The main reason this story works so well is because of The Master - he has some great lines, just the right amount of participation in the story (unlike Terror of the Autons, where for me he was in it too much, which detracted from the main storyline) Jon

For me The Claws of Axos is one of the few truly watchable stories of the Pertwee era. I've explained this point of view many times in the forum, but for those who don't frequent it I?ll go over it again; Basically, I found the producers/writers idea of the Doctor been stuck on Earth purely to save money on space age sets and props, quite a cop-out. But then to rub salt in the wound and after a few stories get lazy - actually making the quality of the acting, costumes and sets more cheesy that ever before was all too much.

Don't get me wrong, the improvisations made in Doctor Who are all part of its charm, but to make the show almost a Soap Opera with The Doctor, Jo Grant and UNIT fighting Aliens in pretty tatty costumes, who conveniently land in southern England every week, was a little too much.

While the Claws of Axos does feature this 'Soap Opera' like atmosphere; it is done pretty well, and demonstrated how the idea could have worked had it not been milked for most other stories.

Without giving too much away for people who haven?t seen it the basic plot line involves a strange organic space ship landing on Earth, apparently by accident because they have exausted all their fuel. It soon becomes apparent that they have evil intentions (surprise, surprise) in mind as they wish to use a substance called Axonite to drain the planet of its resources and be on their merry way. Fortunately the Doctor foils them, by drawing them away from Earth and trapping their ship in a time loop.

The main reason this story works so well is because of The Master - he has some great lines, just the right amount of participation in the story (unlike Terror of the Autons, where for me he was in it too much, which detracted from the main storyline) and there is one plain hilarious moment where he is discussed as a top ranking army officer - he has apparently completely convinced Sergeant Benton he is who he says he is; then turns to camera revealing he is warring a loosely fitting Halloween face-mask, which wouldn?t have fooled a seven year old. Plus for me Roger Delgado is THE master.

All in all the Claws of Axos was a pretty neatly done story - admittedly in any other Doctor's time it wouldn't have stood out, but in the Pertwee era it made it's mark..