292 The Claws of Axos: Episode Four

EPISODE: The Claws of Axos: Episode Four
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 292
STORY NUMBER: 057
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 03 April 1971
WRITER: Bob Baker & Dave Martin
DIRECTOR: Michael Ferguson
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
RATINGS: 7.8 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - the Claws of Axos - Special Edition
EPISODE FORMAT: 625 video

"Do you mean to say that you are actually prepared to abandon your beloved Earth to the Axon's tender mercies?"

With Axos disrupted by the power the Master is feeding it, The Doctor & Jo managed to escape. Axos feeds the power back to the Nuton complex, killing Hardiman as he disconnects the link. The Doctor arrives back at the Nuton complex saying he is needing the Master's help to defeat Axos. However when he has the Master alone in the Tardis he tells him he needs his help repairing the Tardis so they can both escape. Axos begins to surface ready to start feeding energy from the distributed Axonite causing the observing Yates & Benton to flee. The Doctor & Master depart together to the horror of the Jo and the Brigadier as Axons attack the Nuton complex. The Doctor brings the Tardis saying he wishes to bargain the secret of time travel for an alliance against the high council of the Time Lords. Axos agrees and the Doctor wires it into the Tardis intending, as the Master notices, to Time Loop Axos. The Master flees, attempting to get to his own Tardis. Axos and the Axons dematerialise becoming Time Looped but the Doctor, shielded by the Tardis, escapes by rematerialises in the Nuton complex just as it's destroyed in a huge explosion.

The Doctor persuades the Tardis to make another short journey rematerialising in the ruins of the Nuton complex.

DOCTOR: Well, it's perfectly simple, Brigadier. A time loop is, er. Well, it's a time loop. One passes continually through the same points in time. Passes through the same. Yes. Well, the Axons said they wanted time travel and now they've got it.
FILER: What about the Master?
DOCTOR: Well, I sincerely hope he's with them.
FILER: Hope?
DOCTOR: Well, I can't be absolutely sure. I was pretty busy at the time. But I'm ninety percent certain though.
FILER: How much?
DOCTOR: Well, pretty certain. Well, I suppose he could have got away. Just.
BRIGADIER: This time loop thing. How did you get out of it?
DOCTOR: I simply boosted the circuits and broke free.
BRIGADIER: And you came back of your own accord?
DOCTOR: Well, I
JO: Doctor?
DOCTOR: No. No, I'm afraid not. No, obviously the Time Lords have programmed the Tardis always to return to Earth. It seems that I'm some kind of a galactic yo-yo!

The Doctor is quite duplicitous here, first deceiving the Brigadier and co, making them believe he's abandoned them and fled Earth with The Master.

DOCTOR: Ah, thank you, Jo.
JO: Doctor, what are those figures?
DOCTOR: Oh, they're just some course coordinates, that's all.
FILER: What do you want course coordinates for, Doc? You're not thinking of leaving us, are you?
DOCTOR: Here you are. Everything ready?
MASTER: Just the check.
DOCTOR: Good. Yes, as a matter of fact, we are.
FILER: Not if I can help it!
DOCTOR: Drop that, Filer!
JO: Doctor! Doctor!
DOCTOR: Sorry, Jo. Ah, Brigadier, just in time to say goodbye!
JO: No, you can't!
DOCTOR: I'm sorry, Jo, we must.
FILER: We?
DOCTOR: Yes. After all, we are both Time Lords. Goodbye, Brigadier, Mister Chinn. Goodbye, Bill. Goodbye, Jo. I shall miss you.
JO: No!

Then he deceives The Master to gain his co-operation in his scheme.

MASTER: Well, Doctor? I'm still waiting to hear this marvellous scheme of yours.
DOCTOR: Actually, there isn't one.
MASTER: Well, then why?
DOCTOR: Because if you mend the Tardis, we can both escape.
MASTER: Both? Tell me, Doctor, are you suggesting an alliance?
DOCTOR: Why not? I don't want to spend the rest of my life as a heap of dust on second rate planet to a third rate star. Do you?
MASTER: Do you mean to say that you are actually prepared to abandon your beloved Earth to the Axon's tender mercies?
DOCTOR: Certainly. After all, we are both Time Lords.
MASTER: Maybe. Look, why should I help you?
DOCTOR: Because if you don't I shall hand you over to UNIT and you'll become a prisoner on a doomed planet.
MASTER: Yes, well, you'll be doomed along with me.
DOCTOR: Exactly. We either escape together or we die together.
MASTER: Oh, very generous! But look, why not just hand me over to UNIT and make your escape by yourself? Well?
DOCTOR: Because the Time Lords have put a block on my knowledge of dematerialisation theory, that's why!
MASTER: Oh, I see.
DOCTOR: Yes. Well, we haven't got much time. What's your decision?
MASTER: All right, I accept.

Finally he deceives Axos forcing them into the Time Loop.

AXOS: Why have you returned?
DOCTOR: That's simple. Because you are winning. And we have a proposition. You may have conquered this tiny speck in space but you've yet to conquer time.
AXOS: Well?
DOCTOR: We are prepared to give you this power on one condition. That we join forces against the High Council of the Time Lords.
AXOS: How can we do this?
DOCTOR: By linking our drive systems. In this way, Axos will become a Tardis and the Tardis will become a part of Axos.

I'm pretty certain he was intending to make his getaway at the end of this episode but alas he discovers the limits the Time Lords have placed on him..... which we will shortly see relaxed so he can do their bidding.

But at the end of these 4 episodes I still find myself left with no great love for the Claws of Axos. I'm sorry, it just doesn't appeal to me.

This time round I'm struck by the irony that Chinn was right at the start of the story: Axos is a threat. If they'd have destroyed it initially he whole problem would of gone away. THEN his tomfoolery in the following episodes, insisting Britain distributes the Axonite, delays things preventing it's spread and making a major contribution to saving the planet!

Just in case you're in the slightest doubt, Chinn really REALLY annoys me!

Although the end of this story is the last we see of Axos and the Axons we do get to see an Axon monster costume again. One was later resprayed green and used as a Krynoid in the fourth Doctor story the Seeds of Doom

One particular technical element of this episode has attracted considerable debate over the years: As Benton & Yates are attempting to drive a jeep back to the Brigadier they're attacked by Axons. During this sequence the long shots of the jeep are on location and the close ups of Yates & Benton are filmed in the studio. Behind them is a featureless blue grey background. The argument runs is that a poor attempt at a sky, which doesn't really match the location sequences, or is it a CSO shot where someone's forgotten to key in the background? For years watching this story on video I was a subscriber to the later theory but now I'm not so sure especially when compared to a similar shot of Filer driving his car in episode one that while a different colour looks equally bad compared to the location footage around it. Two other factors weigh against it being CSO: Firstly the blue isn't that bright as it's usually a bright colour used for CSO. The second is that Doctor Who tended to avoid using the colour blue as the Background for it's CSO work due to one of the major props in the series, the Tardis, being coloured blue!

A couple of points about the Tardis doors: Outside the console room doors in this episode there's a roundelled lobby that we've not seen before.

This is made up of one of the studio flats that made up the walls of the Tardis control room. It's noticeable because at some point in it's life it go stuck on it's side so the roundels are in rows, not columns!

Previously when the Tardis doors are open we've seen directly onto the exterior surrounding that the ship has materialised in!

It's worth noting, mainly because it will change shortly, that the rear of the doors have roundels on them, just as they have from the beginning of the series.

Ok yes, the roundels did change from sticking out to being recessed somewhere between The Web Planet and Time Meddler, but apart from that the rear of the doors has always been the same:

We also get to see the Master's Tardis again. When we last saw it, it was a horsebox in Terror of the Autons. Are we to assume this plain blocky shape is it's native form?

There is a slight error in this episode: The Tardis in the lab when UNIT and co are attacked by the Axons. However the Doctor has taken it to Axos at this point

The Nuton Complex technician is played by Royston Farrell. He was a Guardian in The Return & The Bomb, the last two episodes of The Ark, an Elder in The Savages, a Technician in The Seeds of Death, and returns as a Guard in The Curse of Peladon. He also performed stunts on Flash Gordon.

This is the last episode Director Michael Fergusson's fourth and final Doctor Who story following The War Machines, The Seeds of Death & The Ambassadors of Death.

The Claws of Axos was novelised in 1977 by Terrance Dicks. In 1979 it became one of the first Target Doctor Who books to be rejacketed with a new cover. A video version of Claws of Axos was released on 5th May 1992 alongside Tomb of the Cybermen and the Woolworths exclusive The Twin Dilemma. It was released on DVD on 25th April, 2005 and was the fifth Third Doctor DVD to be released. At this point a reasonable portion of the range was Pertwee releases but that slowed down leaving the last few years of the DVD range with several Pertwee stories a number of which need extensive restoration work. Doctor Who The Claws of Axos Special Edition DVD was released on 22nd October 2012 featuring improved picture quality and many more special features.

Doctor Who Season 8, containing this story, was released on Blu Ray on March 8th.