#the talons of weng-chiang

[doctorwhogirlie]

Doctor Who - The Talons of Weng-Chiang

[nkp1981]

BTS of "The Talons of Weng-Chiang", 1976

[sarahwatchesthings]

If you're going to skip one story arc in all of classic Doctor Who, make it this one.

[dalesramblingsblog]

The BBC Books line gives us our first newcomer to the world of Doctor Who as we take a look at horror novelist Mark Morris' homage to the Hinchcliffe years. That's right, it's time for The Bodysnatchers.

(Also, the subtitle for this one was a toss-up between "The Stingers of Weng-Chiang" and "The Suckers of Weng-Chiang." The latter may be marginally more anatomically correct, but fortunately for you all I do have some standards.)

[achromaticbox]

the talons of weng-chiang sucks ass actually

[shadowwingtronix]

The Lost Locations Of Weng-Chiang (Doctor Who)

BW Media Spotlight is under the weather, but here's a fun look for The Lost Locations Of Weng-Chiang (Doctor Who)

I should really watch the classic era Doctor Who episode “The Talons Of Weng-Chiang” some time, possibly while Tubi has it up if I can’t afford the DVD. Despite cultural depictions of Chinese people that were out of date when the show aired (which is a plot point for the tale as it puts the Fourth Doctor and Leela in Victorian England), it’s surprisingly important to the show. It has the Doctor…

[rawwkfingers]

The Talons of Weng-Chiang

I knew going into this that this is pretty much universally agreed to be the most racist story in all of Doctor Who's history, but I truly did not expect it to be as bad as it was

The horrifically bad attempt at yellowface that felt more like it was meant to demonize Chinese people than convince you the actor was Chinese. The portrayal of all the Chinese characters as either mystical savages, opium addicts, or both. The CONSTANT slurs.

This was the most racist thing I have seen in a long, long time. Possibly ever. I feel dirty after watching it and I don't think you can even say "in its time this was acceptable" because no other serial in the show was anywhere near this bad.

The other reputation this serial has is that it's one of the best serials of Classic Who and while I can not get past the disgust it fills me with, I hate to admit I can see why. If you removed the racism from this story, it would have been really good

Which makes it worse tbh, because the racist elements had literally zero impact on the plot. Make Chang a poor Londoner who believes Greel will give him power and you have the exact same story.

It also does Leela quite dirty imo. We finally got her out of her pulp novel leathers but there's been a consistent trend since she was introduced of Doctor tells Leela to stay put, she disobeys him, gets in danger because she disobeyed him and he has to save her, repeat

I thiiiiink they're trying to be feminist with it? There's a lot of lines in this serial where a Victorian man will make a comment to her and she'll look at him like "what are you on about" and the Doctor will back her up. I think they're trying to show that Leela is independent in her actions, but they also feel required to have the Doctor save her so it's a gross cycle

All in all, this serial makes me think less of Classic Who as a whole tbh. It's truly disgusting and just about everyone involved is complicit in that. I'd really liked Holmes's work before this, and while I wasn't a huge fan of Tom Baker considering the things he's said about women in the past this made me like him even less. I don't know if she's commented on this serial, but Louise is the only one who I'd be willing to give some leeway considering that she was brand new to the show, and this is such a huge career opportunity for young actresses I would not be surprised if she felt she couldn't say anything without losing her job

The whole season is hard to rank, other than Talons there weren't any obvious failures but there weren't any truly great serials either

The Hand of Fear. Sarah Jane's departure, on top of great performance by Tom Baker and a beautiful departure scene. I think I like this one more than I realized on reflection

The Face of Evil. This season has a lot of bad names doesn't it. Regardless, I really liked our introduction to Leela and I loved the scifi elements of the story a lot. The show is great when it explores silly time travel conundrums

The Deadly Assassin. The actual plot of this serial is good and the general idea of "finally we learn more about the Time Lords" is thrilling but I did not like the execution

The Masque of Mandragora. The storytelling was fine, but the historical inaccuracies just really got to me with this one :(

The Robots of Death. I want to like this one more than I do unfortunately. It felt a little cookie-cutter and the ideas it put forth were never explored well

The Talons of Weng-Chiang. Just, what a miserable experience

[reachingforthevoid]

Doctor Who: The Talons of Weng-Chiang

I rewatched this serial on 15 March 2023, which was first broadcast around this time in 1977. 

We begin in a Victorian music hall where Li H’sen Chang and Mr Sin, apparently a ventriloquist’s doll, come off stage from their act when they’re challenged by a cabbie looking for his wife. Mr Sin kills him. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Leela arrive, both wearing Victorian attire to blend in. They are set upon by a Chinese gang, and get wrapped up in a serial murder investigation. It’s not long before they discover other weird goings-on.

The tone of this serial is akin to the Sherlock Holmes stories, mixed with a bit of Jack the Ripper lore, far future stuff, hypnotism, holograms in the basement, giant animals, and more than a dash of racism. I won’t go into details about that but do be warned if you’ve not seen this one before. It’s aggravating because it didn’t need to be there (no, not “of it’s time”) and if excised then this serial would be one of Doctor Who’s greatest stories. Greel is an interesting character beyond the obvious — and it’s great how Leela sees right through him — and Mr Sin is a wonderful monster. In terms of support characters, Litefoot and Jago are fabulous.

And this six-parter brings us to the end of Doctor Who’s fourteenth season.

[drwhotht]

Invasion of The Invasion

Invasion of The Invasion

Amongst the catching up that The Tour is trying to make good on was this year’s Top Three Tournament over at Gallifrey Base.  For the uninitated it takes all of the TV stories from Hartnell up to the ‘present’ day, mixes them into groups of 6 or 7, and then lets voters advance their 3 favorite stories from each group.  As rounds advance and stories are eliminated, we eventually get down to the…

[cleowho]

“But when aiming for the heart...”

The Talons of Weng-Chiang - season 14 - 1977

[doctorwhogirlie]

Reblog/Like if The Talons of Weng-Chiang is your favourite story

[doorstovenus]

he’s just sooooo silly

[billpottsismygf]

Big Finish didn't lie, those old men can yaoi

Bonus:

[txttletale]

why is spyfall part 2 on your list but not part 1? is there a substantial difference between the two?

(frankly i barely remember those episodes beyond the fact the master was in them and there was something about an aeroplane.)

part 1 is genuinely promising! it ends with a fun reveal (if questionably handled), the setup of 'doctor who is doing a spy thriller pastiche' is a fun high concept idea, it made it look like season 12 might have been worth watching. then part 2 torpedos all hope anyone may have had instantly

[doctorhomo]

watching the talons of weng chiang and Oh Dear

[lasttree-garsennon]

"he is a man of a thousand faces" Henry Gordon Jago you have no idea how right you are