Customer Reviews

Doctor Who: The Claws of Axos [VHS]

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The landing of a variable-mass object on Earth nearly proves to be the planet's undoing. The gilded humanoid aliens tell a half truth when they say they need to replenish the energy and nutrition cycle of their organically grown ship. What they don't tell is that they intend to drain all living energy from Earth and leave it a dry husk. The Brigadier, Doctor, government bureaucrat Chinn, and two scientists from the nearby nuclear plant that supplies Britain its electric power, meet the Axons, who give them a gift of Axonite, described as the chameleon of elements, which causes anything injected with it to increase in size. It thus has the potential to solve world hunger and energy shortage problems. Chinn is a typical "England for the English" jerk who wants to keep Axonite only for his country despite the fact that for the Axons' plan to destroy Earth, the substance needs worldwide distribution.

Chinn, under the Emergency Powers Act, overrules the Brigadier in authority and in a petty show of power, calls in regular army troops and has the UNIT troops arrested. The captain is played by a young Tim Piggott-Smith.

The Master has led the Axons to Earth and acts as their agent to get the Axonite distributed throughout the world. This action gets Chinn in hot water and reduces his authority for the rest of the story. The Axons have the Master's TARDIS so he tries to steal the Doctor's, which gets him caught. The Master has the best lines. When he tries to fly the Doctor's TARDIS, he mutters, "Might as well try to fly a secondhand gas stove." During a time when he temporarily aids UNIT, Hardiman, the nuclear plant administrator, asks him if he intends to channel the Axons' power into a police box. To which the Master nods with a mocking smile on his face. He also gives them a flippant advice: "Oh you might want to take the normal precautions against a nuclear blast, like sticky tape on the windows."

Compared to Terror Of The Autons and The Mind Of Evil, Jo doesn't seem to have too much of a role here. She's overshadowed by too many key players in this story. So is Sergeant Benton. The Brigadier and Yates are the most effective here.

The organic interior of the Axon ship is a masterpiece of the BBC set design, replete with bubbles, tentacles, claws, and parts that seem to breathe. The Axon monsters look like orange coloured canvas bags with a mass of thick, spaghetti-like tentacles sprouting from them. The psychedelic images overlaid over the picture is a real trip back in time. The beginning of Episode Four, when the ship is under attack and undergoes a nervous breakdown, is a wow as humanoid faces and Axon monsters float around in a chaotic mess. And the appearance of the Eye of Axos hanging from the ceiling has subtle sexual overtones.

The flaws of nationalistic unilateralism, the importance of having enough fuel, and the dangers of nuclear power, the latter very relevant in the Cold War days during which the story was made, is key to The Claws Of Axos. Maybe the warning: Beware of Axons bearing gifts, is also apt here.

The lesson to be learned here is that, if a "Doctor Who" story is subpar, a well-made DVD release is not going to improve the story. It will, however, spotlight what parts of the story didn't work, and why.

For years I didn't have much enthusiasm for "The Claws of Axos", for a couple of reasons. One, I thought the portrayal of the aliens was a little cheezy. Second, I always thought the story seemed rushed and choppy, especially in the opening minutes of Episode One, and thus couldn't sustain much interest. The DVD actually explains both my problems with the story: producer Barry Letts (who contributes to the audio commentary) and director Michael Ferguson (who's interviewed in the bonus features) wanted a fast-pace story with cutting-edge special effects. Both efforts foreshadowed the elements of successful present-day sci-fi series, but unfortunately fell flat here -- a case of the production team trying to give us too much, too soon. The state of the art in 1971 just couldn't realize their aspirations. Also, episode writers Bob Baker (the same Baker who co-wrote this year's Oscar-nominated Wallace & Gromit feature) & Dave Martin were writing their first DW script, and the final product is the result of probably a dozen rewrites from script editor Terrance Dicks. As Dicks said on another DVD, rewriting a story too many times is just death on a script.

The commentary track is an informative one: Letts and co-star Katy Manning have now appeared as a team on several DW DVDs, and have a good rapport going. Manning's bizarre schtick of talking like a 9 year-old boy is only used once here. Also along for the ride is actor Richard Franklin. Every three-person DVD commentary track has one third wheel, and that's Franklin here, unfortunately.

The 25-minute compilation of raw studio footage from the recording of Episode One is an interesting addition, with a lively text commentary to explain exactly what's going on for those of us who don't make a living behind the camera. This material explains why some necessary introductory scenes got deleted; shows Jon Pertwee and the Master, Roger Delgado, preparing their work between takes; and shows hammy guest actor Paul Bathurst ramping up his performance to even more blustery lengths than he achieved in the finished product.

The best part of the story, as always in this 8th season of "Doctor Who", is Roger Delgado. In Episode Two he plays a scene against the Axos brain with his typical aplomb and determination. However, he's not playing off another actor -- he's sharing the set only with a phallic-shaped prop dangling from the ceiling. It takes a great actor to give a great performance against a prop like that.

An unidentified flying object has landed near the Nuton power complex, supplying Britian with safe, cheap energy. The Axons, aliens form the "far side of the galaxy", intend to suck the Earth dry of all its energies and leave nothing behind. A good UNIT story. Lots of action, people blowing up, and some of Who's most disgusting lookin aliens. Pertwee and the regulars are great, although Fyler's accent is a little iffy. And why, in a majority of Pertwee stories, when a person is in hospital or sedated, they start to wail on about stopping the Master(see the Daemons)? The story itself might be a little silly for casual viewers, but all in all, a great action-packed psychedelic Who Adventure!

I think the story was well written. The special effects are good even though they were dveloped 35 years ago. Just becuse a show is old doesn't make it bad.

The alens, and their spacecraft, are colorful and reflect the times in wich the show aired.

John Pertwee and the Master were great togeather.

The last serail of the program aired on my date of birth wich is cool.

in My opion is you can't go too wrong with pertwee Davidson or Tom Baker they did a great job with the Doctor who series.

The Kattie Manig Chracter Jo Grat, is pretty enough; although The damsel in distress role she plays can be a little iritating at times.

The extras are good enough. I am just glad to have this episode since a number of them have been lost and this one is cool to have given the date it aired.

Picture and sond are of good quality. just wished they could have nade a movie mode on these dvds so you can watch it like a movie instead of see it in the original seriealized form

Anyone familiar with the show would like this episode

In a wonderful scene from "The Claws of Axos", the Master is attempting to make off with the Doctor's Tardis (a space/time vehicle, if you don't follow the show regularly) and, frustrated by its ramshackle, unusable state, fumes that it's an "overweight, underpowered museum piece." Unkind viewers now might draw the same conclusions about this "Doctor Who" storyline as a whole, and they wouldn't be completely off base.

Of course, museum pieces have their own charm. That's why we go to museums, after all. And one of the coolest features of this storyline is the funky, organic design of Axos itself and the plethora of different psychedelic effects as he/she/it metamorphosizes, cajoles, threatens, freaks out, and interacts with the other characters in general. Certainly it's redolent of a late '60's/early '70's zeitgeist (perhaps Axos hails from a star in the Aquarius constellation?), but it's also incredibly inventive and well designed and really does look like some unimaginable form of alien technology/life (instead of just another metal spaceship with little green men). Some of the blue-screen effects used to realize Axos don't quite fool the eye nowadays, but they were cutting edge at the time and are interesting (museum-wise) in that regard--as an early stage in the special effects revolutions that we now take for granted. And anyway they get the point across, which is the main thing.

Axos tempts humankind with the bait of limitless energy, and while human greed is perennial and universal, this particular ploy is also clearly influenced by the contemporary blossoming concerns and worries about energy shortages and the sustainability of resources (which we also see in "Inferno" in a somewhat more sophisticated treatment). Nor is this a problem that we've solved in the 21st century, so the plot premise still sort of speaks to us directly. The plot itself is rather underpowered, though, and the actual sinister intentions of Axos are given away far too soon to generate the level of suspense the writers were probably shooting for. Some of the ideas and actual scenes seem a bit recycled from "Spearhead from Space" too, sometimes with improvement (the scene when Axos is detected on radar) and sometimes not (the hapless poacher/scavenger type who first encounters the incoming alien).

Jon Pertwee's portrayal of the Doctor has always been one of my favorites, and seeing him do his thing here makes up for any retrospective shortcomings. There are great scenes like when the Doctor berates the humans for jumping the gun and trying to shoot Axos out of the sky without ascertaining its intentions, but then catching several inconsistencies in its/his little spiel of an explanation and getting increasingly skeptical of its/his intentions while the humans fall all over themselves for the promise of infinite resources (and the chance to corner the market on these). Furthermore, this is the only DVD to date to feature Roger Delgado's classic, incredibly compelling portrayal of the Master. I've written before about how the mechanized, identical Daleks and Cybermen work well as a foil for the eccentric, individualistic Doctor, but the Master is less a foil than a shadow, a sort of dark version of the Doctor himself, a glimpse of what the Doctor could have been if you tweaked his personality just a little. After all, the Master is a renegade Time Lord too, wandering time and space at will, eccentric and individualistic in his own manner, possessed of a brilliant scientific mind with a healthy streak of arrogance not unlike the Doctor's; all he lacks is his rival's warm-hearted ethical gyroscope, but this one key ingredient makes all the difference. This also makes him a very formidable foe, of course, and Delgado pulls this off so well that you almost find yourself rooting for the bad guy. Almost. So break out your lava lamps and your Carl Jung paperbacks and enjoy this trip back in time flying a secondhand gas stove!

This isn't the best Doctor Who story of all time, but what is interesting is that until now this release simply couldn't have happened as the technology to improve the picture quality simply didn't exist. This story only existed as a poor quality US (NTSC) copy, so in order to make it release worth a highly intensive process called Reverse Standards Conversion (RSC) had to take place. This essentially unpicks the picture to return it to it's original PAL glory (for UK release). For the North American release the picture is then converted back to NTSC only using a much more sophisticated technique to that done 30 years ago. The improvements are startling.

Of course the release also contains the usual dazzling set of extras.

I'm not a monster lover! I like a good script and I think this serial is better than average.The sets done by Kenneth Sharp are excellent as well as The Axonite as a gestalt being along with a tight script make this a quite good Doctor Who Serial I would recommend this to any beginner or any seasoned Sci-Fi lover

The restored Claws of Axos is glorious. Both the picture and sound are amazing considering that it is over 34 years old. The Restoration Team did a terrific job with episodes 2 & 4 which were in very bad shape, just check out the VHS version. Go ahead and give yourself a treat and watch this terrific episode from Pertwee's second season. It looks great as well as it sounds and the extras are nice too.

The key to enjoying the classic and high-energy CLAWS OF AXOS is to get hold of the reality that it's cheaply made British SF from the early 70's, and its storyline focuses on the disaster of solid, unimaginative, middle-class British civil servants trying to deal with an invasion from outer space.

One of the best loved stories from Doctor Who, AXOS must be watched with appreciation for the classic "Running around, getting captured, and escaping" subplots, the incredibly psychedelic sets with the semi-nude Axon humanoids (who look like spray painted refugees from 1970-era San Francisco), and the emphasis on classic SF crisis situations (an opportunity to end world hunger, really big nuclear plants, army involvement vs. personal freedom) all being handled by a man whose entire life has been spent trying to secure himself in a civil service job and perhaps get a promotion for himself.

This is the situation that the Doctor and UNIT must face, and even our favorite timelord resorts to some duplicity and deception as he seems to turn against his friends--all in order to save them, of course.

CLAWS OF AXOS is a tremendous romp through cheesy TV-SF, and it is best watched from a bean bag chair with the lava lamp going, all the lights off, and everybody equipped with Smith's Nut Brown Ale. If you put expectations on it, you'll be disappointed, but if you remember that a lot of us grew up on this stuff and had a great time with it, you should enjoy it.

But frankly, I can't say too much more. I hate to be a wet blanket on this, but there are some terrible flaws in this story, and more's the pity, because the idea has real potential.

After the "mind of evil" debacle with the Master leaving earth and the Doctor (leaving England would make him hard to find, but the whole planet..), he comes virtually straight back, captured by a ship ionhabited by some nasty tentacled baddies.

This is great as a premise - we have a problems with the following. ("We" means the kids and me).

a). Grossly stereotypical characters. The civil servant, Mr Chin. The American. The poor fellow who has to fall into a freezing lake of snow (that deserved some real pay) but who can only say "OOh arr"

b). Stupid and by that, I mean, really stupid physics and special effects, take your pick... The idea of a nasty substance with seeming benign powers... Yup. Turning into bubbles and that being regarded as dangerous.. No. Please. I would rather have the tentacles in minature.

c). Don't go on about particle accelerators too much, even kids nowadays would cringe at this one.

But oddly, this story has some good points which while sparse, might justify having a look. The frisson between the Doc, the Brig, and the civil servant, Chin, is at time, rather well handled, and sometimes the dialogue is not so infamous as it gets later - so would say, right, get this but don't expect too much.

You shouldn't get too upset about having negative remarks about this story - Jon himself had definite favorites. In frank moments he was quite clear that sometimes he was very unhappy about the resulting quality of the production - it is hard to find much of this discussion without delving into the fan world for help...

It's nice to be a Who fan, but you should never get too insensitive to the world behind the camera.