Someone at the BBC must have really hated 'The Bristol Boys'. Bob Baker and Dave Martin submitted some respectable scripts to the series over the years, and they inevitably got the short end of the stick when it came to budget, or guest cast, or directors, or a production team with any verve or style. And just occasionally, they got the short end of the stick on all of those counts. This is what happened to "The Claws of Axos".

It's amazing how quickly the overall feel of the series had degenerated. Just two stories before, "Inferno" had completed a damn fine opening season for the Pertwee/Letts/Dicks team. However, it all went to pot for Season 8. It's difficult to work out exactly what changed. The replacement of the vaguely intelligent Liz Shaw with the parodic Jo Grant probably didn't help, but certainly shouldn't have had a seismic impact. The addition of The Master as a recurring arch-villain wasn't a great plan, but 35 years on, viewing stories in isolation, isn't that much of problem. With similar thoughts in mind, it can't be that the exile storyline had outlived its' usefulness, as even if it was retained for far longer than necessary, it can't possibly affect viewing now unless you sit down and watch Seasons 8 to 9 back to back. What seems to have happened is that on the back of the success of Season 7 everyone just seems to have got complacent. There's a smug feel, as if everyone's just bringing the bare minimum to the screen.

Which brings us neatly to "Axos". The script isn't a knockdown classic, but it does have some respectable ideas. The Axons themselves provide a neat, if basic, double-twist, with the aliens denounced as villains, shown to be benign, and then finally revealed as the villains. The ideas of a gestalt unit and an organic, parasitic spaceship are also quite good. Perhaps the script is a little demanding of the show's budget, requiring two convincing sets of aliens and a dashing American secret agent, but in other respects the story is dealt a bad hand.

Jon Pertwee hasn't quite slid to his nadir yet, but he's still pretty unlikeable, patronising all and sundry and just generally being a smug, argumentative so-and-so - that he was lobbying so hard that the Axons were friendly, seemingly based on no greater motive than to disagree with everyone else is something which goes unmentioned once the aliens are shown to be the villains of the piece. Roger Delgado is suave, charming and witty as The Master, lighting up any scene he appears in. That's the problem, though - as we're largely only told what an evil sort The Master is, he's actually rather likeable, more of an anti-hero than a villain, and considerably easier to empathise with than the arrogant Doctor. Delgado is a fine actor, but his Master is simply too comfortable and urbane to ever really be much of a threat.

The rest of the regulars are really just there. None of them are really given much more than stock scenes, but Katy Manning still finds time to put across Jo's breathtaking stupidity. The guest cast are largely competent, if unspectacular, aside from the ridiculous Chinn. The limp comedy scripting of this awful caricature is bludgeoned home by Peter Bathurst, and you're left wondering how this idiot is even capable of finding his way out of his house every morning. Having a casual pop at civil servants is one thing, but Chinn's capering frequently breaks down any drama the story cobbles together. Bill Filer isn't that bad - a little unglamorous, but at least Paul Grist seems to take things seriously. The only problem is that his hard-nosed approach makes everything around him see much more like a pantomime.

Limp direction from Michael Ferguson doesn't help, while the whole thing looks astonishingly tacky. The Axons are woefully unconvincing in their humanoid forms, while their monster forms are undermined by the choice of a Day-Glo colour scheme. The design of Axos isn't brilliant either, just a mass of clashing colours that are actually quite difficult to look at, especially when it's shaking as The Doctor and Jo try to leave.

The best scenes come when The Doctor and The Master are working together, though again this devalues the potential of The Master as a villain, casting him more as the black sheep of the UNIT family than an evil, vicious maniac. There's also a rather silly conclusion - The Doctor traps Axos in a timeloop, and then just uses the TARDIS to escape. Eh?

Overall, "The Claws of Axos" suffers from a worthy, if unspectacular, script being undermined by indifferent production and a complacent set of performances. It would slot nicely into the "cheap, cheerful and crap" bracket if it wasn't so smug and arrogant.

Review written: 04/06/06
"The Claws of Axos" DVD @ Amazon.co.uk