THE MOVIE

Doctor Who - The Talons of Weng-Chiang features a six part story from the television series. It was first screened in England on BBC1 between February 26 and April 2, 1977. In this adventure, Doctor Who is played by Tom Baker (the fourth Doctor) and he is accompanied by my favourite sidekick, Leela (Louise Jameson). Here’s a brief episode guide.

Episode 1
The setting for this adventure is Victorian England. The first episode introduces us to Li H’Sen Chang (John Bennett), a ventriloquist and master of magic and mesmerism who is amazing audiences with his supernatural skills. He is performing with his sidekick Mr Sin (Deep Roy) at a theatre owned by Henry Gordon Jago (Christopher Benjamin). This particular night, Chang is harassed by cab driver asking about his wife Emma, the eighth woman to go missing in recent times. The cab driver is later found murdered, with some large rat hairs on his body.

Meanwhile, the TARDIS has rematerialised in a dark alley. The Doctor and Leela interrupt a Chinese gang attacking an Englishman. Thankfully some policemen quickly arrive on the scene and escort the Doctor and Leela to the police station. One of their would be Chinese attackers is arrested but he winds up dead before any information can be gleaned. The Doctor and Leela go to the mortuary where they meet Professor Litefoot (Trevor Baxter).

Episode 2
Believing a rat caused the mutilation of the cab driver, the Doctor and Leela investigate the sewers where they find a huge rat, which is ten feet long from whiskers to tail. Meanwhile, we discover that Li H’Sen Chang is just a pawn and that his master, Weng-Chiang (Michael Spence), is dying and desperately requires a machine called a time cabinet. Professor Litefoot reveals that the actual cause of death of the cab driver was a stab wound, potentially inflicted by a midget. The Doctor goes to the theatre and discovers that Mr Jago has recently been hypnotised. He learns that Emma Buller was part of a disappearing act the night before. He suspects Chang is possibly involved in the murders.

Episode 3
The Doctor returns to the Professor’s house. Leela is cornered by Mr Sin but she manages to escape through a window and she chases after Weng-Chiang’s carriage. The Doctor asks the Professor what they could have possibly been looking for. He suggests they were perhaps after his Chinese puzzle box, which is in fact the time cabinet Weng-Chiang requires. Although first he must find two new donors. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Professor embark on a very dangerous mission back into the sewer, and Leela has found Weng-Chiang’s secret dungeon under the theatre. She manages to escape his clutches, but what about his rat…

Episode 4
The Doctor manages to rescue Leela from the giant rat just in the nick of time. Leela tells the Doctor about the distillation machine she found in Weng-Chiang’s dungeon under the theatre. It apparently sucks the life out of its victims. The Doctor takes another look at the Professor’s Chinese puzzle box, he surmises that the only way it can be opened is with a key of the correct molecular combination. Leela dresses up and she and the Doctor go to the theatre to see Li H’Sen Chang perform.

Episode 5
Weng-Chiang now has the time cabinet. The Doctor returns to Professor Litefoot’s house and things start to add up. He realises why Mr Sin wasn’t involved in the theatre performance earlier in the evening and this is how Weng-Chiang broke into the Professor’s locked house. The time cabinet won’t be much use though without a key, which the Doctor has just found. Presuming that Weng-Chiang will return for the key, Leela and the Doctor set about laying a trap for him.

Episode 6
The tables quickly turn and it looks as though the good Doctor is outnumbered by Weng-Chiang’s henchmen. Mr Sin has Leela at knifepoint. However, the Doctor has a bargaining chip - the time key. He negotiates the safe return of Leela. The Doctor learns soon learns that Weng-Chiang is actually Magnus Greel, a war criminal from the future who has managed to travel back through time and is simply posing as the ancient Chinese God Weng-Chiang.

THE TRANSFER

Video:

Doctor Who - The Talons of Weng-Chiang is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 full frame. The transfer is reasonably good although there is quite a deal of background noise to be seen in the dimly lit alleyways and sewers. Conversely, the scenes that take place in the theatre, even though they are also quite dark, look really quite crisp. Presumably the filmmakers had more control over light during these scenes.

I couldn’t spot any film grain or MPEG artefacts in this transfer. Although, there were a number of incidences of highlight overload. These were most apparent during the explosions in episode 2 and again in episode 6. Colours are surprisingly bright and some of the frocks worn by the ladies in this episode look great. This is a dual layer disc although the layer change was not evident.

Audio:

This latest Doctor Who DVD comes with two Dolby Digital 2.0 channel soundtracks, one features production audio and the other features a commentary track (see below for more information). Once again, dialogue is clearly audible throughout all six episodes and there were no noticeable audio synch problems. Composer Dudley Simpson provides the incidental music for these six episodes, and interestingly he even makes an appearance in Episode 1 and 4, he plays a music conductor at Mr Jago’s theatre.

THE EXTRAS

DISC 1
Production Subtitles
This feature, referred to as ‘Information Text’, can be activated in the Special Features section on Disc 1 and it can also be enabled on the fly by selecting subtitle option number three. Theses on-screen production notes provide lots of information about the actors and locations used, the scenes that didn’t make it and the different props used. The on-screen production notes also point which scenes were influenced by Sherlock Holmes, The Phantom of the Opera, etc.

Audio Commentary
The audio commentary features actors Louise Jameson, John Bennett and Christopher Benjamin along with director David Maloney (who also worked on Blake’s 7) and producer Philip Hinchcliffe, although in most episodes, only three of the above people can be heard. The line up changes from one episode to the next. Generally, it is most interesting when director David Maloney and producer Philip Hinchcliffe are present. All six can be heard in both Episode 5 and 6.

DISC 2
Whose Doctor Who
This is a BBC2 documentary from 1977, which is presented by Melvyn Bragg. It includes footage from a number of different Doctor Who adventures along with interviews with Doctor Who fans and people involved in the television series. The featurette also includes behind the scenes footage from The Talons of Weng-Chiang were you get to see the actors rehearsing, sound designers manufacturing sound effects in the BBC’s radiophonic workshop, set designers creating props and special effects supervisors testing explosives. The featurette is presented in 1.33:1 full frame and running time is close to 1 hour.

Behind the Scenes
This is black and white behind the scenes footage shot during the filming of Doctor Who - The Talons of Weng-Chiang. Visual quality is rather poor but this is still quit an interesting feature. It is presented in 1.33:1 full frame and it runs for 24 minutes.

Blue Peter Theatre
Apparently ‘Blue Peter’ was a long running children’s programme on the BBC. In a number of excerpts from their regular programme, they show kids how to make a Doctor Who model theatre out of a large cardboard box. Not only that, they also show how to make backdrops, scenery and monsters. Sound designer Dick Mills even pops by to show kids how they can make some Doctor Who sound effects with household items. This featurette is also presented in 1.33:1 full frame. Running time is 25 minutes.

Phillip Hinchcliffe Interview
This is an interview with Doctor Who producer Phillip Hinchcliffe, which was shown on the programme ‘Pebble Mill at One’. The interviewer is David Seymour. Much of the discussion centres around the concerns of many viewers that some Doctor Who episodes are overly violent. Running time is 11 minutes.

Trails and Continuity
These are essentially some television commercials that were shown on BBC advertising the latest Doctor Who adventure, ‘The Talons of Weng-Chiang’ and the ‘Whose Doctor Who’ documentary. Running time 2.28 minutes.

TARDIS-Cam No. 6
What we have here is the last TARDIS-cam feature from BBCi. It is basically a computer generated TARDIS flying through space. This feature is presented in 1.85:1 widescreen (16:9 enhanced) with Dolby Digital 2.0 channel sound. Running time is 1.44 minutes.

Photo Gallery
And last but not least, this DVD features an animated photo gallery, which contains a number photographs (mainly production stills) taken during filming of Doctor Who - The Talons of Weng-Chiang. Running time is 3.24 minutes.

SUMMARY

The fourth doctor, Tom Baker, returns in a gripping thriller set in Victorian England. Women are mysteriously disappearing and Doctor Who believes a magician and ventriloquist by the name of Li H’Sen Chang is somehow involved. To make matters worse, there is a giant rat running around the sewers of England. This latest Doctor Who DVD comes with quite a good visual and audio transfer along with a bonus disc of extra features.