The Talons of Weng-Chiang - Episode 2

Starting with the unconvincing rat isn’t perhaps the wisest thing to do. The only upside to it is that it leads the Doctor to work out that the rat is a guard. Luckily the lighting does help shield the dodgy rat. The effect used when Li H’Sen Chang is hypnotising Jago doesn’t quite work as its clear that its an effect and that he is looking at Jago. This is the episode where Chang is shown to not be the leading villain that he was perceived. Weng-Chiang is a masked individual and its revealed that he has been getting Chang to kidnap girls for something that enables Weng-Chiang to live. It’s a nice bit of intrigue that is given to us because we know something but not everything.

Watching Litefoot talking to the Doctor and Leela reminds me of just how good the Big Finish series is. Despite their being over thirty years between when this story was made and when the series began, it shows how Trevor Baxter and Christopher Benjamin haven’t missed a step in their audio adventures.

The scene with the Doctor and Jago is quite funny due to the Doctor performing magic tricks and Jago being less than impressed with him. These two are very funny together and Tom Baker and Christopher Benjamin work well together. For completely different reasons, Louise Jameson and Trevor Baxter are just as funny together because its two worlds colliding. Leela’s savage no manners style of eating against Professor Litefoot’s etiquette of eating with plates. It was rather amusing.

The part where the Doctor was chasing Weng-Chiang is rather good and does remind me a bit of the prolonged chase sequence in ‘Planet of the Spiders’. However in this case it was better because it wasn’t as long or as indulgent. Also its helped that the lighting is kept low again which means it adds something to the moment and that is what makes the episode work so well (just like in the previous episode) and that is the direction which coming from David Maloney isn’t much of a surprise.

The episode ends with Mr Sin walking towards Leela with a knife in his hand which is quite a powerful way to end an episode. I think that this is a stronger episode than the first because its done all the setting up and can just get on with it and it does it very well. I like how all the characters are really strong and the story allows them all to be wonderful. Two episodes in an I think that this serial is the perfect end to the season, a much stronger six parter adventure than ‘The Seeds of Doom’.