The Faceless Ones
Atmospheric and creepy, but brightened up by the comedic timing of the Season 4 TARDIS team! I wasn't overly impressed with the animation, however, with the art looking a little cheap at times, the movement often being stilted and there being a few awkward moments where people just stared at each other, lacking the human mannerisms that accompanies live-action.

Overall, the Doctor's far more serious in this story than he usually - whereas this incarnation is usually light-hearted, playing the recorder or just messing about, he's immediately thrown into the action, upon finding a murder scene and losing two of his companions by the time the credits roll for Episode 1. Despite this, he gets his fair share of funny moments, disregarding passports as "official mumbo jumbo". A particular favourite of mine is that first scene with the entire team where the policeman's running towards them, at which point the Doctor, Jamie and Polly all seem to run off in the same direction after the former yells "scatter". This is probably the first instance where he and Jamie seem to bond as the iconic companion duo, considerably so because Ben and Polly have been kidnapped for most of this, and it's great to see this pairing get to have their little comedy bits show up because you can tell that the cast are having great fun - with Jamie holding his newspaper upside down, for example. Where the hell is Ben for most of this? You can tell that his inclusion was unnecessary, because Jamie was the companion for the Doctor, and Polly was the one who had been taken by the Chameleons to raise the stakes, so they didn't have anything left for him to do. It's a bit disappointing, because it seems that once Jamie came aboard the TARDIS, he took the role of the main male companion so Ben became redundant - the same happened with The Macra Terror. However, his departure with Polly is bittersweet, if not a little sudden. At least they got to say goodbye, rather than Dodo just running off.

Again, I think the animation let this story down. The Chameleons, in my opinion, look far creepier in the live-action version of the story. However, this story just makes them look a bit "generic monster"-esque, as there's not enough of the grotesque features emphasised that makes them just a husk of a body, hence why they need new ones. In terms of the characters themselves however, they're really creepy! The way they're always watching the Doctor, meaning they're always one step ahead creates a really tense atmosphere. Their presence in the airport is always felt, always dominating the screen, and the mystery surrounding them is built up well.

So this story is significant for being the first time Doctor Who has filmed on-location, so it's a shame that the story is mostly missing so that we can't admire these locations. However, the animation has recreated this decently, with a few easter eggs added in with a Wanted poster of the Delgado and Dhawan Masters, and the Magpie Electricals store in the background. Every scene is visually interesting and helps to build the tension across the story, but it was often a little dark and I often had trouble seeing what was going on in the Chameleon Tours building. I did watch it in black and white as it was meant to be watched, so that could be a reason for that issue I had. The Chameleon spaceship is a great contrast from Gatwick Airport, but both settings were developed and explored well, and there's such a grand scale to this story because of this.

There's quite a large cast for this story. There's of course, Polly's replacement, Queen Victoria- I mean, Samantha Briggs. She's always fun and independent, but she always seems to get on with Jamie and knows how to wind him up. I'm excited for the relationship between the pair to develop over the course- What's that? She's not the new companion? That's a real shame that she decided not to stay on as the new companion, I enjoyed her company and I think I would've preferred her to Victoria. The airport security unfortunately fell into "generic military" tropes where the Doctor ends up getting captured and having to win their trust - It's nothing we haven't seen before.

This is a really great story - the scale's massive, the TARDIS team are usually on-form (If half of them actually decided to show up) and the monsters are tense and definitely are iconic, but there are a few marks where it falls short on. Firstly, the animation isn't always the best, and I definitely enjoyed the Macra Terror's artwork more, as well as it feeling a little slow and boring. If it was four parts, it might have been a classic.
7/10

an animation we deserve