The Claws of Axos: Episode Three (27 Mar. 1971)

The Doctor and Jo are being held prisoner by Axos while Chinn is forced to organise the worldwide distribution of axonite and the Master returns to the power complex to try and steal the TARDIS.

Director:

Michael Ferguson

Writers:

Bob Baker (by), Dave Martin (by)

Stars:

Jon Pertwee, Nicholas Courtney, Roger Delgado

Cast

Episode complete credited cast:
Jon Pertwee	...	Doctor Who
Nicholas Courtney	...	Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart
Roger Delgado	...	The Master
Katy Manning	...	Jo Grant
Richard Franklin	...	Captain Yates
John Levene	...	Sergeant Benton
Peter Bathurst	...	Chinn
Paul Grist	...	Filer
Donald Hewlett	...	Hardiman
Bernard Holley	...	Axon Man
Kenneth Benda	...	The Minister
Tim Pigott-Smith	...	Captain Harker

Storyline

The Doctor and Jo are being held prisoner by Axos while Chinn is forced to organise the worldwide distribution of axonite and the Master returns to the power complex to try and steal the TARDIS.

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Plot Keywords:

master | dandy | military officer

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Genres:

Adventure | Drama | Sci-Fi

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Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

27 March 1971 (UK)

Company Credits

Technical Specs

Runtime:

24 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The color master tape of this episode was wiped by the BBC in the 1970s and the BBC only held a 16mm black and white telerecording. However, in 1979 an NTSC color tape was recovered from Canada and converted back to PAL for British broadcast.

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Quotes

The Master: [trying to operate the partially dismantled TARDIS] Overweight, underpowered and a museum piece. No proper stabiliser.Oh... let's try again. Might as well try to fly a second hand gas stove.

User Reviews

Didn't like it.

Doctor Who: The Claws of Axos: Episode Three starts as the hideous Axons kidnap the Doctor (Jon Pertwee) & Jo (Katy Manning) although rather politely leave Filer (Paul Grist) alive who manages to tell the Brigadier (Nicholas Courtney) what happened. Meanwhile the Master (Roger Delgado) has sent a message to the UN informing them about Axonite & it's limitless capabilities who in turn contacts a British Minister (Kenneth Benda) who himself in turn tells Chinn (Peter Bathurst) to distribute Axonite to all the major capital cities & scientific institutes in the world ASAP. The Axon plan to drain the Earth of all energy & all living cells is working but they also spy a greater prize, that of time travel which the Doctor & his TARDIS can give to them...

Episode 13 from season 8 this Doctor Who adventure originally aired here in the UK during March 1971, directed by Michael Ferguson I have to say I'm really not enjoying The Claws of Axos so far at all. The script by Bob Baker & Dave Martin has had a distinct lack of humour, there hasn't been enough alien action, the plot is full of holes & isn't that great to begin with anyway. The character's in this story have been really annoying & unlikable, from the obnoxious Chinn to the clichéd American secret service agent Filer to Jo who is just such an annoying dopey companion with awful fashion sense. Also if the Axons know of Timelords & their ability to travel through time & space which they clearly did why torture the Doctor into revealing how the TARDIS & time travel works since they had already said they possess the Master's TARDIS so why not just torture the Master in the first place? They knew he was a Timelord too so why only become interested in time travel when the Doctor show's up? I wasn't happy about how quickly the Master suddenly decides to help UNIT & destroy the Axons either considering he brought them to Earth in the first place. I suspect it was just another way to stretch the thin plot out over four episodes. I suppose on a basic level it's watchable but there are better Doctor Who stories out there.

We see a few scenes with the monstrous Axons here & the suit looks pretty good with it's root like tendril's hanging from it's body. I still think the gold Axons look silly & in this episode you can clearly see that only the actor's face is painted gold, if you look at their lower necks you can see it's a very human flesh colour! There has been some good location filming for The Claws of Axos which took place in Kent & the real life Dungeness Nuclear Plant served as the Nuton power plant featured in the story. Apparently the weather was very changeable during filming which is why the story starts out with all the locations covered in snow in Episode One but by the time we reach Episode Three it's bright sunshine without a trace of snow to be seen anywhere. The acting hasn't been great & that damned awful American accent by Paul Grist trying to portray Filer is just terrible.

The Claws of Axos: Episode Three is not much of an improvement over Episode Two, apart from OK shots of the monstrous Axons in their true forms there wasn't anything here that I particularly enjoyed.