The Talons of Weng-Chiang - Part 3
Leela throws a knife at Mr. Sin. It strikes him in the neck but it doesn't stop him. He keeps walking towards her with another knife in his hand. She dives out the window.
The Doctor arrives just in time to hear the commotion. Li H'sen Chang takes a shot at the Doctor with Professor Litefoot's pistol but he misses. The Doctor tells Leela to stay put and he goes looking for the professor. Leela doesn't do as he tells her. She instead follows Chang and Mr. Sin back to the Palace Theater.
Professor Litefoot tells the Doctor about what happened. The Doctor looks through the professor's collection of ancient antiquities and spots something incongruous. It is the time cabinet, which Chang and Sin were there to steal the night before.
Leela tails Chang, first as he reports in to his boss, the masked man, and then as he goes out to abduct more women. She changes places with one of the women he abducts. Change takes Leela and a cleaning woman down to the masked man. His boss isn't pleased with the woman, especially Leela who is very muscular.
The Doctor gets a large hunting rifle from Professor Litefoot and then rents a boat. The boat takes the Doctor and Litefoot to a sewer grate along the Thames. He tells Professor Litefoot to wait no more than two hours for him as he enters the sewers.
The woman whose place Leela took wakes up from the hypnotic trance in Chang's dressing room, unsure of where she is. She tries to leave the theater but when she sees the poster of Li H'Sen Chang she remembers what happened. She screams that it was him and runs out of the theater. Mr. Jago sees this and tells Casey, his assistant, that he's assisting the Doctor in the matter of the missing women. Neither man realizes that their conversation is overheard by Chang.
Leela waits until after Chang has left and the masked man is distracted. She tries attacking the masked man but he pulls a high tech ray gun on her. She escapes into the sewer. The masked man bangs on the gong which summons the giant rat. Leela takes off running but the giant rat catches her and starts to drag her away.
Thoughts
This story is about as much fun as I remember although I don't care for the anti-Chinese racism. Everyone, except Leela, seems to have something negative to say about Chinese people. The giant rat isn't terribly realistic but I knew what to expect in that department. The rat has played into two of the three cliffhangers so far. I don't recall exactly what the next two cliffhangers are although they might seem familiar when I see them.
So far it doesn't feel like there is any padding in this story. I hope that continues to be the case. They still haven't revealed the identity of the masked man. There have been some hints that he comes from the future but that's about it. The name Weng-Chiang has come up but there has yet to be an explanation of who he is.
Jago and Litefoot have yet to cross paths. I don't recall exactly when that happens but possibly not until the final episode of this story.
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