August 18th, 2020
188 comments
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Doctor Who The Faceless Ones DVD
All formats are available to order from www.amazon.co.uk
Also available to order from www.zoom.co.uk and www.zavvi.com
Available to order from www.amazon.com #ad
Doctor Who’s missing serial The Faceless Ones will be released on DVD, Blu-Ray and SteelBook on 16th March 2020.
BBC Studios is pleased to announce that The Faceless Ones will be the next animated Doctor Who release, filling a gap in missing content. Following the success of The Power of the Daleks, Shada and The Macra Terror, The Faceless Ones will be released on DVD, Blu-Ray and as an exclusive steelbook next year.
The Faceless Ones is the mostly missing eighth serial of the fourth season of Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from April to May 1967. Starring Patrick Troughton as the Doctor, the story concerns a sinister race of identity-stealing aliens known as the Chameleons.
Only two of the six episodes are held in the BBC film archives with snippets of footage and still images existing from the other four. Fortunately, off-air recordings of the soundtrack also still exist, making the animation of a complete serial possible once again.
The six new animated episodes are being made in full colour and high definition and will include the following exclusive special features:
- Photographic reconstruction of the story, including surviving footage of episodes 1 & 3
- Audio commentary on episodes 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6
- ‘Making of the animated series’
- Camera script PDF’s
- Surviving film fragments from the story
- x5 ‘Easter Egg’ surprises
- Coming Soon Fury from the Deep trailer
The double sided cover…
Categorised under: Doctor Who DVDs, DVD
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Gordon
February 22nd, 2020 - 1:30amAccording to Derrick Hanley who did the recon:
The recon is pretty much a rework of the Loose Cannon version with quite a few tweaks and with a new, better audio. There are some new CGI shots of the plane and space station, but just as a series of stills rather than fully animated due to budget/time constraints.
There will be options for with and without narration and with and without descriptive captions.
Sounds like all tastes are being Catered for
Anonymous
February 17th, 2020 - 11:57amThe colour episodes are in 16:9 and the black and white episodes are in 4:3
Anonymous
February 17th, 2020 - 12:32pmI hope this is the case for all future animations
Gordon
February 17th, 2020 - 1:34pmNope just the stories that have existing episodes
Anonymous
February 17th, 2020 - 1:40pmIt’s perfectly sensible arrangement for those stories that have existing episodes
Anonymous
February 20th, 2020 - 1:26pmI like the colour versions being in widescreen, but when they do the black and white versions, they should crop it. If it’s in black and white, it might as well be in 4:3
skaroman
February 10th, 2020 - 1:35pm3 Discs?
Any idea on how that would be split?
Anonymous
February 10th, 2020 - 2:01pmIt’s already been confirmed. Colour animation disc one, b&w animation disc 2 reconstruction disc 3
Gordon
February 11th, 2020 - 5:39pmGot confirmation from the dvd enquiry line
The forthcoming release of ‘Doctor Who The Faceless Ones’ will include the two original episodes 1 & 3 on both Disc 1 with the black and white animated episodes and also on Disc 3 with the Telesnap episodes.
Kind regards
BBC DVD Support
I’m shocked there is room for them twice
Anonymous
February 11th, 2020 - 6:34pmThanks Gordon, that is a big surprise. A good surprise, but a surprise.
The Ergon
February 11th, 2020 - 7:10pmSo integrated with Animation then, on disc 1?
Gordon
February 11th, 2020 - 7:19pmAlong with the animated black and white versions of 1 and 3. Guessing there will be an option to select between the 2 versions
The Ergon
February 11th, 2020 - 8:01pmThanks for relaying that news .So relieved. Your Foreknowledge on all matters DVD and Blu-Ray+ as always is much appreciated Gordon.
Anonymous
February 12th, 2020 - 7:23amFantastic News, Thank You Gordon!!!
Daniel
February 13th, 2020 - 11:10amMaybe disc one is black and white and disc two might be the coulor and disc three maybe the special features
Prof Horner
February 9th, 2020 - 2:00pmTo me the disappointing thing about this story is the way Ben and Polly are written out. They vanish after episode two and only apear at the very end of the story. They deserve abetter exit than this.
TARDIS Traveller
February 9th, 2020 - 2:20pmTotally agree especially considering they were contracted up untill episode two of EOTD missed opportunity throughout this season. That said without them being missing for this story we wouldn’t have got Samantha Briggs as a great guest character
Gordon
February 9th, 2020 - 2:59pmAgreed. They should have gotten a proper send off. Michael craze actually suggest to get killed off but the producers said no. At least it wasn’t as bad as dodo’s exit
Anonymous
February 9th, 2020 - 3:19pmThat was the curse of innes lloyd, he wasn’t good at send offs! Steven suddenly and for no reason elected leader of a strange world, dodo sent off to recuperate only to send a verbal message, not even a letter, Ben and polly just disappearing from the story to return for a brief farewell. Such a shame as Steven and polly were good characters
The Ergon
February 9th, 2020 - 9:04pmThe curse of Innes lloyd? Now thats a story i wouldn,t want to see.
Tim M
February 11th, 2020 - 9:07amYes, the departure of companions during the Innes Lloyd era are frankly poor. It’s like he was too quick to move on to the next companion, giving only slight thought to the companions leaving. Things improve with Peter Bryant though, with Victoria’s departure in episode six of ‘Fury from the Deep’.
Anonymous
February 9th, 2020 - 9:40amI think the cover would look better if Ben and Jamie were beside the Doctor. That way, the scale of the characters wouldn’t look so strange.
Callum Eales
February 8th, 2020 - 8:18pmPlease let the cover be re-rersable. My poor ocd.
Gordon
February 8th, 2020 - 9:33pmIt is. Like every other cover in recent years
Anonymous
February 8th, 2020 - 10:28pmAs Gordon will surely reassure us at some point. Yes the cover is reversible!
but if it isn’t, “stop complaining, we are lucky to have these episodes”
Anonymous
February 20th, 2020 - 1:33pmWe are incredibly lucky to have these episodes, but their whole purpose is to complete the Doctor Who DVD range. If the cover wasn’t reversible, which actually isn’t an issue on the part of the animators, then someone would HAVE to complain.
Gordon
February 22nd, 2020 - 1:25amWe are also incredibly lucky that those that head up these animated releases are fans as well. They totally get why there needs to be a reversible cover
Anonymous
February 22nd, 2020 - 1:58amSo it’s thankfully not a problem anyway
Doctor’s Orders
February 8th, 2020 - 12:20pmI’m going to buy the DVD version to help sales of that and more importantly to further complete my Classic Doctor Who DVD Collection. I’m almost certain that ‘The Faceless Ones’ animation will be on the ‘Complete Season 4’ blu ray when it’s eventually released. So the DVD will do in the meantime anyway.
Gordon
February 8th, 2020 - 9:34pmI’ve bought all 3. Must be mad as it’s not one of my favourite story’s.
Anonymous
February 8th, 2020 - 10:29pmWhat a waste isn’t it!. Having the season on blu Ray already and they still want us to pay for a collectors boxset. Just hurry up and release the boxset!
Anonymous
February 8th, 2020 - 10:34pmdvd and steelbook. Normal blu rays don’t do it for me.
Anonymous
February 9th, 2020 - 12:26amI’ve just read the Terrance dicks book and it has to said he struggled to make the story believable. It’s very well written but the story just makes no sense!
Anonymous
February 9th, 2020 - 12:36amI should say that the story is decent to watch/ listen to because the actors bring a lot to it. It’s just when it’s written down the plot weaknesses can’t be glossed over. Happy to buy it though.
Anonymous
February 9th, 2020 - 10:44amI don’t buy the bluray discs. There are a huge amount of fans who don’t buy them. For me I can’t warrant spending more money on stories I already own. One of my friends says that he’s bought them first on video then DVD and now just can’t be bothered to have to sit through them all again! I used to collect all of the doctor who books but now I only buy fiction, and I only buy the panini graphic novels not the titan ones. Money and space. There are many fans who want these stories animated. I’m one of them. But like a great number of them I want them released separately. Nobody forces you to buy something. If they did a boxset exclusive animation of say, space pirates, I imagine there would be a huge outcry from those who don’t buy the box sets. Which presumably is a far greater proportion of fans than those who do.
Gordon
February 9th, 2020 - 12:59pmThere is plenty of people who are buying these sets. Just look at the mad scramble to buy the season 12 reissue or the fact each 1 sells out. I totally get why people would want these in a box set. Especially on stories in series 4. It probably would work cheaper to wait till they are all done and buy the season 4 box set down the line. However these animations need to get released separately first due to how expensive the animations are. They need the stand alone releases to recoup costs. The box set budgets simply won’t stretch to exclusive animations.
The Ergon
February 9th, 2020 - 6:20pmThen hopefully they will merge existing episodes with the animation when they get these stories out on first run DVD and Blu-Ray. I can wait. I can just record New Who as i,ve done from series 11 until they are repackaged like the classic series, however long that might be but by then, they will no doubt be transferring to either 4 or 8K by 2025-2030+. I will still buy these
animated stories on DVD just to match the rest of my collection until such time.
Gordon
February 8th, 2020 - 12:41amHaving had time to think about the cover I don’t hate it. I just don’t think it’s as special as other releases. Like with macra shada and power I prefer the steelbook version. I’m loving the amount of ways you can watch it.
1. Colour
2. Black and white
3. Existing eps with animation
4. Existing eps with telesnaps with narrated soundtrack
5. Existing eps with telesnaps without narration (macra had this so faceless probably will)
Sure some of these will possibly require disc changes but it’s nice to have such choice. It’s certainly 5 more ways of watching the faceless ones than we had a year ago. A 30 minute making of the animation too. It’s a shame that isn’t a making of the original production too but there is always the collection in a couple of years time. It’s a shame all 6 animated episodes don’t have commentaries but with the tight turn around we are lucky to get any. Fury teaser trailer too which I assume is the same one revealed at comic con.
Anonymous
February 8th, 2020 - 2:23amIt’s not a hardship to change discs. But I’ll probably just watch the reconstruction as the reconstruction and the animated episodes as the animated episodes. Trouble with making of material is there aren’t a huge amount of people to interview. Yes, there are a reasonable amount of cast members but it depends on whether they are willing to talk about it. After all it’s now 54 years ago. I can’t remember last week!
Anonymous
February 8th, 2020 - 10:33pmWhat if I want to watch it with the colour animated episodes instead of black and white! And what if I wanted to watch the animated episodes for 1 and 3 and tele snaps for the rest?
Anonymous
February 9th, 2020 - 10:29amThen you just change discs… it’s not going to kill you to get up and change the discs
Anonymous
February 9th, 2020 - 11:14amI was joking. I was making up ways to watch the episode!. If I am complaining, I’d get it on amazon!
The Ergon
February 9th, 2020 - 12:36pmSometimes it might just be easier if they were all on a stick, then you wouldn,t have to get up at all. Its hassle when you just want to put something on and just chill out. I actually would have prefered the animation to be melded with the existing episodes. i thought that was the point of these initially, so we can enjoy watching stories like ‘ The tenth Planet’, ‘The invasion’, ‘The moonbase’ and ‘The ice Warriors’, without having to faff about changing discs.
Gordon
February 9th, 2020 - 12:42pmThe main point of these releases are so bbc America broadcast it on tv. There would be no release otherwise
Stanley Gleed
February 7th, 2020 - 9:15pmI don’t really like the cover art. The Chameleon looks good and I like the runway but why is Polly’s mouth open and why open like that? It doesn’t even look like Polly.
Also the picture of the Doctor is clearly a picture of Salamander and while Salamander is played by Patrick Troughton, that picture of Troughton I’ve always associated with Salamander and it looks a bit odd in my opinion. Also his eyes look a bit odd.
Anonymous
February 8th, 2020 - 10:30pmI think he should be removed. I prefer the Polly thing it looks very good and stylish. Like an old movie poster! Troughton ruins it
simonhanlon77
February 7th, 2020 - 4:33pmi don’t like the cover art myself. bit dissapointed that it not contains b&w animation with the 2 remaining eps. but still looking forward to watching it.
Tim M
February 7th, 2020 - 3:21pmHmmm. Not sure about the cover art? Does anyone know if it will have a reverse cover to match with the other ‘classic’ series DVD releases?
Anonymous
February 7th, 2020 - 3:50pmIt will have a reversible cover
Tim M
February 7th, 2020 - 3:58pmThanks Anonymous. I thought it would.
bob hellier
February 7th, 2020 - 3:08pmhopefully after the faceless ones the next story Evil of the Daleks maybe an animated dvd release sometime
Anonymous
February 7th, 2020 - 3:14pmNext is fury from the deep. After that, and therefore next March or April could be evil.
Peter
February 7th, 2020 - 1:07pmGot to admit, love the cover. Goes really well with Macra.
Anonymous
February 7th, 2020 - 11:37amNot keen on the cover, obviously it refers to how they have animated the chameleons. Not bothered though as I have a really excellent customised DVD cover so I’ll just use that one instead. (I’ve done that with macra and power so they fit in more with those around it.) Seems odd that both this and series 12 have the same release date. I’m fairly sure one or both will change. Looking forward to the reconstruction but have to say the macra animation left me cold so I’m not expecting much from this. Still happy to buy it!
Hi
February 7th, 2020 - 11:33amWhen will it come to region 1
Anonymous
February 7th, 2020 - 10:47amWould’ve been nice if the existing episodes could’ve had production notes.
You never know, they might do them on a future Collection box set.
Anonymous
February 7th, 2020 - 10:38amLove the cover, not a fan of throughton on the cover tho.
Peter
January 13th, 2020 - 12:53pmAnyone else excited for the cover reveal?
The Ergon
February 7th, 2020 - 10:27amNot sure what to make of the cover. The radar dish and second Doctor yes, but whats with the melty face Polly? Why not a chameleon and Ben And polly in the background. It is their farewell story after all. Still an exciting release all the same, for me to be viewed first in B/W.
Gordon
February 7th, 2020 - 10:31amNot having the existing episodes on the same disc as the animation is probably going to annoy some but it’s just a quick disc change
Anonymous
February 7th, 2020 - 10:35amConsidering Ben is only in 2 episodes of his final story. Polly is in 3.
The Ergon
February 7th, 2020 - 11:02amOh now i am disappointed to hear that, Why didn,t they include them with the animation?. That means you have to take the discs in and out. Such an inconvenience. I thought that was the point of the animation in the first place, to bridge those gaps. So it looks like it might be that long wait for the series 4 Bluray release to see if they are included?
Gordon
February 7th, 2020 - 11:20amProbably to make it less jarring. Also means the option of watching the black and white animated versions of episodes 1 and 3 is also an option
The Ergon
February 7th, 2020 - 11:33amIts more jarring not to have the option though gordon. Yes the episodes have been upgraded but it seems to me that they have purposely done it this way as a precursor to the eventual Blu-Ray release where the option will be included.
Gordon
February 7th, 2020 - 5:59pmYou also have to take into account that you would need 8 episodes on 1 disc. That would be extremely compressed which would effect the picture quality of the episodes on dvd. It’s possible that I may have jumped the gun a wee bit and they have black and white eps 1-3 on disc 2 along with the recons but we shall see
Anonymous
February 7th, 2020 - 7:54pmActually you could store all those episodes on a blu day 50gb disc!. You store all 6 episodes on there in HD and then you still have at least 9 hours of SD content on there. You can put the episodes on there in SD (it was Originally broadcast at a resolution lower than dvd btw) and thx blu Ray will still upscale the file a bit. Then have the option on the disc to watch the episodes with the surviving bits as an Easter egg!
Gordon
February 7th, 2020 - 8:11pmThe problem is they use the same masters and disc layout for blu ray and dvd with the 1 exception of 1 being hd and 1 being sd. Look at the macra terror both versions have the same disc layout with the recons split over 2 discs despite the blu ray having room to have the animated episodes and recons. Due to the tight turnaround on these releases there isn’t time to create seperate disc layouts for dvd and blu ray
Anonymous
October 28th, 2019 - 11:05amAny news in the release date for the DVD?
David Goldman
January 7th, 2020 - 11:07amEnd of February/beginning of March 2020.
Gordon
January 7th, 2020 - 11:09amMarch 9th according to zavvi
TheMaster
February 7th, 2020 - 10:15am16th March hopefully they keep to the date
Peter
October 21st, 2019 - 1:21pmI hope they don’t any scenes like they did with macra
Gordon
October 21st, 2019 - 2:49pmYou mean delete scenes?
The situation with macra terror was that how it was funded it had to be produced completed and released by the end of the financial year. Doing the rough and tumble scene with creating new models would have pushed it beyond that. The faceless ones doesn’t have many costume or hair changes and due to them already working on the next release they shouldn’t have an issue with finishing before the end of the financial year
Anonymous
February 7th, 2020 - 10:38amBasically what Gordon is trying to say
They don’t have enough money or time. They’re trying really hard to deliver the episodes. They’re trying to get more episodes out rather than focus than just one. Whatever they make you should be grateful they even made it. Even if it sucks.
sven
July 7th, 2019 - 9:29pmI hope disc 2 is the black and white version and episodes 1 and 3 are put in to the normal black and white version
simonhanlon77
October 28th, 2019 - 9:28amYES I’M HOPING THAT ASWELL. I PREFER B&W ANIMATION AS THAT IS WHAT IT WAS ORGINALLY.
Peter allen
June 12th, 2019 - 12:49pmI like how this becoming an annual thing. I hope we get a Hartnell next
owen ward
June 26th, 2019 - 11:25amok so imo it is shown that they are working up not down so we have
evil
abomnible
fury
wheel
and pirates
to get through befor hartnell has a chance even if they miss 2/3 it would still be a good 3/2 years befor we get a hartnell even then i think they would do galaxy 4 since it seems like an easy episode to do like macra terror
Anonymous
February 7th, 2020 - 3:52pmIt’s not even annual anymore because Fury from the Deep is also coming out on DVD
TheMaster
June 5th, 2019 - 7:30amSo they actually going to include the real remaining episodes as well?
booboo
June 5th, 2019 - 7:38amthey are bound to
Gordon
June 5th, 2019 - 8:16amThe DVD/Blu-ray release will also include surviving archive material from the original 1967 production
I’d take that as a yes
TIM M
June 6th, 2019 - 3:49pmPerhaps ‘The Faceless Ones’ could be a 3 disc set? Disc 1: Animation in colour. Disc 2: Animation in black and white. Disc 3: Existing episodes 1 and 3 alongside telesnap reconstructions of the other four episodes. I think that would be the best way of releasing the story
Steven taylor
June 6th, 2019 - 5:07pmThat would be great but i doubt they will
Anonymous
June 7th, 2019 - 7:28amZoom has it down as a 2 disc release
Ruth
June 4th, 2019 - 7:54pmI’m pleased to see these animations are doing well enough for them to continue. I’d like to see them finish off the Hartnell era someday.
owen ward
June 26th, 2019 - 11:26amit will be a good 2/3 years befor we see hartnell again i think even then i feel we will get galaxy 4 however peter pervis is trying to get mission to the unknown on dvd
The ergon
June 4th, 2019 - 7:19pmCheeky reference to Magpie Electricals in there as well.
Anonymous
June 4th, 2019 - 6:36pmComing so soon after “Macra Terror”, how many more to come? And it looks like they’re releasing them in the original order of transmission. Can we hope to have “Evil of the Daleks” in time for Christmas? That would be perfect.
Gordon
June 4th, 2019 - 6:47pmWe aren’t even getting faceless ones by Christmas. The odds of evil being released by Christmas is next to nil I would think
James Woodard
June 5th, 2019 - 12:27amI agree. Maybe they will announce and release Evil by Christmas 2020, but definitely not this year. It does seem like they are doing them in order though, but I think that’s just a coincidence. i think after this we may get Evil and then they’ll probably do Highlanders, maybe Smugglers or Underwater menace and then we’ll get a Season 4 bluray release a year later possibly.
owen ward
June 26th, 2019 - 11:29amits working its way up but it misses some that animaters cant do at the minuet like power was ment to go to highlanders but they missed that and went to macra terror insted imo evil may not be next we might get wheel in space then go back to hartnell
Acefan2005
June 4th, 2019 - 5:24pmOMG, Yesssss wanted to c This for so long.
Tim M
June 4th, 2019 - 12:29pmMaybe one disc should have all six episodes as animated in full colour. And the other disc could have the existing episodes 1 and 3 alongside black and white versions of the animation. Maybe?
Anonymous
June 4th, 2019 - 12:09pmSo they are animating all six? How exciting! This is something i have waited for for a long time. I think they are definatley completing all the series 4 episodes for a blu ray release which makes sense as they are very good stories. Will this still include the 2 episodes in the archive as a second disk though?
Fred
June 4th, 2019 - 12:12pmThis is one of my absolute favourite stories. Wow. Very excited.
Thomas
June 4th, 2019 - 12:06pmThought we were getting The Wheel In Space?
Anonymous
June 4th, 2019 - 12:10pmThat was just a BFI 10 minute clip. Besides, i am just happy that we have a new release coming.