Doctor Who: Every Tom Baker/Hinchcliffe Era Story Ranked From Worst To Best

5. The Talons Of Weng-Chiang

While the main feature of the Deadly Assassin was the world, with the characters second, this story feels much more like the characters came first with the setting as more of a backdrop which produced them. This was the final story of the Hinchcliffe era and he was more than happy to hammer it into shape by throwing money at it. This was the only one to have a night shoot and the large amounts of locations really bring the world to life by giving the amazingly empathetic characters an ever-increasing supply of fresh situations for them to shine in. One of these locations is an Opium den, plus the main villain stays alive by drinking kidnapped women and reducing them to their life essence. Fox was going to remake this serial in the 90s as part of their planned reboot and they would probably have omitted most of these elements. They would have even cut one of the best scenes of the story, the incredible €œMost Gentlemanly Torture Session Ever€ in episode five. Which would have been a shame. It was the radical elements like these which made the Hinchcliffe era strong and they give this story the darkly humorous edge it very almost perfects.