6 Episodes
Aired between 26th February 1977 and 2nd April 1977
Written by Robert Holmes
Produced by Phillip Hinchcliffe
Directed by David Maloney
Synopsis
The Doctor takes Leela to Victorian London, and is soon witness to a murder of a London "Cabby" by the Tong of the Black Scorpion, a Chinese cult that worships the god of abundance, Weng-Chiang.
The Doctor decides to help the local Police to solve the mystery, and soon finds out that local girls are going missing, and the disappearances all link back to the palace theatre, and a particular Chinese performer there called Li-H'sen-Chang.
Together with the local pathologist, Professor Litefoot, the Doctor and Leela begin putting the pieces in place.
It turns out that Chang is behind the missing people, he is working to help his master, Magnus Greel who needs the life essences of the girls to restore him to full health. It turns out that Greel is behind the myth of Weng-Chiang. He is really a scientist from the 51st Century who undertook many immoral experiments and was named the butcher of Brisbane. His regime was overthrown in his own time, and he was forced to use his experimental time machine that operated on Zigma beam energy. The trip messed his physiology up and he began to mutate without the transfer of human energy.
Using his first minion, the Peking Homonculus (a murderous android doll with the brain of a pig), he recruited Chang to his side, but lost his time cabinet.
Trapped in China, Greel searched for the cabinet for 20 years, finally finding it in the possession of Professor Litefoot who's parents had inherited it as a gift in Hong Kong.
As the story progresses, Mr Henry Gordon Jago, owner of the theatre, ends up working with Professor Litefoot, the Doctor and Leela in tracking down Greel and the Homonculus.
Greel manages to retrieve his time cabinet and tries to kill the heroes but eventually is forced to flee again into the machine. The Doctor warns him that the Zygma energy is unstable and will destroy the world if he tires to use it but he doesn't listen, so the Doctor is forced to shove him into the energy transfer machine which kills him.
Trivia
- Magnus Greel was going to be the Master, but Phillip Hinchcliffe changed it because he didn't want the same villain to pop up twice in a single series.
- You don't have to look too hard to see that this story is somewhat of a mash up between Sherlock Holmes, The Phantom of the Opera and Fu Manchu.
- One of the concepts for Leela coming to Victorian London was because the writers wanted to mimic an Eliza Doolittle character
- Some have speculated that because he knew he was going, Phillip Hinchcliffe approved huge overspends on this story, as he wouldn't have to deal with the consequences
- The relationship between Louise Jameson and Tom Baker wasn't great by this point. Graham Williams, in-coming Producer tried to persuade Jameson to stay on for Season 15, something that Hinchcliffe had promised Tom Baker wouldn't happen. Louise was reluctant to stay, not only because of Tom, but because of her contact lenses (they were very irritable for her). Graham Williams in the end convinced her to stay on the proviso that they did away with her contacts (see the next story for how they got around it).
- It's worth mentioning that there's a full series of Audio drama's featuring Jago and Litefoot as Victorian super-sleuth's: https://www.bigfinish.com/ranges/released/jago-litefoot
This is without a doubt one of the best Doctor Who stories ever devised. If you don't believe me, ask any fan. It's consistently amongst the higher echelons of fan polls and I can see why.
First, it's set firmly in the golden era of the show, with an average of 11 million viewers tuning in per episode, meaning a lot of people saw it and remember it. It's also written by Bob Holmes and is amongst one of his great pieces. Coupled with the fact that it was also produced by Phillip Hinchcliffe puts it square in the golden era, gothic horror section (albeit one of the final ones).
Thank god Hinchcliffe approved of going over budget because the sets are beautiful. They are dark and foggy and full of atmosphere.
The incidental music is fantastic and the characters are full of life. I mean, there's no wonder it's memorable when you've got Henry Gordon Jago and Litefoot in it. These are meant to be supporting, almost inconsequential characters! They are brilliant, as is Mr Sin, who is as menacing as the doll from Terror of the Autons.
Admittedly, the story loses points a bit for Li H'Sen Chang not being authentically Chinese, but there's nothing I find wrong with the actor's performance in particular other than an over the top accent.
So, the sets are great, costumes, music, characters, all great. What else? Tom Baker, that's what. His interactions are as good as they'll ever get on Doctor Who. His witty one liners, grumpy protests and down right eccentricity are all on top form. Not enough for you? How about Leela? Her character hasn't been really relevant since she first appeared. The Talons of Weng-Chiang allows her to be pro-active and true to herself. She's not sitting around and asking questions or passing screwdrivers about, she's diving through windows and stripping off!
I think what I like most about this story is that it feels right. What if I told you that the Doctor hadn't really visited Victorian London up to this point (except for Evil of the Daleks)? You would be forgiven for being fooled into thinking he had. The correlation between Sherlock and the Doctor is remarkable, and it just all falls into place in this story far more than say the Horror of Fang Rock, because it's the quintessential environment for a Holmes story to thrive. Robert Holmes clearly knew this, as can be seen from the Doctor and his Deer Stalker.
Although for me, there's little this story can do wrong, there are a few things of note. The first is the length of it. I would without a doubt place this as the best Doctor Who story ever if it was only four episodes. As with so many others, the additional fifty minutes of time seems to make the story drag a little too long and force characters to make puzzling decisions, such as Greel and his cult leaving the heroes alive, when they've happily killed everyone else.
The other thing is that this story does have a lot of coincidences in it. The fact that Litefoot has the time cabinet, the fact that Greel turns up in London at all. Thing is, if you're anything like me, those things just don't register. The atmosphere and tension feels enough to immerse me in the story, so I just don't notice it. Same with how the explanations for creating large rats in the sewers seem like convenience than anything else (oh, and they looked embarassingly crap).
This is Tom Baker's Doctor Who at its finest. No wonder they carried on the Victorian theme for the next story.
Rating
10 out of 10!
Without a doubt, this story falls within the top three best Doctor Who stories of all time
Rewatchability Factor
7 out of 10
Watch this if you liked...
- The Unquiet Dead (Doctor Who, Series 1)
- The New Doctor (Doctor Who, Christmas Special)
- The Crimson Horror (Doctor Who ,Series 7)
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