The Claws Of Axos: Doctor Who: Season 8

Goldby

Grob

Long

The Claws Of Axos REVIEWS



Goldby

….or if you're a Get Smart fan:

The Craws Of Axos!

Now don't understand why I like the Claws of Axos so much, maybe it's because all the hokeyness of this period is done so well…first of all there's Axos, brilliant concept - an alien ship that's grown, and derives it's method of fuel collecting by just leeching the nutrients off other planets. The first time such a monster appears in Who. The Axons themselves can look like athletic cultured golden humanoids, wearing nicely fitting gold tights or shambling tentacled horrors in their base form. Their ability to change scared the willies out of me as a kid.

Ok there's the Axon's, then there's the first look at an incompetent civil servant who wants to be in charge, why anyone would let such a fat oaf like Chin be in control of anything is questionable. Also questionable is the CIA idiot with the ape like hair-do who can use his big American car to tune into the UNIT radio wavelength. The head scientist at the Nuton complex who instantly dislikes the Doctor because he dares to be smarter and doesn't wear nifty turtle neck sweaters. The idiotic army regulars who follow the moronic civil servants and the even more idiotic UNIT personnel who know the Master is at large and should be a wake up to all his tricks but still let him hypnotize them all, break into UNIT headquarters and make off with the TARDIS.

The Axon ship sets are 70's kooky especially the phallic eye, the Nuclear plant interior looks really good, plus there's heaps of battle set pieces between the Axons and UNIT. Also we get the Doctor showing off his rebellious traits not seen since season 7 and teaming up with the Master, Jo running around in her first mini skirt (which makes up for the fact she's gone all wet and helpless again) and even the Brig and his UNIT chaps manage to capture and befuddle the Master without the Doctor's help for once. It's perfect period Pertwee playing to all it's absolute strengths and campness.

Maybe it's the nostalgia factor and the fact the Claws of Axos really reflects it's time period that despite all the colossal things wrong it still sort of works and is hugely enjoyable plus it's only 4 parts. Shades of a few of the Tennant's perhaps 9/10.

It must have made an impact on casual viewers, have heard non fans mention the actual story title when they refer to this rather than 'remember the one with the...'



Grob

The Claws Of Axos was the fourth Dr Who book I bought when I was a kid. It bored me shitless. I think it was one of those stories that you need to see to believe it.

I can just picture Nanny Letts wagging his bony finger at the production department at quarter to twelve and saying; "Just a quiet lunch today boys. Nothing too rowdy. You have a big day ahead of you." Heeding Grandma's advice we get the story where the set designer takes 40 hits of LSD and teams up with a scenic artist who has ingested 20 bottles of vodka, 18 pizzas, 22 dim sims, 14 fairy flosses and goes for 30 turns on the ferris wheel. They both then return to the studios and come up with the set design for the interior of the Axon ship. Bloody brilliant really.

And if THAT doesn't make the senses work overtime, check out the dudes in the orange and gold body stockings! And that thing that looks we have to have a compulsory all-nude day for girls between eighteen and twenty three so perverts like me and you two can stop watching porn, get off the couch and take a look outside like a bloke in a sack rolling round on the floor (someone won't be paying equity the following year!) Then there are the red spaghetti monsters (one of which was later painted gween and used in the Seeds of Doom). Then there is the giant frog looking soooooooooooo CSO'd its laughable. Plus, the eye on a stalk that looks like a knob. And - even better - is the end of episode three where you get floating heads popping in and out of the picture. This is bloody awesome!!! But you know what REALLY makes it? We get to see Katy Mannings knickers more times in the Claws of Axos than in any other story. And they change colour too; red, white and then pale blue. What more could you want????8/10.



Long

Yeah, I have lots of fond memories of the Claws of Axos too. Watching it 10 years ago, this was the first one that really felt like Dr Who - well, like the Dr Who from the early 80s anyway. Whether it was the pacing, or the UNIT family really clicking, or the fact that it was 4 parts (perfect!), or even because of the fact that it exists in colour on video tape, there's something about this that felt like home!

There's a lot to like about the story too. The idea and realisation of Axos and Axons is brilliant - and this time the whacky machine actually makes sense and accentuates the story… OK, the "live axonite" looks a bit whacky, but I like it, and yes, it was creepy as when first watched as a kid. I also liked Filer - don't know why, but there was something about him that seemed to work… unlike most of these type of characters!

It does get a bit confusing at the end though… the whole Master helping, explosion - non explosion, escape - non escape, time loop thing I guess makes sense… but at the same time is a bit… I don't know, not confusing, just maybe a bit muddled.

8.2/10

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