 "Good extras" | 2007-12-16 |
| - Reviewed By User: APQ0ZFD136D72 |
| The episode, Claws of Axos, hasn't aged well I think. In the voice over commentary the actors think the psychadelic overlays and so on have held up well. The story was a bit different than usual and the Master is present but plays no real role here. His scenes with the Doctor are brilliant as always, UNIT has some good stuff and the Making Of and Restoration extras were interesting but the monsters were not terribly strong until the end. The massacre in the lab chamber was excellent! I recommend it as a fan of the Master, and for the in depth look into what it was like to film Doctor Who in the old days. |
| |
 "My first Dr. Who experience. "The Claws Of Axos"" | 2007-08-10 |
| - Reviewed By User: A30Z7DJCO4BAY6 |
| I was 7 years old when I caught the final episode of "Axos". As a kid I loved monster movies and anything related to. I was introduced to this marvelous british import that aired on public television at 10:00pm. Unfortunately, I never got see any more as my mom had banned me from watching monster movies and tv for awhile. {they were giving me nightmares despite the fact that I loved them) I eventually got back to watching Dr.Who during the Tom Baker era, but that's another story. It was great to watch this serial in it's entirety, I would rank it as a classic. A blened of all the things that made this series great, well paced storytelling, Solid acting, and most of all spaghetti monsters! I've always heard Sci-Fi critics downplayed the show for the limited sfx, but I always felt they added to the shows novelty. I love the news series, but don't call yourself a who fan until you've gotten a taste of the classic series. One of the best of The Pertwee era, "The Claws Of Axos" will always be near and dear to my heart. |
| |
 "Color Comes to Doctor Who" | 2007-07-21 |
| - Reviewed By jliosatos2 |
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 thinking.
The music in Axos is quite eerie as well. That signature tune when the Master first appears on screen sends a chill down the spine. Speaking of the Master, Claws of Axos is notable because it is the only DVD release to date of any story involving the original Master. As usual, Roger Delgado shines as the sinister evil Timelord, the true Master, not the mustache-twirling, HEH HEH HEH villain of Anthony Ainley's version. When Roger Delgado's unfortunate and untimely death occurred in 1973, that should have been the end of the Master as well. They should have never brought him back. Nothing against Anthony Ainley as an actor, but no one could play the Master quite like Roger Delgado.
Also, pay close attention to the dialogue and you will catch the first instance of cussing in Doctor Who, albeit very light. However this was still a children's show... The scientist Winser, when analyzing Axonite with the Doctor in episode two, let's fly a "Damn it", & "What the hell you doing". I'm guessing that this is the first incident of cussing in Who history, but I could definitely be wrong. If anyone can prove me wrong, please use the "comment" link to tell me. Language represents another way Doctor Who grew up in this era.
A great extra in this DVD release is the 25-minute snippet featuring behind-the scenes outtakes and deleted scenes of this story. You get a true sense of what it's like for the actors to work on a program. Perhaps the most interesting deleted scene is the one of Pigpin Josh's face caving in after falling victim to the axons. It was considered too gruesome for Doctor Who and edited out, replaced in the transmitted version by a whitening out of the screen. Thanks to the deleted scene feature, we get to actually witness the true fate of poor Josh. "AOR AOR" Ironically, the scene in which Winser meets his demise in the same fashion is only partly cut out, and his face caving in is partially evident. Did they miss this one?
Season eight of Doctor Who is considered the introduction of The Unit Family, all working happily together to save the earth from alien invasions. Claws of Axos is one of the best stories of the season. Unfortunately, the BBC hasn't seen fit to give us more DVD releases of this season. I'd love to see The Daemons, the best season eight story, on DVD soon. |
| |
| "Nostalgic but a Bit Predictable" | 2007-05-25 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2KWJ1TZC6C60P |
A large part of the episode is a power struggle between UNIT led by the Brigadier and another high ranking British official. The British official is too stereo typed and predictable in his motives. The intentions of Axos is also obvious very early on. As a result, this story doesn't build up a lot of tension but plays out as you might expect. Just too black and white for my tastes.
The Axonite's appear in two forms. I rather like the costumes of their humanoid form. Very effective for a show on a budget.
Jo's role in this is to run off on her own and get in trouble and then scream for help. The better Who stories would get the companion more involved.
|
| |
| ""Overweight, underpowered museum piece"" | 2007-02-21 |
| - Reviewed By kichigaikitsune |
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 unimaginable form of alien technology/life (instead of just another metal spaceship with little green men). Some of the blue-screen effects used to realize Axos don't quite fool the eye nowadays, but they were cutting edge at the time and are interesting (museum-wise) in that regard--as an early stage in the special effects revolutions that we now take for granted. And anyway they get the point across, which is the main thing.
Axos tempts humankind with the bait of limitless energy, and while human greed is perennial and universal, this particular ploy is also clearly influenced by the contemporary blossoming concerns and worries about energy shortages and the sustainability of resources (which we also see in "Inferno" in a somewhat more sophisticated treatment). Nor is this a problem that we've solved in the 21st century, so the plot premise still sort of speaks to us directly. The plot itself is rather underpowered, though, and the actual sinister intentions of Axos are given away far too soon to generate the level of suspense the writers were probably shooting for. Some of the ideas and actual scenes seem a bit recycled from "Spearhead from Space" too, sometimes with improvement (the scene when Axos is detected on radar) and sometimes not (the hapless poacher/scavenger type who first encounters the incoming alien).
Jon Pertwee's portrayal of the Doctor has always been one of my favorites, and seeing him do his thing here makes up for any retrospective shortcomings. There are great scenes like when the Doctor berates the humans for jumping the gun and trying to shoot Axos out of the sky without ascertaining its intentions, but then catching several inconsistencies in its/his little spiel of an explanation and getting increasingly skeptical of its/his intentions while the humans fall all over themselves for the promise of infinite resources (and the chance to corner the market on these). Furthermore, this is the only DVD to date to feature Roger Delgado's classic, incredibly compelling portrayal of the Master. I've written before about how the mechanized, identical Daleks and Cybermen work well as a foil for the eccentric, individualistic Doctor, but the Master is less a foil than a shadow, a sort of dark version of the Doctor himself, a glimpse of what the Doctor could have been if you tweaked his personality just a little. After all, the Master is a renegade Time Lord too, wandering time and space at will, eccentric and individualistic in his own manner, possessed of a brilliant scientific mind with a healthy streak of arrogance not unlike the Doctor's; all he lacks is his rival's warm-hearted ethical gyroscope, but this one key ingredient makes all the difference. This also makes him a very formidable foe, of course, and Delgado pulls this off so well that you almost find yourself rooting for the bad guy. Almost. So break out your lava lamps and your Carl Jung paperbacks and enjoy this trip back in time flying a secondhand gas stove! |
| |
| "Not the Best Story" | 2006-02-07 |
| - Reviewed By straylen |
This isn't the best Doctor Who story of all time, but what is interesting is that until now this release simply couldn't have happened as the technology to improve the picture quality simply didn't exist. This story only existed as a poor quality US (NTSC) copy, so in order to make it release worth a highly intensive process called Reverse Standards Conversion (RSC) had to take place. This essentially unpicks the picture to return it to it's original PAL glory (for UK release). For the North American release the picture is then converted back to NTSC only using a much more sophisticated technique to that done 30 years ago. The improvements are startling.
Of course the release also contains the usual dazzling set of extras. |
| |
| "Beware of Greeks bearing AXONITE!!!" | 2006-01-18 |
| - Reviewed By samurai-zilla |
An "okay" 3rd Doctor (Jon Pertwee) adventure, originally broadcast in 1971, that rates higher because it is with Roger Delgado's Master (taken from the series too soon do to a tragic accident) is in it.
A organic spacecraft arrives on Earth in the spirit of the 50's Sci-Fi classics, the humans are ready to blow it away. Thanks to their restrain they discover a race of beautiful, , golden aliens offering an unlimited source of energy, but in reality they are a threat too Earth, working with the Doctor's villainous nemesis the renegade a Timelord called the Master. Will the exiled Doctor uncover the truth about the alien plan and aide Humanity or has is his desire for the freedom to leave Earth overcome him? judgment? Has the Doctor joined forces with his old adversary only to serve his own agenda?
Surrounded by "the Brig" and his trigger-happy UNIT soldiers, self-inflated, self-serving bureaucrats, not to mention the cartoon locals, all reacting true to type, it's no wonder the Doctor seems to be torn between allies. There's lots of great sets, monsters, alien transformation into some top-notch costumes (that were so expensive they were saved and reused in "The Seeds of Doom," among others). Some of the scenes with the Doctor and the Master in the final episodes are very good, and completely sell the idea that the Doctor may have traded sides, because he was always on "his own side" to begin with.
|
| |
| "The Master Returns to Vex The Doctor!!" | 2005-11-23 |
| - Reviewed By User: ALB3PT6GQ9SJ7 |
The arch enemy of the BBC series character Doctor Who returns in the newly released DVD based on THE CLAWS of AXOS- first transmitted in 1971 -and featuring Roger Delgado as the Master alongside Jon Pertwee's Third Doctor.
The evil, cunning Time Lord has entered in to an alliance with the shape shifting Axons who arrive on the earth with unclear motives.
But now he wants his freedom so he escapes from them at the same time their representatives are making their presence known to UNIT and british government officials-including the Doctor, currently in exile by the Time Lords for intervention with other civilisations.
But it will be this same kind of necessary involvement that will lead the Doctor to save not only Jo Grant and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart from the Axons once their claws come out, but the entire world!
Even if that means he must ally himself with the Master.... |
| |
| "Script problems lead to cracking stories for the Doctor." | 2005-11-17 |
| - Reviewed By jkmmoc |
The latest pair of DVD releases from the BBC's Doctor Who archive, the last for 2005, brings together stories from the second season of the third Doctor and the second to last of the fourth. The Claws of Axos and City of Death both came into being due to script problems which caused earlier ideas to fall through, with the latter story being written in one weekend by the production team themselves. Both stories certainly work well, but a lot will depend on how you view Doctor Who overall.
The Claws of Axos is the third story from the eighth season of the show, broadcast in the late winter of 1971. Starring Jon Pertwee in his second season, this was the third consecutive story to feature the Doctor and his U.N.I.T. colleagues facing the renegade Time Lord, The Master, on present day Earth. Even by this early stage, the repetitive use of The Master was beginning to bore, as was the "The Doctor exiled on Earth" storyline that had been in place since the start of season seven in 1970. However, there is a twist to this adventure in that The Doctor and The Master do manage to leave Earth briefly in the Doctor's TARDIS to defeat the Axon aliens.
Originally conceived as a seven-part adventure, the writers Bob Baker and Dave Martin who had never written for the show before, struggled with the cuts that were needed to bring the story initially down to five episodes and later to four. Clearly for
the writers, they were somewhat out of their depth; and it shows. Some of the concepts explored in the storyline don't seem to go anywhere as a result of the cuts and the science, particularly the nuclear science, is preposterous. Ignoring the weakness of the plot and script, there is still a lot to enjoy here. The design is truly astounding, particularly the organic Axon spaceship, and the striking lighting is remarkable. The alien costumes are very well executed and the assembled cast certainly put in very impressive performances, with the exception of a British government official who's just plain annoying. It's a simple, enjoyable romp and the commentary provided by producer Barry Letts and two of the show's regular cast, Katy Manning and Richard Franklin (making his DVD debut) provides a genuinely interesting and charming bonus.
In addition to the commentary and on-screen captions, there are also many other goodies to enjoy as bonuses. Unused studio footage and out-takes from episode one, a look at the locations used throughout and a short documentary about the making of the program are all genuinely interesting and entertaining, kept just to the right length. The same cannot be said for the companion release, City of Death, broadcast in 1979 as the second story of season seventeen.
City of Death enjoys exalted status in the Doctor Who canon, as it was penned by possibly the most famous and illustrious writer ever associated with the series, the late Douglas Adams of Hitchhiker's fame. This was the second of three scripts he contributed to the show, albeit in tandem with the show's producer Graham Williams from an aborted script by David Fisher, under the pseudonym, David Agnew. Adams had written one story for the previous season, the popular Pirate Planet and had been appointed the show's script editor as a result. A job, quite frankly, he was not entirely suited for. Indeed, season seventeen is widely regarded to contain some of the weakest scripts in the history of the series. Which is something of a paradox when you consider this season attracted the highest viewing figures in Doctor Who's entire forty plus year history. At this time, the UK only had three TV channels, and the most popular of these, ITV, was off the air due to a strike. With only BBC1 and BBC2 to watch, the BBC's ratings naturally soared and Doctor benefited from this is much as any other programme, with this particular story achieving ratings in excess of fifteen million. But what viewers saw clearly wasn't impressive to them as the ratings plummeted once ITV returned to the airwaves.
City of Death is indeed a very enjoyable and accomplished story, which does stand out in an otherwise dreadful season. The guest cast is highly impressive, featuring Julian Glover, Catherine Schell and David Graham amongst others, with John Cleese and Eleanor Bron making surprise cameo appearances in episode four. The script simply sparkles with wit and clever dialogue and the overseas location filming in Paris, a first for the show, makes the story even more impressive. All rather surprising considering that the scripts had to be written from scratch over one single weekend, with filming due to start the following week. Tom Baker is certainly at the height of his powers, and for once his over the top humorous acting does seem to fit the bill. Lalla Ward as Romana is still finding her way in this, her second story, but their relationship is building nicely and the addition of the British detective Duggan (Tom Chadbon) is a good foil for both characters. As a stand alone story, you probably can't beat this adventure, but in the context of the wider season, it's an oasis in a desert for sure. Adam's next (and last) script was abandoned midway through filming due to a BBC strike and he didn't continue beyond this season as the script editor. Nor was Williams retained as Producer. Why that should be is explained in the documentary bonus that comes on disc two, where pretty much everyone involved in the production admits Adam's limited abilities in this area.
Normally the bonuses are what make the Doctor Who DVD's worth every penny, regardless of the quality of the particular story. In the case of City of Death, this is not the case. For no justifiable reason whatsoever, all the extras for this show have
been added as a second disc, jacking up the price quite unnecessarily. In addition, these bonuses aren't all that great. They're too long in the main and simply repeat information available in the text that accompanies the episodes. Some of the extras completely fall flat, particularly a mock-umentary about the alien character's life after the show. The commentary is also very disappointing, with neither Baker or Ward (nor obviously the late Williams or Adams) taking part with the job left to the director and the two main guest actors, Julian Glover and Tom Chadbon. Both actors think very highly of the show and are clearly delighted to see it again, but their limited Doctor Who experience and knowledge means it's impossible for them to relate to anything other than these four episodes and there are long silences for sure.
All in all, this is a disappointing release, the two disc format being totally unnecessary. The fact that I enjoyed the disc of the weaker, earlier adventure the Claws of Axos more, is quite shocking in many ways. Hopefully the BBC won't get carried away in terms of bonuses for the sake of filling space in the future which mars the otherwise excellent City of Death.
|
| |
| "The picture and sound is terrific" | 2005-11-09 |
| - Reviewed By User: AEAFPUEEU3MTB |
| The restored Claws of Axos is glorious. Both the picture and sound are amazing considering that it is over 34 years old. The Restoration Team did a terrific job with episodes 2 & 4 which were in very bad shape, just check out the VHS version. Go ahead and give yourself a treat and watch this terrific episode from Pertwee's second season. It looks great as well as it sounds and the extras are nice too. |
| |
Expedited Available
