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{"id":29092,"date":"2015-03-21T09:29:36","date_gmt":"2015-03-21T13:29:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/exploringourmatrix\/?p=29092"},"modified":"2015-03-21T09:29:36","modified_gmt":"2015-03-21T13:29:36","slug":"doctor-who-weng-chiang","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/03\/doctor-who-weng-chiang.html","title":{"rendered":"Doctor Who: The Talons of Weng Chiang"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ <\/a> $\"\"$ The Talons of Weng-Chiang<\/a> $\"\"$ is an episode that one could discuss from many perspectives \u2013 including an examination of whether it mainly reflects, or at times challenges, racist stereotypes<\/a> about the Chinese. The choice of a British actor not of Chinese descent to play the main Chinese character is certainly an odd one. And does the presence of slurs represent prejudice or merely an attempt to be historically authentic to its Victorian setting?<\/p>\n

The Doctor refers to the criminal gang known as the \u201cTongue of the Black Scorpion,\u201d and describes their worship of the god Weng Chiang as \u201csuperstitious rubbish.\u201d That god was responsible for abundance and making things grow. As always, there is a reality to the god in this episode, and Li H\u2019sen Chang, a magician who serves the god, is also in possession of real powers, having been granted mental powers thousands of years ahead of his time. We\u00a0ultimately learn that the god is in fact a\u00a0human time traveler from the future, deformed by the temporal distortion in his only partly\u00a0successful time travel experiment. The Doctor recognizes the technology, and also the small figure that he recalls as being the \u201cPeking Homunculus\u201d \u2013 created to entertain small children, with the cerebral cortex of a pig, it went awry and almost caused World War VI around the year 5,000. And he learns that the person pretending to be Weng Chiang is in fact Marcus Greel,\u00a0a wanted war criminal in the future, known then as the \u201cButcher of Brisbane.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of the most interesting discussion on religious themes involves Chang, who seeks to appease his god after having failed him, then comes to hate him. The Doctor asks Chang\u00a0at one point, \u201cYou know he\u2019s not a god, don\u2019t you?\u201d Chang replies, \u201cHe appeared as a god, in a cabinet\u00a0of fire.\u201d Before dying he also mentions seeing his ancestors welcoming him, and refers to the jade bridge of the gods.<\/p>\n

In addition to these familiar ideas \u2013 things that seem supernatural being either human possibilities in the future, advanced technology, and\/or aliens \u2013 there is also one more connection with religion, when the Doctor refers to having caught a fish from the river Fleet (now completely covered over) and having shared it with the Venerable Bede.<\/p>\n

$\"dr-who-chang-large\"$ <\/p>\n

Poster (based on one that appears in the episode) by JGL Design<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"