The Claws of Axos

4 episodes
Aired between 13th March 1971 and 3rd April 1971

Written by Bob Baker and David Martin
Produced by Barry Letts
Directed by Michael Ferguson

Synopsis

As with the Nestene Meteorites, staff at UNIT track a UFO approaching Earth.

This couldn't have come at a more inopportune time as the Brigadier is having to entertain an inquiry from a Conservative MP - Horatio Chinn.

This is on top of trying to coordinate a strategy between UNIT and Washington Agent Bill Filer for dealing with the Master.

Chinn is most put out that there isn't any paperwork on the Doctor, and demands to know who this "Doctor" is.  Chinn is obnoxious to the point where he is incredibly rude to Agent Filer and basically tells him to bugger off back to Washington because none of this concerns him.

Their heated argument gets interrupted by the arrival of the UFO.  Chinn immediately takes control of the situation and demands that missiles are launched at it!  Due to the fact that he seemingly has got the authority to do so, missiles are indeed launched.  Much to Chinn's bewilderment however, the ship disappears from radar screens before the missiles can impact.

The Doctor calculates the landing area based on the UFO's trajectory and suggests they all go and warn the nearby Newton Power Complex.  All except Bill Filer is seems, as Chinn is totally hell bent on excluding him.  Filer smiles and capitulates, biding them all farewell.

Out in the countryside, a lowly tramp called Pigbin Josh messes about trying to find himself a new bike.

On his way across the countryside, the sky unexpectedly opens up with a flash blizzard (a freak weather event caused by the UFO's atmospheric entry).  The UFO crashes with a blaze of light so bright that it causes poor Pigbin to career into a freezing river.  The Tramp swims back ashore and goes to take a closer look.  He can see a small tunnel-like opening sticking out of the ground.  Suddenly, a tentacle shoots out of the opening and drags the poor tramp inside where he's scanned by an eerie alien voice before he's drained of all energy and discarded back out.

As the UNIT crew warn Sir George Hardiman and Professor Winsor (controller and head researcher of the Newton Power Complex), Agent Filer races in his car to the downed UFO.  Just like Pigbin Josh, he too is captured and analysed, but he's found to have a bit more intelligence, and so is kept prisoner.  It just so happens that his cell mate is none other than the Master!

The UNIT crew eventually make it to the UFO where they cautiously enter the ship.  Inside, they are greeted by golden skin and haired humanoids called Axons.

They say they crash landed and need fuel.  In return, they will share secrets of a strange element they call Axonite.  The Axons claim that Axonite is a "thinking" molecule that can replicate any substance, or make things shrink and grow.

The Doctor is skeptical of the Axon's motives, suggesting that they could have just replicated fuel.  Despite this, Chinn gets very excited at the prospect of growing food hence ending world hunger and decides that he will restrict Axonite to just England.

Despite being ordered to stay behind, Jo slips into the Axon ship and goes exploring.

She hears Bill Filer's screams and follows them, coming face to face with a horrendous shapeless monster.

Her screams brings the Doctor running to her.  She tells him that she heard Bill Filer, but he insists that she's just hallucinating.

Returning to the Axons, the Doctor convinces Hardiman and Professor Winsor that the Axonite must be analysed before it can be distributed.  When they get back to UNIT HQ however, Chinn contacts the Ministry and gets permission to restrict distribution of Axonite to whomever the UK decide.  He also gets permission and authority to imprison the Brigadier and the rest of the UNIT staff until the situation is under control.

Professor Winsor insists on keeping the Doctor with him to help analyse the strange substance.  Chinn reluctantly agrees.

The experiments get underway, and it becomes clear that Axonite will defy analysis.  The Doctor suggests splitting the element apart into atoms by using Professor Winsor's particle accelerator (equipment he is using to hopefully gain an understanding of time travel), but he's not willing to risk it.  The Doctor does however get him to agree to bring the TARDIS to the power station and use the equipment in that.  Once Professor Winsor has left, the Doctor goes against the Professor's wishes and uses the particle accelerator on the Axonite, sending waves of pain throughout the Axons.

Back on Axos (the ship), the Axons duplicate the captive Agent Filer and send the Doppelganger over to the Newton Power Station to stop the Doctor.  The Axons also strike up a deal with the Master to let him go, provided he can convince the humans to distribute the Axonite worldwide.

He asks for his TARDIS back, but Axos won't give it.

The fake Agent Filer arrives at the station and attacks the Doctor.  He's about to get the upper hand until the real Agent Filer manages to escape from Axos and races to the centre to stop them.  In the tussle the fake Filer gets pushed into the particle accelerator and gets electrocuted before turning into a frothy mess.

Professor Winsor returns and is furious at the Doctor.  He tries to shut the equipment down and gets electrocuted and drained of all energy.  This leads the Doctor to believe that the Axonite, the Axons and Axos are all the same thing.  They are all part of the ship - a living entity trying to mislead them into distributing parts of it worldwide.  Before he can capitalise on the knowledge, the Axons storm into the lab and surround him, Jo and Agent Filer.  They knock Agent Filer out and take Jo and the Doctor back to Axos.

Chinn turns up and the Axons tell him that the Doctor did something stupid so they've taken him to the ship to check him over.  In the meantime, they insist that Chinn gives immediate worldwide distribution of Axonite.  Any further delay or analysis means the deal is off.  The power hungry Chinn knows better than to argue.

Elsewhere, the Master makes his way into the Newton Power Complex by jumping off a bridge onto a moving truck and hypnotising the driver.

Once at Axos, the Doctor is interrogated and analysed by the ship.

It knows that the Doctor is a Time Lord and by threatening to prematurely age Jo, it gets the Doctor to agree to giving up the secret of time travel.  He states that the Time Lords have put a block on his knowledge of dematerilisation codes, but Axos says it can remove those blocks.

Chinn reports that the Axonite is on its way to every major city and science establishment in the world.  With that underway, Axos orders its Axons to head over to Newton Power Complex's reactor and suck it dry of energy.

Over at the power complex, the Master bluffs his way in via disguising himself as an Army officer.

He goes inside the Doctor's TARDIS brought there by Professor Winsor and seeks to escape the planet.  He didn't count on the fact that the Doctor's TARDIS has had its console pulled apart and is a mass of jumbled wires.

The Brigadier and co manage to get in touch with Geneva and get clearance to place Chinn under arrest.  The Brigadier convinces the regular army to help free him and he rushes off to stop the distribution, finding out its too late as he sees the meatball version of the Axons attacking and destroying soldiers all over the place.  To top it all off, they're impervious to bullets.  Getting hold of Sir George Hardiman, the Brigadier takes him to the lab to find out what they're doing to the reactor.  

As they look at the readouts, the Master leaves the TARDIS, trying to hook up the particle accelerator to the TARDIS to get it working again.  The UNIT troops surround the Master and take him prisoner.  The Master bargains for his freedom, in exchange for helping them kill the Axons.  The Brigadier agrees and they begin to set up a massive nuclear power surge and dump all the energy into Axos all at once, thus blowing it up.  The only drawback is that the Doctor and Jo are in there.

The Master's hypothesis is incorrect.  Axos can take the power output, even if it's a struggle.  What it does do however is confuse Axos long enough for the Doctor and Jo to escape.

They rush back to the Newton Power Complex just in time to thwart the Master escaping once again.
Together, the Master and the Doctor put their heads together to think of a way to defeat Axos.  This is a concept that makes the freshly recovered Agent Filer a bit uneasy.

His suspicions are well founded as the Doctor talks in secrecy with the Master, convincing him to go along with a plan to repair the TARDIS and leave the planet and everyone else to the Axons.  The Master is skeptical at first, but eventually agrees.

Filer is furious that they've been double crossed but the Doctor and Master duck into the TARDIS before he can do anything.  With a newly repaired TARDIS and time lord knowledge blocks removed, the Doctor and Master take off in the TARDIS leaving everyone behind.  The Master is surprised to learn however that their first port of call is to Axos itself.

Once outside, the Doctor proposes to the living ship that if it connects to their TARDIS, then Axos will become a time machine and the TARDIS will become a part of Axos.  He will allow this on the condition that Axos goes with him to wreak revenge on the High Council of the Time Lords.  The ship is in agreement and he begins to set up the relevant equipment.

Over at the power complex, the Axons begin to invade the lab, making time very short for the Brigadier and his men.

Watching the Doctor at work, the Master suddenly realises that his old foe is creating a time loop with which to trap Axos in.  He panics and tries to warn the ship but it's too late.  He seizes the opportunity in Axos' confused state to run into his own TARDIS and escape.

The time loop is initiated and the attacking Axons dematerilise back into the ship and the ship of course dematerialises from Earth.   This leaves the reactor to go critical and the UNIT team are forced to flee.  Sir George stays behind to disconnect the particle accelerator but dies in the process.

Within the time loop, Axos curses the Doctor and says that if it's trapped, so is the Doctor.  The Doctor disagrees and boosts the TARDIS's power cells, tearing free of the time loop and leaving Axos trapped forever.

The TARDIS materialises back in the power complex in time to see it going up.  The Doctor runs back into the time machine just in time and does a short trip away.

Down the road, the Brigadier, Jo, Bill Filer and the rest of the UNIT team watch as the Newton Power Complex goes up in an atomic explosion (that clearly leaves no fallout whatsoever).

The group all rendezvous in the ruined complex where the Doctor explains what he did to Axos,

He says that his intent to leave them all was just a ruse.  The Brigadier does however tease him into admitting that when the TARDIS burst free of Axos, the Doctor wasn't actually intending to return to Earth.  It seems that the Time Lords have programmed it to do so at the end of every trip like a "galactic yo-yo".


Trivia

• This story went through many names in production:  "Doctor Who and the Gift", "The Friendly Invasion", "The Axons" and perhaps the much better title of "The Vampire From Space".  Indeed, The Vampire from Space was used in the first two episodes, but was changed by production of the third, meaning the other two were changed just before airing.

• Perhaps the most discussed piece of trivia surrounding this story is the problem of location filming.  Shot out of sequence, the production team suddenly had a problem as freak weather conditions saw snow covering much of the landscape on one day, torrential rain the next, then blazing sunshine.  They had to put in the throwaway line of "freak weather conditions" into the story to cover it

• As a testament to the odd weather, if you watch the scene where Benton and Yates drive around with Axons clinging to the car - that sky behind Benton WASN'T a blue screen overlay, it was the actual sky!

• Good old Pigbin Josh was played by none other than stunt coordinator Derek Ware, who thought it would be a nice change to get a speaking and acting part!  Well, if you call shouting "ooh arrr" a lot a speaking part...

• Another interesting fact about Pigbin is that Derek Ware had to ride the rickety old bike into the river in the freezing cold.  He claims that it was warmer in the water than out, but even so, he was very glad that the bike wheel bent so he didn't have to do a retake!

What worked

• The shots of Axos approaching Earth were very good, especially where you can see it breathing

• The "freak weather conditions" actually helped give a sense of scale to the threat the ship posed and also worked very well

• Pigbin Josh's corspe disolving was pretty frightening.  No wonder Barry Letts decided to blank it out on the transmission

• Although it makes no sense for the Axons to jump on the UNIT jeep rarther than blow it up with their tentacles, the car chase was quite good

• Ok, I'll come out and say it....for 1971, I thought the monsters looked pretty damn good too!

• Finally, the Doctor's betrayal wasn't so out of character as you might think.  You only have to look back to the then of Inferno to see why.  It made this scene a bit tense and unpredictable 

What didn't work

• So you find a UFO and your first instinct is to shoot it down with missiles?

• Anything about Pigbin Josh

• The inclusion of the Master

• The inclusion of Bill Filer

• I'm sorry, but the music in this for me was a total failure (except the final fight scenes with the Axons in episode 4).

• The bit where the Master hypnotises the UNIT soldier and tells him to help him...all whilst he's right in front of another UNIT soldier!

• The frog CSO

• The whole reactor meltdown bit.  I mean this is a facility that supposedly supplies power to the entirity of Britain!

Overall Feelings

I could go on for twelve paragraphs here about how much I hate Chinn, but I won't because that was the point.  Instead, I'll draw attention to the other elements of the story.

On the surface, the Claws of Axos tries to fit into the formula of what has gone before.  We have a government installation, we have a clearly idiotic Government official, we have a clear and present alien threat, and we even have the Master.  In each of these cases, the writers fall short of the mark with plot holes and lack of detail e.g. Newton Power Complex powers the whole of Britain?  Way to put all your eggs in one basket.  The official has the power to launch missiles at UFO's, tells the US Agent to take himself off out of it, arrests UN soldiers, oh and undertakes distribution of Axonite across the world - yet his superior has absolutely no confidence in him.

Given the examples above, it's unusual then to see that this story delivers in spades in other, less orthodox aspects.  What I mean by that is best illustrated in the look and feel of the story.  The visuals at times are positively trippy, the monsters had genuinely good special effects, the music was as experimental as ever (I didn't like it, but at least Dudley Simpson was trying)...the production team was trying something they hadn't done since Season 2.  They were pushing the limits and seeing just what Doctor Who could be.

I think it's a great shame that just that little bit more rationale wasn't put into the plot to make it more believable.  Even so, it's still a joy to watch and fills me with feelings of the era.  I would go so far as to say it would be an awesome experience to sit down with this story, put the sound on mute and play Bay City Rollers, T-Rex, Slade, Mungo Jerry and others over the top... whilst eating those 70's tastic sweets - Drumsticks and popping candy of course.

Rating

8 out of 10

Great components to the story and stunning visuals, but a bit too many inconsistencies to be top of the class

Rewatchability Factor

9 out of 10

Yeah, it's got its problems, but this is a quick, unusual story, with visuals unlike anything before or since

Watch this if you liked...

• The Keys of Marinus (episode 2 more than anything)

• The Web Planet

• The Seeds of Doom

• The Rise of the Cybermen (Doctor Who Series 2)

• Lexx 

Consulting the Matrix

"What's your favourite organic Dr Who monster?

The Mind of Evil

6 episodes
Aired between 30th January 1971 and 6th March 1971

Written by: Don Houghton
Produced by: Barry Letts
Directed by: Timothy Combe

Synopsis

The Doctor and Jo head off to Stangmoor Prison on account of the Doctor's curiosity about a new method of non-lethal corporal punishment.  They go to the prison to see this method - the use of a new piece of technology called a Keller Machine - being implemented.

Professor Kettering, a scientist who helped develop the machine alongside Professor Keller himself, stands in for the machine's namesake.  Kettering explains that it works by taking the prisoner's evil impulses from out of their brain, turning them effectively into model citizens for the rest of their lives. Apparently there has already been a hundred successful such tests.

The Prison staff bring in a convicted criminal and they strap him to the machine.  As it fires up, the prisoner begins to scream in agony and the subject, Barnham is put into a coma.

The Doctor, who's been skeptical of the machine from the start, chastises Kettering and tells them that the Machine is dangerous and storms off.

Elsewhere, the Brigadier is dealing with security arrangements for a World Peace Conference.  Things don't seem to be going his way, as Captain Chin Lee of the Chinese delegation storms into his office and accuses his troops of being lazy, because classified Chinese documents have been stolen from their hotel room.

On top of everything else, the Brigadier's higher ups have determined that UNIT also need to help escort a convoy currently on their way to dispose of a thunderbolt missile by dumping it into the sea.  The Brigadier details Captain Yates to oversee that, whilst he tries to placate the Chinese delegation.

Back at Stangmoor, one of the medical students that watched the Keller demonstration is found dead, his face is frozen in terror and he has bites and scratches all over him.  The Doctor sees it as more evidence, but Professor Kettering is adamant that the man just died of a delayed heart attack, the medical report confirms this.  The Doctor storms off again, leaving Kettering alone to pack up the machine.  As he does so, he begins to have visions of the sea and begins to choke and struggle until he collapses, dead.

Things get worse for the Brigadier too when the Chinese delegate is also found dead.  Suspecting Chin Lee, the Brigadier details Sgt Benton to follow her.  Little does he know just how his suspicions are right.  Captain Chin Lee has smuggled the classified papers out of her own room and burns them in a local park before Sgt Benton can find her.

She rubs the back of her ear which has a strange metal device pinned to it.

Investigations into Professor Kettering's death turns up more strange facts.  He apparently died by drowning, except the room is totally dry.  On top of that, the rest of the prisoners seem to go nuts whenever the machine is apparently active.  Given the bizarre evidence, the Doctor concludes that the Keller machine somehow has the ability to control people's minds and kills people by their phobia's. A quick check into Kettering's medical history indeed turns up a phobia of water.

The Doctor confronts the Prison Governor and tells him to destroy the machine, but the Governor says that he simply doesn't have the authority to.  The best he can do is bar the room off limits and wait for a decision from his chain of command based on the Doctor's recommendation.  The Doctor has no choice but to accept, and goes into the room to make sure that the machine is shut down properly.  Once he's in there, the machine activates itself and he begins to panic as he sees flames engulfing him .

Jo enters at the sound of his cries and she calms him down, not noticing that the machine is now inactive.  Just like his theory, the Doctor admits to Jo that he has an aversion to fire because he once saw an entire world consumed in flames.

Captain Yates bursts into the room and demands that the Doctor returns with him to UNIT.  He even uses force on him and gets a dose of Venusian Karate until he says he's under order to bring the Doctor back to help solve the Chinese Delegate's murder.  The Doctor is eventually persuaded and reluctantly leaves Jo in charge of making sure no one enters the room with the Keller machine.

Once he gets back to UNIT, the Doctor pesters the Brigadier until he gives his word that he will fight for the Keller project's abandonment and deconstruction.

With that out of the way, they go and see the new Chinese delegate, Fu Peng.

Fu Peng is ignorant to the Doctor and Brigadier until the Doctor greets him in his own language, Hokien.  Once that's out of the way, Fu Peng becomes much friendlier to the Doctor who engages him in a lengthy conversation, whilst the Brigadier is left standing around like a lemon.  He gets little answers from Fu Peng, but does get a dinner invitation.

Out of the streets of London, Benton tails Chin Lee, who uses a public call box (the red kind, not a Police Public Call Box you understand).  As he's trying to be inconspicuous, he's suddenly affected by a great big headache that knocks him unconscious.  All the while the throbbing sound of the Keller machine can be heard in the background.

Near the UNIT base, a telephone repair man is hard at work.  He enters his little tent and reveals himself as the Master.

He's tapped the UNIT phone line and can hear Captain Yates make all the plans to transport the Thunderbolt Missile.

Back at the prison, Jo goes to see the recently recovered Barnham.  Dr Summers who has looked over him reflects that the Keller machine took a bit too many impulses and left Barnham a bit docile.

Elsewhere in the block, the next prisoner in line for the machine, a nasty piece of work by the name of Mailer, is transported to a holding cell.  There, he finds the gun secretly left there by one of the inmates.  He subdues his guards and unlocks all the cells in the block, causing a riot.  They quickly take Jo and Dr Summers hostage.

Sgt Benton sheepishly reports to the Brigadier that he lost Chin Lee.  The Brigadier is furious and dismisses Benton.  The conversation however sparks a memory for the Doctor.  He remembers the Governor at the prison saying that the Keller machine was installed by Proffessor Keller and his attractive Chinese assistant.  He has a eureka moment and decides that the deaths related to the Keller machine and the death of the Chinese delegate are linked.

The Master pulls up on a London street in a chauffeur driven car.  He waits patiently as Chin Lee enters.  He hypnotises her further and orders her to kill the Peace Conference's American delegate.

That night, as Fu Peng is out having dinner with the Doctor and the Brigadier, Chin Lee calls the American delegate and tells him they have something top secret and important to discuss.  The American delegate comes over to her room, and Chin Lee turns off the light, transforming into a menacing red dragon.

The American clutches his head as the sound of the Keller machine throbs and the Dragon slowly advances towards him.  Luckily, it's at that moment that the Doctor, the Brigadier and Fu Peng return from dinner.  They all see the dragon transform back into Chin Lee and watch her fall unconscious.  The Doctor is clear that this was a group hallucination, helped by a telepathic amplifier (the device attached behind Chin Lee's ear).  The Doctor makes sure Chin Lee is checked out along with the American Delegate, leaving the Brigadier to return to his office.

During the night, the prisoners led by Mailer send Dr Summers out to tell the Governor that they will kill hostages if they don't let them go.

The Governor is determined not to negotiate but in the end agrees to talk to the prisoners directly.  As he's about to come into the block, Jo seizes her chance and gets a pistol off one of the prisoners.  The prison guards rush the block and subdue the inmates, restoring order once more.

When morning arrives, the Doctor takes Chin Lee to the Brigadier where she can be interrogated.  She reveals that she was hypnotised and doesn't know anything.

Yates calls the office and the Brigadier updates him on the situation, effectively telling the Master through his phone tap exactly what they believe.

The Master decides he needs to go to Stangmoor Prison.  Once there, the Governor greets him as Professor Emil Keller and relates all the trouble they've had.  The Master smiles and say's that he'll fix the machine.  He asks if he can see the next inmate for the process.  The Governor agrees and orders his guards to take him to Mailer's cell.  Once inside, the Master quickly subdues the arrogant Mailer and convinces him that he can only escape with the Master's help.  Mailer is ready to follow his lead as the Master opens up his suitcase to reveal gas masks and chemical grenades.

Meanwhile, the transport of the Thunderbolt missile is behind schedule.  Yates and Benton do their best to get things back on track, but Yates says it'll require them driving through the night to do it.

The Master and Mailer instigate another prison break and take over the entire complex, capturing Jo and Dr Summers once more.  With the riot out of the way, the Master prepares for the Doctor's arrival.  Sure enough, as soon as the Doctor is through the gates of the prison, Mailer captures him and takes him to see the Master.

In true nemesis style, the Master explains to the Doctor how he intends to use the prisoners to steal the Thunderbolt Missile and crash it into the Peace Conference, thereby starting a war.  He intends to take over the world as the chaos ensues.  The Doctor upends the table and jumps out the window to escape, but he's cut off from Bessie by armed inmates.  He rushes back to the cell blocks and calls out for Jo.  She answers him, but he's forced to retreat to the Keller room as Mailer fires at him, only to find the Master is waiting by the Keller machine for him.

Mailer handcuffs the Doctor to the chair of the Keller machine and the Master gloats as he turns the machine on, leaving the Doctor to have haunting thoughts of Daleks, Cybermen, War Machines and more as the Keller machine throbs away.

The machine is so powerful however, that it affects the whole prison.  The Master returns to the room and fights through the pulsating waves of power from the machine to turn it off.

He revives the Doctor and says he'd actually prefer the Doctor's help to control the machine.  The Doctor tries to make the Master see that the machine is too powerful and it will end up killing him, but the Master is too headstrong to agree.

Once the Master has ordered the Doctor to be taken back to his cell, he tries to alter the controls, but the Keller machine turns itself on again. attacking the Master with images of an evil and gloating Doctor.

He just manages to make it outside the room, where he bolts the doors shut in order to starve the machine to death (because it feeds on evil emotions).

With the machine under wraps, the Master goes to Mailer and says he can get him a full pardon and transport out of the prison to freedom if he in return will help the Master steal the Thunderbolt missile.  Mailer agrees and sure enough, they manage to ambush the convoy and steal the missile.  Although wounded in the arm, Yates manages to follow them to a remote airstrip.  He finds a motorcycle and could escape, but decides to get a bit of a closer look first, getting himself captured instead.

Back at the prison, the Keller machine is growing in power.  So much so in fact that it begins to teleport around the prison looking for victims.

It eventually draws close to the Doctor and Jo.  Not to worry though, the machine soon decides that there's far more evil brains to feed on in the prison and so pops off to eat them instead.

The Master calls back at the prison, asking for an update.  Mailer who's returned there is angry about the machine and threatens the Master with abandoning the prison and spilling the beans to UNIT about the missile.

With little choice, the Master ties up Yates and heads back to the prison, leaving him with a minimal guard.  Once there, the Master goes to the Doctor and threatens to shoot Jo unless the Doctor helps him contain the machine.  The Doctor reluctantly agrees and comes up with a loop of wire that courses with energy, mimicking the beta waves in the human brain.

His aim is to confuse the machine long enough to force it into inactivity.  The machine attacks him again as he nears it, but he survives long enough to incapacitate it with the ring.

Over in UNIT, the Brigadier grows concerned that he's heard nothing from Yates.  He fears the worst, especially when Sgt Benton manages to connect the hijack with Stangmoor Prison.  He comes up with a plan to use the secret entrance to the prison (a leftover passage from medieval times), and also doing a Trojan Horse, pretending to be delivering supplies.

The UNIT assault gets underway and seems to be going very well.  Mailer hears all the shots and knows his goose is cooked unless he can do something quick.  He takes the Doctor and Jo prisoner and leads them towards the outside, preparing to bargain their lives for his freedom.  Jo manages to shove into him as they're going down stairs and calls for the Doctor to help.  Unfortunately, the Doctor is a little too late.  Mailer recovers and says he's going to kill the Doctor.

A well timed shot from the Brigadier kills him instead.

The prison is back under control, but the Brigadier is disappointed to hear that the missile is not actually at the prison like he suspected.  This means that the Master has escaped and is free to activate it and they are powerless to stop him.  Thankfully then, Captain Yates manages to escape and telephone the Brigadier, explaining exactly where the missile is.

The Brigadier takes his men off to the nearby airfield where the missile is kept, leaving Sgt. Benton to run the prison and the Doctor and Jo to figure out a way to permanently neutralise the Keller Machine.

The Keller Machine has other ideas as it finally breaks free of the coils and teleports to the Doctor's location, attempting to kill him and Jo.

They are saved when Barnham wanders in.  He rushes up to the machine and it stops.  This leads the Doctor to suspect that he's the only one who can stop it because he is totally devoid of evil, and thus acts as a neutralising factor.

With the machine disabled, the Doctor is free to remove the lid and take a look inside.  It reveals a hideous slimy creature with an eyeball in the centre of its brain.

The Master phones the prison to get an update from Mailer and realises that the place is back under UNIT control.

He asks to speak to the Doctor, to whom he then explains his intent to start World War 3.  The Doctor points out that he'll die too, seeing as the Doctor still holds the dematerialisation circuit from his TARDIS.

The Master settles for an exchange, the missile for the circuit.  He orders that no one else is to come close.  The Doctor agrees and tells the Brigadier to keep his men back.  The Brigadier is reluctant but agrees to do so.

The Doctor quickly comes up with a plan and takes a van to the site, carrying Jo, Barnham and the Keller Machine in the back.  As they negotiate with the Master, Barnham sneaks up with the machine and places it on the ground.

Running away, the Keller Machine becomes active and attacks the Master, leaving the place free for the Doctor to reach the missiles controls.  He switches the console on, allowing UNIT to remotely begin a self destruct sequence.

With seconds to spare, the Doctor, and Jo rush towards a newly arrived helicopter.  Barnham is about to go with them, but he see's the Master in pain and on the brink of death.  His innocent mind won't let him leave, and he steps over to the Master to try and help him.  This helps the Master pull free of the Keller Machine's grip and he jumps into the van, running over Barnham (killing him) and fleeing the site.  The helicopter takes off and the missile is detonated, destroying the Keller Machine in the process.

The helicopter returns them to Stangmoor prison, where Jo is openly remorseful about Barnham's death.  The Doctor (rather peevishly) tells her he feels the same.  At least they can console themselves that the Master didn't get his hands on the dematerilisation circuit...hang on....no, it turns out that the Doctor lost it.  They get another phone call from the Master who gloats at having the circuit back in his possession.

The Doctor puts the phone down dejected.  He sighs and says that the Master is free to roam all of time and space, whilst the Doctor is stuck on earth with the Brigadier!

Trivia

• Don Houghton (who also wrote Inferno) was brought back to have a go at another story.  He delivered this script, but Terrence Dicks kept asking him to make lots and lots of little changes to it.  This got Don's back up and after this story, he decided not to bother submitting to the Who team again.  Not to worry though, he'd become a big name in Hammer Horror, his most reknown film being the Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires.  This is offset however by being labelled the creator of the dreary Scottish soap, Take the High Road.

• Barry Letts approached the RAF and suggested to them that the Army had been such a wonderful help to Doctor Who in the Invasion.  They responded by providing some soldiers and a real life bloodhound missile to use! Unfortunately, they didn't put the men in prison uniforms, which is why there's a throwaway line in the story about mercenaries.  

• Stangmoor prison is actually Dover Castle 

• The keen eyed of you will have noticed that the area where Benton observes Chen-Li is the same street the TARDIS lands on in The War Machines.

• We get to welcome back our old pal, Michael Sheard (a.k.a. Mr Bronson or Admiral Ozzel).   We haven't seen him since The Ark, but it's always nice when he turns up in Doctor Who.  Don't worry, it's not the last time.

• I should also mention that this story only exists in the archive as black and white.  Thankfully, the BBC used recolorisation techniques for the DVD so we can all watch it the way it was intended.  However, it's the reason why some of the pictures here are black and white.

What worked

• For the first three episodes, the deaths around the Keller Machine are intriguing and disturbing

• The political angle of the story is also quite intriguing

• The use of an actual missile means it feels realistic too

• The UNIT assault is full on action - love it!

• I like how Mailer reacts to Barnham, it adds credibility to the threat that the machine poses

• The Brigadier's expressions are priceless!

What didn't work

• The most obvious one is - the Master is stranded on Earth, right?  So where did he get his hands on the alien from the Keller Machine?

• Why does Chin Lee decide to burn top secret papers in full view of everyone, right under UNIT's nose?

• If the Master is hiring mercenaries to hijack the Thunderbolt, why go to all the trouble of getting the alien creature and messing about with prisons?

• Puff the Magic Dragon a.k.a. the hallucination of the American delegate

• When the Brigadier decides to leave the peace conference at the very point where they most likely need increased security and reassurance 

• The death of the Keller Machine is odd in that it suddenly stops being a threat, even though Barnham is dead

Overall Feelings

From the get go, this script is ambitious.  It's ambitious because it tries to sell us four plots at once - prison break, Keller Machine, missile robbery, and peace conference.

The start of the story is intriguing.  We get the political intrigue of the peace conference alongside another government backed project.  It's not what we're shown that is the good bit, it's knowing that they must be connected somehow, and we anticipate finding out.  The Keller Machine is treated seriously and Jon Pertwee makes us believe that this thing is a viable threat, not an easy thing to do when you have to resort to gurning.  Nevertheless, this story carries a dark air around the Keller Machine that does summon up disturbing thoughts of a Clockwork Orange, even though it was made a year prior to the film.  Even the Master seems in control and his nefarious schemes with Chin Lee have potential.

Something changes around episode three, however and the tense serious story starts to slide into a farce.  I think it's when the machine gains the ability to teleport and the poor actors have to look at the inanimate object on the set floor and act terrified of it.  It looks stupid and out of place sat there.  The explanations become more ridiculous, especially the Masters plan, and the situations become a bit repetitive.  Go back and watch all the cliffhangers if you don't believe me.

For me, this is clearly a good story, complicated in the amount that it tries to do, but no so complicated as you cannot follow it.  UNIT seem versatile and dynamic and the villains are played in a much more human and deadly way than any rubber suited monsters will be in the future.  It's just a shame then that the plot slips at the last hurdle.

Rating

7 out of 10

Great attempt, but leaves a few loose ends and thin explanations at the end for the sake of a few action scenes

Rewatchability Factor

5 out of 10 

As with a lot of stories we've seen so far, this would have scored much higher if it had been two episodes shorter

Watch this if you liked...

• The War Machines

• Day of the Daleks

• Victory of the Daleks (Doctor Who, Series 5)

• The X Files Season 2, Episode 4 - "Sleepless"

• A Clockwork Orange

Consulting the Matrix

Did the story need four plots to make it work?