Li H'sen Chang
Li H'sen Chang (stage name "the Celestial Chang") did the bidding of Magnus Greel, a 51st century war criminal escaped to the 19th century.
Profile
Originally, Chang was but a Chinese peasant farmer who discovered Greel, who had escaped to this time period in a time cabinet. Believing Greel to be the god Weng-Chiang, Chang hid him from Imperial troops, and later became the leader of the Tong of the Black Scorpion, a cult devoted to doing Greel's bidding.
Greel granted Chang mental powers "undreamed of in this century" by Greel, amongst them mesmerism read minds and the power tolevitate others. He used these abilities to perform at the Palace Theatre at Limehouse in London as a "master of magic and mesmerism" as a cover while he helped search for Greel's time cabinet and procure young women to replenish Greel's bodily degeneration which the passage through time had caused him. Later, on the behalf of Greel, he tried to kill the Doctor, both directly and through the Tong, once he began to investigate.
After his master angrily dismissed him for his failures, Li H'sen Chang threw himself to the giant rats living in London sewers (their size increased by Greel) as a self-imposed penalty for his repeated failures to serve Greel.
The rats savaged him and tore off a leg, but Chang survived. As he smoked opium to dull the pain, he explained how he had met Greel to the Doctor before dying of his wounds (DW: The Talons of Weng-Chiang).
Behind the Scenes
- A white actor, John Bennet, portrayed Li H'Sen Chang, using makeup and an accent, a practice more acceptable at the time of The Talons of Weng-Chiang's production than at present.
- The story's writer Robert Holmes favoured breaking six episode Doctor Who serial into a four episode story followed by a two episode story (or vica versa). In the case of The Talons of Weng-Chiang, the first four episodes concentrate more on Li H'Sen Chang. Following Chang's death, the final two episodes of the serial center more on Greel himself and on his other henchman, Mr Sin.
