Philip Hinchcliffe took over Doctor Who, ditched the old and brought in his own stamp on the show. He was a good producer. He made Doctor Who a lot more adult and frightening. And there was a lot less CSO, too, which was good. Yeah he's be missed. At least he went out on a high.
The Talons of Weng Chiang, as I see it, is a last stand against the bat-£$£$ crazy Mary Whitehouse's of the day. The woman was truly out of order and I don't say that about a lot of people. Aside from ranting about Doctor Who her worst crime is the damage she caused in the 80's with innocent people getting arrested over the video nasties: She and her pal Thatcher have a lot to answer for (the later for countless other reasons as well)...
Anyway Graeme Williams is coming in due to Whitehouse and her mad raving and its all getting toned down. But not before Talons flips her one final middle finger. We get it all here.
Enter the Dragon was massive in the 70's but it wasn't exactly easy for kids to watch: Enter the Dragon was an X-certificate film. The Talons of Weng-Chiang went out at 6.30pm. With nunchakus and everything! Tom isn't quite as vicious as Bruce Lee, but he still kicks ass.
Axes flying into policeman, Magnus Greel draining the life out of young women, Li H’sen Chang getting his leg ripped off by giant rats (before going off his head on drugs in his final moments), an autopsy: even when you can’t see anything, your mind fills in all the blanks, people taking pills to commit suicide...
As a Story its undeniably great on many levels ("that" racism issue aside of course). It’s a cracking setting for a DW story, and has bags of atmosphere. Its got a great story which moves forward at a great pace. It’s populated by great characters, and has two of the very best the show has ever had to offer in Jago and Litefoot. It has villains who genuinely do come off as totally evil: both Greel and Mr Sin are very creepy, as is Chang before he decides to redeem himself.
The connection between Tom and Louise really sparks, whether that is down to the problems they had at the time or just great acting, who knows? Probably a bit of the two. I love Leela in this, she fights very well and her diving out the window in Episode 3 is one of her great character moments. Sarah Jane or Jo as good as they are wouldn't have done that.
It’s a wonderful production, maybe one of the very best (the rat isn't that bad and its mostly in the dark anyway) and it’s brilliantly directed by a director who is at the top of his game. David Maloney really was great wasn’t he? So was Hinchcliffe, but at least he went out swinging with this cracker.
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