3. Talons Of Weng-Chiang
General Plot: The Doctor and Leela arrives in Nineteenth Century where young girls are being kidnapped off the street and people are being murdered by a mysterious Chinese cult. At the centre of the mystery lies magician of a London theatre, Li H'sen Chang, who believes he serves the God Weng-Chiang. Weng-Chiang is in fact a dying and mangled warlord from the 51st Century named Magnus Greel. Aided by the cowardly theatre owner Henry Gordon Jago and the refined police pathologist Professor Litefoot, The Doctor and Leela must find out why the girls have gone missing and to prevent Greel returning to the future.
What Makes It Great: This is as close to a Doctor Who meets Sherlock Holmes episode as you will ever hope to find, and The Doctor is even dressed in a Sherlock-inspired version of his costume. It's a classic Victorian murder mystery but with a Doctor Who twist, magnificently delivered by Robert Holmes, who is responsible in the majority of stories on this list. The Doctor and Leela arrive in London in the 1890s to go to the theatre. On route, they discover a murder. The victim is a man who moments earlier had been at the theatre accusing the headline act, mysterious magician Li H'sen Chang of kidnapping his wife. The Doctor starts to investigate the disappearances of her and other disappearing women. Alongside pathologist Professor Litefoot, he discovers that the victim was killed by a knife wound to the heart, before being attacked by a giant rodent and then dumped in the river. His enquiries leads him and Leela to the sewers, where they encounter large and dangerous rats. The Doctor deduces that the Chinese God Weng-Chiang was the god of growth, which makes him wonder, with the Chang and his gang being Chinese, whether they are being duped into believing that their orders are coming from a God. This use of Chinese mythology, as with the Egyptian mythology in Pyramids of Mars, is used to a successfully sinister effect. This story features a fantastic supporting cast, and three iconic one-episode villains. Magnus Greel, the 51st Century Warlord posing as Weng-Chiang to get the creepy Li H'sen Chang to do his bidding in abducting more women to aid his rejuvenating experiments is magnificent and while Chang is sinister, he's given interesting depth when you realise he is being tricked into becoming a religious fanatic by a madman. When he realises his mistake despite nearly being too late, he does impart some knowledge to the Doctor showing that he was misguided, rather than being rotten to the core like Greel. It would be fascinating to see how and why Greel left the 51st Century we know he was a warlord nicknamed the 'Butcher of Brisbane', but these stories have never been developed, and I think it would be great to see him make a comeback in the New Series. The third villain is Mr. Sin, also known as the Peking Homunculus (seriously, that is an awesome name!) a disturbing doll who did the bidding of both Chang and Greel. This doll must have given the children of 1970s nightmares, as he is creepy personified. Even today, there is still something unnerving about him and his evil cackle, which from a production and characterisation standpoint, is brilliant. The three villains just go to reinforce and embody the dark and Gothic direction the show was in under producer Phillip Hinchcliffe. One of the most delightful aspects of the story is the Doctor's two allies, Professor Litefoot and Henry Gordon Jago. They were brilliantly written and were acted superbly by Trevor Baxter and Christopher Benjamin respectively. Despite only appearing once, they have become firm fan favourites and have recently got their own Big Finish Audio spin-off series, teaming up as investigators following their adventure with the Doctor. Their electric charisma and charm as well their fantastic rapport with each other and the Doctor and Leela have catapulted them into Doctor Who folklore as two of the best companions that never were. It would be brilliant to see them again The gang of Vastra, Jenny and Strax are set in Victorian England as a detective agency, so it would be fantastic to see the gang meet up with Jago and Litefoot. They need to make a reappearance as they are one of the reasons this story is considered as one of the all-time greatest stories in the shows 50 year history.
Memorable Quote:The Doctor: Hah! Do you know what this is?
Leela: You ask me so that you can tell me!
The Doctor: Exactly.