You won't go wrong on this one. The story is exceptionally well-written, the actors execute a sterling performance, and the set designs and costuming are fantastic.

THE STORY: The setting is late Victorian London. A monster uses a horrific machine to suck the life out of pretty young girls and he employs the team of a Chinese stage magician and his animated, evil, Chinese, Howdy Doody-type puppet as front guys to round them up. All this nastiness takes place in the dreary basement of a theater where there is direct access to the London sewer tunnels. Doctor Who and Leela quickly detect what is going on as they ally themselves with an upright English nobleman, (who also thinks about teaching Leela how to eat with utensils but changes his mind and joins her in some barbaric-style feasting), to put an end to these disturbing murders. A naturally-hilarious and likable Ringmaster-type theater owner becomes an involuntary pawn in all the chaos.

There is a second disc, (Disc One also has a great available commentary track), jam-packed with terrific, informative nostalgia about this presentation and other assorted Doctor Who memories, all quite excellent.

If you're on the fence with this one, don't be. It's the sort of yarn which would appeal to nearly any Doctor Who enthusiast particularly if, as I do, you abhor the political correctness we have to endure daily in contemporary America. From my view, this story falls in the top ten percent of all original series Doctor Who entries. The only downer is that Leela has tossed aside her skimpy animal flap attire in favor of a full, formal, Victorian outfit. But one cannot have everything. [sigh...] And there is the scene where the *Giant Rat* has a shrieking Leela by the leg down in the sewers which renders the moment uproariously humorous instead of scary because the creature more resembles a gigantic, fuzzy, cuddly fun-mouse. But such scenes/monsters manifest much of the endearment of Doctor Who of those great days. The main monster is *really* scary-looking when Leela inadvertently pulls off his mask as he attempts to ravage her!

In the end, if you love old Doctor Who stories and you have just enough money right now for only ONE DVD and you want the *very best* that you can acquire, then might I presume to recommend either "The Brain of Morbius", "Pyramids of Mars" or, "Horror of Fang Rock"? All three tales fall generally into the *Gothic Horror* genre with a sci-fi slant worked in.

Highly recommended.

Order some Chinese take-out, sit back and let this one take you away. Set in Victorian London, "Talons" pits Tom Baker's Doctor against the diabolical Magnus Greel, a wonderfully named and hideously deformed renegade from the distant future who is using the dreaded Tong of the Black Scorpion to murder his way through a perpetually fog shrouded London in search of his Time Cabinet. What makes this feature-length episode really click with life are all of the delightful supporting characters that give life to the period. From the blustrously alliterative Henry Jago through the wordly Professor Lightfoot right down to the assorted policemen and stage hands, "Talons" is filled with believable characters and well developed settings that all serve the story -- nothing seems to have been superimposed to create interest. I especially enjoy the scenes where Leela regards the trappings of Victorian life with a sort of quite bemusement, asking the Professor why he smokes and if they should "give the proper resonses" when at the theatre during a sing-along. This may sound controversial, but I also am intrigued by the sly racism that pervades the episodes and how it is recreated as a facet of the times ["He's a Chinese, in case you haven't noticed."] in a way that is descriptive ["We were attacked by this little man and four other little men."] and not really condescending. Were the producers and scriptwriters aware they were pandering to a stereotype when having the delirious Chang relate his opium fueled vision of "... crossing the golden bridge leading to the palace of jade ..."? You better beleive it. One of the duties of historical fiction is to not only create the look but the feel of the times, and the oriental characters are presented in a quietly xenophobic air that is probably quite accurate, unfortunate though that is. Still, it's one of the best of the Baker episodes, a marvel of a visual production, and since it's got Leela in it [always my favorite companion, even if she wears more clothing than usual in an effort to "not frighten the horses"] you can't go wrong. Highly recommended.

If you went through the 26 years of Doctor Who, the longest running sci-fi show in history and you needed to pick the top 5 or maybe even the top 3 adventures, I feel comfortable saying that 99% of the fans would easily place The Talons of Weng-Chiang" in that group. The show comes from the pen of Robert Holmes and was the final show under the helm of producer Phillip Hinchcliffe, who had produced the greatest group of adventures ever for the Doctor. This, combined with the most popular Doctor of them all, Tom Baker and a wildly popular companion, Leela, makes for a grand adventure.

Taking place in Victorian London, this is one of the richest adventures in the history of the show and one of the most well written with some fantastic characterization. Magnus Greel and the Homonculous creature as well as Li Sen Chang are magnificent villains in this thriller. Yes, the giant rat is cheesy but it's all part of the fun of '70's Doctor Who. I can't recommend the adventure highly enough and there are a lot of great extras as well. I think it's also a great homage to Robert Holmes that, of the Who adventures that are out on DVD or are about to come out, there are quite a few Holmes stories amongst the few out so far, including "Carnival of Monsters", "Spearhead from Space", "The Power of Kroll", "The Ribos Operation", "The Ark in Space", "The Two Doctors", "The Talons of Weng Chiang" and "The Caves of Andozani". So, in essence, of the 158 adventures in 26 years, so far, 23 have come out on DVD. Of those 23, 8 have been written by Robert Holmes! And I believe Pyramids of Mars is coming out next, also from Holmes. Can there be any doubt that this man has done some of if not THE best "Who"?

An amalgam of Dr. Fu-Manchu, Phantom of the Opera, Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Who. Tom Baker and the Talons of Weng-Chiang are among the best of the Doctor Who series. Excellent video.

Love this if your tom baker fan it's a must have

I have always love this story, most classic Who fans usually put this one close to the top and it deserves to be this is when Tom Baker was at the peak of his popularity and also when Doctor Who was still in its golden era. The doctor and Leela arrived back in Victorian London during the time that Jack the Ripper was stalking around but the killer they run up against is far different. I really can't say enough about how great this story is as well as everybody's performance in it but particularly Tom's as the doctor. A superb script everything just gels together beautifully. This is absolutely loaded with special features the audio commentary is just the start of tons of extra features making up documentaries, cast members looking back on the show, and it goes on and on and on. You get to see actual studio recordings again that's just the tip of the iceberg if you are Doctor Who fan I can't see how you can not like this in fact you should love it. I certainly did and I highly recommend this

I love this dvd i have watched it 100 times already, tom baker is just an extrodinary actor very versitile and charasmatic he fits into the character of the Doctor like hand in glove. Despite the obvious racism in this story which critics and fans alike found distasteful, i found that this story was only trying to convey the sillines of victorian racism and not promoting it. This story had impecable humour,mystery, adventure, and really gloomy atmosphere which is the hallmark of the early tom baker serials. I love doctor who both the old serials and the new series because doctor who is not your ordinary run of the mill science fiction tv series where you have people blowing their enemies up or discussing mundane relationships between different groups of people trying to humanize the alien creatures they contact, no doctor who is about facing the unknown and trying to better understand the universe as it relates to time and history leaving the alien creatures as they are strange and forboding. This series shows us that the universe time and space are filled with wonders beyond our imagining.

Another case of purchasing a classic Dr Who serial from an Amazon vendor where what I received was a DVD-R of the program, not the actual commercially-pressed disc. While the DVD-R is playable, I have to play it in an external player rather than the regular one I would normally use. There's also a programming glitch where each time I insert the disc to watch more of the show, the 2 ads that the distributor put on the discs of this period keep coming back on. There's a software thing on them that doesn't allow one to skip or fast forward through those ads and it's quite annoying. I would say buyer beware with these--it's OK if you don't mind a DVD-R when you think you're paying for a used copy of the commercially produced product.

This is probably one of my favourite stories of classic Who, definitely in my Top 10 I would say. From the disturbing atmosphere, the authentic Victorian period costumes and atmosphere, it is brilliant. Leela shows her true competence as usual, she is definitely one of the most memorable companions. Louise Jameson balances well between Leela's naivety, strength and almost child like innocence very well. Tom Baker shines well as he usually does in his tenure as the Doctor, and he demonstrates a rather well adaptation of a Sherlock Holmes-like persona. I recommend this story to any classic Who fan, as well as, any fan looking to get into classic stories.

Best Dr Who adventure. Like Sherlock Holmes meets the TARDUS. Very atmospheric

La face avant est uniquement en anglais comme les autres dvd de la série. Ce n'est qu'à la réception du produit qu'on constate sur l'envers de la jaquette qu'il s'agit d'une version néerlandaise. Les sous-tires sont seulement dans cette langue. On peut les désactiver et regarder en version originale. Alors que dans les autres dvd de la série les sous-titres anglais (pour malentendants) permettent de saisir certains passages non directement compris à l'audition ce qui peut s'avérer très utile. Dommage.

Die BBC strahte "The Talons Of Weng Chiang" in 6 Teilen zu

je 25 Minuten, in der Zeit vom 26. Februar bis zum 2. April aus 1977.

Der Doctor und Leela landen imm London des 19. Jahrhunderts. Durch

einen Polizei Pathologen erfahren sie , daß eine Leiche, die in der Themse

gefunden wurde, Haare an der Kleidung hatte, die auf eine riesige Ratte

hinweisen.

Der Doctor findet heraus, daß es in der Londoner Kanalisation tatsächlich

riesige Ratten gibt.

Ein Zufall führt daraufhin zum Palast-Theater, in dem der Bühnenmagier

junge Mädchen für seinen "wie er ihn nennt" Meister, einem angeblich

chinesischen Gott Weng-Chiang, entführt. Bei Weng-Chiang handelt es

sich jedoch um einen gewissen Magnus Greel, einem Kriegsverbrecher aus

dem 51st Jahrhundert...

Doctor Who im Farbgewand: inmitten der damals in London, in der Blüte

stehenden Punk-Bewegung entstand unter der Regie von David Maloney

eine Doctor Who Folge, die die Thematik Sherlock Holmes hommagierte.

Dem englischen Fernsehzuschuer wurde ein absurdes, aber dennoch

durchdachtes Event geboten, welches diesen vor dem Fernseher fesselte

und zu Begeisterungsbekundungen aufrief.

Wie gewohnt sind auch hier die Effekte nicht 20th Century tauglich,

haben aber denoch ein bis dato unerreichtes kultiges Markenzeichen.

Die Qualität der DVD ist vom Bild wie vom Mono Sound akzeptabel.

Pflichtkauf für Freaks und Nostalgiker!

Possibly my favourite episode from Tom Baker's time. (There were so many and being in Canada I missed several.) Leela (Louise Jameson) was one of my favourite classic companions and did an excellent portrayal of tribeswoman-warrior dressed for genteel Victorian England. While top villain Weng-Chiang seemed moore pathetic than frightening, Deep Roy's role as Mr. Sin was truly terrifying; a wonderful performance that pushed the story from good to great. Here the Doctor adds his take to the Sherlock Holmes' mystery genre with his usual wit and charm.