Doctor Who Logo 'The Claws of Axos'
(4 Parts)
Story Code 'GGG'

by Bob Baker
and Dave Martin
The Doctor

The Brigadier is entertaining two visitors, Chinn, a pompous civil servant, at UNIT to make a security inspection, and Bill Filer, an American agent sent to discuss the threat posed by the Master, a renegade Time Lord. An approaching alien spaceship is detected on UNIT HQ's monitoring equipment at UNIT HQ, and it lands in England. The Doctor and Jo join the Brigadier and his UNIT troops, and meet Hardiman and Winser from the nearby Nuton power station. Together they meet the ship's occupants, the beautiful golden-skinned humanoid Axons. The Axons claim that their ship, Axos, is damaged, and they need time to repair it; they ask for hospitality, as their planet has been destroyed by a solar flare. In return, they offer Earth Axonite, a substance that can make animals grow to enormous size, thereby ending world food shortage. The Doctor is suspicious of their claims, and discovers that Axos, Axonite and the Axons, whose true appearance is that of hideous, tentacled creatures, are all part of a single parasitic entity. Axos has been brought to Earth by the Master, who is held captive within the ship, so that it can feed on the planet's energy. The Doctor apparently joins the Master in his evil plans, and manages to materialise the TARDIS aboard Axos. He offers to link the two ships together, to make one giant time machine, on condition that in return, Axos helps him to take his revenge on the Time Lords for imposing his exile on Earth. This is actually a ruse, and the Doctor locks Axos in a time-loop, a closed section of ever-repeating time that it will be imprisoned within forever. The Doctor returns to Earth in the TARDIS, and the Master may have escaped...

Jon Pertwee (Doctor Who), Katy Manning (Jo Grant), Nicholas Courtney (Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart), Roger Delgado (The Master), Richard Franklin (Captain Mike Yates), John Levene (Sergeant Benton), Peter Bathurst (Chinn), Paul Grist (Filer), Donald Hewlett (Hardiman), David Savile (Winser), Derek Ware (Pigbin Josh), Bernard Holley (Axon Man), Michael Walker (1st Radar Operator), David G. March (2nd Radar Operator), Fernanda Marlowe (Corporal Bell) , Patricia Gordino (Axon Woman), John Hicks (Axon Boy) , Debbie Lee London (Axon Girl) , Tim Piggot-Smith (Captain Harker), Kenneth Benda (The Minister), Royston Farrell (Technician)

Produced by Barry Letts
Directed by Michael Ferguson


TX:
Part 1 - 13th March, 197 @ 5.15pm - 5.40pm
Part 2 - 20th March, 1971 @ 5.15pm - 5.40pm
Part 3 - 27th March, 1971 @ 5.15pm - 5.40pm
Part 4 - 3rd April, 1971 @ 5.15pm - 5.40pm

Notes:
*Featuring the Third Doctor, Jo, the Brigadier and UNIT

*Working titles: 'Doctor Who and the Gift', 'The Friendly Invasion', 'The Axons' and 'The Vampire From Space' (The latter was a last-minute change, and a finished title sequence using it still exists in the archive)