The Claws of Axos are embedded in the Earth's carcass!
The landing of a variable-mass object on Earth nearly proves to be the planet's undoing. The gilded humanoid aliens tell a half truth when they say they need to replenish the energy and nutrition cycle of their organically grown ship. What they don't tell is that they intend to drain all living energy from Earth and leave it a dry husk. The Brigadier, Doctor, government bureaucrat Chinn, and two scientists from the nearby nuclear plant that supplies Britain its electric power, meet the Axons, who give them a gift of Axonite, described as the chameleon of elements, which causes anything injected with it to increase in size. It thus has the potential to solve world hunger and energy shortage problems. Chinn is a typical "England for the English" jerk who wants to keep Axonite only for his country despite the fact that for the Axons' plan to destroy Earth, the substance needs worldwide distribution.
Chinn, under the Emergency Powers Act, overrules the Brigadier in authority and in...
Color Comes to Doctor Who
Doctor Who really grew up during the Jon Pertwee era. The gray space stations necessitated by monochrome television were no more. The advent of color television opened up a new direction for the program, and nowhere is this direcetion more evident than Claws of Axos. The producers of Doctor Who had a new toy, and they intended to use it! Incidentally, the first ever sight of blood in Doctor Who history occurred in the very first story of this era, Spearhead From Space. In this story, Axos is a fantastic sight to behold, very psychedelic in an era known for its psyechedelic elements, the early 70s. Colors and effects abound and put to great use. The sequence of the Doctor and Jo escaping from a disoriented Axos is one of the best moments in Doctor Who history, marred only perhaps by the screaming of Katy Manning. No wonder the Doctor slaps her. "SHUT UP! You are ruining a great sequence." Well, that's not exactly what he said, however I wouldn't doubt if that was what he was...
"Overweight, underpowered museum piece"
In a wonderful scene from "The Claws of Axos", the Master is attempting to make off with the Doctor's Tardis (a space/time vehicle, if you don't follow the show regularly) and, frustrated by its ramshackle, unusable state, fumes that it's an "overweight, underpowered museum piece." Unkind viewers now might draw the same conclusions about this "Doctor Who" storyline as a whole, and they wouldn't be completely off base.
Of course, museum pieces have their own charm. That's why we go to museums, after all. And one of the coolest features of this storyline is the funky, organic design of Axos itself and the plethora of different psychedelic effects as he/she/it metamorphosizes, cajoles, threatens, freaks out, and interacts with the other characters in general. Certainly it's redolent of a late '60's/early '70's zeitgeist (perhaps Axos hails from a star in the Aquarius constellation?), but it's also incredibly inventive and well designed and really does look like some...
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