| Production Code GGG
First Transmitted:
Crew
Plot Outline from Wikipedia
Meanwhile, the Master, who was captured by Axos and used his knowledge of Earth as a bargaining chip for his life and freedom, escapes Axos and makes his way to the Doctor's TARDIS — his own having been seized by Axos. He plans to repair it to effect his escape from Earth. Axos itself becomes interested in the Doctor's knowledge of time travel. It now plans to broaden its feeding base by travelling through time as well as space. The Doctor, realising this, plans to trick Axos into linking up its drive unit to his TARDIS so that he can send Axos into a perpetual time loop. After tricking the Master into completing the repairs on his TARDIS, the Doctor does just that. This results in every part of Axos dematerialising from Earth, including the Axon automatons and the Axonite. At the end, with the Master having escaped in his own TARDIS during the confusion aboard Axos, the Doctor returns to Earth, but not of his own volition. Apparently, the Time Lords have programmed the TARDIS to always return to Earth, like some "galactic yo-yo".
Analysis by Cuisle Again The Master plans to take over the Earth with the assistance of an alien entity. This time Axos, an organic space ship that feeds on energy, including the life force of people. It’s plan is to feed on Earth and then move on to pastures new when it is a dead rock. The motive is a familiar enough one. The aliens in Independence Day had a similar idea. But the Axons found a more elaborate way of launching their invasion, by pretending that they come in peace and offering Axonite, a wonder substance of great benefit to mankind as a ploy to make the Earth vulnerable. All very well, and a LITTLE bit different in the end from the Auton story. Interesting social aspects of the story include the attitudes of U.N.I.T., especially the Brigadier, the American agent, Filer, the British civil servant, Chinn to each other. Chinn is something of a little Englander, who resents not only the American involvement in the hunt for The Master, but also the UN, as represented by U.N.I.T., because they are not entirely under British control. The Doctor, dislikes all three in his own way. He is constantly irritated by U.N.I.T.’s shoot first habits, he has no time for the bigotry of Chin, and is none too impressed by the young American. None too impressed, sadly, is the verdict in terms of the special effects. The Axos monster looked like somebody moving around on the floor under the counterpanes we used to have on the beds at my old boarding school, and even for 1971 the scene of Benton driving a Land Rover with the interior CSO effect missing entirely was a dreadful gaffe. And really, there were far too many Top of The Pops psychedelic effects to indicate that strange things were being done to people. The Doctor’s solution to the Axos plot is an interesting one, at least. He is quite convincing when he appears to have become a turncoat and sided with The Master against U.N.I.T. in order to escape from Earth. On first viewing it is hard to tell if he means it or not. It takes some faith in his basic goodness to believe he IS tricking The Master. But of course he is. And his superior knowledge of Temporal Physics gives him the upper hand against the Axos. Meanwhile, though, The Master escapes and The Doctor is stuck on
Earth still, serving out his exile. It has to be said that it IS strange
how the Time Lords enforce their sentence of The Doctor but let The
Master, a REAL criminal, not a mere political dissident,roam the universe
causing havoc. That doesn’t actually make sense.
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