Interesting. I seem to have completely reversed my opinion of The Claws of Axos from when I first saw it years ago.
I think I must have disliked the Axons or something the last time. I suppose after both the Autons and the Keller Machine that a heap of walking spaghetti might seem a bit weaker in comparison. They aren’t as good (for my money, the spray painted Krynoid in Seeds of Doom is much better on the basis of threat), but I will say that Axos is a decent opponent for the regulars. At least on account of how stupid the officials are. This Chinn guy is an ignoramus of the highest level and deserves every bit of abuse that Pertwee throws at him. There is a similar moment in Terror of the Autons where he does the same thing to another “official” and calls him tubby but that was unjustified. Not here, this guy practically hands victory to the Axos on a plate, by blindly accepting their axonite. Even the Doctor seems suspicious, were he not here they would have been dead. Still anything for a promotion....
I LOVE the inside of Axos. Easily one of the best things we’ve seen on the show so far. It looks alive, far better than Omega’s palace in Three Doctors (the gel guards and the palace are basically a weaker copy).
But I think the best parts of this story are the scenes with the Master. It’s funny because he doesn’t even have to be here. He just feels written in for the sake of it. Yet here he is, stealing the show again. I enjoy seeing him forced to help UNIT for a change, albeit to save his own skin. The scenes between him and Pertwee in the final episode are quite electric, I can imagine viewers watching it in 1971 and wondering if the Doctor really betrayed his friends and gone to the dark side.
Overall as a story it’s just another day at the office, just the next alien invader of the month. But its still good and it’s an example of how beneficial the UNIT template is to ensure success. If you’d put this out in the Hartnell era, had Ben and Polly as companions and got rid of UNIT and just used regular military (the Monk could fill in for the Master) it wouldn’t have been as good. But UNIT is such a good concept and the characters it brings with it help create the perfect storm to strengthen even a kind of average story like this into a much stronger end product. On the subject of other Doctors, If I were to compare it to Troughton’s final season, its easily better than The Dominators, The Krotons, The Seeds of Doom and The Space Pirates. It’s not better than The Mind Robber (that was such a unique, original story though), The Invasion (that is also a UNIT story, which just happens to be one of the best) and The War Games (masterpiece) but as all three stories are strokes of brilliance, that’s no surprise. It still saw off the others, a majority of Season 6. But again if it didn’t come out in this format, with the Master, UNIT, Jo Grant etc i’m not sure it would have done so easily.
I’m glad to have proved myself wrong, happy to say I misjudged this one back in the day. It’s not perfect and would be at the bottom of the Pertwee’s so far but that’s not saying much. If this is a “weaker” Pertwee then it’s a testament to just good his era is. I was looking forward to the 70’s for a reason and it’s because of stories like this.
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