Country UK
Format Paperback
Publisher Target Books
Publication Date November 1977
Original Price 60p
ISBN 0426119738
Cover Artist Jeff Cummins
Book Number (No.61)
A novelisation of the 1977 television story The Talons of Weng-Chiang, featuring the Fourth Doctor and Leela.
Later Target reprints would be numbered No.61 in the Doctor Who Library.
Back Cover Blurb
Stepping out of the Tardis into Victorian London, Leela and the Doctor are confronted by menacing, diabolical horrors shrouded within the swirling London fog — a man's death cry, an attack by Chinese Tong hatchet men, giant rats roaming the sewers, young women mysteriously disappearing...
The hideously deformed Magnus Greel, conducting a desperate search for the lost Time Cabinet, is the instigator of all this evil. Posing as the Chinese god, Weng-Chiang, Greel uses the crafty Chang, and the midget manikin, Mr Sin, to achieve his terrifying objectives.
The Doctor must use all his skill, energy and intelligence to escape the talons of Weng-Chiang.
Other Editions
UK | Hardback | Allan Wingate | November 1977 | £2.95 | 085523170X
Released simultaneously with the paperback edition from Target Books.
United States | Paperback | Pinnacle Books | September 1979 | $1.75 | 052340638X | #7
One of ten novelisations to be reprinted in the United States by Pinnacle Books between 1979 and 1980. All ten books featured new cover artwork by David Mann and were accompanied by an introduction from US science fiction writer Harlan Ellison.
It's the Victorian London of Sherlock Holmes. Shrouded in the swirling mists, Doctor Who confronts diabolical horrors as he unravels the mystery surrounding the disappearance of several young women.
Doctor Who learns a Chinese magician, the crafty Chang, and his weird midget manikin, Mr. Sin, are mere puppets in the hands of the hideously deformed Greel, posing as the Chinese god, Weng-Chiang. It is Greel who steals the young women; it is Greel who grooms sewer rats to do his bidding — but there is even more, much more...
Will Doctor Who solve the Chinese puzzle in time to escape the terrifying talons of Weng-Chiang?
UK | Paperback | Target Books | March 1994 | £3.99 | 0426119738 | No.61
A new edition of the novelisation, with new cover art from Alister Pearson.
UK | CD | AudioGO | January 2013 | £13.25 | 978-1445826073
Unabridged reading of the novelisation, narrated by Christopher Benjamin, who played Jago in the original television story.
Television Story
The Talons of Weng-Chiang
6 × 25 Minutes | BBC1 | Colour
26/02/77 Episode One Robert Holmes
05/03/77 Episode Two Robert Holmes
12/03/77 Episode Three Robert Holmes
19/03/77 Episode Four Robert Holmes
26/03/77 Episode Five Robert Holmes
02/04/77 Episode Six Robert Holmes
Notes
- A script book based on The Talons of Weng-Chiang was published by Titan Books in November 1989, although it was one of a number which featured a transcript of the dialogue which was spoken on screen, rather than Robert Holmes' original script.
- The Shadow of Weng-Chiang, a sequel to The Talons of Weng-Chiang written by David A McIntee, was published in 1996 and saw the return of Mr Sin and the introduction of Hsien-Ko, the daughter of Li H'sen Chang.
- The character of Professor Litefoot re-appeared in Mark Morris's 1997 Eighth Doctor Adventures novel The Bodysnatchers, and was teamed up once more with Henry Gordon Jago in the 2009 Companion Chronicles audiobook The Mahogany Murders, written by Andy Lane and published by Big Finish Productions. The latter proved so popular that a spin-off series of audio adventures began just over a year later under the title Jago & Litefoot, with both Christopher Benjamin and Trevor Baxter reprising their 1977 roles.
- Simon A Forward's Emotional Chemistry, a book in the Eighth Doctor Adventures series published in October 2003, filled in some of the background details of the conflict from which the war criminal Magnus Greel had fled.