82.67%
Its difficult to believe that there was a time when the BBC were reluctant to release this story on home video, in the UK. At least, so it was rumoured. That rumour further went on to state that BBC Home Video did not believe that a Doctor Who video bearing the PG certification would sell well. This was the first video release to be rated PG and I can remember various fan magazines offering extortionately priced copies imported from Australia - where it had been released. For my own part, I wrote to BBC Video every few weeks arguing that it should be released. Whether or not there was any truth to the rumours and whether or not the efforts of fans like myself amounted to anything, The Talons of Weng Chiang finally surfaced on BBC Video in the UK over a year after its Australian release. True, a number of scenes had been cut but it was a chance to see this classic adventure.

Thankfully, the DVD release sees an uncut story in episodic format for the first time. I always thought it was quite amusing that one cut scene had involved the Doctor getting into a locked room by poking the key out of the keyhole and onto a paper shoved under the door. Apparently it had been cut as it was feared that children might copy this action. I seem to recall reading about this trick in at least one Enid Blyton book but I don't recall any bans on those (well, not the Five Find-Outers anyway).

As to the story itself - once again, an excellent story is helped along with excellent direction and performances. Setting aside the giant rat and the fact that a caucasian actor portrays the main Asian character, there is little to fault this story. It has often been remarked that it draws upon a number of sources - Phantom of the Opera, Fu Manchu and Sherlock Holmes. However, it is never as derivative as other series which tend to wink at the audience and ask "can you guess what we are aping?". This is a very good story and continues to be as enjoyable on repeated viewings as on first viewing.