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Doctor Who: The Scripts #3
Doctor Who: The Talons of Weng-Chiang
The script of the Doctor Who TV episodes/story of the same name.
144 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1989
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About the author
Robert Holmes
8 books9 followersRobert Holmes was script editor of Doctor Who from 1975 to 1977 and the author of more scripts for the 20th-century incarnation of the programme than any other writer (64 episodes in all). He created or reimagined many key elements of the programme's mythology.
Holmes was, at the end of World War Two, the youngest serving officer in the British army. He became a police officer, graduating top of his class. He grew disillusioned with the job and became a journalist. By the 1960s he had branched out into writing screenplays for films and television series. In 1968 he received his first commission for Doctor Who. Over the next few years, he became one of the series' lead writers.
When Terrance Dicks resigned as script editor in 1974, Holmes took over the position. He continued to write scripts. After leaving the post, he wrote a few more before taking an extended break from the series. In 1983, as one of the series' most celebrated writers, Holmes was the first person asked to write the twentieth anniversary special, The Five Doctors. He declined but expressed an interest in writing for the series again.
Over the next three years Holmes contributed several scripts and was heavily involved in the planning of Season 23. However, he passed away before he completed the script for The Ultimate Foe and the planned ending of the story was altered.
After his death, his estate licensed the Autons and the Sontarans for use in independent video spin-off productions by Reeltime Pictures and BBV Productions, most notably for the Auton Trilogy and Shakedown: Return of the Sontarans. Since 2005 the revived Doctor Who has featured the Autons in Rose, and the Sontarans in the two-parter The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky, A Good Man Goes To War and two two-part storylines in The Sarah Jane Adventures, The Last Sontaran and Enemy of the Bane. They both appeared in The Pandorica Opens.
In 2009, Doctor Who Magazine conducted a reader's poll that named Holmes' The Caves of Androzani the best Doctor Who story of all time.
Holmes was, at the end of World War Two, the youngest serving officer in the British army. He became a police officer, graduating top of his class. He grew disillusioned with the job and became a journalist. By the 1960s he had branched out into writing screenplays for films and television series. In 1968 he received his first commission for Doctor Who. Over the next few years, he became one of the series' lead writers.
When Terrance Dicks resigned as script editor in 1974, Holmes took over the position. He continued to write scripts. After leaving the post, he wrote a few more before taking an extended break from the series. In 1983, as one of the series' most celebrated writers, Holmes was the first person asked to write the twentieth anniversary special, The Five Doctors. He declined but expressed an interest in writing for the series again.
Over the next three years Holmes contributed several scripts and was heavily involved in the planning of Season 23. However, he passed away before he completed the script for The Ultimate Foe and the planned ending of the story was altered.
After his death, his estate licensed the Autons and the Sontarans for use in independent video spin-off productions by Reeltime Pictures and BBV Productions, most notably for the Auton Trilogy and Shakedown: Return of the Sontarans. Since 2005 the revived Doctor Who has featured the Autons in Rose, and the Sontarans in the two-parter The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky, A Good Man Goes To War and two two-part storylines in The Sarah Jane Adventures, The Last Sontaran and Enemy of the Bane. They both appeared in The Pandorica Opens.
In 2009, Doctor Who Magazine conducted a reader's poll that named Holmes' The Caves of Androzani the best Doctor Who story of all time.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 13, 2019
Why haven't They Released more Episode Script Books? I've seen Weng-Chiang so many times that its great to take it in a different way. I hope that they release that season on Blu Ray.
March 11, 2018
https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2951928.html
The script, published in 1989, is really for completists only, but I would say two things: first, two of the most problematic elements of the TV series - the use of a white actor to play Li H'sen Chang, and the rather poor implementation of the giant rat - are of course invisible in the script (the racism, alas, survives); but second, so is the gorgeous staging which made it such a vivid experience when I was nine.
The script, published in 1989, is really for completists only, but I would say two things: first, two of the most problematic elements of the TV series - the use of a white actor to play Li H'sen Chang, and the rather poor implementation of the giant rat - are of course invisible in the script (the racism, alas, survives); but second, so is the gorgeous staging which made it such a vivid experience when I was nine.
August 30, 2014
One of the truly great Doctor Who stories of the Tom Baker era.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews