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Doctor Who - The Claws Of Axos [1971]


RRP: £19.99
Our Price: £6.09 (subject to change)

"Beware Axons bearing gifts!"
Review date: 2008-05-20 Rating: 6 out of 10

An odd story, not by any means bad, but then not exactly great either. very much a Unit family story as they all go off together to investigate an Alien ship. The team are all working well together, camaraderie evident.
The Brigadier memorably squares up to a puffed up Civil Servant Chin who is making mischief out of the Doctor's lack of identity.
Chin's self serving treacherous character works and fulfils an important role in the story. The same cannot be said of CIA man Bill Filer, over the pond to hunt down the Master. A bad accent, pre-historic haircut and generally pointless presence, you'll be hoping the Axons keep him!
A well paced 4-parter with a definite plus in The Master's appearance. Delgado gets a great deal here playing the villain, a reluctant hero and then teaming up with the Doctor.
The location work is 1st rate particularly as much of it looks so damn cold. The fact that the weather changed a lot duruing filming is covered by a wonderfully cheeky line about "freak weather conditions"! The studio stuff is less effective, but still good.
The golden skinned Axons are a good idea particularly their degradation back to a tentacled monster and the hints of how their "culture" might work are intriguing.
Effects are hit and miss but it was made a long time ago.

Despite this being no early release, the extras are a poor haul!. A great commentary in which Katy Manning takes time to tell us that she is finally holding hands with love interest Richard Franklyn is the best one followed by a bit of in studio footage.
Then we get a bizarre and dull little featurette about "Reverse Standards Conversion" where a picture has been changed back from US format or some such. Not riveting.

A middling story with Scrooge extras, 3/5 is the best I can do. For big fans only.

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Instant nostalgia - even in 1971!
Review date: 2007-10-18 Rating: 4 out of 10

The Claws of Axos is a decent story but that's about it. If your a huge Pertwee UNIT era fan it's something you would buy simply because there are few stories from that era out on DVD at this time. It has UNIT, the Master and and an alien invasion. If you were to make a pastiche of this era of the series this would be the story you'd come up with. It's not really bad but not particularily good either and the over-all story just doesn't come together.

The main reason for it's release was to test the RSC (Reverse Standards Conversion) process whereby tapes of the show that were recovered from North America in the NTSC standard could be reprocessed back to the PAL standard and be of higher picture quality for DVD release. This disc of course is in NTSC but the picture will be higher quality then if they had used the original NTSC picture. The best thing about this release is that it paved the way for Inferno on DVD.

Classic 70's Doctor Who
Review date: 2007-08-29 Rating: 10 out of 10

Forget the negative comments about this story - it's great. The special effects (for its time) are excellent especially the tenticled Axon costume and the Axon ship. The Axons are one of my faverite Doctor Who monsters and I wish that they would return in the new series.

This story also features The Master superbly played by the late great Roger Delgardo. To date this is the only dvd with Delgardo's Master released which is a shame. Come on 2Entertain how about releasing The Sea Devils, Terror Of The Autons or The Daemons. There havnt been any Jon Pertwee dvds released for a while now (I am looking forward to The Time Warrior dvd next week).

This dvd also benefits from excellent special features including a "now and then" location doccumentary and an entertaining commentary track. So if you enjoy 70's tv nostalgia or classic Doctor Who at its best then this dvd is for you.

Non - essential viewing
Review date: 2007-03-02 Rating: 4 out of 10

With its cheapo production values, grating electronic soundtrack, and forgettable plot, Axos is unlikely to make it on to anyone's list of favourites - certainly not one of Pertwee's best. For completists and fans of cheesey 70s nostalgia only.

revenge of the veg
Review date: 2006-11-20 Rating: 10 out of 10

initially, this story is really quite peaceful, a ship 'in distress' lands to grow organically, and a pompous government official want the glory of welcoming them, and literally ends up practically handing over the planet to them.

I quite liked the effects of this story, bearing in mind, it would have suited the time in which the story was made, and may not be up to todays standards, but they were good nonetheless.

The story ends i felt on a little bit of a downer, only because i think that the axons would have made a good returning feature throughout the pertwee years, who in this story was excellent, as well as all the cast, they really did pull it off. Especially the UNIT soldier who always ends up being killed in every story he is in, oh the life of an extra!! ;-)

All in all, this story is excellent and well worth buying

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Jon Pertwee
Katy Manning
Richard Franklin
Roger Delgado

Creators:
Jon Pertwee (Primary Contributor)
Katy Manning (Primary Contributor)

Director(s):

Recording label: 2 Entertain Video
Manufacturer: 2 Entertain Video
EAN: 5014503135423
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: PAL,
Release date: 2005-04-25
Audience rating: Universal, suitable for all
Region code: 2
Running time: 97 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1971
Language: English (Original Language)

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