10 Most Bizarre Doctor Who Moments

7. Leela And The Giant Rat (The Talons Of Weng-Chiang)

Doctor Who The Talons Of Weng-Chiang giant rat
BBC

On the subject of dodgy classic effects, this example from the 1977 serial The Talons Of Weng-Chiang is right up there on the WTF scale.

At several points throughout this famous Fourth Doctor adventure, our heroes bump into a giant rat, which has been created by the warlord Magnus Greel, and used as a guard dog, roaming the sewers. At one point, a rat chases after Leela and tries to drag her away, forcing the Doctor to kill it with a well-aimed gunshot.

A lot of people are frightened of rats so this was a good idea on paper, but in practice, it looks about as convincing as you'd expect for a serial that aired over 40 years ago. It looks like one of those small fluffy toys you'd get for your cat to chew on, which has then been scaled up like the tank was. It looks hilarious.

The giant rat has been called one of the worst-realised monsters in the show's history, a title it's definitely worthy of. It was even replaced by a CGI version in the 2020 blu-ray release of Season 14, which was a significant improvement.

As for the original rat, some of those shots have clearly been darkened in an attempt to hide how laughable it looks, but you know what they say... you can't polish a turd.

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Contributor

Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!