Plot
The TARDIS arrives on Earth in 1966 – on a runway at Gatwick airport. Polly witnesses a murder in a nearby hangar and is then kidnapped by the perpetrator, Spencer of Chameleon Tours. Subsequently Ben also vanishes. The Doctor and Jamie are left to try to convince the sceptical airport Commandant that there has been foul play.
It transpires that a great many other young people have also vanished, all of them while on Chameleon Tours holidays. With the help of Samantha Briggs, the sister of one of the missing youths, the Doctor and Jamie uncover a plot by the alien Chameleons to kidnap human youngsters in order to take their identities – for the Chameleons have lost their own in an accident on their home planet.
The Doctor offers to help the Chameleons find another solution to their problem and the kidnapped humans are released.
Cast & Crew
Cast
The Doctor – Patrick Troughton
Ben Jackson – Michael Craze
Jamie – Frazer Hines
Polly – Anneke Wills
Ann Davidson – Gilly Fraser
Announcer – Brigit Paul
Blade – Donald Pickering
Commandant – Colin Gordon
Crossland – Bernard Kay
Heslington – Barry Wilsher
Inspector Gascoigne – Peter Whitaker
Jean Rock – Wanda Ventham
Jenkins – Christopher Tranchell
Meadows – George Selway
Nurse Pinto – Madalena Nicol
Policeman – James Appleby
R.A.F. Pilot – Michael Ladkin
Samantha Briggs – Pauline Collins
Spencer – Victor Windind
Supt. Reynolds – Leonard Trolley
Crew
Director – Gerry Mill
Assistant Floor Manager – Sue Marlborough
Associate Producer – Peter Bryant for the first three episodes only
Costumes – Daphne Dare
Costumes – Sandra Reid
Designer – Geoffrey Kirkland
Film Cameraman – Tony Imi
Film Editor – Chris Hayden
Incidental Music – stock
Make-Up – Gillian James
Producer – Innes Lloyd
Production Assistant – Richard Brooks
Special Sounds – Brian Hodgson
Story Editor – Gerry Davis
Studio Lighting – Howard King
Studio Sound – Gordon Mackie
Title Music – Ron Grainer and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, arranged by Delia Derbyshire
Writer – David Ellis
Writer – Malcolm Hulke
First Transmitted
1 – 08/04/1967 17:50
2 – 15/04/1967 17:50
3 – 22/04/1967 17:50
4 – 29/04/1967 17:50
5 – 06/05/1967 17:50
6 – 13/05/1967 17:50
Episodes 2, 4, 5 & 6 are missing from the BBC Archives.