Comments on: In Praise Of: The Talons of Weng Chiang

By: Andrew

Andrew — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 20:37:35 +0000

…Yup, you are right, Alpha – City of Death is the best. I never thought about the bouquet line before; I really like the word play there!

I’ll stop there. Otherwise I could end up quoting whole story…

By: Draculasaurus

Draculasaurus — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 14:45:17 +0000

I haven’t seen the Two Doctors yet.
I’ve only been a Who fan since 2007, although I’ve plowed into the classic series with gusto, I’m really just now getting around to watching the 6th and 7th Doctors.
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I’ve really liked all the location shooting in the new series. I thought Dubai looked amazing. I know a lot of people thought that they should have just shot it on a British beach somewhere and saved money, but you can’t fake the unique quality that sunlight has at that latitude.
Vampires of Venice looked incredible as well. Definitely the most convincing foreign historical setting I’ve ever seen in Doctor Who.
Also special mention to Dreamland. It didn’t look real, or all that great, but they really sold the idea of the setting.
Although, why the Doctor would go to Nevada to get good chili is a mystery.

By: Chris Alpha

Chris Alpha — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 12:13:08 +0000

Oh that’s The Two Doctors, although that was because they’d originally planned to film it in the States, I think – and when that fell through they had to rewrite it to be set in Spain…

By: Roger

Roger — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 12:08:02 +0000

@Draculasaurus

I seem to rcall they did something similar with a Spanish Villa, once hired they effectively wrote the story around it, I have a vague memory of a Sontaran tripping over a sun lounger (though it may have been a different alien)

By: Chris Alpha

Chris Alpha — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 11:53:25 +0000

I agree with both of you about City of Death, although I like the scripts a lot more than you Roger… But that comes from basically swallowing everything Douglas Adams did with gleeful haste… I think we mentioned it at some point during the series, but City of Death has been spoken about by “insiders” as something of a template for the rebooted series – great pacing, great lines and good humour mixed at every turn with something to frighten. What do you think?

The Paris thing… the location shoot I tend to think of as quirky, at best. I don’t find it all that interesting and at times the dialogue makes me annoyed slightly (the whole “bouquet” bit really annoys me). But the rest of it is great if you ignore that. I’m sure Andy will put me right if I say something out of turn about City of Death…

The new series 2 parters, I think they work according to who writes them. I’m not sure the 2 by Helen Raynor have quite worked (Evolution of the Daleks and the Sontaran Stratagem), although the Sontarans was better, imo. I have… issues with the Cyberman one, although it’s OK. The Moff’s ones have been great, as was Paul Cornell’s Human Nature. Not sure there’s a real focus on character development these days though. If anything, the characters during RTD’s tenure (especially companions) seemed to regress rather than develop, presumably because they were all so relentlessly and unquestioningly in awe of the Doctor…

By: Draculasaurus

Draculasaurus — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 22:02:34 +0000

I love how “Talons” looks pretty standard, but it throws these wild concepts at you without warning, like the Peking Homunculus story and Time agents from the 51st century, and was that dance hall girl a prostitute as well!?
so much to love in there.
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Yeah, City of Death. I just watched that again the other day. What a brilliant script, such a shame it was let down by all that gratuitous Paris location footage.
Funny that they spent all that money going to Paris for the same story with that amazingly cool primordial earth studio set at the end.

By: Roger

Roger — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 14:13:02 +0000

I agree about the characterisation, but that is one of the advantages of spreading a story over 4 episodes. I’m not a big fan of much of city of death, it was a case of Paris for Paris’s sake in a lot of the establishing shots. There are some fine extras on some of the Tom Baker DVDs that give a real insight into the constuction and filming of episodes and series. I like the two parters in the reboot but I’m not sure they work as well as the old ones.

By: Chris Alpha

Chris Alpha — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 10:08:17 +0000

Oh I don’t for one minute think that there aren’t faults with it… and Fang Rock and Robots of Death are both also excellent, but they’re all different examples of Who stories. Talons, as a piece of drama, is definitely less tight than Robots. And it lacks a large amount of suspense due to the fact that the giant rat is an effect that didn’t quite work. But it’s no less Who than a lot of Pertwee episodes where an alien species is uncovered on earth, in my opinion… and isn’t as stretched out as much as stories like The Silurians, for example.

I think of Talons as being like a jigsaw of the Mona Lisa with a few bits missing – more of an incomplete masterpiece than something like Robots of Death. The characters like Jago and Litefoot start to add a little more of the humour we now remember fondly from the fourth doctor, but it in no way worked as well as City of Death in that respect. Thing is, it sort of makes me appreciate it more.

By: Roger

Roger — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 09:44:25 +0000

A good episode, but of the three not the best (IMHO) and I think for precisely the reasons you’ve given. It is a great detective story, but not a great Who episode. Fang Rock is great because of the suspense and Robots of Death is pure sci-fi. I like Leela and I liked her relationship with the Dr.