Original air dates April and May of 1967. Six episodes of which four are lost. Glad to see a couple that aren’t reconstructed.
The TARDIS appears on the runway at an airport – turns out to be Gatwick – which would cause a massive security issue today. Might have even then, as the local police aren’t too happy to see them. ATC isn’t happy either, but finds the report of a police box on the runways a ridiculous claim. They know exactly what it is, though, which sets the date to the 60’s somteime, probably current day.
Ooo, look, a video intercom! How fancy and high tech! Wonder if our airports even have them yet. Certainly a lot of phones, which is perfectly sensible. Getting a police box on the runway is indeed a problem. It’s been moved and started landings again.
Doctor and Jaimie find Polly who tells them about the murder. The Doctor wants to go see right away, and finds the body, electrocuted. Finds them an alien type, and they don’t like him. They’ve snatched Polly.
The Doctor and Jaimie go right for an authority figure, and find one, who does not take them seriously, especially when their body is gone and apparently replaced with plastic cups. They find a pretty blonde in the terminal who they think is Polly but she claims not to know them, making thier case even weaker.
Credits roll and it’s back to slideshows for us for a while.
The police are called on the Doctor and Jaimie.
The body from the cabinet has been taken to a medical center where it is suffocating. A nurse gives it some kind of treatment. There’s a man in the table next also connected to the machine. I suspect they’re stealing his body.
Ben finds the Doctor and Jaimie and they go off to talk.
The chameleon thing wakes up and they get it started working. It takes over the man they pointed at it, knows his life, etc.
Doctor tries to talk to Polly who gets flustered and starts to try and remember. The leaders are watching on their CCTV, and call her in to talk to her, will send her away on the next flight, “Back to base” wherever that is.
A second police detective shows up, looking for the first and investigating Chameleon Youth Tours. It almost gets noticed.
The police get a description of the Doctor and Jaimie – a scruffy man in a frock coat and a man in a kilt.
Back to the Chameleon Tours hanger, for more nosing around, where the episode ends with the Doctor getting gassed. One of the men behind this goes in to get the Doctor and gets tricked by the Doctor, who escapes.
The Doctor finds Jaimie and the woman who’s brother is missing talking to Scotland Yard, and explains everything. Back to the airport director they go. The Inspector gets them to give them a pass for the Airport.
They go search the Chamelon Tours office and find a hidden room with a monitor on a medical station. The Inspector gets on the Chameleon flight and gets kidnapped. He watches the planeload of tourists get vanished. Credits roll.
Back to slide-show land!
My suspenders of disbelief are snapped. If whole planeloads of people went vanishing, even with the covering postcards, someone would notice sooner.
A beam of light is going to cut the three prisoners in half. How James Bond!
They use a mirror to escape.
This is long and I’m not tracking it all, as many things keep happening.
The airplane – looking empty – lands in a space station above the radar imaging of the airport. Don’t they want all those people? Where have they gone? Jaimie has escaped, which is good.
Aliens empty the overhad bins and clean the plane. Jaimie follows the pilot and stewardess out.
Back at Gatwick, there’s a kerfuffle as the Doctor tries to prove Meadows (one of the ATC operators who I’ve not given a name) is an alien. They get information about the aliens and what’s going on. 50,000 youths stolen to repatriate the alien world.
Youths are minituarized on the space station. The last flight to Earth leaves to collect all the aliens who’ve been working there. The Doctor wants to get on the plane. He takes Meadows’ place on the plane.
We see the airliner’s wings fold back – a very modern thing for them to do – as it ascends to the space station.
Jaimie is converted and spills about the Doctor to them, who they had already figured out was impostors. The Director wants the Doctor kept alive, and the captain Blade (who’s name I had not used yet) argues against it.
Captain Blade and guards accost the Doctor and impostor Nurse Pinto as credits roll. Last episode in the serial, and things look grim.
The Doctor bluffs he has the originals of the 25 workers from the airport, but hasn’t yet. They figure it’s a bluff and “process” the Doctor anyway. He stalls by breaking their machine.
The girls are checking parked cars for some reason. Meadows, who has escaped the police, jumps them. They find the originals in cars. They pull the off of one of the originals and kill the Chameleon. They get radio contact back.
The Doctor negotiates a surrender, and the aliens do.
All gets untangled.
Polly and Ben leave, having returned to their own time. There is tears and sadness, but they leave.
The TARDIS has gone missing, though, so the Doctor and Jaimie have to find it.
Tags: doctorwho