“Have I ever, in my thirty years in the halls, seen such a dazzling display of lustrous legerdemain? So many feats of superlative, supernatural skill? The answer must be never, sir. Never.” Most likely to be described as ‘a product of its time’, The Talons of Weng-Chiang has been hailed as the best Doctor Who story ever written, and maligned as blatant sinophobia. No other story has had more requests to consider it in its proper historical context, but perhaps equally important is how that context affects our relationship with the story today.