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The story involves the fourth Doctor (the inimitable Tom Baker) and his current companion Leela (played by Louise Jameson ~ famous for being in such programmes as Eastenders, Bergerac and Tenko) battling against someone or something horrible lurking in the sewers.
Tom Baker puts in ... Read review
The Talons of Weng-Chiangis one of the very bestDoctor Whostories, a six-part adventure ... more
set in a Gothic Victorian London inspired byThe Phantom of the Operaand Sax Rohmer's tales of Fu Manchu, with nods towards Jack the Ripper, Dracula and Sherlock Hol...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
The Talons of Weng-Chiangis one of the very bestDoctor Whostories, a six-part adventure ... more
set in a Gothic Victorian London inspired byThe Phantom of the Operaand Sax Rohmer's tales of Fu Manchu, with nods towards Jack the Ripper, Dracula and Sherlock Hol...
Postage & Packaging: free Super Saver Delivery Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
THE TALONS OF WENG-CHIANGWomen of Victorian London fall prey to an unknown menace, while ... more
monstrous terrors lurk in the sewers under the city. Chinese gangs scurry in the dank fog, and a sinister stage magician seeks to serve his mysterious master. The ...
In this feature-length adventure set deep in the darkest heart of Victorian London the ... more
Doctor and Leela are confronted by a series of bizarre and horrific events. An innocent cabbie is viciously slain by the agents of a secret Chinese cult; young wom...
Postage & Packaging: £0.00 Availability: 3-5 working days
Production Year: 2007 - Science Fiction - Director: Francis Lawrence - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Alice Braga, Charlie Tahan, Dash Mihok, Will Smith, Salli Richardson, Willow Smith
Advantages: An excellent atmospheric adventure. Lots of special features and good sound and picture quality. Disadvantages: Some weaker links and not as good quality as some Dr who releases.
...The story involves the fourth Doctor (the inimitable Tom Baker) and his current companion Leela (played by Louise Jameson ~ famous for being in such programmes as Eastenders, Bergerac and Tenko) battling against someone or something horrible lurking in the sewers.
Tom Baker puts in a wonderful performance with shades of Sherlock Holmes and Louise Jameson plays the “savage” in a style not unlike Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady (she ... ...it.
@@@WHOSE DOCTOR WHO@@@
I really enjoyed this interesting documentary that was originally shown on BBC2 the day after the last episode of Talons was shown back in 1977. It was part of the Lively Arts series and was presented by Melvyn Bragg.
I found this particularly informative because it goes through both the history of the show and also how it was seen to be affecting families in the 1970s. The ... more
I’ve been very lax recently in reviewing the Dr Who DVDs, so I thought it was time to remedy the situation and review a Tom Baker classic ~ The Talons of Weng-Chiang. Our copy came courtesy of Blackstar for £17.99 (we either pre-order from there or get them from play.com) and I was really looking forward to watching this one when it arrived in a little padded envelope.
We had just been to a Dr Who convention in Northampton which involved going to the little Victorian theatre that featured in this story, so not only was I going to re-live a great story, I was also going to see somewhere I KNEW. Before I go into detail about the quality and the special features on this DVD release it’s necessary to give you a plot outline…if you don’t want to know what happens, skip the next three paragraphs and rejoin later!
~~~THE PLOT.
Talons (as this story will now be known; for brevity’s sake) is a six part adventure set in the foggy streets of Victorian London. It is apparently loosely based on The Phantom of the Opera, Fu Manchu, Jack the Ripper, Sherlock Holmes and even Dracula.
The story involves the fourth Doctor (the inimitable Tom Baker) and his current companion Leela (played by Louise Jameson ~ famous for being in such programmes as Eastenders, Bergerac and Tenko) battling against someone or something horrible lurking in the sewers.
Tom Baker puts in a wonderful performance with shades of Sherlock Holmes and Louise Jameson plays the “savage” in a style not unlike Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady (she swaps her regular “dad pleaser” skin outfit for Victorian dress and is taught that killing people is most unseemly for a young lady!). It’s a classic melodrama of a story with creepy misty streets, Gothic sewers and the flamboyancy of the Victorian Music Hall.
The characters are strong ~ the Watson to Tom’s Holmes is Professor Lightfoot (a pathologist), the villain of the piece is Li H’sen Chang (an oriental magician) and the wonderfully cowardly Henry Gordon Jago (the self-important and thoroughly out of his depth Music Hall owner).
There’s plenty of murder, comedy and tragedy lurking in this one ~ you’ll find giant rats, a murderous ventriloquist's doll (Mr Sin), a time travelling criminal driven mad by thoughts of revenge (Magnus Greel) and the mysterious disappearances of young women who have been hypnotized by Li H’sen Chang in his theatre act. Talons is Dr Who at its best ~ it’s dark, dramatic and very atmospheric.
Talons was originally broadcast on TV from 26th February to the 2nd April 1977. The DVD release date was 28th April 2003 and it is a two disc set.
~~~THE DVD.
***Disc One.
The first disc has the actual adventure on it. The only special features are the commentary and the On Screen Production notes, along with the interactive menu.
@@@COMMENTARY@@@
On this story the commentary is provided by David Maloney, Louise Jameson, John Bennett and Christopher Benjamin. I’m never really too bothered by the commentaries but I do try to have a listen. This one is a little difficult to follow because the group don’t all comment on all of the episodes. It’s a case of having to guess who has been paired up with whom! They all appear for the last episode, but the whole feel of the commentary is a bit disjointed I’m afraid. They all have something interesting to say and some amusing anecdotes to impart, but it doesn’t gel together for me.
@@@ON SCREEN NOTES@@@
I really enjoy reading these useful facts about location, the actors and production details about the story. The only is that the notes now seem to steering more towards just saying what was in the original script and what dialogue the actors were going to say. This begins to get a bit distracting at times and isn’t what I really wanted to know ~ I’m much more interested in finding out where things were filmed and trivia. I hope that future releases will see a turning away from the current trend for script deviation notes!
***Disc Two.
Disc number two has the remainder of the special features on it.
@@@WHOSE DOCTOR WHO@@@
I really enjoyed this interesting documentary that was originally shown on BBC2 the day after the last episode of Talons was shown back in 1977. It was part of the Lively Arts series and was presented by Melvyn Bragg.
I found this particularly informative because it goes through both the history of the show and also how it was seen to be affecting families in the 1970s. The behind the scenes stuff is great, as are the “typical” seventies families ~ it’s worth watching for the fashions and some of the people interviewed alone!
@@@BLUE PETER THEATRE@@@
This is fascinating! John Noakes, Peter Purves (a former character in Dr Who) and Leslie Judd build a miniature theatre, scenery and characters to put on a show inspired by Talons and Dr Who in general. I really liked the sound effects section where the presenters learn how to make “realistic” sounds using slime, bubble wrap, etc.
Another noteworthy part of this special feature shows Blue Peter being filmed on the Dr Who set when there is a strike at the BBC! A good chance to see behind the scenes of another Dr Who story ~ The Robot.
@@@UNSEEN FOOTAGE@@@
This was quite entertaining to begin with but got a bit tedious after a while. Included are around 25 minutes of extremely poor quality black and white footage from the studio recording of Talons. It’s good to see some scenes and dialogue in a way that I hadn’t seen before, but after 25 minutes I was a bit bored.
@@@INTERVIEW WITH PHILIP HINCHCLIFFE@@@
This is a bit of a continuation of the themes of the impact of television violence as discussed in the Lively Arts documentary. It features a 1977 Pebble Mill interview with Philip Hinchcliffe filmed just after he finished working on Dr Who. I enjoyed this because, at around 11 minutes long, it isn’t too long and gives Philips interesting views on the programme. A good feature!
@@@TRAILERS@@@
I love wallowing in nostalgia, so I always enjoy the contemporary continuity announcements and trailers for the show. The ones that appear here are for Talons and for the Who’s Dr Who documentary, so you get a little shot of what the BBC produced in the seventies ~ I love the spinning globe that used to appear on the continuity and the extremely posh announcers!
@@@TARDIS CAM NO 6@@@
I was never too sure about what this whole TARDIScam thing was all about. It features unusual artwork of the TARDIS in strange locations ~ they are in conjunction with the BBC website and are often very well produced, but I still don’t look at them more than once. It says on the DVD box that this is the final installment, so maybe everyone else has got a little bored of them too!
@@@PHOTO GALLERY@@@
This is another pretty standard addition to Dr Who DVDs at the moment. Although I find some of the unpublished and rare photos fascinating I still find that it is something I will look at infrequently. My hubby and I flick through the pictures and quickly get fed up! That said, there are some pretty good photos of the cast in this selection so I am quite glad I persevered and looked through them all.
@@@EASTER EGGS@@@
When these little bonus extras first started to appear on the discs I was told (erroneously) that I could only watch them on my computer. Now I know that I can get them by pressing sequences of buttons on my DVD remote control I rather enjoy trying to find them. Alun has cheated, surfed the net to find out what they are and where and how to find them ~ can’t fault him though, because some of them are a little tricky.
As far as I know there is just one Easter Egg extra on Talons, but you never know if someone has missed one! I think that the Easter Eggs are a nice extra and add to the feeling of interactivity on the discs.
~~~FINAL THOUGHTS.
Talons is a great DVD let down by a couple of annoying extras! I love the story and enjoyed the majority of the special features, so I can excuse a couple of weak links for the sake of the whole viewing experience. The sound and picture quality is a little less crisp than on some of the previous releases, but they are still a whole lot better than when it was previously released on video….and the quality will last longer than my extremely stretched and over-watched cassette!
I would thoroughly recommend that anyone thinking of adding this to their DVD collection should certainly do so. As well as being a cracking story it has a good and varied selection of special features. If you already have it on video it’s still worth getting, not only for the quality but also for the documentaries and other extras. Thoroughly recommended!
~~~TECHNICAL INFO.
• Region 2 encoding (Europe, Middle East & Japan only) • PAL, Box set • Number of discs: 2 • ASIN: B00008N704 • Catalogue Number: BBCDVD1152
Advantages: Sublime slice of Who Disadvantages: The expected wobbly effects and fluffy rodent
...to see an episode of Doctor Who, then it's going to be some complete shoddy arse like 'Death to the Daleks' or 'Nightmare of Eden'. Convince someone that the show is worth a watch and you can bet your bottom dollar that they'll catch a repeat of 'Time and the Rani' on UK Gold.
They won't, in true Sods Law fashion catch any one of the 6 episodes that make up Robert Holmes' 1977 treat 'The Talons of Weng Chiang'. The last show to be broadcast in the ... ...The story sets the Doctor and jungle 'savage' companion Leela in darkest and foggiest Victorian London. As you would rightly expect things are far from normal, and London is plagued by a villain who is snatching young girls from its streets. Investigations lead the Doctor and Leela to the Palace Theatre where shadowy Chinese magician Li H'sen Chang is practising his skills with sinister effects. Teaming up with pathologist Professor Litefoot, and ...
dadmancat 27.05.2003
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Doctor Who - The Talons Of Weng Chiang (DVD)
Advantages: Tom Baker as The Doctor Disadvantages: None
...The plot has The Doctor and Leela appearing in London in 1888 and getting involved in the investigation of the murder of a cabby and the disappearance of some girls. This leads to giant rats, and a time-travelling war criminal, in a way which would only seem right in Doctor Who!
One of my favourite aspects of this story is gothic nature of the story, which is clearly inspired by the stories of Fu Manchu by Sax Rohmer. This story is one of those ... ...series. It is available from Amazon UK for less than £9.
--------------------------------------------- ---
DOCTOR WHO - THE TALONS OF WENG-CHIANG (1977)
Starring Tom Baker as The Doctor, Louise Jameson as Leela
Written by Robert Holmes and Robert Banks Stewart
Produced by Philip Hinchcliffe
Directed by David Maloney
------------------------------------------ ------ ...
phurren2006 17.03.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Doctor Who - The Talons Of Weng Chiang (DVD)
...in 18th Century London, the Doctor and Leela arrive with the purpose of showing where her ancestors came from, but soon catch a group of Chinese men killing a cab driver. All but one escape and he is taken to a Police Station with the Doctor and Leela. At the station, Li H'sen Chang a stage magician acting at the nearby theatre, is called upon to act as an interpreter, but he gives the prisoner a suicide phial, containing scorpion venom.
A Professor ... ...murders taking place.
The Doctor finds Chang's secret lair underneath the theatre, but Chang escapes and is attacked by the giant rats put there as security guards. The Doctor and Leela trace Chang to an opium den, where he is badly hurt. He tells the Doctor, Greel is at the House of Dragons, but dies before he can reveal further information.
The Doctor with Leela in tow, go back to the Professor'. He and Leela are captured by Greel, with Leela ...
MEISTER123 13.09.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Doctor Who - The Talons Of Weng Chiang (DVD)
Advantages: A classic Doctor Who story Disadvantages: Not a lot. The giant rat in the sewers looks unconvincing by todays standards.
...of the golden age of Doctor Who,
and is the swansong for producer Phillip Hinchliffe; and a brilliant story he finishes with too.
From the experienced and proffessional writer Robert Holmes comes a story mixing lots of ideas (Jack the ripper, the Phantom of the Opera,
Sherlock Holmes) to great effect. It involves the chinese God Weng Chiang who is hiding out in Victorian London and getting his chinese
magician to kidnap women of the streets.
... ...much of the story.
Period Doctor Who has always had some great design work which the audience can relate to, and the sets in this story are marvellous. The location work in back alleys gives it a gothic feel which is very realistic.
All this is brought to the screen by director David Maloney who, as with "Genesis of the Daleks", brings atmosphere to the story and makes the whole thing work very effectively.
This is the pinacle of Doctor Who greatness, ...
daz524361 18.10.2007
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Doctor Who - The Talons Of Weng Chiang (DVD)
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Quick review of Doctor Who - The Talons Of Weng Chiang (DVD)
Time-traveling Dr Who and his female companion end in Victorian London where the misty streets and local Music Hall are terrorized by the murderer seemingly channeling Jack the Ripper and vampire! Atmosphere is wonderful, special effects - cute toy "rat"! - endearing and anti-Chinese slurs surprisingly (?) virulent for 1977 British TV, despite sympathetically dignified prerformance by John Bennett under the eye-skewing make-up and non-Chinese, Nazi Doctor-like main baddie. Unashamedly low-budget and fun Gothic melodrama. Extras include the commentary by some of the actors and the director, interesting and informative on-screen notes, 1970´s Dr Who documentary, TV interview (also from 1977) with the producer, Dr Who-themed episode of chidren´s show Blue Peter Theatre, unseen (and poor quality) footage, photo gallery and trailers. ...
scarletpurity 03.05.2009
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Doctor Who - The Talons Of Weng Chiang (DVD)
Commentary By Louise Jameson Philip Hinchcliffe David Maloney John Bennett And Christopher Benjamin, Documentary Whose Doctor Who, Blue Peter Theatre, Behind The Scenes Footage, Philip Hinchcliffe Interview From 1977 Edition Of Pebble Mill, Trailers And Continuity Announcements, Photo Gallery, Production Subtitles, TARDIS Cam No 6
Aspect Ratio
4:3
Sound
Dolby Digital Mono
Dubbing Sound
Dolby Digital Mono English
DVD Description
This feature-length adventure, set deep in the heart of Victorian London, sees the good Doctor in deadly combat with giant creatures from the sewers, the deformed and dangerous Magnus Greel, and a bizarre Chinese illusionist...
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