The Claws of Axos Episode Three

The one where Jo is almost aged to death, and the Master breaks into the Doctor's TARDIS...

This is a surprisingly Doctor-lite episode considering the Axons' invasion of Earth is underway and things are spiralling out of control. Right from the start, the Doctor and Jo are taken back to Axos as prisoners, and the Doctor spends most of the episode being questioned. Poor old Katy Manning, meanwhile, barely gets anything to say or do, although the scene where Axos ages Jo is quite startling (older actress Mildred Brown looks thoroughly browned off!).

To save his friend from being aged to death by Axos, the Doctor agrees to provide the secret of time travel. Axos is able to unlock the block that the Time Lords put on the Doctor's memory, and so he can project the correct equation and power applications for them. If any budding quantum scientist wants to try and invent time travel for real, they need look no further than The Claws of Axos episode 3 - it's all there! But why does Axos need the Doctor to do its calculations for it? Surely as soon as it knows the equation and power application, it can work out the effect the full output of the Nuton complex would have for itself?

Most of the episode is taken up with the Brigadier renewing his military control, and the Master trying to escape in the Doctor's TARDIS before Axos destroys Earth. It's the third example in a row of the Master's collusion with an alien race blowing up in his face and him having to swap sides to defeat them. The Axons' plan to consume "every last cell of living matter" on Earth must trouble him somewhat, for as long as he is among them!

The infiltration of the Doctor's TARDIS by the Master is quite a departure for Doctor Who. We haven't actually seen the interior of the TARDIS since The War Games episode 10 almost two years previously - and never in colour before - so it's really frustrating that director Michael Ferguson fails to give us a wide shot of the control room, if not just to re-establish its mind-boggling dimensions. The fact the TARDIS is bigger on the inside has only been vaguely referenced or alluded to in the Pertwee era so far, and it's altogether possible that many viewers had either forgotten, or were unaware, of the Ship's dimensional transcendentalism. What this needed was a proper, awesome reintroduction of the magic of a TARDIS, but what we get is just the Master stepping onto a set which we can't see very well at all. OK, so the Master is fully aware what he's stepping into, but all it needed was a gorgeous pan and zoom out from the Master to show that the TARDIS was bigger on the inside. A missed opportunity.

The Master's horror at what he finds inside the police box is amusing ("What does he think he's doing? What a botch-up!"; "Overweight, underpowered old museum piece!"; "You may as well try to fly a second-hand gas stove!") as he sifts through the wiring and circuitry pouring out of the console's innards. It gives a great insight into just how desperate the Doctor has been in trying to get his Ship working again. His exasperation is palpable! Still, it's nice to see the TARDIS make a reappearance, even if it's the Master at the helm instead!

There's some nice location filming with the Axon creature lolloping menacingly across the glass bridge, but this fabulous effect is dropped for the monster's attack on the UNIT soldiers soon after. As I said in my review of episode 2, having the Axon move in slow-motion gives it a nightmarish quality reminiscent of Lawrence Gordon Clark's work on the BBC's A Ghost Story for Christmas series (or, perhaps most memorably, Jonathan Miller's 1968 adaptation of M R James' Whistle and I'll Come to You, in which the "blanket ghost" is shown in disturbing slow-mo). However, seeing the Axon gingerly stepping downstairs and then wading across a forecourt in real time just makes it look a bit naff. None of this is helped by Dudley Simpson's electro-farting score.

BUT... the Axon's destruction of the first UNIT soldier (stuntman Nick "Aggedor" Hobbs) is simply stunning. As soon as the Axon's tendril catches him, he simply explodes into a ball of fire. It's really shocking and graphic, an effect not reproduced for the deaths of the other two soldiers moments later.

The climax sees the Master channelling the entire output of the power complex into Axos in an effort to destroy it. Meanwhile, inside Axos the Doctor and Jo try to escape the disorientated gestalt entity by running through organic corridors with claws grabbing at them from the walls, like some trippy Jean Cocteau side-project. It's a sight which is both imaginative and silly all at once, which is exactly what makes great Doctor Who!

First broadcast: March 27th, 1971

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: Roger Delgado steals the show in this Pertwee-lite episode. He is so charismatic, his presence leaps from the screen.
The Bad: Chinn is just annoying now. Peter Bathurst's mildly OTT performance is cancelled out by Kenneth Benda's soporific turn as the heavy-lidded minister (on videophone, no less!).
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆

"Now listen to me" tally: 12
Neck-rub tally: 1

NEXT TIME: Episode Four...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Episode One; Episode Two; Episode Four

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site: http://doctorwhocastandcrew.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-claws-of-axos.html

The Claws of Axos is available on BBC DVD. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Mind-Evil-DVD/dp/B00BPCNNXS