Season 14, Story 6/6, Serial 4S, 6 x 25 min episodes, 26th February to 2nd April 1977, Writer: Robert Holmes, Director: David Maloney, Producer: Phillip Hinchcliffe.
50dw50@50dw50 i wonder how many people who got the VHS expect a dragon monster in the story?
M@nterik@Manterik an ever greater sin, how many hoped it would be episodic!
Mark@MGW_007 ha, yes! Recent articles in DWM about the VHS and DVD releases was quite interesting.
To begin with...
Is The Talons of Weng-Chiang racist?
Short answer - Yes.
Longer answer - Yes. No "but"s. Context, however: It portrays a period reflection of racism, but in a way that unfortunately indulges and reinforces that racism.
Li H'Sen Chang is portrayed by John Bennett, a white actor in "Yellow Face". Most, if not all, of the principal stunt performers are the same, and there are no shades of character in any Chinese character bar Chang. For the most part Chinese = this story's monsters, in the same way that e.g. the Daleks or Cybermen are, every one of them i.e the entire race, evil.
We can potentially accept that every Chinese character in the story has followed Chang under the hypnotic influence of Greel, and that Greel has purposefully selected a criminal organization to work for him, but the script makes little to no effort to do anything other than to depict an entire race as evil.
Philip Hinchcliffe and others have previously contended that the only Asian actors with Equity cards at the time were either unavailable or not good actors, but this has been effectively debunked, no matter how genuine his belief that this was the case may have been.
Hinchcliffe will of course have taken the word of those responsible for casting, who will have unquestioningly sourced actors from agents putting forward their clients etc, and, with no conscious racism or racist intent, none of them will have examined this from within the system and society in which they lived. This does not excuse what ended up on screen, but it must be fair to assume a reasonable amount of good faith there.
No doubt Asian actors may well actually have had more difficulty earning their card, and would have faced challenges getting auditions and getting cast in the way that a white actor willing to "yellow up" would not have, and the deck was stacked against them at a societal level.
It's almost certainly the case that structural and institutional racism is more to blame than any one individual along that chain, regardless of any one individual's personal attitudes. Unquestionably these structural barriers and attitudes permeated British society in the mid to late 70s and to a (somewhat) lesser extent do now.
The general plot and script is in keeping with the 'Victoriana cliche' that the other characters throughout the story represent and does contain lines that satirize or at least highlight the racism, but it nevertheless has its cake and eats it on that front.
Is it "still okay" to enjoy The Talons of Weng Chiang, though?
It's been suggested that if you are willing to tolerate its racism in order to partake of its other qualities and aspects then this conscious tolerance is in itself tantamount to racism in and of itself.
It's also been suggested, however, that it's still possible to watch and enjoy in its context a piece of archival television that is the product of structural and overt racism, be appalled at the clear racism on show, and take the view that the intention to write and film an escapist adventure as a schlocky (or Sherlock-y) pastiche of Victoriana and (yes, racist) Fu Manchu books/films with an alien twist - just about - shows through.
It's uncomfortable; it's hardly possible to clothe yourself in the trappings of racist paraphernalia and claim that you're not being racist, and there's an incongruity between our perception of what Doctor Who - the show, and the character - is, and is supposed to be and represent and what it does in this story.
“Tom & Jerry” cartoons now carry a disclaimer that they "depict some ethnic and racial prejudices that were once commonplace in American society. Such depictions were wrong then and are wrong today. While not representing the Warner Bros. view of today's society, these shorts are being presented as they were originally created, because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming these prejudices never existed."
If the same might apply for Doctor Who and the Talons of Weng-Chiang, British society and the BBC, our story can begin...
Tim Gambrell@Mr_Brell This whole story just oozes atmosphere and charm! Scared the bejesus out of me as a 2 yr old. I have to question my parents decision to let me watch it that age..!
A Victorian music hall...
...where magician and supposed ventriloquist Li H'Sen Chang is coming off stage...
...to the praise of theatre owner and impressario Henry Gordon Jago.
Opulent production values, the hallmark of the Hinchcliffe era.
50dw50@50dw50 thats why poor Graham Williams was skint next season
MAW Holmes@MAW_H That, and the galloping inflation, of course.50dw50@50dw50 and Tom Baker's drinks bill.
Sadly, I think as bad as the inflation was, he didn't marshall the resources he had very well either.
Chris@KosmicKris I love that Hinchcliffe/Holmes is the gold standard that all Who is judgedM@nterik@Manterik Pertwee's first season is the very apex of the show for me. But Hinchcliffe/holmes were consistently magnificent.
Helps that there's so much in the BBC props and costume departments for them to throw this together easily of course.
M@nterik@Manterik Mr Sin is terrific
Jago is a fantastic character; a grotesque on Holmes' page brought to loveable life by Christopher Benjamin.
50dw50@50dw50 the perfect personification of charismatic characterisation!M@nterik@Manterik what on earth are the oopizooticks !!
Chang is suddenly accused of 'disappearing' the wife of a cab driver - she'd been his onstage assistant a few nights ago.
"Don't come the cod!" Holmes' employment of the vernacular is 2nd to none.
Chang cautions the cab driver to watch his step, and his dummy seems to nod.
M@nterik@Manterik wonderfully atmospheric scenes of London. 
Nearby, the TARDIS arrives.
Leela steps out, dressed in Victorian attire.
She's not altogether comfortable, but the Doctor has persuaded her to change from her usual outfit so as not to offend any locals.
Tom looks splendiferous in his Sherlock Holmes get up.
MAW Holmes@MAW_H Better, ironically, than he did in "Hound" [of the Baskervilles - the BBC production in which he actually played Sherlock Holmes!].
A shame that most of the time that cloak hides a wonderful variation of his usual outfit (minus scarf).
Jago's doorman, Casey, has heard things that go bump in the cellar. Jago promises to check it out after the show.
The cab driver who threatened Chang with the police finds himself in a pea souper without a crouton...
...and hearing the sounds of a struggle, Leela gets stuck in and encounters a gang of black-clothed Chinese men (in fact mostly the series regular - white - stunt performers in yellow face, somewhat mercifully harder to make out n these dimly lit streets) trying to dispose of the cab driver's corpse down a sewer.
Oh no! Nunchucks! Quick, Doctor, censor them! Those were the (VHS) days.
The time travellers are rescued by the arrival of the police, and Leela captures one of their attackers.
The Doctor offers his services to the "blue guards" as a consulting detective of sorts.
Chang's deft exploitation of the contemporary audience's attitudes almost rises above the trappings by showing him as more intelligent than the racists around him...
...but the lines are, as we've said, delivered by a white actor in yellow face, which rather torpedoes the effect.
Darth Marenghi@DarthMarenghi You can try to escape racist tropes and yet fall into others, I guess is the kindest reading of Talons. Although sticking a white actor in prosthetics to play a Chinese character is the definition of an unforced error. #TimeLockTheSeventies
Chris@KosmicKris it's a difficult issue. It makes uncomfortable viewing now... but the layers of writing and the message proclaim tolerance. 
Down at the police station, when the Doctor tells Sergeant they're "travellers" he puts them down as "no fixed abode" only to be told that the TARDIS is their abode, it just isn't fixed...
The Doctor is in no mood for all this. "Flat footed imbecile."
"What was that, sir?"
"Nothing complimentary."
Leela is even less patient. "I am a warrior of the Sevateem. I know the different sounds of death. Now put our prisoner to the torture!"
The Doctor tries to fix which dialect the prisoner might speak...
...and the Sergeant's racist assessment of the prisoner is thankfully cut short by a whistle from the river.
I love this old woman that finds the body.
"On my oath, you wouldn't want that served with onions. Never seen anything like it in all my puff. Oh, make an 'orse sick, that would!"
M@nterik@Manterik Love the old crone. She played a refined lady in waiting in upstairs downstairs too.
Chris@KosmicKris she was in the Blakes 7 where Travis and Blake copied off the Star Trek episode Arena!
Tim Gambrell@Mr_Brell At least Douglas Camfield made her keep her teeth in for Blake's 7! 
It was the actress's own idea to take them out for this - I think it really works for the part!
Chang arrives to translate for the prisoner.
We're treated to the Doctor's perplexed "are you Chinese?" that I mentioned earlier...
...which, to be fair, is set-up for Chang's deliciously piercing " I understand we all look the same." (Although again: yellow face).
When Chang sits down to speak to the prisoner, he in fact slips him scorpion venom.
He won't be doing any talking.
MAW Holmes@MAW_H I do wonder where villains get their underlings from... The long-term prospects are terrible.
The Doctor finds his first clue as to what's afoot about these parts...
...the dead man's tattoo marks him out as a member of a specific criminal gang - the Tong of the Black Scorpion.
Chang denies all knowledge of the Tong...
...but makes all haste to return to the theatre.
That is one gigantic cigar Jago has. Should last him till at least episode 3.
MAW Holmes@MAW_H Sometimes a cigar is just... Oh bejeezus!
Jago was right - there's blood on Mr. Sin's hands...
Casey worries that the missing girls may have fallen prey to the return of "Jolly Jack" - the Ripper!
The Doctor fills Leela in about the Tong: "Fanatical followers of an ancient Chinese god called Weng-Chiang."
"Magic!"
"Superstitious rubbish!"
Professor Litefoot! Another performance worth the price of entry in its own right, this time from Trevor Baxter.
Mark@MGW_007 he's brilliant, him and Jago should get a spin-off! ;-P
"Were you trying to attract my attention?" Tom gives it some cool.
The Tong member has met a thorny end thanks to Leela.
The Doctor declares a moratorium on any more Janus thorns.
They make for the sewers to track the cab driver's last journey.
Great sewer sets. Doctor Who always does great sewers.
MAW Holmes@MAW_H Finding it hard to do my usual quips and japes during this one... Just keep sitting back and enjoying it.
Yes, always the way - 'terrible' stories are always 'better' fodder for tweetalongs!
Yeah, okay, the giant rat. You know what, it's shot very darkly & quite close. Actually doesn't come off too badly here. It's the later cliffhanger where it attacks Leela where it really lets the side down.
Shrink Rapped Who @shrinkrappedwho That rat resembled some of my daughter's stuffed animals. Not the most frightening of Who monsters.
Andy Dwelly@adwelly As rats go, it was a more than averagely terrifying monster at the time.
The Doctor chucks his oil lamp at the rat so they can make their getaway.
The Doctor has sussed that the rat is a guard to prevent the police investigating the murders. "It's ten feet from whiskers to tail!"
Jago dismisses Casey's fears, but finds a monogrammed ladies' glove that rings a bell.
M@nterik@Manterik a ladies glove monogrammed EB, could it be Emma Buller ? Hmmmm
Sergeant Kyle doesn't have a plan of the sewers but he does have a message from Professor Litefoot - he wants to see the Doctor straight away.
Jago tries to sign Chang to a new contact, but the magician gives him the old glowy eyes...
...and tells him to forget all about Emma Buller.
He then slinks off to the theatre cellar and opens a secret trapdoor to an underground lair...
...where his master, "Weng-Chiang" awaits.
Great performance also from Michael Spice as Greel. Brilliant voice work, as it was with Morbius.
M@nterik@Manterik bloody love Magnus Greel's costume.
This stuff about Time Agents and the 51st century would be mined later by RTD & Steven Moffat... But I'd actually like to see them go further with it.
For instance, show us the post-Greel world of the 51st century. Make more of the time agency. Jack aside, we know little about the actual agency.
Jago's autopsy report is that the Tong members both died of different forms of poisoning and that the cab driver was indeed savaged by a rat.
Leela is quick to put him right on stabbing technique, though...
...and the Doctor paraphrases Wilde-ly.
Tom rips PC Quick for having a little tipple.
Knows his own tricks best.
Litefoot offers them supper, and a cab back to his lodgings. Aye, aye.
Leela seems to be descended from the original tribe of gum: "Why are you making fire in your mouth?"
Litefoot divulges that he was brought up in China, where his father was a Brigadier General, and later a palace attache.
The Doctor has second thoughts about supper and asks to be dropped off at the theatre.
Litefoot says the Doctor is "as sharp as a trout." Are trout particularly sharp? Never thought they were too clever myself.
The Doctor auditions for a slot on the Good Old Days.
MAW Holmes@MAW_H The spoons will be coming out next...
He finds that Jago has recently been under the influence (of hypnotism) and orders him to remember everything he forgot.
Weng-Chiang is on the hunt for a Time Cabinet. IKEA must be shut at this time of night, surely.
In the cellar, the Doctor & Jago encounter a giant money spider. "Don't kill it!"
Tom wiggling that spider prop always tickles me.
The set dressing in Litefoot's house is magnificent from floor to ceiling.
"Mrs Hudson always leaves me a cold collation!"
Considered the height of the Holmesian double-act, Jago & Litefoot don't even meet until part 5. Once they *do* meet, they gel instantly, and every scene is with each other, hence the success of the pairing.
Chris@KosmicKris it's a tribute to the casting, acting and writing that Jago & Lightfoot have become a wonderful Big Finish spin off!
Weng-Chiang has located his Time Cabinet. Hang about, isn't that Litefoot's gaff?
Leela sense danger outside. She's not wrong.
After a false alarm with a hologram...
...the Doctor goes for a behind-the-scenes tour at the Jago & Litefoot experience.
There he encounters Casey's "Phantom", who gives him the runaround.
The 4th Doctor almost falling to his death, there. What a way to go that would have been, eh?
The "phantom" goes back to his rats, and the Doctor rejoins Jago before deciding he does want supper after all.
Litefoot investigates, leaving Leela alone...
Sin's such a creepy little thing. He has that terrifying undead vibe. And oinks like a pig.
Even a knife to the neck can't stop the oinking terror.
Chang leaves Leela in Sin's capable trotters and prepares to take a shot at the Doctor.
It's always great when Tom whistles Colonel Bogey.
Great stunt work from Stuart Fell with Leela's dive out of the window.
Mark@MGW_007 brilliant, and with the darkness and the costume it's not obvious unlike some other stunts.
Their attack foiled, Chang & Sin retreat, but Leela hitches a ride on the back of their cab.
Litefoot recovers from his bump on the noggin...
...while the Doctor admires the cabinet his father brought back from China. Despite being advanced technology, it is from Earth.
Leela follows Chang to Weng-Chiang's underground lair.
Weng-Chiang is furious that his servant has failed to recover his Time Cabinet from Litefoot's house.
Is the "Time Cabinet" a TARDIS?
Mark@MGW_007 it's a cheap knock-off!
Eddie Weaving @eddweavo That would have been interesting to see.
Mark@MGW_007 in one way yes, but would it have been too predictable?
Possibly, yes, but I guess this version of the Master would have felt reasonably fresh & possibly actually unexpected.
Mark@MGW_007 true, looking at it with with hindsight is different I suppose.
Matthew Kilburn @Matthew_Kilburn Wouldn't this have been another interim version? He's clearly regenerating at the end of Assassin.
True, yes. If the regeneration had been taken as successful at that point he wouldn't need the 'top ups'.
The Doctor risks Mrs. Hudson's wrath by drawing a map of the Fleet on a tablecloth.
The Doctor admires the Professor's magnificent weapon.
Great location here as Leela stalks Chang.
Chang gets more than he bargained for though when Leela substitutes herself in.
"Explode? Unthinkable! It was made in Birmingham!"
"This one has muscles like a horse!"
Love the way Leela attacks Greel with a some silky underwotsits. Bit of a step down from Janus thorns, isn't it?
Having rescued her fellow abductee from Weng-Chiang's energy draining machine...
...Leela escapes into the sewer...
...so Weng-Chiang rings the dinner gong.
MAW Holmes@MAW_H "Frying tonight!!!!" (If Kenneth Williams had played Greel)
The Doctor hears the shrieks of the giant rat, but will he be in time to save Leela?
Casey sees off the bemused would-be victim, who points the finger at Chang. Jago is suitably nonplussed.
Uh-oh, it's the giant rat again...
Chang is dismissed, without notice, or any kind of disciplinary procedure. That's Victorian employment law for you.
The rat isn't lit so kindly this time & looks rather too like the cuddly man-in-a-rat-onesie it really is.
Tim Gambrell@Mr_Brell You reckon? I find that cliffhanger utterly disturbing. Leela screams in actual pain as it rips at her leg!
The Doctor, who never uses guns, uses a gun to shoot the giant rat. Dead.
Tim Gambrell@Mr_Brell And possibly Leela too - that's never really commented on, but the blast radius was surely enough to do for them both...
Have to assume she ducked under the water at the critical moment (and that it was deep enough), I suppose, but yes!
Mark@MGW_007 with Leela's wet Victorian Underwear competition I'm surprised this is only rated PG!
Jago repeats his "generous offer" but Chang finds it "merely reasonable".
Litefoot has picked out togs for Leela. Has Louise been spared her contacts in this scene?
"Quite apart from the rum things they wear, you have to be jolly careful it's in the right fashion."
Chang will be trying a new act without Mr. Sin, but he hopes it will go with a bang.
Greel's packing up to move. Fed up of the damp, probably. And the smell...
MAW Holmes@MAW_H Bloody London house prices...
"Doctor Who killed my pet rat and my magician servant is a bungler." #WhyWengChiangIsLeavingLondon
Chang tells Weng Chiang that he has the opportunity to kill the Doctor, but the "God" thinks it'll be vice versa.
"Do we need to give the responses?"
"There's no obligation."
"When the moment comes, Mister Jago...
"The Sheffield song thrush. Last time she was here, there were eggs all over the stage."
Chang's act begins. This is what they've been waiting for.
He's looking for a volunteer to help with a card trick. Guess Who?
The Doctor picks the Ace of Diamonds.
The line about shooting many peasants learning this trick is pure Bob Holmes, isn't it.
The Doctor joins Chang on stage, bringing his nerves of steel with him.
Meanwhile there's trouble at Litefoot's.
Great bit of comedy as the Doctor exits the back of the "Cabinet of Death".
With the Doctor gone, Chang's assistant draws the short straw.
When he descends through a trick door in the stage floor, he's confronted by Weng-Chiang.
The Doctor returns for the big reveal...
...which isn't exactly what Chang was expecting, to put it mildly.
As Chang flees into the cellar, the Doctor learns of how "Weng-Chiang" first arrived in this time...
...and how he has been searching for his captured Time Cabinet ever since.
MAW Holmes@MAW_H I love the poetry of the Weng-Chiang backstory... really breathes life into the whole thing.
When Jago arrives, demanding to be covered in creosote, Chang slips into the sewer.
Oh dear, Chang's rat food. The rat looks slightly dirtier here, and very much the better for it.
Never the sharpest tool in the box, Jago is astounded that Chang is involved with Weng-Chiang and the Tong of the Black Scorpion.
"Conducted tours, bob a nob. I'm on to a fortune here!"
Odd cliffhanger - Greel in the ascendancy with his successful antiquing, Mr. Sin howling at the moon.
The Doctor figures out that Mr. Sin arrived in the laundry basket.
Phew, Litefoot is okay!
The Doctor declares Weng-Chiang a "scientific ignoramus" for not understanding Zygma energy.
Weng-Chiang has relocated to an impressive hideout in the Laundry House...
Weng-Chiang is furious that the Tong forgot his handbag, and forces one to take the sting of the scorpion as cruel and unusual punishment.
Cruel and unusual is just the way Mr. Sin likes it.
The Doctor has identified Mr. Sin as the "Peking Homonculus", a murderous "toy" with a pig's brain.
Jago plans to bring in the Electric Light Orchestra.
He finds a mysterious bag - the one Weng Chiang is looking for! - and decides to take it to the Doctor.
Jago & Litefoot finally meet! Lovely moment, as Jago assumes Litefoot is the butler.
Litefoot is raring to go...
...but Jago is concerned about nocturnal vapours.
The Doctor does know a trick or two and gets the key out of the other side of the door to break into the laundry.
Warning: Opium den may contain scenes of drug abuse. The clue's in the name, really.
There they find Chang, whose leg is a "singular sight"...
Attacked by the rat, Chang came to his senses so decided to destroy Weng Chiang by smoking opium.
Yeah, that'll show him.
Chang warns them to "beware the eye of the dragon" and dies leaving a cryptic clue.
Weng Chiang can't believe his luck when Jago & Litefoot turn up, believing that they've come with his handbag.
Corks! Jago & Litefoot are taken by the Tong! "I'm a tiger when my dander's up!"
Weng Chiang doesn't believe Jago's protestations of ignorance...
...and orders the dynamic duo locked away.
The Doctor & Leela return to Litefoot's house, only to find the Professor & Jago have gone off investigating.
"Eureka is Greek for this bath is too hot." Better than the streaker gag.
The trionic lattice doesn't half look like a danish. Mmm, danish.
"It's time we did battle with this underground crab, Doctor!" *Leela sharpens knife*
J&L discover a dumbwaiter may be their salvation...
... and escape to the dragon's lair, where they're immediately recaptured. One of the most charming pieces of padding in the show's history, I reckon!
Back at the house, Leela draws her battle plans, convincing the Doctor that she'd have loved Agincourt...
Mark@MGW_007 that chloroform didn't seem very effective! I caught a slight whiff at Uni once and nearly passed out!
Leela removes Greel's mask and we see his mangled face! Phantom of the Opera style cliffhanger.
Yeah, I think the Deadly Assassin Master would've been a great twist there.
Great double-take from Tom as he brings the map in.
Always love a good pocket-emptying scene from Tom. Batmobile!
Weng-Chiang might be the god of abundance, but he's had enough of Jelly Babies.
"Oh, the time key. Now heavens to Betsy, where did I last see that?"
"Never trust a man with dirty fingernails." The Doctor negotiates for the release of Jago & Litefoot.
MAW Holmes@MAW_H The Manicure of Weng-Chiang.
A tiny little future echo of Dudley's City of Death riff there?
Jago admits that he isn't as brave as he pretends, but Litefoot has words of comfort. "When it comes to it, I don't suppose anybody is."
Back at the laundry the Doctor engages in both literal and figurative games of chess with Weng Chiang to discover his true identity.
"Weng-Chiang" is really war criminal Magnus Greel, the Butcher of Brisbane.
MAW Holmes@MAW_H ...and not the Grocer of Greenwich.
Mr. Sin pulls the trigger and the dragon's eyes strike the Doctor down, allowing Greel to take the key and open his time cabinet.
Simon Mallinson @Mallyman72 always wanted that laser eyed dragon
Litefoot seems only mildly surprised by the Doctor's double heartbeat.
"There's a one-eyed yellow idol to the north of Katmandu. There's a little marble cross below the town."
"Kipling?"
Leela attacks ("Die, Bent Face!") but is captured.
With no key to be had this time, the Doctor goes to escape plan B & constructs a makeshift gas bomb.
"Let the Talons of Weng-Chiang shred your fleeeeee-aaaaaaaa-eeeeesssssshhhhh!" Calm down, dear.
MAW Holmes@MAW_H Understated, Magnus, nicely understated...
The Doctor saves Leela with a handy axe-throw but has to take cover quickly as Sin fires the dragon's eye laser.
Mark@MGW_007 that laser is pretty rubbish, can't hit anyone!
MAW Holmes@MAW_H Bought it cheap from an ex-imperial stormtrooper...
Greel makes a rather disingenuous offer. "That's very magnanimous of you, Magnus!"
Sin seems beyond Greel's control now.
Jago distracts Sin's aim so Leela can dive for the gun, but her aim does more harm than good.
The Doctor warns Greel that activating the Zygma beam again will kill him and cause a huge implosion.
Greel falters and the Doctor shoves him in his own energy draining machine.
Mark@MGW_007 kind of love the way he chucks him into it then just turns around and walks off nonchalantly.
Greel crumples like dead leaves...
...but Sin leaps on the Doctor from above.
The Doctor's able to pull out his fuse, though...
...and stamps on the trionic lattice to end the experiment forever.
"It's the muffin man. Come on, I'll buy you some muffins!"
Professor Litefoot educates Leela about tea. "No, no, no. One lump for ladies."
The Doctor hasn't got time for tea and wishes Jago & Litefoot a fond farewell instead.
Litefoot goes all Victor Meldrew. "I don't believe it!"
Jago is more accepting. "Well, it's his personal transport. Look, Police."
"Good trick, eh? I venture the great Li H'sen Chang himself would have appreciated that..."
TTFN! K.
Coming Soon... Snakedance
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