It’s alright I guess just don’t get why the doctors so f**king rude to Jo even if it is an act

A solid, well-paced serial that was mighty enjoyable, with an engaging new one-off character (with a classically classic Who terrible American accent!) The relationship between the Doctor and the Master was interesting, and the end of episode three had a wonderful scene that I've only seen before now in Tumblr GIFs talking about the thoschei relationship - oh, what fun! This serial lived up to it's reputation, and I recommend it wholeheartedly.

The Enemy of the World was great, but that ending really could have done with Patrick Troughton fighting his alter ego for longer, in what was ultimately a rushed ending. The Claws of Axos (four years later) makes up for this with a prolonged and visually successful scene where American agent Bill Filer fights an evil copy of himself. Bill is a wonderful character (it's a shame that we'll never get to see him again) and this scene is one of many visually brilliant psychedelic moments in this story.

The direction and of visual flair of this story is superb. Due to its uniqueness in look and feel, it is still impressive by today's standards, it's not often that you see trippy effects and it most certainly suits Doctor Who. The wonderful overlay of the melding, turning axon heads is especially good. Jo Grant's aging is also really effective. It is presented as well as Spearhead from Space, which had advantage of being shot on film.

From the moment that we see those excellent spaceship doors (which they get their money's worth out of) we know there is something a little different about this story: Aliens! Real, proper aliens! The Axons are the most alien-y aliens we've had in the Third Doctor's time so far, and it feels good. After a season and a half of mostly 'believable' creatures, we are treated to something a little bit more comic book-y. I love the both their tendril/ spaghetti and their Ancient Greek/ Apollonian forms.

Once again we have pompous officials (this time from the MoD) demanding that aliens be blown up with a casual disregard for life. Pertwee's Doctor surprised me by being shown to be left wing, criticizing the man's isolationist "England for the English&" approach to his work. We tend to see this Doctor as being more of a establishment figure, but it is not true! Its satisfying that The Claws of Axos is used to explore some interesting different real world issues, whilst simultaneously scaring children out of their wits!

Of course, The Master is back involving himself in events once again. I am delighted to say that I am still not bored of him. He can come back next week - this series continues to surprise and delight me.

Claws of Axos was an extremely middling experience to me. By this point in the Third Doctor run, and especially with this Season, the Master is just such this repetitive presence he becomes a bit unwelcome here, and, coupled with a very slow-moving story, I really felt a lot of fatigue with these episodes. Axos had some pretty neat ideas to it and the Doctor making a fake-out villainous turn was memorable, but the good moments are few and far between in this story and I feel take an awfully long time to build up to.

Still, the cast are doing their best with some lacklustre material. I wouldn't be eager to revisit Claws of Axos any time soon, but I sure didn't find the experience miserable, either. Jo Grant doesn't feel like she has a lot to do here, though. Very middle of the road to me overall.

Favorite season 8 story and it's not even close. Finally some decent pacing, a cool alien concept with some weird science to boot, a bit of time travel f**kery – it's just what I like from Doctor Who. And oh my god can we talk about those costumes and set designs?? Genuinely some of my favorite work in all of the classic show up til this point.

I'm kinda surprised this one seems to be considered middling-to-bad among other reviewers, but I suppose I'm more here for the concepts than other people are – and if you're not as excited about the set design as I am this story will probably land less. My personal main criticism is that the Master didn't need to be here but that's just Season 8 in a nutshell.