Doctor Who & Horror: Robert Holmes and The Phantom of the Opera

The tragic character of Erik has been a key influence on classic Doctor Who villains – especially on Magnus Greel and Sharaz Jek.

(Photo by Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images)

From movies to musicals, The Phantom of the Opera has seen many adaptations over the years. So perhaps it’s unsurprising that it’s been used as the source of inspiration for a classic Doctor Who story – not once, but at least twice, and by the same writer, in fact.

Unsurprisingly, Doctor Who has had many influences from the horror genre over the years. Vampires, werewolves, mummies and far more classic monsters – or distinct variations of – have appeared in the series.

But some of these influences have been even more direct, as writers were heavily inspired by specific classic horror stories. Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Frankenstein, all of these have been given a strong and distinctive take in the Doctor Who universe.

But one influence in particular that’s stood out, perhaps because it’s been used more than once – and by the same writer, no less – is The Phantom of the Opera. Not the musical, but the original classic story, or at least, some of its earlier adaptations.

This was something that leapt out to me when I recently saw the 1925 adaptation, starring Lon Chaney in the titular role. It’s an excellent story that still holds up, and it’s not surprising that Robert Holmes has used it for two of the most popular stories of the Classic Series, albeit in very different ways.

Magnus Greel – The Talons of Weng-Chiang

In 1977, Robert Holmes gave us the Gothic horror classic The Talons of Weng-Chiang. The story had many influences, some of which have admittedly dated more than others (particularly the Fu Manchu movies, which usually had a Caucasian actor in Asian makeup, something that Talons unfortunately shares with those movies). But while the story is very much of its time in some keys ways, a great deal of it still holds up, and remains a personal favorite.

Along with introducing Jago & Litefoot – two of my favorite characters from the TV series who later got their own audio spin-off – Talons had a strong influence from Phantom, and it used it very well. The main villain – Magnus Greel, posing as Chinese god Weng-Chiang – is a masked figure who stalks a theater, vanishing back into the shadows as quickly as he is seen.

Stylistically, the influences from Phantom are clear, although Greel, while a horrific figure himself, has little of the tragedy of the original Phantom, Erik. While Erik is a deformed creature who has been rejected by society and has gone insane as a result, Greel is more arrogant and cares little for the lives of others. Erik was someone who was desperate to be loved, while Greel is only desperate to survive, and has no qualms of stealing the life essence of others to do so.

So Greel was absolutely influenced by The Phantom of the Opera in terms of style, but not in substance. That would go to another great Doctor Who story – The Caves of Androzani.

Sharaz Jek – The Caves of Androzani

Stylistically, The Caves of Androzani is a far cry from the classic horror of both Phantom and Talons. Set primarily on the distant world of Androzani Minor, the story of an interplanetary war focused on gun runners and a popular mineral is extremely different to the tale of atmospheric and Gothic horror that we’ve often received with Phantom.

However, there is one particular element, or rather character, that owes a huge debt of inspiration to Phantom: Sharaz Jek. An extremely creepy but not unsympathetic character, Jek is a key antagonist in the story, as he wages war on the military forces of Androzani, with the primary aim of killing his old partner Morgus, who betrayed and almost killed Jek in a burst of superheated mud.

And this is where the influence from Phantom becomes clear. Jek survived, but the attempt on his life left him horrifically disfigured. Wearing a mask to hide his true features, he also cuts himself off from almost all human contact, only sharing the company of androids. He’s also obsessed with beauty, and becomes particularly obsessed with the Doctor’s companion Peri very, very quickly.

The influences from original antagonist Erik – who was also obsessed with a beautiful woman that he couldn’t have – are extremely clear. There are of course still clear differences – along with being a product of a very different setting, Erik’s deformity was one he’d had since birth, while Jek was known to be handsome before he was almost killed by Morgus. But the creepier and more tragic elements of the original character can be found in Jek.

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A major influence

What makes The Phantom of the Opera such an influential story? Perhaps it comes from the many adaptations as much as the original story. Over the many years, we’ve had various films based on it, many of which have had a sense of atmosphere and glorious style.

But there’s also the fact that the story does have clear tragic elements to it. While Erik is in many ways a monster – not simply in the physical sense but also in the way he acts and the clear choices he makes – it can be argued that it’s as a result of being rejected by his environment. Such ideas are ones that we still explore today, as most recently seen in the movie Joker.

Regardless, both the style and the substance clearly had a lot of appeal to Robert Holmes. The fact that he used these elements so brilliantly and so effectively, while still telling fresh stories in his own right, is another clear example of why he was one of the greatest writers in Doctor Who history.

What do you think of Robert Holmes using Phantom of the Opera, and indeed many other classic horror stories, for inspiration in Doctor Who? What do you think makes Phantom such an appealing story to use? Let us know in the comments below.