Claws of Axos

It seems odd that "The Daemons" is frequently cited as the Doctor Who story that most epitomises the Pertwee era. For if there was indeed any such thing, "The Claws of Axos" is a far more suitable candidate.

The script is serviceable alien invasion flapdoodle, made interesting by the wealth of ideas that Bob Baker and Dave Martin heap into its overflowing cauldron of plot elements. So we have the ingenious notion of an organic spaceship, an entity which can change shape and divide itself over several different forms and an element that is also a "thinking molecule", capable of growing or shrinking any object. Unfortunately we also have Bill Filer, a superfluous-to-requirements secret agent from Washington who is chasing the Master, an unlikely grafted on ending with Axos deciding it wants to time travel and a comedy tramp.

The Master is perhaps the best thing in this, next to the surreal concept and depiction of Axos, which appears in its various forms as an army of hideous tentacled monsters, a family of Golden humanoids and a big orange sleeping bag. Unfortunately the Master isn't really needed at all, and does nothing but confuse matters with his constant double-crossing and ever-changing plans. First he appears as a prisoner of Axos, helping them to invade Earth (it's not clear how; they seem perfectly capable of conning a gullible and greedy mankind single-handedly), then he is siding with the Doctor in order to escape both Earth and Axos, then he appears simply to be out to save his own skin from everyone present. It's unclear what he hoped to gain from an alliance with Axos, bar the unlikely satisfaction gleaned from observing the destruction of the Doctors favourite planet. Maybe he should get a life and find something else to do.

The plot's twist is Axonite, the thinking molecule that turns out to be a double edged sword. Human greed is embodied in the blundering Civil Servant Mr Chinn, officially the Second Most Annoying Person In Doctor Who (after Walker the Peacemaker in "The Sea Devils") but in hoarding Axonite for Britain, Chinn actually hampers the aliens intent to enable their "Nutrition Cycle" will absorb the entire planet. It's a story with a similar plot to "The Seeds of Death", but with the added cleverness that the crafty Axons effectively sit back and allow a greedy mankind to carry out their plan for them. But just like the number of characters jostling for screen-time, the plot also feels the need to jump hoops to make itself needless complex, most obviously in the final episode. "Resurrection of the Daleks" was lambasted for dropping in a superfluous line about Time Lords and an invasion of Gallifrey, but "The Claws of Axos" here does exactly the same eleven years earlier.

The story was famously re-worked down from a much longer version, but happily this mostly manifests itself only in the number of interesting ideas on display. It might get away with it, were it not for the requirement of a decent ending, which is unforgivably botched.

"I just boosted the circuits and broke free," claims the Doctor of his inexplicable escape from the time loop he has trapped Axos in. Why not just use the enforced gaps in the Doctors knowledge of Time Travel to explain why things go wrong? And the simpering final scene leaves a decidedly rank aftertaste.

There are greater crimes than including too much plot in your story, but Axos would have been improved by sorting out a number of laughable inconsistencies (such as some decidedly silly business with an exploding nuclear reactor) and ditching superfluous characters like Bill Filer.

"Blood Hounds always look sad," he tells Jo at one point. "It's an occupational hazard". What's he on about? The design of Axos itself, such as the strange phallic eyeballs and yellow bubble chair, are all psychedelically exciting, but as it exists today the story still has a grim and grimy feel about it; haircuts and horrid fashions have dated badly and the Nuton lab sets are dull and flat looking. Even the first appearance of the TARDIS console room since the sixties fails to excite, with no added emphasis or directional sparkle to re-introduce it.

The story seems to succeed on the basis of trying a lot of things at once and banking on at least a couple of them meeting the viewers agreement. The script had enough time invested in it to give it a lot of depth without turning into an overworked mess - but only just. "Axos" is never going to win any awards for being the best story ever, but it sits comfortably on the right side of fun, and taxes the brain and the imagination just enough to get away with its quite noticeable slip-ups.