The Talons of Weng-Chiang (TV story)

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The Talons of Weng-Chiang
Doctor:	[[doctor::Fourth Doctor]]
Companion(s):	Leela
Main enemy:	Magnus Greel Li H'sen Chang Mr. Sin
Main setting:	London; circa 1889
Key crew
Writer:	Robert Holmes
Director:	David Maloney
Producer:	Philip Hinchcliffe
Release details
Release number:	91
Premiere broadcast:	26th February - 2nd April 1977
Format:	6 25-minute episodes
Production code:	4S

Cast

• Fourth Doctor: Tom Baker
• Leela: Louise Jameson
• Magnus Greel: Michael Spice
• Li H'sen Chang: John Bennett
• Mr. Sin: Deep Roy
• Henry Gordon Jago: Christopher Benjamin
• Professor Litefoot: Trevor Baxter
• Sergeant Kyle: David McKail

Story Notes

• Michael Spice also provided the voice of Morbius in the story The Brain of Morbius.

Cultural References

• Magnus Greel's deformed face, the mask he uses to hide it, and the climactic scene in which the mask is torn off to reveal his true face, are all strongly reminiscent of Gaston Leroux's novel The Phantom of the Opera.
• The Doctor wears a deerstalker hat, the characteristic headgear of Arthur Conan Doyle's detective Sherlock Holmes.
• The giant rat is reminiscent of animals grown to enormous size in the H.G. Wells novel Food of the Gods. It also may be another Holmes reference, since there is a famous reference to a never-told mystery involving "the giant rat of Sumatra, a story for which the world is not yet prepared."
• Li H'sen Chang is reminiscent of Fu Manchu, the villain of a series of novels by Sax Rohmer.

More Info

• Story Synopsis

• Story Transcript

• Story Novelization

• DVD Release

• Video Release

External Links