Doctor Who: The Talons of Weng-Chiang
(1975) (DVD)
— Dr. Who Story No. 091
Science Fiction Video
Written by Robert Holmes
Starring Tom Baker
ISBN: 0-7907-8094-1
Publisher: Warner Home Video / BBC Video, $34.98
The Talons of Weng-Chiang is one of the best Doctor Who stories from the Tom Baker years, being a large six-part adventure based in Victorian London. This story borrows from many sources, including Phantom of the Opera, Fu Manchu, Jack the Ripper, and Sherlock Holmes, and blends it all together with colorful characters.
The Doctor and Leela (Tom Baker and Louise Jameson) arrive in London where they get caught up in a magnificent thriller which revolves around an old East End theatre run by the self-centered, and somewhat cowardly, Henry Gordon Jago (Christopher Benjamin). Li H’sen Chang (John Bennett) plays a villainous theatre magician, who is behind more than meets the eye. Other villains within this story include Magnus Greel, a wanna be time traveler, and his Homonculous creature, along with various Chinese sidekicks.
The atmosphere of this show is wonderful, with all of the sets and actors just adding their best to the plot. This is one of the few Doctor Who stories where everything just fits together, with the only exception being a rather fluffy giant rat hanging out in the sewers. Overlooking this, and the fact that this was supposed to be a kid's show back then, you end up with an interesting tale set in Victorian times. The Doctor and Leela have their relationship taken to new levels as the Doctor tries to educate Leela more than usual. This makes for some fairly comical bits, which is one thing I’ve always liked about Doctor Who, as it doesn’t take itself too serious. Of course, it helps that they don’t go overboard with the humor, blending it in perfectly with the rather bizarre storyline involving a time-traveling war criminal who is trying to keep his life-force in check by devouring the life essences of young women captured from the surrounding areas. I won’t go into more, so as to not spoil the plot for those who may not have seen this particular Doctor Who show. Suffice it to say that it is one of the best in the show's history.
As for the DVD itself, or actually two, you have the main six episodes on disc one. The sound is crisp, but I’ll have to admit that the full-screen picture is somewhat variable. By this I mean that the video does get a bit grainy in parts, which I think comes from either poor encoding or just too much on one DVD. This is the only thing I really didn’t like about this story, as I think they should have spread the show across two DVDs to preserve a better video quality. As with past Doctor Who DVDs, you can also activate the splendid commentary by producer Phillip Hinchliffe, director David Maloney and actors Louise Jameson, John Bennett and Christopher Benjamin. They also have the information text option that I like so much, and the text on this DVD is a testament to this extra feature. It’s a much see for any Doctor Who fan!
There is a second DVD, but this is where all the "extras" are. We have "Whose Doctor Who," an hour-long documentary about Doctor Who. I found this a bit dry, but O.K. material. A Blue Peter special, from a kid's show, is a silly extra that shows kids how to make a Doctor Who cardboard theatre. There are some interesting black and white behind-the-scenes raw footage that shows how the "live" special effects were done in some scenes. Phillip Hinchcliffe, the producer of Doctor Who during 1975 has an old interview on this DVD, which is interesting, even though it is a bit dated. Other extras include Howard Da Silva intros, the usual boring photo gallery, another Tardis-Cam (computer generated Tardis floating in space), and continuity announcements. There is also a short series of Doctor Who clips set to music, which I found to be a delightful little music video in itself! In all, there are hours of extras on the second DVD in this set. Most of it is cool stuff, but some is just filler or plain boring.
For a fan of Doctor Who, or those who just love a good story, The Talons of Weng-Chiang is up there with the best of Doctor Who. The special effects aren’t SG-1, but then this is 1975, and for that time they did produce a good show here (except for that darn rat), with wonderful actors and a great setting.
(review (c) August 2004/David Flemming)