The Talons of Weng Chiang

The Doctor takes Leela to Victorian London to show her how her anscestors used to amuse themselves; in short, he is taking her to the theatre. Their arrival however, is marred by the presence of a sinsister illusionist, the great Li H'Sen Chang and his murederous dummy/cyborg Mr Sin. Chang and Sin are in league with a Chinese criminal organization known as the Tong of the Black Scorpion, the followers of which worship the god Weng-Chiang. With the help of the local theatre owner and an eminent pathologist the Doctor discovers that Weng-Chiang is in fact Magnus Greel, a war criminal who fled from justice in the far future using his zygma beam experiments which left him scarred and disfigured.

GAAAHHHHHH I say. That's a sound of pleasure. This has to be one of the best 6 part adventures ever, neither suffering from any slowing of pace nor from the dreaded 2 episode plot switch syndrome. Where does the credit lay? With absolutely everyone involved at every level - it's absolutely one of the best, most atmospheric tales ever made for the show. There's extensive location work down in a Victorian theatre and in the cobbled streets of old London, and even the sewer locations where giant rats run amok are convincing... except for that one bit, Jay will point out. And the giant rat that we see attacking the Doctor and Leela at the end of part 1 leaves a bit to be desired. But that's about where it ends for the bad stuff.

The Doctor looks every inch the Scotland Yard inspector that he is mistaken for by Henry Gordon Jago, the Palace Theatre proprietor, and Jago himself is a fantastic creation for the show, presented perfectly on page and on screen. At the opposite end of Jago's businessman character is Professor Litefoot, every inch a gentleman and only too flattered to have the Doctor allowing him to assist. Leela is a true fish out of water this time, unfamiliar as it is with most mod cons but absoultely perplexed by the trappings of Victorian society such as smoking pipes, table manners, and tea. Ah but she gets to fight some bad Chinese and she does it well.

Yes, the Chinese. As I have mentioned in past entries it's like Doctor Who has always had some kind of axe to grind with the Chinese, citing them as the chief reasons why there would be a third world war in several episodes in the Pertwee era, almost as often as they poked fun at civil servants. Here though we have a Chinese mob in black running through the streets of Victorian London dumping dead cabbies bodies into the sewers, throwing axes at people, and invading homes in the name of their god. But is it racist to go this far? The folks over at DWIN published a fascinating article on the racist perceptions around the adventure, documenting how the censors at TV Ontario in Canada felt that it would be disrespectful to the local Chinese communities and subsequently did not air the epsiodes. The first time I saw this one was on Buffalo's Channel 17 WNED, and they had no qualms. In 1990 when I was working on the zine Chameleon Circuit with the fan club I was part of I called national broadcaster YTV to ask them if they had any reservations about broadcasting the episodes and was answered with a puzzled "What...?"... which is either to say they had no idea what they were showing (which is likely considering their routine screwups when airing the episodes in order) or they didn't think it would be a problem (which was more linked to ignorance of the programme rather than actually watching it and making a decision). Still, I never heard any massive outcry on either of those occasions so it's probably more a case of TVO not wanting to risk it, being publically funded and all that. And when the adventure hit the DVD release schedule, there were no mobs of angry Chinese Canadians protesting outside Worlds Biggest Bookstore, or demanding a boycott of Amazon for selling it online. Personally I found the jabs made during the Pertwee era would be more offensive as they were set in present day, as opposed to a historical adventure which may have embellished a few concepts just for the sake of entertainment. When Jay and I watched it we were not left clutching the pearls and saying how politically incorrect it was for a Victorian police constable to refer to them as yellow and for Litefoot to say he was dealing with "a pair of inscrutable Chinks" in his morgue for the pure and simple reason that back then there was a lot of ignorance towards any race by white folks. It would be interesting to see a Doctor Who set in the deep south of the States during the days of slavery and see how that was handled and if the dreaded n-word would rear its head in the script.

So. Production wise it's a solid show. Script's fantastic, peppered with the wit that only script writer Robert Holmes could create and only Tom Baker could deliver. Characters great. And Mr Sin - creepy! Nothing says fun like being stalked by a killer midget. Especially if it's Deep Roy in there (who went on to be all the Oompa-Loompas in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory). "He scares me," Jay said, tucking his feet up on the couch. But funny thing he kept saying his name.. "Deep Roy .... Deep Roy..."

Wait a sec that sounds like a porn name for a famous bottom. But what do I know.

NEXT EPISODE : EYE OF HEAVEN