The Claws of Axos (TV story)

The Claws of Axos was the third story of Season 8 of Doctor Who. It was the first story written by Bob Baker and Dave Martin, who stayed with the series until the end of the 1970s.

Synopsis
A group of gold-skinned aliens called Axons land on Earth and offer wondrous technology in exchange for fuel. The Doctor, however, isn't fooled. He discovers a plan to drain Earth of all life in an attempt to gain the secret of time travel. The Master has led Axos to earth and now plans to escape. As time counts down and axonite is spread to the world the only hope in the Doctor.

Episode 1
An approaching alien spaceship is detected on monitoring equipment at UNIT HQ, where Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart is entertaining two visitors - Chinn, a Conservative MP making a security inspection, and Bill Filer, an American agent sent to discuss the threat of the Master.

The ship lands in England and the UNIT team, joined by Hardiman and Winser from the nearby Nuton power station, enter the ship and meet its occupants: beautiful golden-skinned humanoids called Axons. Unknown to them, Bill Filer also enters the ship and is held prisoner along with the Master. The Axons inform their guests that they are desperately in need of fuel. They propose to exchange the miracle substance they call Axonite for some much needed energy. Axonite is a "thinking" molecule that can replicate any substance. Despite the Doctor's vocal suspicion, Chinn and the Nuton scientists are tranfixed: such a substance would give the UK unlimited food and unlimited power.

Back outside, Sergeant Benton and Captain Yates find a decomposing body next to the ship. The Doctor's companion Jo Grant enters the ship searching for Filer and screams when a hideous monsters appears before her.

Episode 2
Jo's scream is overheard by the others, who tell her that she was hallucinating, though she is adament. The Doctor succeeds in convincing Hardiman and Winser that despite the potential of Axonite, it should be scientifically analysed before it is distributed. Chinn is one step ahead of him, and is granted special favours by the Ministry to ensure that distribution is left in the hands of the UK. Convinced that the Doctor and UNIT will be a hindrance, he has the regular army put them under security arrest, though he reluctantly grants permission for the Doctor to assist in the laboratory.

Meanwhile, the Axons are not as nice as they seem. They release a duplicate of Bill Filer back to the outside world, and strike a deal with their captive, the Master, offering him his freedom in exchange for his efforts to guarantee worldwide distrubution of Axonite. The duplicate Filer attacks the Doctor but is killed by the real Filer, who escaped from the Axon ship. The Doctor realises that the Axonites are all part of a single parasitic entity brought Earth by the Master to feed on the planet's energy, though he has little time to relish in this realisation, as he and Jo and are surrounded by the true form of the Axonites in the lab.

Episode 3
The Axons take the Doctor and Jo prisoner in the Axon ship, where the Doctor is interrogated, the Axons, aware that the Doctor is a Time Lord wanting the secret of time travel. They claim to have the power to repair the blocks in the Doctor's memory imposed on him when he was exiled.

Meanwhile, the Master has no intention of helping the Axons. Instead, he makes his way to the Doctor's TARDIS, intending to use it to escape Earth, as his own is being used as a bargaining chip by the Axons. However, he fails to get it to work, though it occurs to him that it could be done using power from the reactor in the power station where the TARDIS is currently situated. When he leaves the TARDIS, he is caught by the Brigadier and several UNIT troops, though he is not finished; since the Axons are controlling the reactor, which has the potential to cause a nuclear explosion, he offers his assistance in exchange for his freedom. The Brigadier agrees. The Master's idea is to turn the power of the Axonite back against the Axons. As he prepares to blow up Axos, the Doctor and Jo have not yet escaped their clutches, and will be killed as well.

Episode 4
The Master's plan fails, and the Doctor and Jo escape from Axos and return to the complex. The Doctor, realising that Axos is interested in travelling through time to broaden its feeding base, plans to trick it into linking up its drive unit to his TARDIS so that he can send Axos into a perpetual time loop. After tricking the Master into completing the repairs on his TARDIS, the Doctor materialise his TARDIS, with the Master on board, at the centre of Axos. He offers to link the two ships together to make one giant time machine, on condition that Axos in return helps him to take revenge on the Time Lords for exiling him to Earth. They accept, but he has tricked them; this results in every part of Axos dematerialising from Earth, including the Axos automatons and the Axonite.

At the end, with the Master having escaped in his own TARDIS during the confusion aboard Axos, the Doctor returns to Earth, but not of his own volition. Apparently, the Time Lords have programmed the TARDIS to always return to Earth, like some "galactic yo-yo".

Cast

 * The Doctor - Jon Pertwee
 * Jo Grant - Katy Manning
 * Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart - Nicholas Courtney
 * Sergeant Benton - John Levene
 * Captain Mike Yates - Richard Franklin
 * The Master - Roger Delgado
 * Bill Filer - Paul Grist
 * Chinn - Peter Bathurst
 * Corporal Bell - Fernanda Marlowe
 * Hardiman - Donald Hewlett
 * Winser - David Savile
 * Pigbin Josh - Derek Ware
 * Axon Man - Bernard Holley
 * 1st Radar Operator - Michael Walker
 * 2nd Radar Operator - David G. Marsh
 * Axon Woman - Patricia Gordino
 * Axon Boy - John Hicks
 * Axon Girl - Debbie Lee London
 * Captain Harker - Tim Piggott-Smith
 * The Minister - Kenneth Benda
 * Technician - Royston Farrell

Production Crew

 * Writers - Bob Baker and Dave Martin
 * Action / Stuntwork - HAVOC
 * Assistant Floor Manager - Roselyn Parker
 * Costumes - Barbara Lane
 * Designer - Kenneth Sharp
 * Film Cameraman - A A Englander
 * Film Editor - Bob Rymer
 * Incidental Music - Dudley Simpson
 * Make-Up - Jan Harrison, Rhian Davies
 * Production Assistant - Marion McDougall
 * Script Editor - Terrance Dicks
 * Special Sounds - Brian Hodgson
 * Studio Lighting - Ralph Walton
 * Studio Sound - Dave Kitchen
 * Theme Arrangement - Delia Derbyshire
 * Title Music - Ron Grainer
 * Visual Effects - John Horton
 * Producer - Barry Letts
 * Director - Michael Ferguson

Story Notes

 * Working titles for this story included Doctor Who and the Gift, The Friendly Invasion, The Axons, and The Vampire from Space. The last title was used through the production of the first two episodes, and was only changed by the time filming began on the third. The DVD release contains unused footage and cuts from the story that are packaged with the original title sequence – naming the story as The Vampire from Space. The Vampire from Space was envisaged to be a seven-parter, but the concept of the storylines changed as production progressed.
 * The line “freak weather conditions” is in the script to explain the shifts in weather between filming (which goes from snowy to sunny from take to take).
 * For reasons unexplained, the opening titles for this serial use the Second Doctor's version of the Doctor Who theme music as opposed to the Third Doctor's, as do The Mind of Evil and Terror of the Autons. After this serial however, the theme reverts to the Jon Pertwee standard.
 * It is never stated exactly who Bill Filer works for (only that he is American.
 * The 'blue CSO cloth' behind Benton when he is driving the jeep (with the Axon behind him), is the sky and not CSO as it was on film and there was no CSO film work performed in the 1970s.
 * UNIT mobile HQ is a BBC Outside Broadcast van.

Ratings

 * Episode 1 - 7.3 million viewers
 * Episode 2 - 8.0 million viewers
 * Episode 3 - 6.4 million viewers
 * Episode 4 - 7.8 million viewers

Myths

 * A common myth about this story is that the colour-separation overlay (CSO) background was accidentally placed in some of the car interior scenes, meaning a blank blue void is seen behind the characters. In reality, the scenes were shot on location (and on 16mm film, making CSO extremely tricky), and clouds can be seen. The differing shades of blue compared to the exterior shots is due to the scenes being filmed at different parts of the day.

Filming Locations

 * Dengemarsh Road, Lydd, Kent
 * Dungeness Road, Dungeness, Kent (Where Axos lands and half buries itself)
 * Dungeness Power Station, Dungeness, Kent (Location for the Nuton Power Complex)
 * Dungeness Beach, Dungeness, Kent
 * St. Martin's Plains Camp, Shorncliffe, Kent
 * BBC Television Centre (Studio 7, 3 and 4), Shepherd's Bush, London

Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors

 * In episode 4, after the TARDIS dematerialises from the Nuton lab, it is still there during the UNIT gun battle which follows.
 * As the Brigadier and his men leave the room where they've been held captive in episode 2 the wall shakes.
 * Why is a replica of Filer made?
 * The Nuton complex powers half the UK, but explodes without loss of life (Characters return to it only seconds after it has blown up).

Continuity

 * This is the first time the interior of the Doctor's TARDIS is seen since DW: The War Games.
 * In DW: Last of the Time Lords both the Doctor and the Master mention the Axons.

DVD, Video and Other Releases
DVD Releases

Released as Doctor Who: The Claws of Axos.

Released:
 * Region 2 - 25th April 2005
 * Region 4 - 2nd June 2005
 * Region 1 - 8th November 2005

Contents:
 * Commentary by Barry Letts, Katy Manning and Richard Franklin
 * Behind the Scenes - A 25-minute selection of studio material from the making of this story, including footage that was cut from the finished programme, with optional information subtitles.
 * Now and Then - A look back at the Dungeness locations used for this story, contrasting them with how they appear today.
 * Reverse Standards Conversion - The Axon Legacy - A 10-minute documentary which looks at the restoration of this story for DVD.
 * Directing Who - Michael Ferguson talks about his work on The Claws of Axos.
 * Photo Gallery
 * Production Subtitles

Target Novelisations

 * Novelised in 1977 as Doctor Who and the Claws of Axos by Terrance Dicks.