Doctor Who and the Talons of Weng-Chiang

Doctor Who Target Books (Numerical Order) #61

by Terrance Dicks

Stepping out of the Tardis into Victorian London, Leela and the Doctor are confronted by menacing, diabolical horrors shrouded within the swirling London fog – a man's death cry, an attack by Chinese Tong hatchet men, giant rats roaming the sewers, young women mysteriously disappearing...

The hideously deformed Magnus Greel, conducting a desperate search for the lost Time Cabinet, is the instigator of all this evil. Posing as the Chinese god, Weng-Chiang, Greel uses the crafty Li H'sen Chang, and the midget Manikin, Mr Sin, to achieve his terrifying objectives.

The Doctor must use all his skill, energy and intelligence to escape the talons of Weng-Chiang.

Genres: Doctor Who, Science Fiction, Fiction, Audiobook, Science Fiction Fantasy, Fantasy, Time Travel

140 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

Terrance Dicks was an English author, screenwriter, script editor, and producer best known for his extensive contributions to Doctor Who. Serving as the show's script editor from 1968 to 1974, he helped shape many core elements of the series, including the concept of regeneration, the development of the Time Lords, and the naming of the Doctor’s home planet, Gallifrey. His tenure coincided with major thematic expansions, and he worked closely with producer Barry Letts to bring a socially aware tone to the show. Dicks later wrote several Doctor Who serials, including Robot, Horror of Fang Rock, and The Five Doctors, the 20th-anniversary special.
In parallel with his television work, Dicks became one of the most prolific writers of Doctor Who novelisations for Target Books, authoring over 60 titles and serving as the de facto editor of the range. These adaptations introduced a generation of young readers to the franchise. Beyond Doctor Who, he also wrote original novels, including children’s horror and adventure series such as The Baker Street Irregulars, Star Quest, and The Adventures of Goliath.
Dicks also worked on other television programmes including The Avengers, Moonbase 3, and various BBC literary adaptations. His later work included audio dramas and novels tied to Doctor Who. Widely respected for his clarity, imagination, and dedication to storytelling, he remained a central figure in Doctor Who fandom until his death in 2019, leaving behind a vast legacy in television and children's literature.

Reviews

[Ken · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Doctor Who stories set during the Victorian era, they always seem like a perfect fit.
That being said it's difficult to ignore the problematic Asian stereotypes that centres around this story.

It's certainly a product of its time (1977), the fact that Dicks turned out this novelisation within 7 months of the episodes airing must be one of the quickest in the range.

Despite it's problems there's plenty of great character moments (Jago and Lightfoot ended up having there own spinoff series for Big Finish) and wonderful lines - 'Sleep is for Tortoises' being one of my favourites.

As novelisations go this perfectly encapsulates the televised story and a hefty page count compare to others that Dicks was writing at rapid speed, is a story that he clearly enjoys and has taken great care in recounting.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a prose adaptation of the sixth (and concluding) serial of the fourteenth season Doctor Who, which was broadcast from February through April of 1977. The script was one of the best by Robert Holmes, and Terrance Dicks adapted it into one of his best novelizations. (Reading about the rat is much more frightening than seeing it...) The Doctor is at his best in his fourth regeneration, accompanied by the inimitable Leela. The story is set in (and under) nineteenth century London, and is a wonderful homage to classic heroes like Sherlock Holmes (The Doctor even wears a deerstalker in the book) and Nayland Smith, not to mention his evil nemesis Fu Manchu. (Remember, the adventure dates from almost a half-century ago, is playing off of popular fiction from almost a century before, and readers/watchers weren't as sensitive to cases of racial stereotyping.) The antagonist turns out to be a fifty-first century criminal named Magnus Greel, and the story plays out against a rich background mix of future-technology masquerading as Yellow Peril, the theatre, the underground, time travel, brilliant investigation and deduction, and Leela and The Doctor are at their bravest and best. It's one of my favorites from the time. This Pinnacle edition is the seventh of ten they reprinted to help introduce the character to North American audiences; The Doctor was almost exclusively known in the U.K. at that time. They got Harlan Ellison to write a wildly enthusiastic introduction which they reprinted at the beginning of all ten volumes.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fan of Doctor Who in general, Tom Baker in particular, and this particular episode of the show amounted to a really fun read featuring the Doctor and Leela's trip to Victorian London and a mystery involving missing people, a Chinese magician and his "dummy", giant rats and a time machine other than the TARDIS.

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely one of the more effective novelisations. The layers of incongruity, with the reciprocal culture shock experienced by Leela and the Victorians she meets, and of course, the effervescent, anarchic presence of the fourth Doctor are delightful and Dicks just seems to be having a blast with this pulpy romp through the streets and sewers of London. It's all very Fu Manchu, with some really grisly bits.

[Ivana Richards · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this adaptatioon. Dicks obviously had more time for this one as there are lots of embellishments, including backgrounds for even incidental characters. One odd thing I noticed was that Dicks has changed the 2nd trick of Chang's - on tv the Doctor gets into the box, exits from the back and Chang sees him walking off into the wings, prompting Chang to say "The bird has flown. One of us is yellow". In the book, someone else is tricked into the box, so the joke doesn't work at all. I can't think of a reason why Dicks would change this. I may have given this a 5 if he hadn't marred one of the best bits of the tv series. Other than that, it's one of Dicks' best adaptations so ( reading them in story order).

[Mel · Rating 2 out of 5]

So I think this is one of the WORST Doctor Who episodes ever. While I like all of Leela's other episodes this one is just awful! (Though oddly popular with other Doctor Who fans). It's supposed to be a Victorian mystery set in London with music halls, and murders. It centers around a "Chinese cult" with a Chinese stage magician who is trying to bring back his god. In the TV episodes he is played by a white man in badly done make up. I thought perhaps the book would be better as I would at least be able to imagine Chinese people playing the Chinse part but the book was just as racist as the show. To start with they were referring to "The Chinese" as opposed to "the Chinese men" and I was like, well at least they're not calling them "Chinamen" which I turned the page and they were! All the racist Chinese stereotypes were here; opium smoking, abducting and killing white women, pigeon English, criminal gangs and evil religions. It was really Sax Rohmer level of the "yellow peril". Not to mention that they didn't even bother to find actual Chinese names and words to use but just made up things that sounded vaguely Chinese. I remember explaining to a Doctor Who fan at the con that I really didn't like the episode as I was a Chinese historian and he said that as it was an alien from the future and not a Chinese diety I shouldn't be upset, but missed that I was upset with the portrayal of the humans! Another reason I don't like this episode is it has Leela scream! This woman faces death without a word yet a giant rat makes her scream? A hunter being scared of a large beast? That and even though she's the best warrior on Doctor Who, she is repeatedly beaten in fights! Definitely one to avoid at all costs!

[Travis · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the all time classics.
The Doctor and Leela ( coming across as Sherlock Holmes meets Eliza Doolittle) arrive in Victorian England and get mixed up with Asian criminal masterminds, Scotland yard, Musical Hall and something nasty that's lurking in the sewers.
Lots of atmosphere, a truly creepy bad guy and lots of those great bits of Tom Baker humor.

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A product of its time. The plot was interesting, and I loved the Sherlock and Watson feel of it.

[Jacob Licklider · Rating 4 out of 5]

Doctor Who and the Talons of Weng-Chiang is one of those novelizations that had been published many a time. It was one of ten published in the United States complete with introduction by Harlan Ellison, was republished in the 1990s, and is adapting a story that is generally loved despite the racism. The initial publication in 1977 is right on the cusp of when Terrance Dicks became the prime author of the range, and his workload was increasing meaning that Doctor Who and the Talons of Weng-Chiang, compiled with the fact it is a novelization of a six part story, is a fairly briskly paced affair leaving little room for deviation from the televised story. Dicks does attempt some additions: some of the unnamed characters are given either names or backstories, some characters are renamed only slightly, and the story actually opens with a magic trick to set the mood instead of the television serial’s opening right at the end of the performance. It’s the only significant addition to the story itself, which just goes along at a fairly regular pace, Dicks performing his usual trick of converting the dialogue to prose and adding some descriptions and the occasional inner thought to make Doctor Who and the Talons of Weng-Chiang a very readable novel. The character of Chang is presented as slightly more intelligent here, he has been moving his act from theater to theater so not to arouse suspicion.

Now the racism baked into The Talons of Weng-Chiang is largely still present in Doctor Who and the Talons of Weng-Chiang. Yes, there is no John Bennett in yellowface, but a lot of Robert Holmes’ general tribute to orientalist Victorian literature remain unchanged. Dicks even goes so far as to explicitly make Chang Chinese and not a white man in yellowface, acknowledging an aspect of Victorian society that did in fact happen and easily could have made the television serial less racist, but somehow Dicks doesn’t really do that. There just really isn’t any attempt to engage with Holmes’ script, but then again that’s never been the purpose of Target novelizations, it’s to recreate the television serial so kids can experience them in a world without repeats. It’s just that The Talons of Weng-Chiang is perhaps the Doctor Who story intrinsically linked with its racism that there’s a sense that even the novelization (not to mention later script release) would engage with it.

Overall, Doctor Who and the Talons of Weng-Chiang is a perfectly decent Target novelization, but sadly even without the problematic elements at the center of the story, it loses a lot from not having the performances or David Maloney’s direction.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of Terrance Dicks' last substantial novelizations, before he was overcome by his once-a-month, mass produced thin transcripts of the late 1970s. Mind you, he had a Robert Holmes-scripted masterpiece to work with here, and he works hard to do the story justice. It certainly shows on every page.

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this audio book version of Talons of Weng Chiang read by Christopher Benjamin! Highly recommend.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

These old Target novelisations are what they are, fun as long as one doesn't expect too much. They're cheap, quick reads. In fairness, they were originally aimed at a young audience, and they do capture the flavor of the TV episodes.

The Doctor and Leela materialize in Victorian London, which of course is foggy. (We wouldn't want it to be a fine, clear night, would we?) There is something menacing London; young women are disappearing in the night. (The Ripper?) Chinese assassins from the Tong of the Black Scorpion stalk the back-alleys, and there's something even scarier in the sewers.

Behind it all is a mysterious (dare I say inscrutable?) Chinese magician named Li H'sen Chang whose master, Weng-Chiang, has an appetite for life essences. (Nothing so mundane as the Ripper, then.)

This book uses a lot of the same "Yellow Peril" themes as the old Fu Manchu stories but without the racist overtones. Cults, secret societies, and criminal organisations exist in most cultures, and ,let's face it, the Tong of the Black Scorpion is far more stylish than a bunch of mopes in New Jersey. One of the charms of the Target books is that they aren't afraid to use cliches. For young readers, these aren't cliches so much as, well, cool.

[Sam Whiting · Rating 5 out of 5]

As gripping, if not more so than the original serial!!! A page turner throughout!!!

[H. J. Carp · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a fun adventure. The fourth doctor and Leela travel to Victorian London and discover that lots of girls have gone missing. With the help of eccentric theatre owner, Jago and pathologist Litefoot, they uncover a plot involving the main act of the theatre and the giant rats in the sewers of London.

Parts of the story are dated and could be seen as offensive to some, but considering the time the story was written and the setting lots of the dialogue is fitting.

The villains are complex and interesting, the puppet Mr Sin is iconic for a reason. However the Magician Li H’sen Chang is just a stereotype.

Terence Dicks’s prose is very good, definitely the best writer of the DW target novelisations.

Thoroughly enjoyed this one, probably the best Doctor Who book I’ve read recently.

[Nicholas Whyte]

http://nhw.livejournal.com/1007902.html[return][return]Doctor Who and the Talons of Weng-Chiang loses out in the visual stakes compared with the TV version, but gains a bit with occasional tight-third narrative from Leela's point of view, which accentuates one of the successful aspects of the story, the confrontation between her primitive experience and the Victorian era.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fun book! I have loved most of the Doctor Who books I have had the opportunity to read. This book is one of my favorites. Leela and the Fourth Doctor in Victorian London, huge mutant sewer rats, evil manikins and a Chinese magician - oh my! The only things missing are Madame Castra, Jenny and Strax. Wrong Doctor, I know, but I expected them at any time. Jago and Litefoot are delightful characters. This Whovian gives it 5 stars...

[Mikes Dw Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story is and always will be one of the very best doctor who stories. We all have opinions and you can not like this story of course. However, recently it's been a trend to label this story as racist and that's it, nothing else happens and it should be forgotten. Completely forget all the other great suff for some minor (but lets be real admitly bad) moments. To use josh snares quote "it's okay to like something like this, but be aware of its problems and call it out. If you don't you become a shill". And I agree but your also a shill and no better if you review this story and focus on nothing else and not mention anything else.
While you can not deny that the tv story does have some racism there, and is wrong, mainly with the make up on the actor playing li hsen chang and a few stero types too. But i feel labeling all of it not only damages it as art but makes people avoid it or forget it. All fans argee its got some bad moments in there. But after the 90% bad it a damn good story and you know it.

This is my favourite story of all and I will call it out but I do get annoyed when some fans label this story as the worst thing you could see. There a number of stories in both classic and new who that I think are just as bad. So many fans i feel seem to either miss the story, the themes or the actual history it's prototyping. The story is very phantom of the opera mixed with the black the ripper era of Victorian london. There's also some hg Wells with the dangerous of traveling in time mixed in there too. They mainly seem to focus on Li hsen Chang who's not even the main vilian and also not even villian if you actually paid attention. He, like most of the Chinese people in this story are in a dangerous cult, they believe in the god of weng chaing, however it's actually a time traveller called greel who's using this fear and worship for them to do his bidding to help him find the time cabinet before he dies. Li hsen Chang just wanted to be a performer and was given this power If he followed magnus greel. Some people also say every Chinese person in the episode is evil. Actually most of them aren't, there are a few scenes we're we see them go from blind believers to scared for their safety. when given the chance some leave the cult. So while the tv story does have some unacceptable moments by today's standards that do need to be called out. The rest of the story and very thankful this book does not. The are no real problems with the book, showing the story itself is not a problem. Terrace dicks does an excellent job at removing any inappropriate or accident slurs. The ones that remain are what Lifefoot says, which as a rich man he's a little racist but respectful, so its in his character id say. In fact even li hesn Chang has a little dig at the white man.

The book surprisingly manages to re tell the story in an very exciting way. The characters are wonderful, the villans are great and it's paced so well. I also really loved the little backstories to characters like Mr sin (my favourite who villian). I loved learning how he was created for the war as a toy that went on to kill hundreds of people. I also really liked learning more about magnus greel and how he became war criminal for causing ww6. Overall Terrace keeps what made the orginal so good, but slightly expanding on the characters we see on scene. Like I said the book avoids all the problems on screen and I feel more people and fans will like this version better. I did, i utterly loved it. Terrace doesn't always expand on much but here it's just enough.

[Rocky Sunico · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Talons of Weng-Chiang as a Doctor Who serial is often referred to as one of the best adventures of the Fourth Doctor. And despite a lot of outdated stereotypes when it comes to representing Chinese people in Victorian London. But I do see the charm of the story and the many exciting beats to the adventure as a whole.

The story focuses on the Doctor bring his companion to London as part of her ongoing education but stumble upon a mystery involving several young women going missing. At the same time, the Palace Theatre is featuring the popular magical act of one Li H'sen Chang, a Chinese stage magician of particular renown. Part of his act is a rather disturbing ventriloquist's dummy he refers to as Mr. Sin. Of course, all this is connected because Chang is working for a mysterious figure named Greel who needs young women for his own sinister purposes. But the Doctor will naturally stumble across all this and bring things to a proper resolution.

The story plays out like a pretty interesting mystery with parts of the larger story teased here and there in-between various bits of action involving the Tong assassins that work for Creel and Chang along with the malevolent Mr. Sin. And this works out just as well with the likes of Leela involved as she really has upped the action on the show without forcing the Doctor to get into the physical struggles personally.

This book also features the debut of Iago and Lightfoot, two side characters who would go on to get their own audio series thanks to Big Finish. Think Paternoster Investigations without aliens, I guess?

This story has a lot going for it whether it's moments of tension, action, giant rats, and a malevolent villain from across time. It's a solid little adventure and I understand now why it's so beloved, despite the anachronisms and terrible stereotypes.

[Gareth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Between a 4 and a 5 for me. Really interesting story, let down somewhat by racial stereotypes.
Getting into the latter point first, the Chinese characters for the most part were quite one dimensional, and not referred to nicely by other characters - and while some of that is due to the time period set in, the Doctor never really corrected for or argued against these depictions, which is unusual. One thing in the book's favour against the TV Serial, is that we avoid the casting of an white person as the Chinese Chang, is a shame for the TV show that went down that road, especially when compare it to Mind of Evil which used genuine Chinese actors, and portrayed them well for the most part.
Outside of that though, the tale is quite a fascinating one, good mix of period drama, sci-fi action, and a bit of a Sherlock Holmes style tale as well. It is another one of the ones where we see a call back to a prior adventure by the Doctor that was not televised, which bounces off well with the main villain of the piece. Chang is an interesting character as well, though the main character is a little one dimensional.
Leela and the Doctor in good form here, we do see Leela's blood thirsty nature here, quite happy to kill adversaries, quite different to prior companions I think, even when some have been willing / able to kill adversaries, they never sought it like Leela did.
We also get to meet Jago and Litefoot, two very different but very interesting characters, that we are lucky enough to get to hear a lot more of in audio adventures, but add to the tale and get to have their own interesting encounters and scenes.
All round quite a good story, that could have been brilliant but for it's shortcomings.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story had a number of flaws, but I give it credit for being an attempt at blending several different types of pulp fictional stories. There were clear traces of Sherlock Holmes, but also of the later pulps such as the Fu Manchu stories. That said, the original TV version wasn't one of my favorites, but it was fun, and this version preserves that, and does it well. The creepy magician's dummy, the Time Cabinet and various other things don't initially make much sense, but as the story comes together, they do, and that works well.
Also, it's got Leela learning about things, not only from the Doctor, but from an older Victorian gentleman, and it was a treat when she asked him about WHY something was a custom. You got to see a genuine outsider's view of a particular society.
Overall, a very enjoyable and very quick read.

[Jason Bleckly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my favourite stories, Doctor Who does Sherlock Holmes, with a dash of Jack the Ripper. These are 2 additional elements I have a passion for and they are expertly combined by Robert Holmes.

Terrance has done a magnificent job adapting the story to prose. At 140ish pages this is one of the longer Targets, but it’s too short in my opinion. There are quite a few scenes and conversations that have been truncated in order to squeeze everything in. I’d love to see this re-done and fleshed out even more to 200-250 page book.

Henry Gordon Jago is the clear star of the story. His bombasity has just the right tone and extravagance. And then paired with Professor Litefoot’s upper class reticence. And Mr Sin was nightmare inducing as a child.

This is another book I immediately want to go back to the start and re-read. A true classic.

[Bill Doughty · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Target Books Doctor Who novelizations were such an important part of my Who fandom as a kid, and they're still fun to go back to every now and then as an adult. And this one just absolutely SINGS... Terrence Dicks adapting a Robert Holmes script in which Tom Baker's Doctor plays Sherlock Holmes? Yes, please, thank you, I'll have two if I can. Five stars may seem a bit excessively superlative, but I had five stars' worth of fun blasting through this in the space of a few hours, what can I say?

[Pete · Rating 4 out of 5]

Doctor Who and the Talons of Weng-Chiang (1977) by Terrance Dicks is the novelisation of the sixth serial of the fourteenth season of Doctor Who.

Leela and the Doctor land in London in the 1890s. There a mysterious Chinese magician performs. In the neighbourhood of where he performs young women are disappearing. The sewers beneath the theatre are also seeing strange events.

The Talons of Weng-Chiang is a peak Tom Baker serial. The setting is somewhat like Sherlock Holmes and Leela contrasts very well with the Victorian era. It’s an entertaining read.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

The tv story is problematic with its racist caricatures which i thought might be not so apparent in the novelisation, there are unfortunately, from the pigeon english to the opium dens, yes it was the 70s but even reading this in the context of the time its still jarring.

Which is a shame because otherwise this Victorian romp is fun with Leela being a darn good action hero and the Doctors flippancy being in fine fettle & there's a giant rat to contend with which is much better on the page.

[Finlay O'Riordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

As always, Dicks knows how to take the entirety of a televised story and condense it appropriately into the shorter Target format. Many scenes in this one are swapped around, altered or intercut, all of which help to keep the novel moving along at a steady pace.

Sadly, Dicks chose to include the racist undertones of the televised story rather than to correct them, but this is more the fault of the script than it is the novelisation.

[Gabor Hernadi · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Talons of Weng-Chiang is one of the most loved Doctor Who stories according to most of the polls and it is for a reason. A great Hinchcliffe story with a gothic mystery in the victorian England. Plus Jago and Litefoot! What not to love about it?

[Ian Banks · Rating 4 out of 5]

An absolute cracker. Dicks translates Holmes’s script to the page wonderfully, proving that the story was relatively harmless and that it was the production that was at fault all along. Great characters and dialogue make it a wonderful ride.

[Ralph Carlson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another fun Doctor Who book. Always enjoyable.

[Andy Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great bonkers gothic Dr Who.

[Damon Habbin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A cracking read not as problematic at the TV version but does miss out the best line it's a floater alright.

Classic Robert Holmes pairing with Jago and Lightfoot.