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WHO HOME | BIG FINISH AUDIOS
| 8TH DOCTOR NOVELS | EPISODES
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Like The Seeds of Death, The Talons of Weng-Chiang was one of the earliest Doctor Who videos I bought. And, like Seeds, Talons is a six-parter that was only issued in compilation format on VHS. BBC Video's compilation approach made an early DVD release for Seeds pretty much a given since there are only a handful of complete Troughton stories to release anyway. However, since the story that precedes Talons was already out on DVD, it might have been expected that, despite being a classic, it might have had to wait a while before getting a release. Fortunately that's not the case, although quite possibly the significant amount of extras available helped it secure its place in the release schedule. The final story of season 14, Talons is about as good as the series ever got, allowing outgoing producer Philip Hinchcliffe to leave on a definite high. Almost everything about the story is right - a cracking storyline that sustains interest over the six episodes, strong guest roles allowing an excellent cast to shine and the sort of production standards you'd expect from one of the BBC's costume dramas. Top marks on the acting front go to John Bennett, Christopher Benjamin and Trevor Baxter, all of who are excellent in their roles as Li H'sen Chang, Jago and Litefoot respectively. Even for a Doctor Who DVD, the amount of extras assembled is impressive, and they're all worth a least one look. Well, except the TARDIS-Cam maybe. As usual there's a commentary on each episode, featuring Louise Jameson, Philip Hinchcliffe, David Maloney and guest stars (Li H'sen Chang) and Christopher Benjamin (Jago), with the mix and match approach that we saw on Seeds also used. That, and the number of contributors, makes it pretty enjoyable, although Jameson appears to be the only one of the five to have seen the story recently (Benjamin would have been advised to concentrate on watching the story a little more as he asks what's going on more than once, which is a bit annoying). A couple of episodes on the commentary track also have the continuity announcer over the end credits, which is a nice touch (there are also trailers and continuity announcements to satisfy presentation buffs). The day following the BBC1 transmission of episode six, BBC2 showed the Lively Arts episode Whose Doctor Who, which features behind-the-scenes material from the story. This documentary is included here and is a welcome replacement for my off-air copy from the BSB Doctor Who weekend back in 1990. Further behind-the-scenes material is featured in a 25-minute selection from one of the studio sessions, although the sleeve's warning about its poor quality is well justified. As well as contributing to the commentary, producer Philip Hinchcliffe also appears in an excerpt from a 1977 edition of daytime chat show Pebble Mill, where he gets to address some of the complaints about violence in the series. As interesting as newly produced features are, it's always good to see contemporary things like this and Whose Doctor Who included on the discs. Blue Peter clips have featured on previous Who videos and DVDs, and here we have a compilation of one of the show's "makes", showing how to construct your very own Doctor Who theatre, as well as a brief intro to a strike-hit episode that saw the team forced to use the studio sets for Robot. Suffice to say I didn't actually make a theatre, but I did enjoy a good laugh at Lesley Judd's outfit, which makes Jo Grant look like the height of fashion. The Talons of Weng-Chiang deserves its reputations as one of the series' classic stories and this set certainly does the story justice. The episodes probably look as good as possible and there are also a few goodies among the extras as well, even if the TARDIS-Cam is a waste of time. Shame about the giant rat, though. back to the top |
THE TALONS
OF WENG-CHIANG |
