"Since I'm obviously about to be arrested may I make one last request?"
TECHNICAL SPECS: Missing from the archives, like 3 other episodes of this story. It's a story I've experienced in BBC's narrated audio series, but have gone for a reconstruction in this case. First aired Apr.15 1967.
IN THIS ONE... Potential companion Samantha Briggs is introduced, and just in time too as Polly is replaced by a Chameleon and Ben disappears as well.
REVIEW: Since I've blown the whistle on Sam Briggs in the teaser above, I might as well start with her. She shows up at Chameleon Tours with a rather amazing hat, looking for her brother who is one of the Chameleons' victims and ends up flirting with Jamie. I think Pauline Collins would have been a fine companion, myself. She's cute and has attitude, not unlike Polly in her first appearance, though a bit more forceful. She's obviously done her detective work here, and shows persistence, both good qualities, and the irony of her parents losing two children to extraterrestrial pilots would not have been lost on me. But I wonder if the flirtation we see here between her and Jamie would have carried on into the series, or if they would have been like Ben and Polly, a couple inactive on screen.
Poor Ben and Polly. Though they get a farewell scene in Part 6, this is their penultimate episode and it's not one to write home about even if Chameleon Tours provides the stamps. Ben finds a sweet spot to hide in a photo booth, but doesn't have very many speaking scenes before he finds Polly packed in a crate (the stills are creepy and might lead you to think she's dead) and gets abducted himself. Anneke Wills does get to play the Chameleon version of herself, denying any knowledge of the Doctor and getting flustered by Samantha before Captain Blade decides to send her away. Gee, couldn't they at least have made use of her as a minor villain until the real Polly could be rescued?
As usual for Troughton stories, there's a fair amount of physical comedy, most of which is lost on audio. One thing I've noticed is that these comic bits of business aren't gratuitous, but advance or work within the plot. Comically hiding from the police with newspapers leads the Doctor to find a crucial clue in the Chameleon Tours ad. The photo booth refuge only works if they pose for pictures when patrons look in. And a rubber ball is used as a mock grenade to enable an escape (that would get you shot in an airport today). Meanwhile, I continue to be annoyed by the Commandant whose bored and impatient attitude towards everything at best achieves a comic deadpan, and at worst is obstructive for no better reason than to extend the story to 6 episodes. It's not even meant to be a red herring, even if it seems to reach for the Chameleons' own dispassionate performances.
VERSIONS: They didn't animate the bouncing ball bit of business, but did pepper in Easter Eggs into the newspapers. There are ads for Marinus Padlocks (The Keys of Marinus) and a rough 'n' tumble machine (The Macra Terror). The commandant's newspaper has a headline about the War Machines which really does make this the day after Ben and Polly originally left. The Faceless Ones have more faces than the stills would indicate, and their clothes transform with them. Because figures are stuck on-model, Samantha doesn't get a hat. Bad Wolf sighting: The eye chart has FLOWDAB, its palindrome.
REWATCHABILITY: Medium - Sam Briggs makes a good first impression, but sadly, Ben and Polly get disposed of rather unceremoniously.
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