To Top
[ Books | Comics | Dr Who | Kites | Model Trains | Music | Sooners | People | RVC | Shows | Stamps | USA ]
[ About | Terminology | Legend | Blog | Quotes | Links | Stats | Updates | Settings ]

Book Details

Doctor Who and the Talons of Weng-Chiang

71.4% complete
1977
1982
1 time
See 15
1 - Terror in the Fog
2 - The Horror in the River
3 - Death of a Prisoner
4 - The Monster in the Tunnel
5 - The Quest of Greel
6 - The Tong Attacks
7 - The Lair of Weng-Chiang
8 - The Sacrifice
9 - In the Jaws of the Rat
10 - The Plan to Kill the Doctor
11 - Death on Stage
12 - The Hunt for Greel
13 - The House of the Dragon
14 - The Prisoners of Greel
15 - The Firebomb
Book Cover
Has a genre Has a year read Has a rating In my library In a series 
1053
 Doctor Who - Novelizations (UK)*
#61 of 157
Doctor Who - Novelizations (UK)*     See series as if on a bookshelf
The original Target novelizations for the television show Doctor Who.

1) Doctor Who and the Abominable Snowmen
2) Doctor Who and the Android Invasion
3) Doctor Who and the Androids of Tara
4) Doctor Who and the Ark in Space
5) Doctor Who and the Armageddon Factor
6) Doctor Who and the Auton Invasion
7) Doctor Who and the Brain of Morbius
8) Doctor Who and the Carnival of Monsters
9) Doctor Who and the Cave Monsters
10) Doctor Who and the Claws of Axos
11) Doctor Who and the Creature from the Pit
12) Doctor Who and the Crusaders
13) Doctor Who and the Curse of Peladon
14) Doctor Who and the Cybermen
15) Doctor Who and the Daemons
16) Doctor Who and the Daleks
17) Doctor Who and the Dalek Invasion of Earth
18) Doctor Who and the Day of the Daleks
19) Doctor Who and the Deadly Assassin
20) Doctor Who - Death to the Daleks
21) Doctor Who and the Destiny of the Daleks
22) Doctor Who and the Dinosaur Invasion
23) Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon
24) Doctor Who and the Enemy of the World
25) Doctor Who and the Face of Evil
26) Doctor Who - Full Circle
27) Doctor Who and the Genesis of the Daleks
28) Doctor Who and the Giant Robot
29) Doctor Who and the Green Death
30) Doctor Who and the Hand of Fear
31) Doctor Who and the Horns of Nimon
32) Doctor Who and the Horror of Fang Rock
33) Doctor Who and the Ice Warriors
34) Doctor Who and the Image of the Fendahl
35) Doctor Who and the Invasion of Time
36) Doctor Who and the Invisible Enemy
37) Doctor Who and the Keeper of Traken
38) Doctor Who and the Keys of Marinus
39) Doctor Who and the Leisure Hive
40) Doctor Who and the Loch Ness Monster
41) Doctor Who - Logopolis
42) Doctor Who and the Masque of Mandragora
43) Doctor Who and the Monster of Peladon
44) Doctor Who and the Mutants
45) Doctor Who and the Nightmare of Eden
46) Doctor Who and the Planet of the Daleks
47) Doctor Who and the Planet of Evil
48) Doctor Who and the Planet of the Spiders
49) Doctor Who and the Power of Kroll
50) Doctor Who and the Pyramids of Mars
51) Doctor Who and the Revenge of the Cybermen
52) Doctor Who and the Ribos Operation
53) Doctor Who and the Robots of Death
54) Doctor Who and the Sea-Devils
55) Doctor Who and the Seeds of Doom
56) Doctor Who and the Sontaran Experiment
57) Doctor Who and the Space War
58) Doctor Who and the State of Decay
59) Doctor Who and the Stones of Blood
60) Doctor Who and the Sunmakers
61) Doctor Who and the Talons of Weng-Chiang
62) Doctor Who and the Tenth Planet
63) Doctor Who and the Terror of the Autons
64) Doctor Who - The Three Doctors
65) Doctor Who and the Time Warrior
66) Doctor Who and the Tomb of the Cybermen
67) Doctor Who and the Underworld
68) Doctor Who and an Unearthly Child
69) Doctor Who and the Visitation
70) Doctor Who and the War Games
71) Doctor Who and Warriors' Gate
72) Doctor Who and the Web of Fear
73) Doctor Who and the Zarbi
74) Doctor Who - Time-Flight
75) Doctor Who - Meglos
76) Doctor Who - Castrovalva
77) Doctor Who - Four to Doomsday
78) Doctor Who - Earthshock
79) Doctor Who - Terminus
80) Doctor Who - Arc of Infinity
81) Doctor Who - The Five Doctors
82) Doctor Who - Mawdryn Undead
83) Doctor Who - Snakedance
84) Doctor Who - Kinda
85) Doctor Who - Enlightenment
86) Doctor Who - The Dominators
87) Doctor Who - Warriors of the Deep
88) Doctor Who - The Aztecs
89) Doctor Who - Inferno
90) Doctor Who - The Highlanders
91) Doctor Who - Frontios
92) Doctor Who - The Caves of Androzani
93) Doctor Who - Planet of Fire
94) Doctor Who - Marco Polo
95) Doctor Who - The Awakening
96) Doctor Who - The Mind of Evil
97) Doctor Who - The Myth Makers
98) Doctor Who - The Invasion
99) Doctor Who - The Krotons
100) Doctor Who - The Two Doctors
101) Doctor Who - The Gunfighters
102) Doctor Who - The Time Monster
103) Doctor Who - The Twin Dilemma
104) Doctor Who - Galaxy Four
105) Doctor Who - Timelash
106) Doctor Who - Vengeance on Varos
107) Doctor Who - The Mark of the Rani
108) Doctor Who - The King's Demons
109) Doctor Who - The Savages
110) Doctor Who - Fury from the Deep
111) Doctor Who - The Celestial Toymaker
112) Doctor Who - The Seeds of Death
113) Doctor Who - Black Orchid
114) Doctor Who - The Ark
115) Doctor Who - The Mind Robber
116) Doctor Who - The Faceless Ones
117) Doctor Who - The Space Museum
118) Doctor Who - The Sensorites
119) Doctor Who - The Reign of Terror
120) Doctor Who - The Romans
121) Doctor Who - The Ambassadors of Death
122) Doctor Who - The Massacre
123) Doctor Who - The Macra Terror
124) Doctor Who - The Rescue
125) Doctor Who - Terror of the Vervoids
126) Doctor Who - The Time Meddler
127) Doctor Who - The Mysterious Planet
128) Doctor Who - Time and the Rani
129) Doctor Who - The Underwater Menace
130) Doctor Who - The Wheel in Space
131) Doctor Who - The Ultimate Foe
132) Doctor Who - The Edge of Destruction
133) Doctor Who - The Smugglers
134) Doctor Who - Paradise Towers
135) Doctor Who - Delta and the Bannermen
136) Doctor Who - The War Machines
137) Doctor Who - Dragonfire
138) Doctor Who - Attack of the Cybermen
139) Doctor Who - Mindwarp
140) Doctor Who - The Chase
141) Doctor Who - Mission to the Unknown
142) Doctor Who - The Mutation of Time
143) Doctor Who - Silver Nemesis
144) Doctor Who - The Greatest Show in the Galaxy
145) Doctor Who - Planet of Giants
146) Doctor Who - The Happiness Patrol
147) Doctor Who - The Space Pirates
148) Doctor Who - Remembrance of the Daleks
149) Doctor Who - Ghost Light
150) Doctor Who - Survival
151) Doctor Who - The Curse of Fenric
152) Doctor Who - Battlefield
153) Doctor Who - The Pescatons
154) Doctor Who - The Power of the Daleks
155) Doctor Who - The Evil of the Daleks
156) Doctor Who - The Paradise of Death
157) Doctor Who

 Doctor Who - Novelizations (US)
#7 of 10
Doctor Who - Novelizations (US)     See series as if on a bookshelf
A ten book set of Doctor Who novelizations reprinted in the United States by Pinnacle from the original Target versions printed in the the UK.

1) Doctor Who and the Day of the Daleks
2) Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon
3) Doctor Who and the Dinosaur Invasion
4) Doctor Who and the Genesis of the Daleks
5) Doctor Who and the Revenge of the Cybermen
6) Doctor Who and the Loch Ness Monster
7) Doctor Who and the Talons of Weng-Chiang
8) Doctor Who and the Masque of Mandragora
9) Doctor Who and the Android Invasion
10) Doctor Who and the Seeds of Doom
Copyright © 1977 by Terrance Dicks and Robert Holmes
No dedication.
They were having a good night at the Palace.
May contain spoilers
Chang's face stared out from the poster as their footsteps faded away into the fog.
No comments on file
Extract not on file

 

Added: 01-Jan-2001
Last Updated: 22-Nov-2024

Publications

 15-Nov-1977
Target
Has a cover imageBook Edition Cover
Date Issued:
15-Nov-1977
Internal ID:
1107
Publisher:
ISBN:
0-426-11973-8
ISBN-13:
978-0-426-11973-9
Country:
United Kingdom
Language:
English
Credits:
Jeff Cummins  - Cover Artist
Stepping out of the Tardis into Victorian London, Leela and the Doctor are confronted by menacing, diabolical horrors shrouded within the swirling London fog - a man's death cry, an attack by Chinese Tong hatchet men, giant rats roaming the sewers, young women mysteriously disappearing... The hideously deformed Magnus Greel, conducting a desperate search for the lost Time Cabinet, is the instigator of all this evil. Posing as the Chinese god, Weng-Chiang, Greel uses the crafty Chang, and the midget manikin, Mr. Sin, to achieve his terrifying objectives. The Doctor must use all his skill, energy and intelligence to escape the talons of Weng-Chiang.
Cover:
Book Cover
Notes and Comments:
 01-Sep-1979
Pinnacle
Mass Market Paperback
In my libraryI read this editionOrder from amazon.comHas a cover imageBook Edition Cover
Date Issued:
Cir 01-Sep-1979
Format:
Mass Market Paperback
Cover Price:
$1.75
Pages*:
141
Read:
Once
Internal ID:
979
Publisher:
ISBN:
0-523-40638-X
ISBN-13:
978-0-523-40638-1
Printing:
2
Country:
United States
Language:
English
Credits:
David Mann  - Cover Artist
TERROR IN THE FOG


It's the Victorian London of Sherlock Holmes. Shrouded in the swirling mists, Doctor Who confronts diabolical horrors as he unravels the mystery surrounding the disappearance of several young women.

Doctor Who learns a Chinese magician, the crafty Chang, and his weird midget manikin, Mr. Sin, are mere puppets in the hands of the hideously deformed Greel, posing as the Chinese god, Weng-Chiang. It is Greel who steals the young women; it is Greel who grooms sewer rats to do his bidding - but there is even more, much more....

Will Doctor Who solve the Chinese puzzle in time to escape the terrifying talons of Weng-Chiang?
Cover:
Book CoverBook Back Cover
Notes and Comments:
For Pinnacle editions:
First printing, September 1979
Second printing, September 1979
 01-Apr-1989
Pinnacle
Mass Market Paperback
Has a cover imageBook Edition Cover
Date Issued:
Cir 01-Apr-1989
Format:
Mass Market Paperback
Cover Price:
$3.50
Pages*:
141
Internal ID:
43771
Publisher:
ISBN:
Unknown
Country:
United States
Language:
English
Credits:
David Mann  - Cover Artist
TERROR IN THE FOG


It's the Victorian London of Sherlock Holmes. Shrouded in the swirling mists, Doctor Who confronts diabolical horrors as he unravels the mystery surrounding the disappearance of several young women.

Doctor Who learns a Chinese magician, the crafty Chang, and his weird midget manikin, Mr. Sin, are mere puppets in the hands of the hideously deformed Greel, posing as the Chinese god, Weng-Chiang. It is Greel who steals the young women; it is Greel who grooms sewer rats to do his bidding - but there is even more, much more....

Will Doctor Who solve the Chinese puzzle in time to escape the terrifying talons of Weng-Chiang?
Cover:
Book Cover
Notes and Comments:
For Pinnacle editions:
 17-Mar-1994
Doctor Who Books
Has a cover imageBook Edition Cover
Date Issued:
17-Mar-1994
Internal ID:
1108
Publisher:
ISBN:
0-426-11973-8
ISBN-13:
978-0-426-11973-9
Country:
United Kingdom
Language:
English
Credits:
Jeff Cummins  - Cover Artist
'A CHINESE SECRET SOCIETY, FANATICAL FOLLOWERS OF AN ANCIENT CHINESE GOD CALLED WENG-CHIANG. THEY BELIEVE THAT ONE DAY HE WILL RETURN TO RULE THE WORLD.'

Stepping out of the TARDIS into Victorian London, Leela and the Doctor find themselves fighting off the trained killers of the Tong of the Black Scorpion. Barely escaping alive, they soon discover that the swirling fog hides other, more sinister forces. Giant rats roam the sewers; young women mysteriously disappear; and a magician's manikin is found, clutching a blood-stained knife. Has an ancient and murderous Chinese god returned to haunt the streets of London?
Cover:
Book Cover
Notes and Comments:
Image File
15-Nov-1977
Target


Image File
01-Sep-1979
Pinnacle
Mass Market Paperback

Image File
01-Apr-1989
Pinnacle
Mass Market Paperback

Image File
17-Mar-1994
Doctor Who Books


On Target

Publication Information
Author: Terrance Dicks
Cover artist: Jeff Cummins / Alister Pearson (1994) / David Mann (Pinnacle)
Publishing date: 15th November 1977
Episode Information
TV serial: The Talons of Weng-Chiang
Writer: Robert Holmes
Transmission Dates: 26th February - 2nd April 1977 (6 episodes)
Fact and Findings
First edition cover price - 60p

The hardback version was published a month later in December 1977. It was released by Allan Wingate as A Longbow Book, priced £2.95, ISBN 85523 170 X. The cover was the original Jeff Cummins illustration with the artist credited on the inside sleeve.

Classic chapter title: In the Jaws of the Rat

Later editions were numbered 61 in the Doctor Who library.

The original edition was printed by W. H. Allen / Wyndham. Reprinted in 1979 (W. H. Allen / Wyndham, 60p), 1980 and 1982 (twice, W. H. Allen, £1.35), the book was published one last time as Doctor Who - The Talons of Weng-Chiang on the 17th of March 1994 (Virgin Publishing, Pearson cover, numbered blue spine, £3.99)- it was the last novelisation to be reprinted before the Target series finally ended, and the last book to ever have the Target symbol on the spine. Always, the novel has ISBN 0 426 11973 8.

For those wishing to read a more direct interpretation of the TV serial, Titan Books published Doctor Who - The Scripts - The Talons of Weng-Chiang (ISBN 1 85286 144 4, £3.95) in November 1989. The book was edited by John McElroy and the cover was by Duncan Fegredo. This was the only Fourth Doctor script book published by Titan.

David A. McIntee wrote a sequel to The Talons of Weng-Chiang for the Virgin Missing Adventures line. The Fourth Doctor, K9 and Romana come up against Mr Sin and the legacy of Magnus Greel in The Shadow of Weng-Chiang. Professor Litefoot reappears in Mark Morris' sequel to Terror of the Zygons - The Bodysnatchers (BBC Books, 1997, ISBN 0563405686).
Cover Data
A brilliant piece of artwork by Cummins, who is credited on the back cover - an unusual ackowledgement from Target, but Cummins obviusly negotiated a deal because his credit appears on several novelisations.

Alister Pearson's cover artwork for the 1994 reprint was released as a postcard, free with 'Doctor Who Magazine' (number 210), March 1994.
Foreign Editions
The novel was published in America in September 1979 by Pinnacle Books ($1.75, ISBN 0 523 40638 X). It was number 7 in their series. It was reprinted for a second time later in September 1979 and for a seventh time in April 1989 ($3.50, ISBN 1 55817 209 2).
Reviews
"Terrance Dicks has done it again - in true style he has written a book which, I feel certain, will be a gigantic success... From page seven to page one hundred and forty this book is sheer magic. On that one Saturday morning I had opened the book, secretly worried that, because it had been on television so recently, it might be a bit flat - but the first few words convinced me that here was great achievement... Mr Dicks has proved his mastery of creating an atmosphere of any period of time on many occasions, whether it be the far future or in the distant past."
- Gary Hopkins, 'Tardis' (volume 3, number 2), April 1978
UK Editions
YEARDATEPUBLISHERCOVER ARTISTLOGOSPINE COLOURSPINE NUMBERTARGET LOGOISBNPRICENOTESOWNED
197715th NovemberW. H. AllenCumminsblack curvewhite-colour0 426 11973 860pfirst edition, Wyndham W on backY
197918th JanuaryW. H. AllenCumminsblack curvewhite-colour0 426 11973 860p"second impression", Wyndham W on backY
198021st FebruaryW. H. AllenCumminsblack curvewhite-colour0 426 11973 875p"third impression", Wyndham W on backY
1982-W. H. Allen-----0 426 11973 8£1.25--
1982-W. H. AllenCumminsblack curvewhite-colour0 426 11973 8£1.35"twice"Y
1987-W. H. Allen-----0 426 11973 8£1.95--
199417th MarchVirginPearsonMcCoy bannerdark blue61outline0 426 11973 8£3.99retitled Doctor Who - The Talons of Weng-ChiangY
Miscellaneous
Author


Terrance Dicks

Other Countries


USA

TERROR IN THE FOG
It's the Victorian London of Sherlock Holmes. Shrouded in the swirling mists, Doctor Who confronts diabolical horrors as he unravels the mystery surrounding the strange disappearances of several young women.
Doctor Who learns a Chinese magician, the crafty Chang, and his weird midget manikin, Mr. Sin, are mere puppets in the hands of the hideously deformed Greel, posing as the Chinese god, Weng-Chiang. It is Greel who steals the young women; it is Greel who grooms sewer rats to do his bidding - but there is even more, much more...
Will Doctor Who solve the Chinese puzzle in time to escape the terrifying talons of Weng-Chiang?

The novel was published in America in September 1979 by Pinnacle Books ($1.75, ISBN 0 523 40638 X).
It was number 7 in their series.

Cover artist: David Mann
1979 Pinnacle edition
  • On Target was a website dedicated to the Target Novelizations of Doctor Who and had a lot of information on each book.
  • I cannot find it anywhere on the web now so I have used the Wayback Machine to get information for these books.
  • I originally had permission to use covers from On Target, for books that I do not own, on this site.
  • Anything that idicates that a book is owned within the "On Target" section is referring to the owner of that site and not to my library.
  • This is currently unfinished, but a work in progress...

Related

Author(s)

 Terrance Dicks
Birth: 10 May 1935 East Ham, London, England, UK
Death: 29 Aug 2019

Notes:
From the back of the book Warmonger.

Terrance Dicks joined Doctor Who as junior assistant trainee script editor in 1968, when they were making The Web of Fear and desperately trying to  make a roaring Yeti sound less like a flushing lavatory.  He worked on the show during the end of the Patrick Troughton years, and co-wrote The War Games, Troughton's last show, with Malcolm Hulke.  He stayed on as a script editor for the whole of the Jon Pertwee period, and left to write Robot, the first Tom Baker story.  (This was in accordance with an ancient Who tradition, which he'd just invented, that the departing script editor writes the first show of the next season.)

In the years that followed he wrote a handful of Doctor Who scripts, finishing in 1983 with The Five Doctors, the programmes twentieth anniversary special.

In the early 1970s he was in at the very beginning of the Doctor Who novelisation programme and ended up, more by luck than judgment, writing most of them - seventy something in all.  He has since written a number of Doctor Who 'originals', including Exodus, part of the opening Timewyrm sequence published by Virgin, and The Eight Doctors, the first original novel published by BBC Worldwide.

He has written two Doctor Who stage plays, one a flop d'éstime (great reviews, poor audiences), the other a bit of a pantomime but a modest touring success.  He has also written about a hundred non-Who books, fiction and non-fiction for young adults, but nobody ever asks about them.

In over thirty years with the Doctor he has grown older, fatter, greyer and grumpier.  But not noticeably wiser.

Awards

No awards found
*
  • I try to maintain page numbers for audiobooks even though obviously there aren't any. I do this to keep track of pages read and I try to use the Kindle version page numbers for this.
  • Synopses marked with an asterisk (*) were generated by an AI. There aren't a lot since this is an iffy way to do it - AI seems to make stuff up.
  • When specific publication dates are unknown (ie prefixed with a "Cir"), I try to get the publication date that is closest to the specific printing that I can.
  • When listing chapters, I only list chapters relevant to the story. I will usually leave off Author Notes, Indices, Acknowledgements, etc unless they are relevant to the story or the book is non-fiction.
  • Page numbers on this site are for the end of the main story. I normally do not include appendices, extra material, and other miscellaneous stuff at the end of the book in the page count.






See my goodreads icon goodreads page. I almost never do reviews, but I use this site to catalogue books.
See my librarything icon librarything page. I use this site to catalogue books and it has more details on books than goodreads does.


Presented: 22-Dec-2024 08:26:37

Website design and original content
© 1996-2024 Type40 Web Design.
Contact: webmgr@type40.com
Server: type40.com
Page: bksDetails.aspx
Section: Books

This website uses cookies for use in navigating this site only. No personal information is gathered or shared with anyone. If you don't agree, then don't use this site.