An alien spaceship contains the Axons: humanoid, beautiful, and friendly. They ask for hospitality on Earth as their planet has been crippled by a solar flare. But the Doctor is suspicious, and discovers that the Axons, their ship and a substance they bought to Earth called Axonite are all part of a single, collective parasite - Axos - bought by the Master to absorb all living energy on Earth. The Doctor forces Axos into a time loop, exiling it forever in the time vortex.
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The Doctor:  Jon Pertwee
Jo Grant: Katy Manning
Brig. Lethbridge-Stewart: Nicholas Courtney
Captain Yates: Richard Franklin
Sergeant Benton: John Levene

Guest Appearances:
The Master: Roger Delgado
Chinn: Peter Bathurst
Rader Operators: Michael Walker, David G. March
Bill Filer: Paul Grist
Corporal Bell: Fernanda Marlowe
Pigbin Josh: Derek Ware
Sir George Hardiman: Donald Hewlett
Winser: David Savile
Axon Man & Voice of  Axos: Bernard Holley
Minister: Kenneth Benda
Harker: Tim Piggot-Smith
Driver: Nick Hobbs
Technician: Royston Farrell
Axon Woman: Patricia Gordino
Axon Boy: John Hicks
Axon Girl: Debbie Lee London
Humanoid Axons: Roger Minnice, Geoff Righty,
Steve King, David Aldridge
Axon Globs: Douglas Roe, Clinton Morris, Clive Roger, Eden Fox, Stuart Myers 
Secretary/Nurse: Gloria Walker 
Corporal: Clinton Morris
Axon Monsters: Peter Holmes, Steve Smart, Marc Boyle
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Producer: Barry Letts.
Script Editor:Terrence Dicks.
Writer: Bob Baker, Dave Martin.
Director: Michael Ferguson.
Designer: Kenneth Sharp. 
Costume: Barbara Lane.
Make up: Jan Harrison (episodes 1,2), Rhian Davies (episodes 3,4).
Visual Effects: John Horton.
Music: Dudley Simpson.
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Novelised as "Doctor Who And The Claws of Axos"  by Terrence Dicks  (0 426 11703 4) first published by  Wyndham Publication in 1977 with cover by Chris Achilleos. New edition by W.H. Allen (now Virgin Publishing Ltd.) in 1979 with cover by John Geary.  Target library number 10.

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Released as "The Claws of Axos" in the UK, May 1992, and in Australia & New Zealand (BBC catalogue #4742); US & Canada release in 1996, (CBS/FOX catalogue #8374, reclassified as WHV #E1323). Cover art by Andrew Skilleter.

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Kenneth Benda was heard as the Minister in a voice-over telephone conversation in Episode 2 but was uncredited on screen.

All four episodes exist in color. Episode 1 exists in both PAL & NTSC 2" color videotapes. Episode 4 exists in PAL 2" color videotape only, Episodes 2 & 3 as PAL conversions of NTSC 2" color tape; and as 16mm black & white telerecordings.

Studio recording in TC3. (22-23 January 1971)
Studio recording in TC4. (5-6 February 1971)
Dengemarsh Road, Lydd, Kent. (4 January 1971)
Dungeness Road, Dungeness, Kent. (5-6 January 1971)
St Martin's Plain Camp, Cheriton High St, Shorncliffe, Kent.
...• Railway Bridge. (7 January 1971)
...• Training Grounds. (7 January 1971)
Dungeness 'A' Nuclear Power Station, Dungeness, Kent. (8 January 1971)

Episode 1 - As Filer is driving along in his car, listening to the radio, notice that through the window to his right you can see a blue CSO screen which is completely blank – no superimposed backdrop!
Episode 2 - The Nuton power complex contains a cyclotron which, Winser explains, can accelerate atomic particles to the speed of light and beyond. There's even an instrument which measures the effect, with a scale marked in "X light"! Unfortunately, relativity states that you can't accelerate particles to the speed of light (let alone beyond it), because at that point the particles would have infinite mass.
Episode 2 - As the Master escapes from Axos, he kills the UNIT soldier standing guard outside, whose beret falls off as he slumps to the ground. Cut to the Master standing over the corpse, and the missing beret instantly replaces itself on poor soldiers head.
Episode 2 - Just as the Brigadier, Jo and Filer escape from the room where the army have been holding them captive, the wall of the room sways outwards.
Episode 3 - At the start of this episode, as the Axon creatures attack the nuclear lab, look out for some sloppy continuity. Just after Filer gets impaled on a tentacle and the creatures advance on our heroes, Jo is clearly standing behind the Doctor's arm. We cut briefly to a second shot (as the Axons say "repersonalise") and Jo is standing directly alongside the Doc. And finally we cut to a third shot (just before the creatures morph back into "golden girls") and Jo is plainly standing a yard in front of the Doctor.
Episode 3 - It's amazing how Sergeant Benton can keep a straight face when reporting to the Master, who is wearing the saggiest, least convincing rubber-General-disguise-mask you're ever likely to see!
Episode 4 - As the Doctor and Jo escape from Axos, Jon Pertwee trips and falls flat on his face!
Episode 4 - CSO incompetence strikes again when the Axons attack the UNIT jeep containing Benton and Yates. There are several prolonged and painfully obvious shots showing a blank blue Chromakey backdrop through the jeep's windows, with no effects superimposed.
Episode 4 - During the scene in the TARDIS where the Doctor offers the Master an alliance, the left-hand TARDIS door refuses to close properly. Then, when the Doctor goes to leave, despite the fact that neither he nor the Master touches the console, the right-hand door obligingly swings open for him!
Episode 4 - During the climactic gun battle in the Nuton lab, the TARDIS is briefly visible in the background, although the Doctor and Master left in the TARDIS some minutes earlier.
Episode 3, 4 - In this story, the Nuton Complex is a giant nuclear power plant which supplies the whole of Britain with electricity. In episode 3, Hardiman understandably claims that if the reactor were to explode, thousands of lives would go with it, as the chain reaction would turn the station into a gigantic nuclear bomb. When exactly this event happens at the end of episode 4, not only does the reactor explode without apparent loss of life, but the Brigadier and co. calmly return to the scene of the explosion within seconds!