The Claws of Axos is a strangely trippy low-budget sci-fi romp, which unfortunately fails to hold its grip on the audience beyond the first episode.
Story: 6
The Claws of Axos is a trippy example of low-budget science fiction made in the 70s: it has aliens crashland on Earth due to fuel shortage and humanity immediately take it as a threat. Throw in some allegories of immigration and xenophobia, and you have yourself a story typical of the time it was made in.
It shouldn't come as a surprise that the Axons turn out to be the villains here. Considering that, it feels wrong to involve the Master, even if he has a good reason to appear. This could have been a great story to let him rest for a bit.
There seems to be a lot of dialogue here that sounds scientific but makes little sense. The overall plot itself is a bit bland, and it lacks some of the depth of many better stories.
The last episode turns interesting by having the Doctor and the Masterwork with each other and the Doctor seemingly turns his back on his UNIT friends. It shows us that despite their difficult relationship, the Doctor cannot completely cut his chords with the Master.
Acting: 5
Peter Bathurst over-performs Chinn so horribly that I can't stand him. He's probably meant to be over-the-top, but I don't like that. And then we have Paul Grist as Filer, the most 70s looking character the show has ever featured. His American accent is terrible.
Maybe it's just me, but Jon Pertwee seems pretty bored with this story, except for when he is sharing scenes with Roger Delgado. They are never bad together.
The Doctor: 6
I'm starting to get annoyed by the way the Doctor treats Jo. She'd like to join him and assist him, but he never allows her to do so. He's just thinking of her best, but it's just not fair most of the time.
The Doctor gets some nice action sequences here, making him more and more the James Bond of Doctor Who.
The Companions: 4
Jo Grant get nothing interesting to do, the Brigadier does very little and Benton once again acts like a fool. It's not a very good use of a regular cast.
The Monster/Villain: 6
The Axons are pretty boring, to be honest, They look horrible; they use techniques used by the Chameleons, the Autons, the Zygons and several other creatures and their ultimate motive isn't anything interesting.
The Master feels superfluous to the plot since he does less here than in his earlier (and most of his later) appearances. Luckily, it's always a joy to see Roger Delgado in action. Plus, he's really getting quite sloppy with his disguises, yet Benton seems to be stupid enough to fall for them anyway.
Production: 5
This story is a good example of a weirdly designed set, disastrously ridiculous alien designs and, above all, horrible CSO. It takes away a lot of this story.
The serial contains plenty of action sequences, and they're unusually hilariously edited, choreographed and realised.
Pacing: 7
This is a pretty swift story, even though there's a minor lack of variety in the tempo. The initial interest of having a strange alien species land on Earth is pretty quickly forgotten as the story turns stale.
Atmosphere: 6
Many intense sequences are like bad acid trips. They're supposed to be exciting but come across as very repulsive. The blend of colour, editing and Dudley Simpson's psychedelic score certainly makes this story feel very weird.
Impact: 5
The Axons never returned, save for a Big Finish audio adventure, and the production team realised that maybe they went a bit far. We've not seen similar stories since.
Replay Value: 5
This story is quite average. There are better and worse stories, and this is one I wouldn't rewatch in the first place.
Random Observations:
This story marks the first time the TARDIS interior is seen since the end of the Second Doctor's era. It's been slightly redesigned and looks quite nice.
Review by Theo KallströmVIP 6BlockedParent2020-06-11T16:31:15Z
The Claws of Axos is a strangely trippy low-budget sci-fi romp, which unfortunately fails to hold its grip on the audience beyond the first episode.
Story: 6
The Claws of Axos is a trippy example of low-budget science fiction made in the 70s: it has aliens crashland on Earth due to fuel shortage and humanity immediately take it as a threat. Throw in some allegories of immigration and xenophobia, and you have yourself a story typical of the time it was made in.
It shouldn't come as a surprise that the Axons turn out to be the villains here. Considering that, it feels wrong to involve the Master, even if he has a good reason to appear. This could have been a great story to let him rest for a bit.
There seems to be a lot of dialogue here that sounds scientific but makes little sense. The overall plot itself is a bit bland, and it lacks some of the depth of many better stories.
The last episode turns interesting by having the Doctor and the Masterwork with each other and the Doctor seemingly turns his back on his UNIT friends. It shows us that despite their difficult relationship, the Doctor cannot completely cut his chords with the Master.
Acting: 5
Peter Bathurst over-performs Chinn so horribly that I can't stand him. He's probably meant to be over-the-top, but I don't like that. And then we have Paul Grist as Filer, the most 70s looking character the show has ever featured. His American accent is terrible.
Maybe it's just me, but Jon Pertwee seems pretty bored with this story, except for when he is sharing scenes with Roger Delgado. They are never bad together.
The Doctor: 6
I'm starting to get annoyed by the way the Doctor treats Jo. She'd like to join him and assist him, but he never allows her to do so. He's just thinking of her best, but it's just not fair most of the time.
The Doctor gets some nice action sequences here, making him more and more the James Bond of Doctor Who.
The Companions: 4
Jo Grant get nothing interesting to do, the Brigadier does very little and Benton once again acts like a fool. It's not a very good use of a regular cast.
The Monster/Villain: 6
The Axons are pretty boring, to be honest, They look horrible; they use techniques used by the Chameleons, the Autons, the Zygons and several other creatures and their ultimate motive isn't anything interesting.
The Master feels superfluous to the plot since he does less here than in his earlier (and most of his later) appearances. Luckily, it's always a joy to see Roger Delgado in action. Plus, he's really getting quite sloppy with his disguises, yet Benton seems to be stupid enough to fall for them anyway.
Production: 5
This story is a good example of a weirdly designed set, disastrously ridiculous alien designs and, above all, horrible CSO. It takes away a lot of this story.
The serial contains plenty of action sequences, and they're unusually hilariously edited, choreographed and realised.
Pacing: 7
This is a pretty swift story, even though there's a minor lack of variety in the tempo. The initial interest of having a strange alien species land on Earth is pretty quickly forgotten as the story turns stale.
Atmosphere: 6
Many intense sequences are like bad acid trips. They're supposed to be exciting but come across as very repulsive. The blend of colour, editing and Dudley Simpson's psychedelic score certainly makes this story feel very weird.
Impact: 5
The Axons never returned, save for a Big Finish audio adventure, and the production team realised that maybe they went a bit far. We've not seen similar stories since.
Replay Value: 5
This story is quite average. There are better and worse stories, and this is one I wouldn't rewatch in the first place.
Random Observations:
This story marks the first time the TARDIS interior is seen since the end of the Second Doctor's era. It's been slightly redesigned and looks quite nice.
Score: 55/120