nathan Brenville, Fioan Carruthers, Barry Evans, Anna Fyda, Malcolm Hartley, Paul McNulty, Dorota Makerzec, Dennis Sisterson, Kate Sullivan, Simon Testro and Chiara Sgatti
• Colour Artist - Adrian Salmon
• Production Assistant - Tracey Hodgson
• Doctor Who Consultants - Charles Norton and Toby Hadoke
• With Thanks to Clayton Hickman, Graham Strong and Rhys Williams
• Editing - Jonathan Ogle
• Sound Restoration and Remastering - Mark Ayres
• QAR - The Ark
• Business & Legal Affairs - Linda Duncon
• Production Finance - Aisha Bhatti
• Consumer Products - Fiona Ball
• Executive Producers - Paul Hembury and Rebecca Richmond
• Directed & Produced by AnneMarie Walsh
• BBC Studios Distribution Limited
• © MMXX

Original episodes 1 and 3

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This set included the original episodes 1 and 3 of The Faceless Ones on disc 1. They were available to watch either together with episodes 2, 4, 5 and 6 of the black and white animated reconstruction, or separately via the episode selection screen. The episodes are seemingly the same version originally restored for the 2003 The Reign of Terror VHS set.

Commentary tracks

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This release of The Faceless Ones included commentary tracks for some form of each episode except episode 2. They are summarised below:

Episode	Moderator	People
Original episode 1	Toby Hadoke	Anneke Wills (actor, Polly Wright), Frazer Hines (actor, Jamie McCrimmon), Christopher Tranchell (actor, Steven Jenkins), Clive Doig (vision mixer)
Original episode 3
Animated episode 4
Animated episode 5		Bernard Kay (actor, Crossland)
Animated episode 6		Anneke Wills (actor, Polly Wright), Geoffrey Kirkland (designer)

Telesnap reconstruction

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This release of The Faceless Ones included a reconstruction of episodes 2, 4, 5 and 6 that was produced by Derek Handley using telesnaps, fragments of existing footage and set photographs, alongside the full recordings of episodes 1 and 3. Featuring remastered audio by Mark Ayres, the recosntruction included an optional narration track by Frazer Hines (actor, Jamie McCrimmon), previously released on CD in 2002 and then included in 2012's The Lost TV Episodes - Collection Four.

Face to Face with the Faceless Ones

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Main article: Face to Face with the Faceless Ones

Included on disc 3 of this release was Face to Face with the Faceless Ones, a documentary on the making off the animated reconstruction. It featured interviews with 7 team members and showed them working on the animation.

Stock footage from original production

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Disc 3 of the release included a 5 minutes and 4 seconds long special feature of some of the stock footage used in the making of The Faceless Ones. The serial included many shots of passenger planes, much of which was existing footage licensed by the BBC from Film Centre International. The acquired footage of a VC10 passenger jet was then used throught episodes 1, 3 and 4. Much of the footage used survived in the archives of the British Film Institute. A lot of the original footage was in colour and the special feature includes these. Moreover, many of the included shots are longer than was used in the serial.

All footage included in this feature was presented in colour. An overview of the footage included in the feature is given below:

• Footage of a plane on a runway from various angles
• Footage of the same plane taking off from various angles
• Footage of the plane flying from various angles
  • Interestingly, the footage of a plane that is used in episode 3 while the Second Doctor is in air traffic control is not present here. Similar angles are but none match perfectly.
  • Moreover, the footage of a plain landing, shot from behind the plane, that appears just after this scene is also not present. However, the next shot of a plane's wheels on the runway is present.
  • At least three of the clips shown here were used in episode 4 and survive. One of them was used for the surviving episode 4 title card, the second clip in the "surviving film fragments" special feature. The other two were the third and fourth clips included in that special feature.
• Footage of a radar
• More footage of the plane flying from various angles
• Footage of the plane landing from various angles
  • Interestingly, the clip of the plane landing at the very start of episode 1 is not present here. In fact, the episode 1 clip seems to be a different plane to the one used in these clips.
  • However, the clip from slightly later on, used just before and just after the Second Doctor and his companions start to run, of the plane flying towards the camera with its flaps down in order to land is present here.
  • This clip from just after this of the plane flying from behind is not present in this feature.

The following credits were given at the end of the feature:

• Archive research - Charles Norton
• Editing - Johnathan Ogle
• Colourist - John Kelly
• Special thanks - Caroline Hart, Patrick Russell, Dick Fiddy and the BFI National Film Archive

The feature ended with the BBC Studios logo and the copyright date.

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  A still from one of the clips used in the surviving episode 1

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  A still from one of the clips used in the surviving episode 1

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  A still from the clip used in the surviving episode 2

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  A still from one of the clips used for the title card of episode 4 that survives and is the second clip in the "surviving film fragments" special feature

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  A still from one of the clips used in episode 4 that survives and is the third clip in the "surviving film fragments" special feature

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  A still from one of the clips used in episode 4 that survives and is the fourth clip in the "surviving film fragments" special feature

Surviving film fragments

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Disc 3 of the release included a 1 minute and 36 seconds special feature showing the known surviving footage and clips from episodes 2 and episodes 4 of The Faceless Ones. These are listed below:

• Episode 2
  • The same 8mm off-screen clip as was included in Lost in Time
• Episode 4
  • The title sequence and title card
    • The title card uses stock footage included in the "stock footage from original production" feature
  • A clip of a plane flying above the clouds away from the camera, emitting a long smoke trail
    • This is stock footage included in the "stock footage from original production" feature
  • A clip of a plane flying very close to the camera and towards it
    • This is stock footage included in the "stock footage from original production" feature

The following credits were given at the end of the feature:

• Archive research - Charles Norton
• Film restoration - Peter Crocker
• Editing - Johnathan Ogle
• Special thanks - Caroline Hart, Patrick Russell, Dick Fiddy and the BFI National Film Archive

The feature ended with the BBC Studios logo and the copyright date.

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  A still from the first clip (episode 2)

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  The title card from the second clip (episode 4). The stock footage used here was included in the "stock footage from original production" feature

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  A still from the third clip (episode 4). The stock footage used here was included in the "stock footage from original production" feature

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  A still from the third clip (episode 4). The stock footage used here was included in the "stock footage from original production" feature

Trailer - Fury from the Deep

BACK

Included on disc 3 of the set was a 50 second trailer for the animated reconstruction of Fury from the Deep, the DVD and Blu-ray release of which was later that year. Interestingly, while the trailer claimed that it would be coming out in October 2020, it actually released in September.

Production stills

BACK

A number of production stills were included as an easter egg on disc 3. To access them, enter the special features menu. Then, select the top 2 rows of the sign above the "Toilets" sign. The photos inclded in this easter egg were:

• 4 shots showing the Doctor and Jamie hiding behind the wheels of a plane
• 1 shot of a Chameleon

The second and fifth of these images were included on page of the booklet that accompanied this release.

The easter egg had a running time of 44 seconds and ended with the BBC Studios logo and copyright date.

Camera scripts

BACK

Disc 3 of the set included PDFs of scans of each of The Faceless Ones's 6 original episode's camera scripts. They could be accessed by inserting the disc in to a computer's optical disc drive.

The Faceless Ones booklet

BACK

This release of The Faceless Ones included an 8 page staple-bound booklet (LEAFLET136). Page 1 (the cover) of the leaflet was a version of the release's cover art, minus any age-rating symbols. Page 2 contained an introduction by AnneMarie Walsh (director and producer of the animated reconstruction), alongside a still from the colour animation. Pages 3-6 featured production notes, both from the original production and the animation. Included here are stills from the original production, an animatic frame for the animated reconstruction (alongside the corresponding finished frame from the colour animation), and a lineup of animated designs for each character. Page 7 listed the available special features, alongside 2 stills from the colour animation. Page 8 (the back page) included an abridged list of the key crew for both the original production and animation, the cast list and the original transmision dates, final transmision dates and approximate viewing figures for each episode. Presumably with the exception of the introduction, the booklet was written by Charles Norton.

Also included in the release was LEAFLET135 which included an advert for At Childhood's End on one side and an advert for The Edge of Time on the other side.

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  Booklet (LEAFLET136) cover

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  Advert (LEAFLET135) front

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  Advert (LEAFLET135) back

Promotion

BACK

This release of The Faceless Ones was first announced via an article on the Doctor Who website on 2 June 2019. A teaser trailer for this set was then released on 4 June 2019. A clip from the animation was released on 27 October 2019. The cover art and special features were first announced on the Doctor Who website on 7 February 2020.

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