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The Claws of Axos

13TH MARCH 1971 - 3RD APRIL 1971

(4 EPISODES)

Though I am surprised that it has taken so long for the BBC to release any of the classic ‘Master’ stories starring Roger Delgado, “The Claws of Axos” struck me as a strange

choice for the Master's DVD debut as in this story he does not seem as evil or menacing as he did in his first two stories, the legendary “Terror of the Autons” and the under-rated “Mind of Evil.” In this story, the Master’s aim is not dominion over the Earth but freedom; mere survival, even.

The DVD contains over twenty minutes of “Behind the Scenes” studio material, including many interesting deleted scenes. However, this does not make up for the lack of any real documentary or featurette focusing on the story – the closest you get is an interview with Michael Ferguson, the story’s director, which is undoubtedly the pick of the special features.

Above: The DVD's (relatively modest) selection of special features

I really do not like the “Now and Then” feature that crops up every now and again, and it is made even worse on this disc because the Dungeness location has not changed one bit; even the pile of sand the production team left there in 1970 is still there today! The worst of the lot, though, has to be “The Axon Legacy,” which could not be of any real interest to anyone other than the most technically minded fan. After watching it I now consider myself to be an expert in converting NTSC to PAL and vice-versa, and I am also strangely disturbed by the fact that Mr Axon was a real person who invented the conversion process – how spooky considering “The Claws of Axos” was one of the first programmes to be converted!

Moreover, without wanting to knock the fantastic work of the Restoration Team, “The Claws of Axos” is the first DVD released so far where the quality of the serial itself is less than brilliant, which is remarkable when we have had stories as old as “The Aztecs” released in virtually perfect quality prior to this. For some reason, episodes one and four seem fine but episodes two and three both have a very definite ‘video’ look about them, as if the tape they were mastered from was several generations down the line. Considering that the story has been recolourised from home recordings made in the USA though, I suppose that a certain loss of quality is inevitable.

More positively, the DVD features a good commentary; Barry Letts (producer) and Katy Manning (Jo Grant) both return and seem to have a thoroughly good time remembering the show, and they are joined this time by Richard Franklin (Captain Mike Yates) who I was surprised to learn actually was an army Captain in real life prior to joining the show! The production subtitles are as informative as ever too, and on this disc are also available for

the behind the scenes material as well as the serial.

This story itself is a brilliant example of a Pertwee / UNIT adventure, and it is also quite historic in that it was the first story to be penned by ‘The Bristol Boys’ Bob Baker and Dave Martin. Some of their characters, such as Chinn (there is a wonderful exchange between the Doctor, Chinn and the Brigadier at the story’s beginning) and Filer, are absolutely superb and the relationship between the Doctor and the Master is handled very well, as at one

stage the two appear to put their differences behind them, only for the Doctor to betray the Master and save Earth. There is a moment, though, where the viewer (and Jo!) actually thinks that the Doctor might actually be selling out to win back his freedom – it is compelling stuff.

All told, the imaginative spaghetti monsters, the infamous “…freak weather conditions…” and the explosively colourful psychedelic presentation of this early colour serial all make it a highly enjoyable affair. I do think that the DVD could have been a lot better, although as the story took more remastering than most I think the Restoration Team can be forgiven the shortfall in interesting bonus material this once.

Copyright © E.G. Wolverson 2008

E.G. Wolverson has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

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