User Reviews

The Doctor bargains with Chiang, the key to The Time cabinet, for a place at The House of The Dragon.

There is so much content here, it's a wonderfully rich concluding episode. I loved the reveal about who Chiang really is. Magnus Greel has an interesting back story, as does Mr Sin.

I love how The Doctor is battling both Greel and Mr Sin, but that Mr Sin hasn't perhaps gotten the memo about who the enemy is. Mr Sin really is one trigger happy chap.

Jago and Litefooot continue to impress, the pair are so amusing, without sending the show up. I love how Litefoot tries to turn Leela into a gracious lady.

Philip Hinchcliffe wanted to depart on a high, and boy he did just that. The next story, Horror of Fang Rock would very much be in Hinchcliffe's style, but it would be all change from then on, and that's a shame, I always look at Talons as the end of an era.

It's been a wonderful watch, and this final part is yet another high point. 10/10.

Review of all 6 episodes:

This is as good as Doctor Who gets. This is a frontrunner for best story ever for me alongside Pyramids of Mars which has some similarities as a pseudo historical with an evil 'ancient God' as well as similar brilliance of writing and characterisation.

The Doctor and Leela arrive in the 'pea-soup' thick fog of Victorian London and the perfectly realised atmosphere of that period with echoes of Jack the Ripper and Sherlock Holmes help to make this one of the great adventures.

Girls have been going missing in the squalid streets around a theatre run by Henry Gordon Jago. Chinese performer Li H'sen Chang and his creepy dummy Mr. Sin are secretly serving Weng-Chiang, considered to be an ancient Chinese God. The Doctor and Leela team up with Jago and Professor Litefoot, a pathologist, and try to solve the mystery and stop Weng-Chiang from getting his hands on an item in Litefoot's possession which has powers unknown to its owner and dangerous to them all.

As well as capturing the Victorian setting perfectly there is a host of colourful and truly inspired characters all acted magnificently well. The wonderfully endearing and engaging Jago & Litefooot played to perfection by Christopher Benjamin and Trevor Baxter make such an impact that they have inspired a series of prose and audio spin off adventures. They provide such charm and humour and make me really care about them. Chang, Weng-Chiang and Mr. Sin are chilling and effective villains who are hugely impressive and scary. Casey and other small cameo parts are extraordinarily good too. Tom Baker is extraordinary as The Doctor. His every line, glance and expression is phenomenally mesmerising and sublime. Leela makes an exciting, interesting and likable companion. She is very bright as well as physically dynamic and brave, Louise Jameson plays the role expertly.

The dialogue throughout is absolutely terrific, entertaining, absorbing, intelligent and convincing as well as being delivered with superb style. The plot is fantastically rich, fascinating and engrossing and the horror aspects are scary and captivating. This is basically grand guignol style horror with thrilling, macabre delights which I thoroughly enjoy. The make up and costumes are tremendous as well as the fabulously realised sets and period setting. Every aspect of the production is of the highest standard with the slight exception of the giant rats which guard the sewer. These rats are not problematic for me at all though because they are cleverly hidden in darkness and still work as a result. If this story was re-released with new computer generated effects re- creating the rats it would be great and would make this a flawless production but the ingenious way it is filmed manages to make the rats work as monsters despite limitations of the technology available.

The horror, excitement and menace of this story are simply superb and the characters and dialogue cannot be bettered. This whole story is sheer magic from start to finish and one of the all-time greats without doubt. For me it is one of my joint favourite stories. AMAZING!

My ratings: All 4 episodes 10/10.

This is the final story of the incredible Season 14 as well as the final story of the Hinchcliffe/Holmes run era which was absolutely magnificent quality and in my opinion the greatest era in the show's history. It is sad to note that producer Phillip Hinchcliffe stood down at this point and Robert Holmes only remained as story editor for 3 further stories. Season 14 stands as my favourite season of all time. This was the creative peak of the show and is as good as Doctor Who gets. Simply magical.

My Season 14 Average Rating: 9.71/10.

OMG!!!! The evil Mr. sin is really great. The villain is great. The doctor and quirky and exciting. The story is great. There is no racism in this episode!

After watching this serial it was interesting to read that it is generally considered amongst the great Doctor Who stories. I was glad to be able to watch the serial without this pressure, because maybe I would have been disappointed, or surprised, because personally so far I confess it would be one of the serials that leaps to mind as being a favorite so far. That said, it is still and enjoyable and engaging one.

Part of this is it being a blend of content, from Victorian England through to mysticism and more normal sci-fi elements. The story has plenty of colorful characters too, while the horror elements are mostly nicely done. It probably didn't need 6 episodes to tell the tale, but at the same time there is just about enough going on to prevent it feeling slow and padded (mostly). The sense of humor remains too, and Baker leads on this well. Jameson is enjoyable as Leela – out of her skimpies in this one, but still manages to get into soaking wet clothes for a bit. That element aside, she is a strong character – not the most nuanced perhaps, but not just screaming waiting for help. In support Benjamin, Baxter, Bennett, Spice and even Roy are good value – albeit the latter being an issue to watch with modern eyes.

The element of racism in his character (or rather caricature) is unavoidable; not just in the delivery, but also in the writing – normally the Doctor is all about the oppressed minorities when the serial has that as its moral message on a far-away world. Here though he is not fussed by anyone's insensitiveness. To be fair, although it is hard not to feel uncomfortable with the portrayal of the Chinese, I think it is more that all the support are caricatures – cockney, posh old English colonist, etc, albeit that the Chinese is along racial lines. The other weakness is smaller, which is the giant rat; as an idea it is good and it is pretty intimidating, but the visual reality is less impressive when it interacts with people.

I'll stay out of the debate about the 'classicness' of this serial, but it was certainly enjoyable for a variety of reasons.