The Talons of Weng-Chiang Part Four

The one where the Doctor becomes a magician's assistant...

While I'm not offended by the use of "yellowface" in this story (my views on this were set out in part one), I do think there's a fine line being crossed in the writing at times. There are lots of racist references to Chinese people in Robert Holmes's script, but many of them can be excused as being representative of how people would have spoken in the late 19th century (rightly or wrongly). I don't mind a script pursuing verisimilitude by being brave enough to reflect the racism which was rife at the time, but sometimes I question Holmes's choice.

For instance, when Leela refers to Chang as "the yellow one" at the start of this episode, it doesn't quite ring true, because a) Leela is not from this culture so wouldn't harbour racist views, and b) Chinese people aren't yellow, so she couldn't have picked it up just by looking at them. It's also inappropriate for the Doctor to refer to Chang's "epicanthic eyebrows", an observation that a benevolent alien would not make unless he was prejudiced in some way (which I'm sure the Doctor isn't). It's actually just Robert Holmes trying to be clever with his alliterative dialogue, but in truth it feels unnecessary.

The Doctor manages to save Leela from the giant rat using the Chinese fouling piece, but hark! There's another one! It's unexplained why the Doctor bothers to go all the way into the sewers to hunt down just one giant rat, and then gives up when it's obvious there's more. They flee back to Litefoot's house, where the professor goes to the trouble of buying Leela some new "togs", which is very sweet of him (I love the fact he tries hard to buy fashionable togs for her!). When Leela emerges dressed in her new frock, the wind is taken out of both men's sails as they admire the transformation. Tom Baker looks particularly charmed!

The Doctor and Leela take a trip to the Palace Theatre and take their seats in the royal box to watch the evening's performance of variety acts, starting with Lottie Randall, the Sheffield Songbird, who croons Daisy Bell, a music hall song written in 1892, helping to date this story a little further (the edition of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine Litefoot reads is also from 1892). Much to the Doctor's amusement, Henry Gordon Jago crawls into the box to liaise with the Scotland Yard man he believes he's working with to solve the case of the missing girls! When the Doctor informs Jago that there aren't police officers scattered throughout the audience, and that he's relying upon Jago when the big moment comes, the theatre manager hilariously mutters: "Oh corks!"

Down beneath the theatre, having fired Li H'sen Chang, Weng-Chiang is busy clearing out his lair to move on to the next place, but still manages to find time to throw a spanner in the works of Chang's act up on stage. Sadly, this leads to the demise of poor Casey, a character that you can't help but love thanks to his amusing little double act with Jago, and an endearing performance from Chris Gannon (who sadly died in 1983, aged just 51). It's actually really cruel that Weng-Chiang kills Casey, there's no need at all, he just does it to mess up Chang's trick. Poor Casey actually dies from fright, and his body is shoved into the Cabinet of Death in order to bring Chang's act to a tragic close.

The whole section of this episode set at the theatre is wonderful to watch, and very entertaining, but is nothing more than padding. We spend a good amount of time watching Lottie sing Daisy Bell, and Chang make things disappear and explode, before the Cabinet of Death comes out, but the whole routine is unnecessary and proves that even the finest six-parter has its lulls.

Nevertheless, it's all presented so well, with director David Maloney employing real-life singer and dancer Penny Lister to play Lottie, and the routine involving the Doctor and the playing cards is suitably tense, especially when the Doctor moves the pack of cards closer to his face just before Chang fires his gun. But the fact is, Chang is only doing all this in order to try and kill the Doctor and pay tribute to Weng-Chiang, who he hopes will forgive him. But in truth, Weng-Chiang doesn't give a hoot about Chang any more, and is moving on out...

We do get a bit of background about the meeting of Li H'sen and Weng-Chiang. The former was a peasant who looked after the burned and weakened Weng-Chiang when he appeared in a blaze of fire in his time cabinet. Weng-Chiang's arrival took place sometime between 1861-1875, as Chang mentions Emperor Tongzhi's soldiers searching for the time traveller, and stealing away his time cabinet. The cabinet was then given to Litefoot's mother by the emperor sometime before 1873, the year the Litefoots returned to London from Peking. And Weng-Chiang has been searching for his cabinet ever since, for at least 20 years...

Rejected by his godly master, Chang escapes from the Doctor into the sewers, an inadvisable move seeing as there's a giant flesh-eating rodent wandering around there. And sure enough, the celestial Chang is captured by the rat, and we see his lifeless body being savaged by the fluffy fiend. "You'll have to book yourself a new act for tomorrow," quips the Doctor to Jago.

The episode ends with Weng-Chiang finally managing to recapture his beloved time cabinet after Mr Sin (given a night off from Chang's magic act) climbs out of his hiding place in the laundry basket and renders Litefoot unconscious (again), before letting the coolies in to steal the cabinet away. Weng-Chiang's maniacal laughter, and Mr Sin's deranged howl, as the horse and carriage charge away with the cabinet strapped to the back is a joyously unsettling last scene as the title music floods in. Weng-Chiang was better off without Li H'sen after all, it seems. Also, Mr Sin would appear to have a soft spot for Professor Litefoot, who he has failed to kill on two separate occasions now!

First broadcast: March 19th, 1977

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: The final shot of Weng-Chiang and Mr Sin revelling in their glory.
The Bad: The whole stage show routine is superfluous padding.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★☆☆

"Would you like a jelly baby?" tally: 07

NEXT TIME: Part Five...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Part One; Part Two; Part Three; Part Five; Part Six

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site: https://doctorwhocastandcrew.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-talons-of-weng-chiang.html

The Talons of Weng-Chiang is available on BBC DVD. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Talons-Weng-Chiang-Special/dp/B009BOSEEA