Classic Who Review - The Talons of Weng-Chiang

In this time of me reviewing episodes of Doctor Who, I’d thought I’d take a look back at the classic era of Who, filled with cheesy costumes, laughable effects and “LORRD NIIIIIIIIIMMMOOOOOON!!!!” and review one of the more notable ones. What better way to start than with what is often considered Tom Baker’s best episode as the Doctor, The Talons of Weng-Chiang?

First, let me just say – this episode is really, really racist to Chinese people. It features whitewashing, Tong gangs, ridiculous stereotypes, opium and stuff that would get filmmakers today crucified. It’s honestly uncomfortable to watch at points, although it doesn’t detract enormously from the final product.

Yeah, this is a white guy in Breakfast at Tiffany's makeup. F*ckin' 70's, man.

The best episodes of Doctor Who aren’t your typical sci-fi, overblown adventure, but those which slip into other genres as well. That’s why episodes such as the very horror-centric Blink, the psychological Heaven Sent, or the wartime drama Empty Child are considered among the best episodes of the show, because they go beyond what a normal episode would expect. Similarly, The Talons of Weng-Chiang departs from sci-fi to go to Sherlock Holmes detective thriller, complete with Tom Baker in an awesome deerstalker cap, underworld bosses and the smog of Victorian London. It’s very distinct, and therefore very interesting from a purely superficial standpoint.

And for an episode of the Tom Baker era, the production values are great. It really feels like a grand Victorian-era London, full of smoke, stone and woodfire as well as surprisingly good costume and production design for such a low-budget show. The special effects are really, really bad in this episode (especially the damn giant rat), but that’s to be expected with older episodes of Doctor Who.

Regarding the mystery of the film, it goes in brilliantly unpredictable directions. Robert Holmes wrote a great thriller with a ton of both fun and intrigue, drawing us into the world and these characters with the energy of an amazing novel. The villain of Weng-Chiang is also written and performed excellently, his ability to frighten and manipulate contrasting his rage and lack of temper, and his servant Li Hsien-Chang is also creepy, skin-crawling and clever (if unfortunately a white guy in yellowface makeup).

Tom Baker is my second-favourite Doctor out of all the ones we’ve had until this point (including all the Doctors from The Curse of Fatal Death, the greatest film ever created for charity), and here he exemplifies everything I love about the character. He’s curious, with the adventurous heart of a schoolboy and the necessary kindness, but the ability to go dark and angry if necessary to defeat his foes.

Louise Jameson as Leela is also great, and I love the pompous, grumpy performance of the late Christopher Benjamin as Mr. Jago, the owner of a theatre which houses a murder. This movie was also among the first roles for Deep Roy, who would go on to appear in many huge movies such as Tim Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the 2nd Transformers, Return of the Jedi, the new Star Trek films and Mad Max among others. In this, he plays a sadistic puppet with a pig brain called Mr. Sin, and it’s creepy as hell.

Overall, aside from the racism, this is one of the strongest episodes of Doctor Who ever. I’m going to give it a 9/10.

What do you think of this episode? Leave your answers in the comments.