Day 229 — August 17th 2021
The Talons of Weng-Chiang Parts Three and Four
The Talons of Weng-Chiang — Part Three
I think I was being a bit too harsh on this story yesterday, and part of the reason for that is that I was thinking of it as something it wasn’t rather than focussing on something it was. What I mean is that I spent so much time thinking about how much I enjoyed the Jago & Litefoot audios that I’d failed to think of this as a Doctor Who story, but rather as an extended pilot for that series. The more I think about it, the more I realise that this would be quite atypical for the duo’s adventures based on their audio catalogue — those stories tend to be a little more fantastical, while this has the harder edge that I should have come to expect from a story in the Hinchcliffe era. Crucially, this story isn’t as much fun as the audio adventures.
But I can’t fault it for that, particularly, as my relationship to this tale has only been affected by the audios after the fact. It’s completely unfair for me to criticise this for not being the same tone as something completely different made three decades later.
So even though I praised Jago and Litefoot (and the performances of Christopher Benjamin and Trevor Baxter) under both the previous episodes, it’s perhaps interesting that this episode — which features them less than the opening two did — has been the one I’ve enjoyed the most. It’s given me more space to appreciate the lead characters in this series, rather than focussing on the Investigators of Infernal Incidents.
That I’ve been enjoying Doctor Who and Leela so much here is also quite telling — they spend most of the episode separated, coming together only for a brief exchange of words outside Litefoot’s house, and again in the final seconds of the cliffhanger. Sending them off on their own adventures helps to alleviate some of the trouble I had with their relationship in this story yesterday, although it does still feel oddly out of place when Doctor Who describes his companion as ‘that girl, Leela’.
It’s a very strong episode for her, though, and I think that’s also been responsible for adding to my enjoyment. Leela in her opening pair of stories was about as pro-active as any companion could be, and while she saved Doctor Who’s life in Part One, she’s felt oddly lacking in this story so far — relegated to the traditional role of asking questions. That’s certainly not the case here, though. Early on she launches herself through a window to escape Mr Sin, and then gives chase on foot when she sees the bad guys making her escape. Later on she’s happy to swap places with one of the girls Chang has stolen away from the streets, and doesn’t think twice about putting herself into danger. By the time she was clobbering Weng-Chiang to save another young woman I was thoroughly back on board with the character.
It also helps this episode that — in spite of my complaint above — this feels more filled with humour than either of the first two instalments (although I’ll accept that they both had their moments, and that I should have cited the scene where Litefoot joins Leela in eating the meat with his hands as being fab yesterday). I actually had to skip back in the episode at one point, because a line caught me off guard and made me laugh so much that I missed the next few exchanges;
Litefoot: ‘Well, there are some pretty valuable things here. That K’ang-hsi
vase, for instance. My family brought that back from Peking. Or that
Chinese puzzle box.’
Doctor Who: ‘Fused molecules!’
Litefoot: ‘No, no, no, no. Lacquered bronze.’
Reading it back here it doesn’t seem half as funny as it did in the moment, but that’s perhaps down to everything that the actors bring to the scene. I properly loved it. There’s other exchanges between the pair throughout the episode which are a lot of fun, and I think I’ve enjoyed Doctor Who being paired with Litefoot more than I did with Jago, although the latter seems the more obvious fit on the surface.
Watching this time around I’m reminded of something I thought the last time I watched — although I can’t remember if that was during my previous marathon or if I’ve seen this story since then. I think I’d have been a bit more interested if instead of Magnus Greel, the main villain were the Master. You’d barely have to change the dialogue in most instances, and there’s a fair few similarities between Greel’s plan here and the Master’s in The Deadly Assassin; they both boil down to wanting to extract life force from elsewhere to restore their decaying bodies.
I think it would have helped both stories in my estimations if they’d been meshed together — the Master stalking the streets of Victorian London desperate to extend his life, and using hypnotism to lure his victims into the sewers. You can even make the giant rats and spiders fit in with his MO, I reckon; if his Tissue Compression Eliminator can make things shrink, then there’s no reason it can’t do the reverse. I think I’ve always struggled to get a handle on who Magnus Greel is, and substituting him for a more familiar foe would give me something to latch onto.
(I’m nipping back here, having just edited this post, to note why I’ve always found it confusing, and it’s been clear to me from the way that I’d originally typed this up. There’s too many names being thrown around here. There’s Chang, who’s been the more ‘visible’ villain for the story up to now, then there’s Mr Sin who helps do the dirty work, and they both work for Magnus Greel, who also goes by the name of Weng-Chiang… well, you can see where I get myself confused trying to keep it all straight in my head!)
Just before I wrap this one up, I can’t mention the giant rats without actually talking about the one we see on screen. It’s often held up as the singular ‘bad’ thing in this story, and an example of how something brilliant can be let down by a single dodgy effect, but I don’t think it looks that bad at all! It helps that the sequences with the rat are shot in almost total blackness (David Maloney definitely knew what he was doing!) so I think you get away with it just fine. And as always, it’s worth remembering that while I’m watching this with a restored picture on a big flat screen telly, that’s not the format it was intended for, or the way the audience would have watched it at the time.
A 7/10 for this one.
The Talons of Weng-Chiang — Part Four
I honestly can’t figure this story out. Having felt far more charitable towards ti with Part Three I’ve sat through this one with very little to say — indeed, I’ve not made any notes for this episode, and I can’t remember the last time that was the case.
There’s lots in here to like, but it’s mostly things that I’ve already noted. While Part Three sidelined Jago and gave Litefoot lots to do, this episode goes for the opposite approach, leaving Litefoot at home while Jago gets to take the lion’s share. As I noted yesterday he’s already very much the character that he’ll go on to be in the audio series, so that’s always good for a laugh, but I’ve very little other comment to pass on the subject.
And then there’s Tom Baker, who as usual is on fine form here. He gets to showcase a few sides of his character in this one, making you genuinely laugh when he sneaks off half way through Chang’s act and being cool as ice while bringing a deck of cards closer to his face during a dangerous stunt.
But in spite of all the things to enjoy, I can’t say the episode as a whole has done very much for me and I’m honestly saddened by that. I think I’m going with a 5/10 here.
The discussion of racism in this story needs to be brought up somewhere, and this episode is as good a place as any, given the presence of an uncomfortable joke from Chang when Doctor Who slips out of the sword cabinet;
Chang: ‘The bird has flown. One of us is yellow.’
The Talons of Weng-Chiang has been something of a contentious topic in recent years, with some people arguing that it’s racist and others arguing against it. I’ve broadly avoided the debate because I don’t have enough understanding of the issues to offer any kind of valuable input, but I think it’s fair to say that there are moments in here which would be considered unacceptable in 2021. Early in this episode Leela describes Chang as ‘the yellow one’, and then there’s the fact that Chang himself is played by caucasian actor John Bennett.
I think to argue that this story doesn’t contain racist elements would be foolhardy, but while you might argue that the things which are unacceptable now were also unacceptable then, it’s the truth that people overlooked far more then — for better or worse.
