Obvious racism and ableism aside, a fairly enjoyable episode with a well written plot that rarely staggers.

As usual, Victorian costuming on Doctor Who is fantastic. I enjoyed the Doctor having a clear visual reference to Sherlock Holmes, and seeing Leela is something other than exposing skins. I love the huge sleeves of the mid 1890's. The giant rats also looked surprisingly good.

Leela is fantastic in this episode in general, always running off when the Doctor tells her to stay and doing quite a lot to keep the plot moving forward. She really does her best to save people in this episode, without losing her lust for the kill that makes her so different to other companions.

I especially enjoyed her dinner scene with Litefoot, where rather than attempting to teach her the eating customs of "civilised" people, he joins her in eating with their hands. I thought it was a nice subversion and endeared me to him immensely.

My only real issue with this story is that the villains are comprised entirely of Chinese people - the only one of which to have more than one line of dialogue being a white man in makeup, and all of them having broken English despite accents that make it clear they don't speak like that normally - a hideously disfigured man, and a midget. I suppose I could write it off as a product of its time, but we've seen better from Doctor Who before this episode. The overt racism was also clearly displayed in some sentences spoken by the Doctor and Leela that don't work at all with what we know of their characters.