story as the main villain, Magnus Greel. He also provided the voice of Morbius in the previous season's The Brain of Morbius (1976). John Bennett had previously appeared in Doctor Who as General Finch in Invasion of the Dinosaurs (1974). Christopher Benjamin had previously appeared in Inferno (1970) as Sir Keith Gold and would return to play Colonel Hugh in "The Unicorn and the Wasp" (2008). Broadcast and reception Paul Cornell, Martin Day, and Keith Topping, in The Discontinuity Guide (1995), praised the double act of Jago and Litefoot and called the serial "One of the great moments of Doctor Who history – an effortless conquering of the pseudo-historical genre with a peerless script." In The Television Companion (1998), David J. Howe and Stephen James Walker were full of similar praise for the script, direction, the characters, and acting. Patrick Mulkern of Radio Times awarded it five stars out of five and wrote, "The Talons of Weng-Chiang as a whole is a scriptwriting tour de force. With its theatrical milieu, florid dramatis personae and high horror quotient, it makes for Doctor Who at its most blatantly Grand Guignol." The A.V. Club reviewer Christopher Bahn wrote that the story was good at "genre-blending" and homages. In Doctor Who: The Complete Guide, Mark Campbell awarded it seven out of ten, describing it as "groaning under the weight of so much clichéd Victoriana, Talons emerges as a garish hybrid of science fiction and literary pastiche. If watched in one go, the lack of subtlety can be draining." In 2008, The Daily Telegraph named the serial the best of the "10 greatest episodes of Doctor Who" up to that point, writing, "The top-notch characterisation, direction and performances, with Tom Baker at the top of his game, make this the perfect Doctor Who story." This story was voted the best Doctor Who story ever in the 2003 Outpost Gallifrey poll to mark the series' 40th anniversary, narrowly beating The Caves of Androzani. In Doctor Who Magazine 2009 "Mighty 200" poll, asking readers to rank all of the then-released 200 stories, The Talons of Weng-Chiang came in fourth place. In a similar poll in 2014, magazine readers ranked the episode in sixth place. Russell T Davies, lead writer and executive producer for Doctor Whos 21st-century revival, praised this serial, saying, "Take The Talons of Weng-Chiang, for example. Watch episode one. It's the best dialogue ever written.