Image © Colin Bertram, 1993

The Faceless Ones was edited by Nicholas Williams of Banbury, Oxfordshire, in association with the DWAS Local Group that he founded in or soon after February 1994. Its establishment was quickly followed up with the publication of The Faceless Ones Issue 1, an Eighties Special that appears not to have been advertised in any of the usual places. This oversight was corrected for the second issue, which was marketed in the July/August 1994 double issue of Celestial Toyroom. The Faceless Ones is thought to be the last Doctor Who tapezine launched - but it hardly covered itself in glory...

No recordings of The Faceless Ones Issue 1 have come to light and, hence, its contents remain mysterious. However, the second issue does survive, and sadly is highly contentious. Aside from spoken announcements by Nicholas Williams, almost all content is taken from issues 6, 19 and 20 of the West Kent Local Group’s The Master Tape - without permission being sought or given - even down to the TV trailer soundtracks that pepper the tape. This wholesale theft didn’t stop there as the cover of The Faceless Ones Issue 2 and its accompanying advertisement in CT included artwork of Jon Pertwee (shown above) which was in actuality Colin Bertram’s cover illustration for The Master Tape Issue 19. Notably, the editor of The Faceless Ones did not credit any of his contributors. We wonder why...

It seems highly likely that Issue 1 was also made up of features taken from The Master Tape, quite possibly from issues 11, 20 or 21 which all had a notable Eighties flavour.

Attempts to locate the editor Nicholas Williams have to date proved fruitless. He was last seen running away from a rampaging mob of members of the West Kent Local Group brandishing flaming torches and copies of The Master Tape.

What do you say about a tapezine that - from surviving materials at least - was compiled almost exclusively from the work of other people; people who were oblivious to the fact that this was happening at all?

Aside from Nicholas Williams’ somewhat plodding announcements to introduce each side and the features on the tape, the content was not his work or indeed property, so the whole endeavour leaves the listener asking “Why???” What was the point in stealing the work of others, not crediting them, and then paying for advertising in Celestial Toyroom? After all, it’s not as if Williams was going to make a financial killing from marketing a tapezine, and if he was trying to make a name for himself in Doctor Who fandom, then it would follow that he would write and present features that presented his own opinions and research? Was his Banbury Doctor Who Local Group so sparsely populated that he felt it a good idea to snaffle the work of another that was thriving?

Williams obviously considered The Master Tape to be of a sufficient high standard that he wanted to steal it and present its content as his own. Master Tape contributors Stephen Broome, Simon Green, Edward Jolly and Robin Prichard can take some comfort knowing that their work was good enough to inspire another fan use it to fill his tapezine. As Oscar Wilde famously almost said, “Passing Master Tape articles off as your own is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness.”

As the last Doctor Who tapezine to launch, The Faceless Ones - or The Nameless Ones as it might be better named for not crediting its unwitting sources - chose to end the era of tapezines in controversy rather than glory. A forgettable, ill-thought out venture that missed the whole point of producing content for fellow fans.

Alan Hayes