-My immediate thought is this serial, would *never* get made "in the current year". For one thing, Li H'Sen Chang, (one the villains in this story), is obviously (and hilariously) a white dude in yellow face.
View attachment 1105984
This doesn't even remotely make John Bennett's performance worse by the way. If anything, it makes it better. He's one of many highlights of the episode.
At one point Leela referred to him as "The yellow one." Even better, Chang himself at one point, while on stage performing a trick with the Doctor says to the crowd: "The bird has flown, one of us is yellow." Fantastic.
-The (seemingly actually Asian) extras that they have playing his henchmen have the most uncomfortable looks on their faces for the entire time that they're on screen, and individual members of his gang are referred to as "a Chinese," so many times (and I laughed every single time.) Also, there are a ton of "problematic" stereotypes, like saying that they're "all addicted to opium."
Chang himself even dies smoking opium in some random opium den. Take note BBC, more of this please. It's better than whatever the fuck it is that you're doing now.
-I was surprised by how relatively little time Jago and Litefoot actually spend together on screen. They don't even meet each other until episode 5 of 6... and it is a testament to Robert Holmes' writing, David Maloney's directing, and especially Christopher Benjamin and Trevor Baxter's acting, that by the end of it, I still totally buy that Jago and Litefoot became close friends after their shared ordeal, despite living in two entirely different social circles and monetary classes, at a time when that mattered a lot more than it does now.
-Their chemistry together is fantastic. I would have thought that Benjamin and Baxter had been life-long friends in real life before appearing in Talons, had I not heard (In the bonus features of their Big Finish spinoff) that they didn't know each other before the TV serial, and had very little contact with each other again until "Jago and Litefoot" became a thing some 33ish years later... and it makes me sad that they had to wait so long to get a proper spinoff. And even sadder still that they never got a chance to return to the show proper.
-Professor Litefoot is a straight up pimp in this. He owns multiple high calibers rifles, and isn't afraid to use them to defend his property and his bitches (well bitch, since it's just Leela) while wearing a pimp cape over his evening wear to boot. He still gets jumped by Deep Roy as Mister Sin though... RIP Trevor Baxter, you are missed.
-Henry Gordon Jago is just spectacular here. I am biased, as I've always liked him just a little bit more than Litefoot, but his mixture of confidence and cowardice is at its best here. I may have gotten some genuine feels when Jago finally admits to Litefoot that he isn't as confident as he pretends to be, and is in fact afraid near the end when it looked like the two of them were going to die. Rock of Gibralter indeed. (Though ironically, Jago actually *is* always courageous when it really counts, both in the Big Finish series and in this serial.)
-I know everybody loves Leela, but I usually don't. (Big surprise, right?) Surprisingly though, I actually don't mind her in this serial. Her interactions with Baker are genuinely sweet, and I think she gets to be humanized a lot here from how I'm used to seeing her portrayed. The initial idea of the Doctor trying to show the savage some culture from the history of her ancestors is a great one, and it was funny to me seeing her have to dress up like a lady and hating it. It was even funnier seeing her decidedly *not* acting like a lady when she eats a big chunk of meat right off the bone, and Litefoot (did I mention that he's a total pimp in this?) being the gentleman that he is, actually humors her by grabbing another chunk of meat and eating it the same way. Additionally, she actually seemed to be genuinely fearful after sneaking into, and then escaping from Weng Chiang's lair the first time. She even gets (momentarily) knocked out in a later episode when Chang's lackeys catch her off guard. It doesn't hurt that Louise Jameson was actually a fairly attractive woman back in the day. (I'll admit that I tend to forget that, as I'm much more used to listening to her in Big Finish audios. I've only seen a few of her 4th Doctor TV episodes outside of Talons tbh.) But yeah, Smash or pass on 1977 Louise Jameson? Easy smash for me.
-Speaking of the 4th Doctor, I like Tom Baker as the Doctor, I swear I do... Maybe just a tiny bit less than most everyone else seems to.
Ok, so I do think he's just a *bit* overrated. He's perfectly fine, but there are multiple Doctors I like more than him... He isn't even my favorite Doctor with the surname of "Baker." But I never hid my love of Sixie. But he is on point here. He rocks a Sherlock Holmes cosplay for the entirety of the serial, for seemingly no reason at all, and he makes it work. He's actually more serious than I'm used to seeing 4 all throughout... (But he is still a bit silly a few times.)
-Probably the weakest part of this episode for me, (aside from the shitty giant rat effects, which I'll forgive because 70's and BBC,) was the main villain himself, Weng Chiang
I mean, tyrant from he future, Magnus Greel. He isn't offensively bad or anything, he's perfectly passable in this story, and Big Finish sure has gotten a lot of mileage out of him over the years, but even with my limited knowledge of early Doctor Who episodes, he's a classic Who stereotype. Every time he spoke he reminded me of this:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=CR8SQyqV6TQ
Also, he wore a mask for most of the serial (smart) But when Leela pulled his mask off, he looked like this:
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Dumb.
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