A strong season finale. All the cast are likable and get lots to do. The trio of villains are good. The giant rat is a bit crap but fine as you don't see it much. Overall, a solid story.

Wow. What a finale.

Firstly, just gonna say about the Doctor's few racist remarks - I don't really think that it's out of character for him. He does make the odd racial jest every now and then, notably in Robot, though its often to make fun of those ideals. Aside from that, the Doctor is great. I love his outfit - definitely prefer this to his Season 14 outfit. His interactions throughout the story are always fun. Leela's got a different outfit now, and I absolutely love her in this! The way she reacts to Victorian values is great, especially when with Litefoot (I'll get onto him later) and it's hilarious how she just constantly tries to get into a fight with the villains and just fails every time!

Weng-Chiang has some great makeup, and has a good story, but by part 6 he becomes just a yelling guy, and it's not very good. However, he's a good villain for most of it, acting like a ruthless god - the way he didn't hesitate to kill anyone gives the story really high stakes, and it's awesome - however, when there are no main villains to kill off anymore at the end, it sort of loses its punch. Sin looks awful - did you know that the guy who played the Oompa Loompas in the 2005 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory film played Mr Sin? To be fair though, he's really creepy in the way he walks, and it's a bit weird that he doesn't start oinking until they mention that he's got a pig brain. Chang's great. He's a strong, 3 dimensional character, and I was surprised that they killed him off so early into the story. Probably the only character in the Who universe who will ever smoke opium on screen. While it's not at all good that there's yellow-face in this episode, I don't think it looks too bad, but both he and Mr Sin spout awful racial stereotypes and it's rather disturbing. He's also really creepy, especially when in the theatre. I appreciate the Collection boxset updating the giant rat - it still doesn't look great, but the giant spider freaked me out.

Victorian London looks fantastic! I don't know how they managed to get so many locations - the theatre, the streets, the dungeons, the sewers, Litefoot's house - it's truly magnificent. They all look so realistic, and they pulled out all the stops. The problem with poor sets is they drag you out of the illusion - this does not. I'm so impressed with what they did. The settings all have an eerie atmosphere, and it really sets the dark tone for the story - the production team did a magnificent job with it.

Jago and Litefoot are comedy gold. Jago being full of life and just way out of his depth in this story makes him a really compelling character as the audience would probably relate to him the most - I know I would. Litefoot being a proper gentleman is great, especially when he's trying to accomodate Leela by matching her lifestyle and eating the meat savagely. An iconic duo that brings some fun into what is quite a dark story. I was honestly surprised that they weren't already detectives due to Big Finish's Jago and Litefoot series. I've not heard any of their encounters on audio (Except for their story in the Last Adventure) so if anyone has done, let me know if they're as great in that as they are on TV.

Another great director - props to David Maloney on doing such a fantastic job! On the whole, an amazing finale, an interesting historical and a really dark story! I'm not surprised that it's so highly rated (Maybe dial down the racism next time). This marks the end of the Philip Hinchcliffe Era - which is a shame, considering how great it was. It feels like the series is really in its stride at this point.

Leela saves this story for me all her moments are amazing but damn I wish this story wasn’t just so racist

I'm almost embarrassed to admit that, despite being a Doctor Who fan since the revival began when I was five, I only recently began watching the original series. I'm also sorry to say that I didn't see this until after listening to six series of Big Finish's ‘Jago & Litefoot’ (which is excellent).

As a ‘Jago & Litefoot’ fan witnessing their first meeting, I must say that this was just amazing. How thoroughly developed they were, and how prepared the infernal investigators were to assist the Doctor. And as someone with a regrettably limited attention span, I wasn't even bothered by the six episodes!

I can't bring up this story without pointing out the unfortunate and blatant anti-Chinese bigotry. It's (hopefully) obviously racist and disappointing that a White actor is wearing prosthetics to perform the role as our primary Chinese character. I've seen the argument to consider the episode in the context of the 70s, and while that might be accurate, it's difficult to support given how many of the extras are of real East Asian origin. It is brought down by that as well as the Doctor’s apparent indifference for the racist comments.

Apart from that, it's a great story. Can’t wait to listen to more ‘Jago & Litefoot’ finally knowing their origin story!

I can't believe I finally got the Scooby-Who of my dreams, and it's specifically Doctor Who and the Backstage Rage, and it's in Victorian London, and it's even in a music hall – in short, everything I could ask for... and they went and made it racist. The Doctor and Leela specifically, even. Bob Holmes you have a lot to answer for.

It's hard to rate this one because even aside from the racism (which took it down a star), the last two episodes are a real letdown after the first four. I wish they'd been condensed into one episode, because I think I would have liked that a lot better. I'm not really into true science fiction as opposed to fantasy and comedy and historicals, so I'm sure that has something to do with it. I also don't think it looks as good as everyone else seems to, especially coming off The Robots of Death, whose aesthetic I love.

Also Litefoot is fine, but nothing special, and Jago is annoying. Loved seeing Basil Brush's cousin as the Giant Rat of Sumatra tho!