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| Golden Armageddon! The Doctor (Jon Pertwee) and Jo Grant (Kate Manning) face a new threat from The Master (Roger Delgado) and the Axons in the latest Classic DOCTOR WHO Special Edition release: The Claws of Axos. Images: BBC |
DOCTOR WHO – THE CLAWS OF AXOS: SPECIAL EDITION DVD (2 DISCS)
Starring Jon Pertwee as the Doctor and Katy Manning as Jo Grant
Written by Bob Baker and Dave Martin
Directed by Michael Ferguson
Available from BBC CONSUMER PRODUCTS
Reviewed by Scott Weller
Beware Greeks bearing gifts. Or rather charismatic “we come in peace” golden skinned alien humanoids happy to provide us with a miracle new energy source! Earth falls for the ultimate intergalactic Trojan Horse as the alien infestation known as Axos quickly embeds itself into the crust of the planet, its chilling tentacles ready to drain the world of its life and power, and only the heroic Third Doctor, unwillingly joining forces with his sworn enemy, The Master, can defeat them in this splendidly colourful action packed romp from 1971, now available in a glorious and restored new 2 disc Special Edition DVD: THE CLAWS OF AXOS!
Originally known as THE FRIENDLY INVASION followed by the jazzy B-movie sounding THE VAMPIRE FROM SPACE, Bristol boys Bob Baker and Dave Martin premiere script for WHO, is brimming with action, characters and big ideas, trimmed down to just the right compactful four-parter length from its original, way to big seven episodes form.
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| All that glitters...the friendly Axons... |
Aptly referred to as “sensible silliness” by its innovative director, Michael Ferguson, returning to the series after his fine work on the previous seasons The Ambassadors of Death, the story is a certainly a visual treat alongside the big concept, splendidly using the emergent technology of CSO colour separation overlay (or the television version of Blue Screen) which dominates its realization most effectively, almost capturing us at times with an arresting psychedelic but dangerous-a triumph from designer Kenneth Sharp. On the practical built side of things, the Axon ship’s organic miasma interior and orifice exterior (the latter scenes filmed in the worst, and most varied, conditions in the shows behind the scenes history) is packed with swishing tendrils, other strange protrusions and a weirdly effective background sound effect, backed up with an alien electronic heartbeat, from WHO stalwart Brian Hodgson.
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| ...and their real personas! |
The adventures of the Doctor and his UNIT family, originally warmly ensconced on Saturday evening TV screens of yesteryear are back in full highly entertaining nostalgia mode with this release- contained nuclear explosions, time travel loops and conundrums, UNIT once again overwhelmed by a superior alien force and the Doctor and his sworn enemy, The Master, at first locking heads but then both ending up completely over their heads when the situation gets out of hand, are the kind of repetitively warm and wonderful ingredients that would make WHO’s eighth season such a notable success with audiences and critics, and be a comfortable and exciting presence on a BBC 1 in the prime of it’s new youthful early seventies vigour-all pioneering and bold in its storytelling techniques.
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| The Doctor and Jo outsider the Axon spaceship. |
Pertwee is as adventuresome and welcomely on-screen dominant as ever, whilst companion Katy Manning’s charms, and mini-skirts, continue to delight. The late great Roger Delgado is once again on cracking form as the debonair diabolic Time Lord enemy, oozing charm and menace along with those fiery and all- consuming eyes of his, whilst his scenes opposing and conferring with Pertwee’s Doctor and the Brigadier (Nicholas Courtney) are always great fun and have now become classic.
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| The Master returns to cause trouble... |
Along for the ride, and its alien invasion antics, are a bumbling political idiot (the kind that the shows producers liked to make fun of in their early seventies era-justifiably so, too!), Chin (played by Peter Bathurst), out to make a name for himself against UNIT and win acclaim from his superiors with the Axons and Bill Filer, a stereotyped Yankee action man spy (played by husky voiced Paul Grist) who, later in the story, has a fun fight scene with himself playing an alien doppelganger! Plus, scientists running about the local nuclear plant threatened by Axon interference- Don’t panic! Don’t panic! - include David Savile and a pre-IT AIN”T HALF HOT MUM’s Donald Hewlett.
Having looked at various stills of the episodes growing up as a kid, it was the Axons of the title, and the actions by UNIT against them (courtesy of those fine stuntmen talents of HAVOC), that intrigued me the most with this story, especially seeing the beasties in the flesh, so to speak, when a prop of one of the tentacled metamorphosing creature caught my real-life attention when it held court for a time in the far corner of the FORBIDDEN PLANET 2 book store back in the early eighties. Luckily, I was happily surprised how, on first viewing of THE CLAWS OF AXOS a few years later, the tale actually lived up to my expectations as both a monster tale and a UNIT showcase within the Pertwee era.
With repeat viewings to come years on, I continue to be very fond of it.
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| An Axon takes out two UNIT soldiers. |
Its fuzzy transatlantic episodes 2 and 3 restored to better quality alongside the original UK PAL colour masters for 1 and 4, CLAWS is colourful and exciting, of which I’m sure younger viewers will particularly enjoy it, whilst older WHO fans in general can sit back and enjoy the warm feelings in their hearts remembering this classic era. They recently came back to fight the Doctor in a Big Finishaudio adventure, but I think the time is now right for the Axons to make an actual big screen return to the Modern WHO series.
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| The Axons bring out a test subject. |
Out of the starting gate with the new Special Edition features is Axon Stations! A glistening documentary to compliment the tale, as co-writer Bob Baker, Ferguson, a very giggly Katy Manning, stuntman Derek Ware, and seventies script editor Terrance Dicks talk about the show and its sometimes difficult location filming. One of the best contributors here has to Baker, more known these days as the co-creator/writer of WALLACE AND GROMIT, who reminisces about his partnership with the late Dave Martin, the genesis of CLAWS and its original bonkers ideas pitch to script editor Dicks. There are also further notable contributions from supporting actors Paul Grist and Bernard Holley, the latter away from the golden face of his controlled monster performance.
Another major new documentary premiering on the disc concentrates itself on one of the key supporting stars of the Pertwee UNIT era, as the controversial and seemingly eccentric figure of John Levene, who played Saergent Benton in the show on and off for ten years, comes under the investigative microscope of WHO super fan Toby Hadoke, going all Louis Theroux on us, turning up in Bristol on a mission Living with Levene, determined to discover the true person behind the larger than life smile and personality. To be honest, I was fearful of watching this, worried about what might be dredged up and used as part of a potential character assassination piece against the actor, back on UK shores after years away in Los Angeles. But, I’m happy to say, this documentary, again from the reliable hands of Chris Chapman, though indeed quirky, is fun and a highlight of the BBC DVD extras range of Classic Who. In conversation with a quietly probing Hadoke, Levene comes across well: spirited and likable, and, whilst offering some intriguing anecdotes of his life and period spent on WHO, willingly, talks without any façade, wearing his heart on his sleeve with a what you see is what you get personality. Living with Levene is well worth a look.
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| Pertwee, Delgado and an Axon pose for a special publicity photo for the story. |
Along with the standard info text and PDFs, the material from the previously deleted DVD release of CLAWS adds fine completism, including an audio commentary from a once again cheeky and endearing Katy Manning, Richard Franklin (who played UNIT man Mike Yates) and late producer Barry Letts, deleted and extended scenes (mostly from Episodes 1 and 2), this time in their entirety rather than edited highlights (which give us a wonderful rare look into the way the series was made), Now and Then looks at the various exterior filming locations (see an unchanged nuclear power station forty plus years on!), and Then and Now, where a younger Michael Ferguson talks about the process of making the story back in the seventies compared to the 2000’s. There’s also some great colour and black and white stills photography showing the detail and thought behind the design realisation of the golden Axons facades and their true alien spaghetti bolognaise monster forms. Finally, as a mouth watering taster of what will surely be some fine collectible goodies on the shows 50th Anniversary next year, there’s a Coming Soon preview of next January’s DVD combo of the unfinished Tom Baker 1979 classic Shada, and the affectionate 1993 documentary Thirty Years of a Time Lord.
KOOL TV RATING: Another WHO classic gets the DVD treatment it deserves. Axos is calling Earth. Make sure you answer it! 4.5 out of 5
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