Who Review: The Claws of Axos

A mysterious flying object lands somewhere in the south of England, embedding itself into the ground. At first the Ministry of Security wants to treat it as hostile, but the Doctor intervenes, and, along with U.N.I.T., investigates this strange craft. It seems the occupants are a race of beings known as Axons. They are in need of fuel, and are willing to give Mr. Chinn, a Ministry representative, some powerful Axionite in exchange for the chance to refuel their ship. The Axons demonstrate Axionite’s potential to replicate and grow any organism. It could solve the world’s hunger problems by producing and reproducing giant-sized grains and cattle. Mr. Chinn agrees, and all seems well, even if Chinn is determined to secure global rights to the use of Axionite for Great Britain. But there’s more to these Axons than they are letting on. Their true plan is to drain Earth’s energy. And when they discover the Doctor is a Time Lord, they expand their ambitions, and try to persuade him to help…

SPOILER ALERT!! My comments may (and likely will) contain spoilers for those that haven’t seen this serial. If you want to stay spoiler-free, please watch the story before you continue reading!

“The Claws of Axos” is a four-part story, and the first written by Bob Baker and Dave Martin. Baker and Martin went on to write more Classic Who stories, proving themselves to be more than capable of coming up with good scripts. Post-Who, Bob Baker helped write the Academy Award-winning “Wallace and Gromit” series of films.

The premise for the story is good, if only because it’s different from the normal “alien invasion” trope. Here, the aliens present themselves as beautiful, benevolent beings offering the riches of their planet as a thank-you for the humans’ hospitality. Everybody is sucked into this line, but soon the Doctor, Jo, and a few others stumble upon the real plan. The ship is Axon, and it, along with all the Axons and the Axionite, is a single organism whose sole purpose is to feed off of energy. By getting the humans to distribute Axionite throughout the world, the Axons can use the Axionite as a conduit through which they can drain the Earth’s energy.

In this story we see probably the most extensive use of video effects so far in Doctor Who. And for 1971, they aren’t bad, using chroma key (“green screen”), distorted pictures, and other forms of picture manipulation. Of course, not nearly as sophisticated as New Who, but relatively impressive. And having experimented with these new techniques here, you can be sure we’ll see them again in coming stories.

There were a couple of characters that seemed a little pointless. Bill Filer, the man from Washington with the briefcase and the dodgy accent, for one. Filer has quite a big part in the story, and yet really serves no purpose, other than being a concern for Jo. Was he intended to be a love interest that didn’t work out? Or perhaps he was there to remind us of the international scope of the problem, while Mr. Chinn is blathering on about what’s good for jolly old England? The jury’s still out on that one, I think.

And then there’s the Master. Yes, the Doctor’s wily foe turns up again, but this time we encounter him as a prisoner of the Axons. I’ve been trying to think what role he plays in the overall plot, at least up until episode four, when he helps the Doctor fix his TARDIS (at least temporarily). Granted, this is an important part, since the Doctor uses his TARDIS to defeat the Axons by putting them in a time loop. In the process, the Master is reunited with his own TARDIS, which was captured by the Axons, and escapes. But what exactly was he doing for the first three episodes? And why didn’t the Axons make use of the Master’s knowledge of time travel while he was their prisoner? Maybe they read his mind and knew he couldn’t be trusted? But the Doctor wasn’t exactly a willing conspirator, so why should they trust him?

All in all, however, this is a good four-part story that moves along at a good pace and, my little issues aside, works well plot-wise. Even the stringy Axon monsters are creatively conceived, and about as convincing as you might expect on a 1971 BBC effects budget. The TARDIS does it’s first space travel since the Doctor was exiled, though the Time Lords have programmed the TARDIS so it always returns back to Earth. Nevertheless, this gets us out of the Earth-bound format, which makes for a nice change. Definitely one to put on the list of Who stories to watch.