Rate a Story: 'The Talons of Weng-Chiang'

[The Thinker]

I personally think that the lowest score that this story should get from anyone is 4 Stars. I give it 5 Stars. This story ranks no. 2 on my personal Doctor Who Story seed table and on my personal Tom Baker story seed table. This has to be one of the best Doctor Who stories ever made, outshined only by 'Genesis of the Daleks' in my opinion. This story has to outrank not only many of the classic stories but all the new ones too. Your call.

[Dominic Smith]

5/5 one of my all time favourite stories. So well written and told on screen, the only let down is the rather naff giant rat. I nearly gave it a four because of that but to be honest it never truly detracts from the entire story for me when i watch it, just like the giant polystyrene clam in 'Genesis of the Daleks'. This has to be one of the few six part episodes I can sit through all in one go and not feel bored in the slightest.

[The Thinker]

Hmm, got quite a high score. I hope no one gives it less than a 4/5 rating (Hmm, saying that I bet someone is going to vote less than that just to be awkward!).

[davisonera]

Fantastic in every sense of the word.

[The Thinker]

I wonder where Robert Holmes got all his ideas from? I'd ask him myself but he's sort of dead right know so it's going to be difficult. HA HA! ;D

[magnusgreel]

johnlumicdavros said:

I wonder where Robert Holmes got all his ideas from? I'd ask him myself but he's sort of dead right know so it's going to be difficult. HA HA! ;D

Yep, he gets deader by the minute. He's almost beyond hope at this point.

I'd like for someone to do his biography, maybe Chris Boucher, since he's the closest thing we have to Holmes, and he knew and probably understood him.

[Massimo]

I watched the DVD yesterday. Costume drama is not my kind of stuff and Victorian era is not my favourite historical period, besides I prefer Leela in her usual outfit ;D but the story is really good with some great characters so I give it 4/5.
About the giant rat, I remember seeing an interview where a special effects artist who worked for the DW classic series commented the working conditions: "Narrow budget, narrow time". In the Talons DVD extras it's said that the budget during those years was about £ 20.000 for each episode so they did what they could with what they had which is not exactly what they can afford for the new series so every time I watch a classic story I keep that in mind!

[The Thinker]

For a Doctor Who TV story to be considered a classic, it has to have at least ONE naff effect coupled with good writing and direction. Note, sometimes a story is so bad, it's good. For 'Talons' it was a bloke in an unconvincing rat suit.

[The Thinker]

So, after three years of producing Top Notch Doctor Who stories, Phillip Hinchliffe ends his reign on a high with this. Agree?

[matthewsee]

Recently saw The Face of Fu Manchu (1965) after I read from the Talons of Weng-Chiang DVD info text that the former movie was an influence on the latter Doctor Who story.
The info text stated that the movie had a pathologist named Dr Petrie and Professor Litefoot in the Doctor Who story is also a pathologist.
The funny thing about this is that Dr Petrie was played by Howard Marion-Crawford and a decade earlier he had played Dr Watson in the 1950s Sherlock Holmes TV series.
It looks like there were more similarities between Dr Petrie and Professor Litefoot than was expected as the latter character had been like Watson to the Doctor's Sherlock Holmes in the said Doctor Who story.

[matthewsee]

In the DVD info text on Part 4 on the Special Edition DVD included in Revisitations 1, it included a profile on Christopher Benjamin (Jago) and it listed some of his previous work.

However one work it neglected to mention was his guest appearances in The Avengers episode How To Succeed...at Murder as that featured a villain dummy just Mr Sin in The Talons of Weng-Chiang.

[matthewsee]

Included in The Talons of Weng-Chiang Special Edition DVD from the Revisitations 1 set is The Last Hurrah which is a retrospective on making the story.

Here designer Roger Murray-Leach says that while filming for this story that took place in Victorian London, that they, the production team encounter a problem with an anachronistic Porsche, in that they could find the owner to have it removed.

The solution was then to cover the Porsche with a tarpaulin and placed on top of that with horse manure for a scene of the story.

Murray-Leach says here to producer Philip Hinchcliffe that residents living in this area said they could not wait to show the Porsche owner photographs of the Porsche being covered with manure.

This was somewhat different to what Murray-Leach said in an earlier interview on the Ark In Space DVD in which he says that he did not know whether the Porsche owner ever knew that the Porsche was covered with manure.

Also in The Last Hurrah, it had Hinchliffe talking with Tom Baker at the latter's home and at alternate times there was picture of Tom as the Fourth Doctor and Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor.

What does Troughton have to do with The Talons of Weng-Chiang and why was it shown at Tom's home?

[matthewsee]

In Doctor Who: The Talons of Weng-Chiang Special Edition DVD is the Special Feature Victoriana and Chinoiserie in which producer Philip Hinchcliffe and University of Westminster lecturer Dr Anne Witchard talked about literary influences of the story.
During an interview with Dr Witchard it intercut with the scene when Chang approached Teresa (Judith Lloyd) in Part 3.
The funny thing about this is that Witchard and Lloyd kind of look alike.
In addition to this I checked Lloyd on IMDb and found she has three credits including Talons of Weng-Chiang and she seems to have disappeared not long after doing Talons of Weng-Chiang.
While on the subject of Witchard she said a couple of things that made me think of Karen Gillan. Witchard said about women on bikes and Leela presented like Eliza Doolittle from Pygmalion.
Karen was riding a bike in the Happy Idiot video and played the Eliza Doolittle-based Eliza Dooley in Selfie.

[johnnybear]

Even my Mother liked this one and she hates Doctor Who! This was Robert Holmes last masterpiece of a story sadly! Sun Makers wasn't that good, Ribos was pants and Kroll was okay! Androzani was average and a mish mash of all his stories and Two Doctors and Mysterious Planet didn't fit in with the Colin Baker era!
JB