The Claws of Axos is another of those serials that when not watching it you kind of forget just how good the entire thing is.  It’s the third time this current production team is doing an alien invasion story, bringing in a new writing team of Bob Baker and Dave Martin who had the fantastic idea to do aliens that seem benign and just want our help as stealth for a proper invasion.  Making them gold parodies of humanity gives this otherworldly quality before devolving into spaghetti monsters which is just fantastic.  It also provides a near perfect switch up to have the Master become an unlikely ally of UNIT and later the Doctor, all a trick to defeat him and the Axons.  Plus this one gives a direct middle finger to the Conservative bureaucracy of government from the very beginning with Jon Pertwee getting some great rants about a duty to the world.

Michael Ferguson directs what would be his final serial and while it’s not as technically complex as his other three, he still has that flair for the surreal.  It doesn’t help that Katy Manning while giving a great performance has little to do in the script, Baker and Martin went through several rewrites and I have a feeling they didn’t have a companion in mind during much of the drafting.  Jo gets a pseudo romance with American Bill Filer who is there for the international aspect of UNIT.  That and the third epsiode has always been a bit oddly paced, somehow slightly stretched and compressed to fit into four in this weirdness.  Still this is just a great and creative time.

We get to see the most alien villains yet for the third Doctor. The interior of the Tardis for the first time in a long time. However, for me, this is the weakest story of the era so far, but it still gets three stars, because it's enjoyable enough with the regular cast including, once again, the Master.

Enjoyable, and brimming with great ideas never quite fully realised to their potential

I thought this was a pretty average story overall, but I thought the interactions between the Doctor and The Master in the last two parts were great, both in that we got to see hints of their past friendship, and in the way it shows Three's more manipulative side for the first time in a really engaging way.

I thought we were not gonna see the Master for a bit after ‘Mind of Evil’, but here he is again! And he was the star of the show. For someone that acts sooo dignified, he can get into just as much trouble as the Doctor. You’re saying he escaped Earth last episode and was almost immediately captured by the Axons? Loser. Anyway, he’s back, this time in a I help you you help me deal with these Axons: he leads them to Earth and gives them knowledge on time travel, they free him, give him back his TARDIS, and kill the whole planet + the Doctor, as a treat. Typical Master plan. How did the Doctor put it in ‘Terror of the Autons’? Vicious, complicated and inefficient. 

The Master does it all in this one. He’s captured, he’s hypnotizing people, he’s killing people with the ray gun, he’s wearing a mask, he’s breaking into the TARDIS, he’s fixing the TARDIS, he’s criticizing the Doctor for being messy, he’s making deals, he’s working for UNIT for like 10 minutes, he’s running away with the Doctor, he’s running away without the Doctor. Great great great stuff. Now, I’ve been a good girl and kept quiet so far, but I shall not be silent any longer. The levels of Thoschei in this whole season are astronomical. Amazing to see that this ‘ooh they’re exes and the breakup was bad’ energy has been with them from the very beginning. Pertwee and Delgado are great together. They both approach their roles with a certain aura of dignity (read: both the Master and the Doctor snobs), and when they turn that towards each other it’s always very funny to see. That bit where they’re trying to fly the TARDIS but the Doctor forgets to put that little piece back, suddenly remembers, tries to put it back quietly, the Master realises, somehow rolls his eyes without rolling his eyes (Delgado is great at this particular look), and they both just silently agree to ignore what just happened… That’s cinema, my friends.

Other little comments: my girl Jo didn’t get to do much this time apart from yelling at a government official, but neither did anyone else apart from the Master, so I’ll let it slide. The Axon threat was pretty good! Seemed like their plan had good chances of actually succeeding. The Doctor was this close to saying ‘timey-whimey’ 40 years too soon in his attempt to explain the time loop to the UNIT gang; not that Three ever would, he’s too chic for that kind of language. They went all out with the sets and costumes on this one, it all looked pretty cool.

And finally, SHE’S BACK ONLINE BABEYYY, WELCOME BACK, WORKING TARDIS!!! And thanks to the Master, who’d have thunk? One thing: did the TARDIS herself show him that he needed that light-accelerator switch thingummy to fix the Dematerialization Circuit? From what I understood, the screen on the round things just turned on out of nowhere, zoomed on that bit of the machine, and the Master went “Oh, of course”. Huh. Anyway. I really liked Three’s exile stories. He was constantly trying to fix the TARDIS, visibly upset at being stuck in one place, and I think it worked very well for the character. Gave him something to rebel against, and a very clear goal to work towards. Things are not 100% fixed, though. The TARDIS is rigged to return him to Earth like a “galactic yoyo”, but at least we can move about a bit. At the right time too. I do love the UNIT stories, but it was getting a bit repetitive.

BRIGADIER: And you came back of your own accord?
DOCTOR: Well, I...
JO: Doctor?
DOCTOR: No. No, I’m afraid not. No, obviously the Time Lords have programmed the TARDIS always to return to Earth. It seems that I’m some kind of a galactic yo-yo!

Aww, he doesn't admit that he cares about them. Also I really loved the dynamic between The Doctor and The Master in episode 4. Some really cute Thoschei moments here.

Those Axon flesh monsters would have given me nightmares if I had seen this as a child. Overall I think this was a good story.

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.