Search - Doctor Who: The Talons of Weng-Chiang (Special Edition) (Story 91) on DVD

Samuel K. (Solvanda)
Reviewed on 12/16/2018...

1975, Michael Moorcock, the finest fantasist in the English-speaking world, sat Harlan Ellison down in front of his TV set in London, and said, "Now be quiet and just watch." That was his first exposure to this amazing conceit of being a life-long Doctor Who fan. Later on at the World Science Fiction Convention, Harlan sent the crowd into animal hysterics: "Star Wars is adolescent nonsense; Close Encounters is obscurist drivel; Star Trek can turn your brains into puree of bat guano; and the greatest science fiction series of all time is Doctor Who! And I'll take you all on, one-by-one or all in a bunch to back it up!" Well, this was one of the tales he was talking about.

Robert Holmes once again chalks up some of the best dialogue ever written here and conquers the pseudo-historical genre with a peerless script. When the history of television drama is catalogued, he won't be remembered at all because he only wrote this sort of genre stuff. Talons has a fair share of gruesome and disturbing material, along with megafauna rats. Jago and Litefoot are quite the amusing characters, and later went on to record 14 series of audio dramas with Big Finish.