From: ahk@chinet.com   
      
   BTR1701  wrote:   
      
   >I watched an old Tom Baker episode of the Doctor-- "The Talons of   
   >Weng-Chiang", which the YouTubes apparently thought would seriously harm me   
   >with all the warnings about "cultural insensitivity" they put up before the   
   >episode would start.   
      
   This was a wonderful serial, the last serial of season 14. Producer   
   Philip Hinchcliffe, who ran the show during its most creative period,   
   was leaving. It was also the last serial directed by David Maloney, who   
   would produce Blake's 7. Hinchcliffe wanted to go out on a bang; ths   
   serial had especially high production values, relatively speaking.   
      
   There is no cultural appropriation. Weng-Chiang was a future war   
   criminal and mass murderer passing himself off as a god and performing a   
   vaudeville stage act. His face was damaged so the actor Michael Spice   
   was in heavy makeup and not yellowface. An actor who could perform in   
   heavy makeup was needed and he didn't have to be Chinese. He's one of   
   the great villains. Also says one of the most memorable lines of   
   dialogue: She's got muscles like a horse!   
      
   Also, it's fiction, not documentary.   
      
   >I was also surprised at the scene in the storm sewers when Leela is attacked   
   >by a giant rat and falls into the water. The Doctor kills the rat and helps   
   >Leela up. She's wearing a sheer white top which became see-through in the   
   >water and you could easily see her breasteses through the fabric. She was   
   >essentially topless in that scene. Not what I expected in a Doctor Who   
   >episode.   
      
   There's a note about this in the Tardis wiki.   
      
   	Louise Jameson didn't have a happy time filming the sewer   
   	scenes, as she was suffering from glandular fever which also   
   	forced her to cancel a forthcoming appearance on the Saturday   
   	morning children's phone-in show Multi-Coloured Swap Shop   
   	(1976-1982). Not only did she have to contend with thrashing   
   	about in the water, but she discovered that the undergarments   
   	which made up her costume became partly transparent when damp.   
      
   I've said this before. Leela (Louise Jameson) corrupted my yout'. We got   
   these episodes as syndicated foreign programming on my local public   
   television station a few years after their iniitial broadcast on BBC1.   
   She was hot as anything, a premiere action babe. That savage warrior   
   costume she typically wore, not in this serial, was more revealing than   
   a one-piece bathing suit.   
      
   >Why couldn't this tradition have continued with Sarah Jane Smith, Pond, and   
   >The Impossibly Cute Girl?!?   
      
   Any brief hint of nudity of a gorgeous actress corrupts boys. It's worth   
   the risk.   
      
   >And I'm sure anim8r would include Donna Noble in that, too.  ;-)   
      
   Oh! That's mean.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)