Written by Terrance Dicks, based on Bob Baker and Dave Martin’s scripts for the 1971 TV serial.

I always get the sense Dicks has his most fun back on his home turf with Doctor Pat and Doctor Jon. The first chapter of Doctor Who and the Claws of Axos is a perfect example: it’s a very funny aside focused on self-seeking civil servant Chinn’s clash with the Brigadier, with Dicks having great sport with the Brig’s Reggie Perrin fantasies of what he wants to do to Chinn: “If only there was a war on, he thought wistfully, he could lock the fellow up, or even shoot him… Chinn was definitely one of the horrors of peace… The blindfold over, his eyes, the last cigarette, thought the Brigadier dreamily. Or maybe a last memo would be better for a civil servant.”

Dicks also makes much more of the Doctor’s potential treachery than the TV version. For the first time, Jo doesn’t trust the Doctor’s motives: “Her mind was full of a shocking discovery. Now she knew why the Doctor had suddenly changed his attitude. He didn’t care whether Axonite would be good or bad for Humanity. He wanted it for himself!” Her suspicions are deepened when the Master turns up and forms an alliance with the Doctor: “Was the Doctor ready to buy his freedom at any price? Even if it meant making a deal with the Master?” And the pay off is stronger too, with the Doctor admitting he was trying to escape UNIT and Earth, after saving them. The galactic yo-yo line is present, but the final scene of life returning to normal as the Doctor squabbles with the Brigadier and Jo looks on contentedly is a better end for a story that flirts harder with the Doctor going bad than any other Doctor Jon episode.

These conspiracy thriller elements are boosted by the presence of the conniving Chinn and CIA agent Filer. The nuclear industrial backdrop, the horror of “Old Josh’s” death, the sloppy Axons (beautifully captured on Chris Achilleos’ cover, and a bit Krynoidy on John Geary’s reprint) and their “grown rather than made” spaceship which heaves and squirms under the Earth all give this a stronger Quatermass II feel than was obvious in the broadcast episodes. The downside is a lot of faffing with particle accelerators in the midsection which bogs down the story and left eight-year-old me scoring it just “OK”. A reread has brought more appreciation of the other aspects, and I’m now awarding it a Grade 3.

Next Time: Doctor Who And… The Ark in Space.