Doctor Who – ‘The Claws of Axos’ (1971)

It’s been ages since I looked at some classic ‘Doctor Who’ (a quick look tells me it was back in September, last year, with ‘The Talons of Weng Chiang’) so I figured that now was probably the best time to do something about that. That and the fact that I was in CEX, the other day, and saw a couple of ‘Doctor Who’ DVDs that I fancied watching ;o) ‘Claws of Axos’ was one of them…

I’ve said it here before, I know, but the ‘Doctor Who’ Target novelisations were an absolute lifeline to me as a kid. It’s hard to believe now (unless you were there and saying that makes me feel really old now…) but if you had the misfortune to be born in the middle of the seventies, well… You’d already missed three whole Doctors already (I started watching with Tom Baker, only for his time on the show to finish only a few stories later) and it would be a few years yet before the BBC started releasing old stories on video. What was a tiny ‘Doctor Who’ fan, like me, to do in the meantime? Simple, read every single one of the Target ‘Doctor Who’ books that I could get my hands on (from the library bus that used to park up the hill from where I lived).

I was given the book of ‘The Claws of Axos’, one Christmas and it scared me, just a little bit, with its descriptions of golden humanoids devolving into masses of tentacles and an alien parasite looking to drain all the energy from Earth. I do wonder sometimes if the people of Earth would have had a quieter life if the Doctor hadn’t shown up (he does seem to attract trouble, doesn’t he…?) but that’s a thought for another time. Anyway… When I saw ‘The Claws of Axos’ in CEX, I had to give it a go, just to see if it matched up to the book. And of course it didn’t, we’re talking about a sci-fi show from the early seventies here, but it was fun to watch.

When a damaged spaceship containing beautiful humanoid creatures called Axons lands on Earth, the Doctor, Jo and UNIT are sent to investigate. In return for their help, the Axons offer the gift of Axonite, which would end world famine. It all appears too good to be true – so what secrets are the Axons hiding on board their ship? And why is the Doctor’s old enemy the Master involved?

‘The Claws of Axos’ gives the game away far too early and by ‘far too early’, I mean within seconds of the first episode with scary looking ‘tentacle aliens’ seen on board a spaceship headed for Earth. Does it really matter that we know what’s up so soon? Not really I guess, not when it gives us the chance to see the aliens be properly evil to the most disposable of characters, an old beachcombing tramp. Is Axos that evil though, really? Even giant planet killing parasites need to eat. That’s a post for another day though.

On the face of it, ‘The Claws of Axos’ is another ‘aliens come bearing gifts’ story that isn’t particularly new. What elevates this story above other, similar, stories though is the way that it is more than happy to show how short-sighted and selfish our own government can be if there’s the slightest chance it can steal a march on the rest of the world. Not only that, we’re dealing with a government that’s quite happy to hang its own civil service out to dry in order to avoid taking any responsibility for the disaster that ensues. Does that remind you of any UK governments that we know? It did for me and it was kind of refreshing to see how easily we could be taken in. Especially when the Master got involved but more on him in a bit. It’s a bit of a forgone conclusion that the Doctor will save the day but again, it’s cleverly done at the end and we do get to see UNIT doing that thing where they look really cool shooting at monsters but nothing really comes of it. It adds to the tension as the Axonite monsters (unexpectedly menacing, those cheap looking costumes actually made them look like raw organic matter…)

I’ve never see Roger Delgado as the Master (outside of the odd Youtube clip) until now and it was really worth the wait. The other actors were good (I grew up with Anthony Ainley as the Master and thought he was great) but Delgado is just superb here and is now officially my favourite Master. The menace on show, and at the same time the slight air of playfulness, is just brilliant and I could watch him all day to be honest. Jon Pertwee is great but then he’s always great as Doctor Who so I’m not saying anything new here. It’s Delgado’s show as far as I’m concerned.

 ‘The Claws of Axos’ doesn’t do anything particularly new (at all really) but it has a lot of fun doing what it does and that made it very easy for me to tag along and have fun as well. I couldn’t ask for more really and would definitely recommend if you haven’t seen it already, you probably have but I’ll recommend it anyway ;o)