| Production Code: 4S
First Transmitted
Crew
The Doctor and Leela arrive in London so that Leela can learn about the customs of her ancestors, specifically the musical theatre of Victorian England. Performing at the Palace Theatre on an extended run is the stage magician Li H'sen Chang, although the Doctor did hope to catch Little Tich. On their way to the Palace Theatre, the Doctor and Leela encounter a group of Chinese men who have apparently killed a cab driver. They attempt to silence the Doctor and Leela but are frightened away by the distant whistle of an approaching peeler. All but one escape, and he and the Doctor and Leela are taken to the local police station. At the station, Li H'sen Chang is called in to act as an interpreter, but unbeknownst to everyone else he is the leader of the group and he secretly gives the captive henchman a pill of concentrated scorpion venom which he takes immediately and dies. The Doctor, upon a brief examination of the body finds a scorpion tattoo – the symbol of the Tong of the Black Scorpion, devout followers of an ancient god Weng-Chiang. The body is taken to the local mortuary, along with the body of the cabbie which had just been found floating in the river. There they meet Professor Litefoot, who is performing the autopsies. The cabbie is Joseph Buller, who had been looking for his wife Emma, the latest in a string of missing women in the area. Buller had gone down to the Palace Theatre where he had confronted Chang about his wife's disappearance. Chang, knowing the truth, had sent his men, including the diminutive Mr Sin, to kill Buller. Chang is in the service of Magnus Greel, a despot from the 51st century who had fled from the authorities in a time cabinet. The technology of the cabinet is based on "zygma energy," which is unstable and has disrupted Greel's own DNA. This forces him to drain the life essences from young women to keep himself alive. At the same time, Greel is in search of his cabinet, taken from him by Chinese Imperial soldiers, and which in turn had been given by the Imperial Court to Professor Litefoot's parents as a gift. Mr Sin is also from the future but is a robotic toy constructed with the cerebral cortex of a pig. It is better known as the Peking Homunculus, a vile thing that almost caused World War Six when its organic pig part took over the toy's functions. Greel tracks down the time cabinet and steals it, whilst concurrently the Doctor tracks Greel to the sewers underneath the Palace Theatre, aided (rather clumsily) by the theatre's owner, Henry Gordon Jago. However, Greel has already fled his lair, abandoning Chang to the police. Chang escapes but only to be mauled by one of the giant rats – products of Greel's experiments which were then used to guard his sewer hideout. While the Doctor and Leela try to find Greel's new hideout, Jago comes across a bag of future technological artefacts, among which is the key to the time cabinet. He takes it to Professor Litefoot's house, and there, after leaving the artefacts and a note for the Doctor, the Professor and Jago set out to follow anyone coming around the Palace Theatre in search of the bag. However, they are captured for their efforts. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Leela happen upon Chang in an opium den; there, he tells them that Greel can be found in the House of the Dragon, but dies before telling them its exact location. The Doctor and Leela return to Professor Litefoot's house. There they find the note and the key to the time cabinet. They decide to wait for Greel and his henchmen. When they arrive, the Doctor uses the key, a fragile crystal, as a bargaining chip. He asks to be taken to the House of the Dragon, offering the key in exchange for Lightfoot's and Jago's release. Instead, Greel overpowers the Doctor and locks him in with the two amateur sleuths. Leela, who had been left at Litefoot's house at the Doctor's behest, has followed them and confronts Greel. She is captured and set in his life-essence extraction machine, a catalytic extraction chamber, but before her life essence is drained in order to feed Greel, the Doctor, Jago and Litefoot escape and rescue her. In a final confrontation, Mr Sin turns on Greel as the Doctor convinces it that Greel escaping in his time cabinet will create a catastrophic implosion. The Doctor defeats Greel by forcibly pushing him into his own catalytic extraction chamber thus damaging it and causing it to overload, and the Doctor defeats the Peking Homunculus by ripping its cerebral cortex from its toy-body...just in time for the coming dawn and the muffin man.
Analysis by Cuisle. One of the reasons why this story is such a success, is the host of one off characters that enrich it. Jago the music hall impresario who can play Trumpet Voluntary on a bowl of live goldfish is a sort of London version of Harold Ziddler of the Moulin Rouge, larger than life and though a slight coward, game for anything when it came to confronting the evil. Litefoot was another great character. A sort of prototype Doctor Watson. He took The Doctor and Leela into his confidence from the start, and like Jago, proved himself man enough for the challenge. Then there are the baddies. Li H'sen Chang, who has the power of mesmerism, the ventriloquist dummy that is, in fact, something more than that, a horrific mixture of robot and a pig brain with murderous intent. And of course their controller, Magnus Greel, a 51st century megalomaniac who was merely using both of them. The fact that we don’t fully see Greel until well into the story and Li H’sen and the dummy appear to be the main protagonist is good story telling. On first viewing knowing fans tend to think that this is The Master’s handiwork. The time cabinet and Li H’sen’s use of hypnotism point that way. But this is a whole new evil. There are, of course, some obvious cultural references in this story. Sherlock Holmes jumps to mind, not only because of The Doctor’s outfit. The Jack the Ripper stories are obviously referenced in the disappearance of young working class women. In the 70s, when this was first broadcast, and “The Good Old Days” was a popular TV variety show in the style of the music hall, the Palace Theatre and Jago would have had a more familiar feel than it does now. And of course Hammer style monster in the sewer, vampire stories round off the menace. There isn’t much that can be criticised about this story. It IS one of the best of the 1970s. It is gloriously atmospheric. The costumes, the scenes in the music hall, the dark, gloomy dockside London exteriors, all combine to make it one of the most distinctive and recognisable episodes. Rumour has it, incidentally, that Christopher Eccleston watched this one when he was working on how he would play the Ninth Doctor. If there is any truth in that, then hopefully he realised just how rich a heritage he was joining.
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