TV Review: Doctor Who: The Talons of Weng-Chiang (1977)

Doctor Who: The Talons of Weng-Chiang (1977) written by Robert Holmes and directed by David Maloney

Fourth Doctor Tom Baker travels to Victorian England with companion Leela, who has to wear modest Victorian dress rather than her primitive leather skins. The Doctor himself dons a deerstalker hat and cape (a nod to Sherlock Holmes) as they investigate a series of disappearances of young women. They work a bit with the police but mostly with the coroner. They aren't up against Jack the Ripper--instead they face the minions of Weng-Chiang, a Chinese god. To be honest, he isn't much of a god. His lair is in the sewers underneath a theater. At the theater, Li H'Sen Chang (John Bennett) performs a magic act with his creepy dummy Mister Sin. Chiang has been given magic powers by Weng-Chiang and the doll is really a homunculus. The two serve the so-called god, who is looking for a lost cabinet that will restore his power. The cabinet is actually at the coroner's home.

The story has a lot going for it. The plot moves along at a good pace and information is dealt out episode by episode. The sets are great. The theater is an actual theater; the sewers look like sewers and not a stage-set; the coroner's home is full of knickknacks and detail. The actors are very good, especially the coroner (Trevor Baxter) who is the classic English Victorian gentleman and the theater owner (Christopher Benjamin) who is a P.T. Barnum-esque delight. Leela's primitive instincts make for great comic relief and good action.

The only drawbacks are two. First, the sewers are guarded by a giant rat, which is fairly unconvincing-looking. It's a big suit where just the mouth moves--the classic rubbishy Doctor Who baddie. Second, John Bennett gives a good performance as Li H'sen Chang, but to contemporary eyes the make-up looks too much like a white guy made Chinese. And his dialogue and accent sound like those old Charlie Chan movies. It didn't bother me that much since I understand that's the way things were done back then but more sensitive viewers may take offense.

Recommended.

TV Review: Doctor Who: The Krotons (1968)

Doctor Who: The Krotons (1968) written by Robert Holmes and directed by David Maloney

The Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton) lands on the Gonds' planet. They are a simplistic tribe of people who are dominated by the Krotons. Hundreds of years ago, the Krotons landed on the planet and war broke out with the Gonds. With their superior technology, the Krotons won and enslaved the Gonds. Currently, their big demand is the offering of the two most intelligent Gonds to be companions to the Krotons. Those Gonds are never seen again. The Doctor and his companions discover that the Kroton companions are being killed. Things have got to stop and the Doctor is ready to take action.

The story is fairly interesting. The menace is presented early but the whole situation is explained at a slower pace. The show holds off on showing the Krotons, which is good since the outfits are really unimpressive. They look like boxy, shiny robots with leather skirts hiding the actors' legs. Not scary at all. What they use the intelligent people for is interesting if not believable. Troughton is great as always.

Recommended if you can handle the poor visual design of the villains.

TV Review: Doctor Who: Genesis of the Daleks (1975)

Doctor Who: Genesis of the Daleks (1975) written by Terry Nation and directed by David Maloney

Third Doctor Tom Baker gets stranded by the Time Lords on Skaro, the home world of the Daleks. A Time Lord is there to explain their plan: they want the Doctor to alter the evolution of the Daleks, to find some weakness in them (yeah, good luck with that!), or to eliminate them. Skaro is at the end of their cataclysmic civil war, when mad scientist Davros created the Daleks so that his race, the Kaleds, would overcome the Thals, the other humanoid race on the planet. Companions Sarah Jane and Harry are also stranded with the Doctor. They find their way to the Kaled scientific base (an underground bunker, naturally) where they confront the Kaled military leaders, scientists, and Davros himself. Davros is in charge and has made a great deal of scientific progress but he's tipping over into the shouty madness of a megalomaniacal mass murderer, a perfect father figure/creator for the Daleks.

While the Daleks are their usual evil selves and Davros is his usual evil scheming self, the other characters have more depth. Many of the Kaled scientists and military have doubts about the Dalek project and are willing to overthrow Davros. As options start vanishing, the Doctor has to confront whether he will destroy the Daleks, essentially committing the sort of genocide that the Daleks themselves are bent on achieving. The show has some interesting moral reflections to go along with the well-paced plot and action. Davros' schemes are interesting and the make-up job is respectable if not perfect. This six-part show is very satisfying and well worth a watch.

Highly recommended.