I must confess something, this is the only Doctor Who story that I think is very disturbing and to a certain degree, scary, seriously if you don't think the idea of an alien parasite coming to your planet and consuming all life is disturbing then either A) You are too scared to admit it or B) You are Axos (The actual alien, not Bernard Holley). I find it odd that it's rated a U as well since it does say Sci-Fi Horror at the back and there is a lot of visually horrific moments in the story. I did also do a sort of literal review/commentary on twitter as I was watching the story at the same time (Search #TheClawsOfAxos for that) but this time I am going to do this properly.
We start off with some ominous shots of Axos in space with a small scene in between with two people discovering the alien on their radar which is accompanied by some equally ominous music which goes well with the story (Not that I like it that much). After that we are introduced to Mr. Chinn (Played by Peter Bathurst) who plays the bad corporate guy type (Think Carter Burke from the film Aliens) and American agent Bill Filer (Played by Paul Grist) who I must admit have very little idea why he is involved as his motives are never properly explained and who he works for as well. I find it odd how the Doctor has some sort of attitude problem in this story, we know he is fed up of his exile but this is the only occasion where we see him like this. The Brigadier takes a back seat in this story, he seems more reduced to a plot device to get the story moving rather than being a heavily UNIT based story. We are also introduced to what could be possibly the funniest character in Doctor Who ever who goes by the name of Pigbin Josh who's entire vocabulary consists of "Ooh Arr!", believe me this has to be seen to be believed, unfortunately he is the first to be consumed by Axos, shame really as it would have been funny to make a spin off series of his adventures.
The Master also takes the back seat in this story with more or less the same purpose as the Brigadier, which in turn does have it's fair share of plot holes like why did Axos interrogate the Doctor on time travel mechanics when they have the Master? Plot holes aside this is still a very well made story and a technically ambitious one as well with some scenes having tons of CSO and other camera/visual effects that look like they may have been taken off Top of the Pops, to create something that resembles some sort of really disturbingly bad acid trip which makes it all the more horrific. Axos itself is an intriguing monster, a being that can create avatars of the race it encounters to make it look more friendly than it actually is, I think the phrase "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts" seems suitable for this story as they offer Axonite, a chameleon of the elements as they say that can solve any food and energy crisis, in reality it does the opposite, it leeches energy off it's host in this case it's Earth.
The leading Axon, brilliantly played by Bernard Holley, does make you feel edgy on first sight and makes you think can you believe what he is saying or not, as his character background has more plot holes than this story but we don't need to worry about it. Unlike most of the monsters and villains in Doctor Who (Specifically the new series), Axos feels a lot less like some cliché monster looking and acting unconvincingly. There are many layers to the character of Axos as you watch further on in the story, we get to go into what Axos is really like as it starts off by acting like an innocent being and we see gradually find out that it's intentions are far from innocent. All of this is helped by Bernard Holley's acting as he does sound very menacing and unforgettable as the voice of Axos and it does create a very credible feeling of fear when he interrogates the Doctor and threatens to age Jo Grant to death.
Another thing that interested me in this story is the unpredictable nature of the second half of the story with the Master given a decision to either destroy Axos with the Doctor and Jo still inside it or let Axos destroy the world and also the Doctor seemingly betray his friends and leaves Earth with the Master, both of these do end up differently than what you expect and that's another part of how this story works well. So if you have yet to see this story, or any classic Doctor Who story (If you haven't then why are you reading this? Go out and get this now!), I would recommend this as it's something different, a decent story that avoids some of the common clichés you would expect to see in a Doctor Who story and this story is overlooked by the other more recognisable Jon Pertwee stories.
I do wonder why it took about 40 years(!) for the sequel though, it could make a record as to how long it took to make a sequel and a good sequel at that.
Story: 9/10
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