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jeriendhalI think my son is a confirmed Whovian. Primarily because he views Doctor Who the same way I used to do when it appeared on PBS in the 70's, watching carefully around the corner near the living room, so he can run off when things get too scary.
"Talons" is one of the most celebrated Doctor serials, and with good reason. It appeared during the height of Tom Baker's run as the Doctor, and proved to be one of the rare six-parter serials that didn't get flabby in the middle. The mystery an action keeps rolling along, helped by an excellent supporting cast of characters, lovely period locations, and Robert Holmes' cracking script.
"Talons of Weng-Chiang" is Doctor Who crossed with Victorian Melodrama, with a bit of Sherlock Holmes thrown in for good measure. Young women are dissapearing in the Limehouse district of Victorian London. A cab driver accuses Lee H'sien, a Chinese magician working in a theater hall, of having something to do with the dissapearance of his wife, but Lee professes to know nothing. The ventriloquist's dummy he uses in his act however, seems to have a bad habit of not washing his hands of bloodstains....
This isn't the Victorian London of history. It's the London of Sherlock Holmes, of Charles Dickens, populated by inscrutable Chinamen, over the top theater promoters, deadly Tong gangs, and smoky opium dens. It's an absolute grab bag of cliches, what with Lee looking Fu-Manchu, his master doing a turn as the Phantom of the Opera, and the Doctor himself running about in a deerstalker cap. In a nod to Arthur Conan Doyle's stories, the medical examiner the Doctor hooks up with has a housekeeper (never seen) named Mrs. Hudson, and the famed Giant Rat of Sumatra plays a key role in the proceedings. By all rights the serial ought to have been an unholy mess, by the sicerity of the cast and crew, and the sheer atmosphere of the thing makes it rise above the cliches, and turn in a wonderful stew of action and drama.
Parts of the serial don't hold up nessasarily well some thirty years after filming though. The actor playing Lee Hsien is obviously an Occidental sporting more makeup than David Carradine, and the sheer un-PC nature of the thing (Chinese characters are all either villians or lackeys, and frequently referred to by Westerners as "Chinks", "Wogs", and other unpleasant terms without reprimand by the Doctor) that the script would be unfilmable today. And the Giant Rat looks entirely too cute and fluffy (even if it does want to gnaw Leela's leg off) .But if you can swallow that and just watch it for the story, it's certainly worth your time.
DVD Details: This is a two DVD set, with six 24-minute serial episodes on Disk 1, featuring commentary by several of the actors(including Louise Jameson, but not Tom Baker unfortuantely), a running production notes feature, and English subtitles. Disk 2 has something of a grab bag of features, including an interview with producer Peter Hinchcliffe, an episode of The Lively Art examining viewer reactions called "Whose Doctor Who", an episode of Blue Peter filmed about the time of "Talons" with the hosts on the set of Doctor Who (though oddly, they're in the Doctor's old UNIT lab), and a "40th Anneversary Celebration" consisting of a music video of some series highlights and a lot Doctors making grimacing faces. There's also the usual photo gallery, and cast biographies of all the major actors in the serial. Cost was US$34.95 at Borders, though no doubt it can be found for cheaper in other locales.
"Talons" is one of the most celebrated Doctor serials, and with good reason. It appeared during the height of Tom Baker's run as the Doctor, and proved to be one of the rare six-parter serials that didn't get flabby in the middle. The mystery an action keeps rolling along, helped by an excellent supporting cast of characters, lovely period locations, and Robert Holmes' cracking script.
"Talons of Weng-Chiang" is Doctor Who crossed with Victorian Melodrama, with a bit of Sherlock Holmes thrown in for good measure. Young women are dissapearing in the Limehouse district of Victorian London. A cab driver accuses Lee H'sien, a Chinese magician working in a theater hall, of having something to do with the dissapearance of his wife, but Lee professes to know nothing. The ventriloquist's dummy he uses in his act however, seems to have a bad habit of not washing his hands of bloodstains....
This isn't the Victorian London of history. It's the London of Sherlock Holmes, of Charles Dickens, populated by inscrutable Chinamen, over the top theater promoters, deadly Tong gangs, and smoky opium dens. It's an absolute grab bag of cliches, what with Lee looking Fu-Manchu, his master doing a turn as the Phantom of the Opera, and the Doctor himself running about in a deerstalker cap. In a nod to Arthur Conan Doyle's stories, the medical examiner the Doctor hooks up with has a housekeeper (never seen) named Mrs. Hudson, and the famed Giant Rat of Sumatra plays a key role in the proceedings. By all rights the serial ought to have been an unholy mess, by the sicerity of the cast and crew, and the sheer atmosphere of the thing makes it rise above the cliches, and turn in a wonderful stew of action and drama.
Parts of the serial don't hold up nessasarily well some thirty years after filming though. The actor playing Lee Hsien is obviously an Occidental sporting more makeup than David Carradine, and the sheer un-PC nature of the thing (Chinese characters are all either villians or lackeys, and frequently referred to by Westerners as "Chinks", "Wogs", and other unpleasant terms without reprimand by the Doctor) that the script would be unfilmable today. And the Giant Rat looks entirely too cute and fluffy (even if it does want to gnaw Leela's leg off) .But if you can swallow that and just watch it for the story, it's certainly worth your time.
DVD Details: This is a two DVD set, with six 24-minute serial episodes on Disk 1, featuring commentary by several of the actors(including Louise Jameson, but not Tom Baker unfortuantely), a running production notes feature, and English subtitles. Disk 2 has something of a grab bag of features, including an interview with producer Peter Hinchcliffe, an episode of The Lively Art examining viewer reactions called "Whose Doctor Who", an episode of Blue Peter filmed about the time of "Talons" with the hosts on the set of Doctor Who (though oddly, they're in the Doctor's old UNIT lab), and a "40th Anneversary Celebration" consisting of a music video of some series highlights and a lot Doctors making grimacing faces. There's also the usual photo gallery, and cast biographies of all the major actors in the serial. Cost was US$34.95 at Borders, though no doubt it can be found for cheaper in other locales.
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Date: 2004-01-20 07:15 am (UTC)