The beautiful Axons make an emergency landing, asking Earth's authorities for time to refuel their organically-grown spacecraft, in return for which they will give Earth a supply of the miraculous Axonite which has the potential to provide humanity with unlimited resources of food and power. Only the Doctor, working as Scientific Adviser to the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce or UNIT, suspects that an offer that appears 'too good to be true' is just that. His suspicions are heightened when he discovers that the Master is being held prisoner inside Axos, but can he convince the greedy politicians of his fears before Axos sucks the planet dry...?
Jon Pertwee, the only Doctor who never made a duff episode, is on sparkling form as, together with assistant Jo Grant (Katy Manning), Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (Nicholas Courtney), Captain Yates (Richard Franklin) and Sergeant Benton (John Levene) he combats an insidious alien menace guided to Earth by the Master (Roger Delgado). This remains the finest regular cast ever assembled for the world's longest-running SF television series.
In The Claws of Axos, a top-drawer script is met with enchanting ensemble playing, while a genuinely frightening monster is complemented by Delgado's silky menace, and it is with only 21st Century hindsight that the special effects bear criticism.
Suspend your disbelief and wallow in a dose of perfect 1970s television!
1 of 1 found this helpful
21 Feb, 2008
the magic lingers...
There was something about old films and television, created in the days before we all became self-aware and cynical, when the quality of special effects could be overlooked because there was such conviction in the writing and acting. That's the difference between Flash Gordon's original screen adventures starring Buster Crabbe and the highly entertaining but self-consciously camp blockbuster with Sam J. Jones (whatever happened to him anyway?) and an all-star cast. Give me this original series any day!
HENRY V Kenneth Branagh DVD
17 May, 2016
Henry V Mk2
Comparisons with Laurence Olivier's wartime film are inevitable, but whereas Olivier's production was deliberately intended to raise the morale of wartime Britain, Kenneth Branagh had no such mission, and instead is able to present an altogether more realistic portrait of the Battle of Agincourt in all its bloody, muddy suffering.
That said, both versions offer beautifully spoken and visually spectacular accounts of Shakespeare's play, and are crammed with the cream of contemporary acting talent: here including Branagh himself, Judi Dench, Robert Stephens, Richard Briers, Paul Scofield, Derek Jacobi, Ian Holm, Emma Thompson, Alec McCowen, Robbie Coltrane, Brian Blessed and Christian Bale.