 This story was written by Robert Holmes from an idea entitled "The Foe from the Future", by Robert Banks Stewart (who received no on-screen credit), as well as containing references and ideas ‘borrowed’ from Sherlock Holmes, The Phantom of the Opera and numerous Fu Manchu films.
The Doctor is dressed in a similar way as the stereotype Sherlock Holmes caricature (including the characteristic deerstalker hat), from the novels by Arthur Conan Doyle, and uses sayings and mannerisms similar to Sherlock Holmes. The era and location, which the story is set is late Victorian London. Professor Litefoot is a similar character to Sherlock Holmes’ colleague Dr Watson and he has a housekeeper called Mrs Hudson (who is the housekeeper at 221b Baker Street in the Sherlock Holmes novels). At one point The Doctor is heard even to say to Professor Litefoot ‘...elementary my dear Litefoot’.
Magnus Greel’s character is very reminiscent of the main character in Gaston Leroux’s novel "The Phantom of the Opera" - in particular to a hideously deformed character living beneath a 19th century theatre who tries to convinces others that he is a spirit rather than a man and the climactic scene in which the mask, being used to hide a deformed face, is torn off to reveal his true face.
Li H’sen Chang is reminiscent of Fu Manchu, the villain of a series of novels by Sax Rohmer, and the giant rat is reminiscent of animals grown to enormous size in the H. G. Wells novel "Food of the Gods".
This was the final Doctor Who story produced by Philip Hinchcliffe, who went on to a successful television career. He took the helm of the police drama Target. He continued to build an extensive resume of programmes on which he served as either Producer or Executive Producer, including Private Schulz, Nancy Astor and Taggart. He also contributed to three stories in the Target Books’ range of Doctor Who novelisations. Philip Hinchcliffe was succeeded by Graham Williams as the show’s Producer, who sat in on this story's production.
This story also brought to an end Director David Maloney’s association with the show. He soon became a Producer, taking the reigns of show such as Blake's 7 and the 1981 version of The Day Of The Triffids. He also continued to direct on shows including Blake's 7, Juliet Bravo and Play For Today.
Production Unit Manager Chris D'Oyly-John was replaced for the final leg of production schedule of this story by John Nathan-Turner. This is John Nathan-Turner first Doctor Who work as a Production Unit Manager. John Nathan-Turner would later succeed Graham Williams as the show's Producer from 1980 to 1989 - the final Producer until the show was revived in 2005.
Regular Doctor Who composer Dudley Simpson (who composed much of the incidental music for Doctor Who in the 1960’s, 1970’s and 1980’s) had a cameo role as the conductor of the Palace Theatre’s orchestra.
Being Philip Hinchcliffe’s final Doctor Who story, as Producer, and with the possibility of Robert Holmes also leaving the show at the end of the current season, Philip Hinchcliffe decided to throw caution to the wind and spend record amounts on the production, utilising many different locations as well as agreeing to expensive night time shoots.
Filming for the story mainly took place in Wapping, London. The interior shots of the theatre were recorded using outside broadcasting cameras during four days spent at the Royal Theatre in Northampton. Also in a rare instance in Doctor Who the location material was captured directly on videotape.
John Bennett, who plays the part of Li H’sen Chang, had previously appeared as General Finch in the 1974 Third Doctor story "Invasion of the Dinosaurs".
Michael Spice, who plays the main villain Magnus Greel, also provided the voice of Morbius in the previous season’s story "The Brain of Morbius".
Christopher Benjamin, who plays the part of Henry Gordon Jago, had previously appeared as Sir Keith Gold in the 1970 Third Doctor story "Inferno". He would return to play Colonel Hugh in the 2008 Tenth Doctor story "The Unicorn and the Wasp".
Deep Roy, who played Mr. Sin, had an uncredited role as an unnamed alien trade delegate in the 1986 Sixth Doctor story "Mindwarp" - that was part of the The Trial of a Time Lord season.
This is the only story of the Fourth Doctor’s era in which The Doctor does not wear his famous trademark long scarf. Instead his attire resembles that of Sherlock Holmes. This is also one of two stories in which Leela does not wear her ‘savage’ Sevateem costume - the other story being next season’s opening story "Horror of Fang Rock". According to the textual information track on the DVD release, this change in her costume (to wearing period garb) was supposed to be permanent as The Doctor and Leela established a Professor Higgins/Eliza Doolittle-style relationship, but this idea was soon dropped.
At one point, The Doctor empties his pockets, revealing a number of odds and ends, including a bag of his trademark jelly babies.
The Doctor is heard to state that he was in China 400 years ago. The previous story where he was in China was the 1964 First Doctor story "Marco Polo".
There are several references to the events of the 51st century where Magnus Greel was ‘the infamous Minister of Justice. The butcher of Brisbane’. The Peking Homunculus was made for the Commissioner of the Icelandic Alliance's children in ‘the Ice Age around the year 5000’. In this story it is not stated who actually created the homunculus, which contained ‘a series of magnetic fields operating on a printed circuit... It had one organic component, the cerebral cortex of a pig’. The Doctor further states that ‘the pig part took over’ and that this almost caused World War Six.
It is revealed that Magnus Greel’s time experiments were powered by Zygma energy.
Because the script called for Li H’sen Chang to perform some magic tricks on stage during parts one and four, two advisers were brought in to assist. Also when Li H’sen Chang calls The Doctor to the stage, there is a short musical excerpt from Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Mikado".
Look out for the scene where Weng-Chiang searches for the time cabinet. The pile of straw seen in the road was placed there to hide a modern car which had, despite requests to the contrary, been parked in the road prior to filming.
At a very late stage, it was decided to alter part five’s cliffhanger. Originally, this was to have Magnus Greel threatening The Doctor with Leela’s death at the hands of Mr. Sin, but this material was shifted to the next episode so that part five would end with the revealing of the villain’s face instead.
This story has aroused some controversy, mainly in North America, because of its alleged racism. Namely some of the English characters displaying racist attitudes towards the Chinese characters, while the Chinese immigrants themselves are portrayed in a stereotypical fashion - other than Li H'sen Chang (a major villain who is himself akin to Fu Manchu, but portrayed by a Caucasian - another source of criticism) all of the Chinese characters are coolies or members of Tong gangs. In Canada, as a result of complaints after its initial broadcast, it was not shown again when that year’s season was rerun and at least two US stations, including in Los Angeles, banned the story from broadcast outright.
The making of this story was examined in detail in The Lively Arts documentary "Whose Doctor Who" in 1977. Presented by Melvyn Bragg, this BBC Two documentary looked back at the history of the show and its psychological impact on viewers, particularly children. It includes interviews with Tom Baker, Philip Hinchcliffe and fans of the show. It was the first in-depth documentary made by the BBC on the show and was transmitted on the 3rd April 1977 - the day following the broadcast of the final episode of this story.
A spin-off series with Henry Gordon Jago and Professor Litefoot involving the two investigating mysteries in Victorian England was discussed, but ultimately was never made. However, The Doctor encounters Professor Litefoot again in the BBC Book’s The Eighth Doctor Stories novel "The Bodysnatchers", written by Mark Morris, although the Eighth Doctor naturally claims to merely be an ‘associate’ of the Fourth Doctor rather than revealing that he is the same man. Henry Gordon Jago and Professor Litefoot do, however, have at least on other adventure, but without The Doctor’s help. This is related in the Big Finish Productions audio drama "The Mahogany Murderers" in which both Henry Gordon Jago and Professor Litefoot are played by the original actors, Christopher Benjamin and Trevor Baxter.
Virgin Book’s The Missing Adventures novel "The Shadow of Weng-Chiang", written by David McIntee, is a sequel to this story, where The Doctor confronts the after affects of this story’s events and again features Mr. Sin, this time under the control of Li H’sen Chang’s daughter Hsien-Ko.
The events surrounding Magnus Greel and his time experiments are shown in some detail in the BBC Book’s The Eighth Doctor Stories novels "Eater of Wasps" and "Emotional Chemistry". The Time Agents who pursue Magnus Greel are also featured. Interestingly former companion of the Ninth Doctor and the Tenth Doctor, and leader of Torchwood, Captain Jack Harkness identified himself as an ex-Time Agent also from the 51st century.
The BBC VHS release of this story was previously only available in Australia. The story was released in omnibus format in 1988 and was one of three stories released on VHS as a compilation that never had an episodic VHS re-release. (The other two being the 1969 Second Doctor story "The Seeds of Death" and the 1973/74 Third Doctor story "The Time Warrior"). In order to obtain a "PG" rating from the BBFC, the VHS release had some slight edits to remove the use of nunchukas during the fight scene between The Doctor and the Tong of the Black Scorpion in Part One, as these were at the time classed as illegal weapons in the UK and so couldn’t be shown on-screen. This ruling has since been relaxed, and the sequence appears intact on the DVD release.
The DVD release in April 2003 was part of The Doctor Who 40th Anniversary Celebration releases and included the 1977 "Whose Doctor Who" documentary, a 24 minutes "Behind the Scenes" documentary including studio footage and an 11-minute interview with Philip Hinchcliffe.
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The Firsts:
The first, and only, story that the Fourth Doctor does not wear his famous trademark long scarf.
The first of only two stories in which Leela does not wear her ‘savage’ Sevateem costume.
The first story to have an in-depth documentary made into its making.
John Nathan-Turner's first involvement in the show as Production Unit Manager.
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(Position = 2 out of 159)
(Position = 4 out of 200)
(Position = 6 out of 241)
