Doctor Who and the Claws of Axos by: Terrance Dicks

 

Doctor Who and the Claws of Axos was written by Terrance Dicks, based on the story The Claws of Axos by Bob Baker and Dave Martin.  It was the 31^st story to be novelized by Target Books.

 

There seems to be a sweet spot in looking at the publication of the Doctor Who Target novelizations.  Go too early and there may be a tendency for them to drag and do weird things since there hadn’t been an established format, but go too late and there’s a large chance it’ll be a Terrance Dicks novelization that feels more workman like or it’s from an author who doesn’t quite know how to novelize, before you get to the very end when they were basically proto-New Adventures novels.  Doctor Who and the Claws of Axos is a candidate for one of the books in that sweet spot in terms of quality.  It’s early enough for Terrance Dicks that there isn’t the fear of Dicks being overworked by the sheer number of books he was writing so there is this great focus on adapting and expanding the television story.  The conversion of the script itself is incredibly faithful to the television story, Dicks really playing up a lot of the over the top aspects of the Axons.  One of the late working titles on the serial was The Vampire from Space and Dicks really is working on that as a model for the story.  His prose is very punchy and comes at you quickly, though not without taking time to expand the characters.

 

It's the character expansion that makes Doctor Who and the Claws of Axos interesting to read.  The abduction of Pigbin Josh in the first episode in particular is wonderful where Dicks gives the character backstory more than just the weird tramp noises of the televised episode.  It helps that Dicks gets into his head so he gets a small backstory, and he’s referred to as Old Josh instead of Pigbin Josh which definitely helps avoid the comedy tramp trope.  There are also two added elements that really help flesh out the story quite well.  First, there is an added introduction to Bill Filer where he meets Jo Grant, creating this little meet cute that really sells the underwritten romance of the rest of the story.  It helps make up for the lack of Katy Manning in a novel, which is incredibly important to do for something like this.  This also has a knock-on effect of Mr. Chinn being fleshed out more as a bureaucrat, Dicks going for the jugular in terms of anti-bureaucracy.  The character just makes the situation worse, more than the Master ever could, due to his greed and ambitions of power, with an added little bit of governmental comeuppance implied by the end.  Second, the Doctor’s betrayal is played far more straight and sinister here, proposing a genocidal assault on Gallifrey in a way that even the Master fears him.  Somehow this doesn’t feel out of character for the Third Doctor while simultaneously feeling like something Jon Pertwee couldn’t have played.  Dicks gets away with it by making the other characters believe it and feel genuinely betrayed while winking to the reader.

 

Overall, Doctor Who and the Claws of Axos is honestly a near perfect adaptation of one of those Season 8 stories that everyone has seen and remembered.  The characters shine from the page with the Doctor and the Master getting to have some great extra tidbits of characterizations, the underwritten elements being propped up by Dicks, and honestly a pace that breezes by.  It’s a great way to relive a classic in a different way for those who didn’t grow up with the book as well as a trip down memory lane for those who did.  9/10.