Talk:The Claws of Axos

DVD cover
Is there a need for the DVD cover to be in the article? --khaosworks (talk • contribs) 12:34, 15 January 2006 (UTC)
 * Is there any harm in it being there? It's as illustrative of the story as anything else.  I removed the link only because the image appears not to have been uploaded. —Josiah Rowe (talk • contribs) 17:35, 15 January 2006 (UTC)
 * It may be a slightly grey area for fair use of the image as the article is not specifically about the DVD itself, whereas a screenshot has a blanket fair use category and is generally considered to be OK. Tim! (talk) 17:50, 15 January 2006 (UTC)
 * Hmm. It was actually there, but as you say, it's not anymore. --khaosworks (talk • contribs) 22:52, 15 January 2006 (UTC)

Video format question
I just revised (for grammar/syntax/clarity) a recently added passage about the early "omnibus" video releases, and the fact that its bottom line was that this serial did not get such a video makes me wonder if it should be in this article at all. However, it brought another question to my mind as well. Given several articles&mdash;List of incomplete Doctor Who serials, List of Doctor Who audio releases, etc.&mdash;shouldn't there be one about the varied history of Who in various home video formats? This would not be just about the point raised in the passage referenced above, but would also discuss the substantial edits suffered by some serials (e.g., The Brain of Morbius), and at least list the various specials, some collecting odd episodes and/or incomplete stories (Cybermen: The Early Years, which is not mentioned even in Cyberman), others with presenters, interviews and clips/outakes ([More Than] Thirty Years in the TARDIS), and the unique The Pertwee Years, in which Jon Pertwee presents clips from various sources, unseen titles tests, and the concluding installment from each of his three favorite serials. Perhaps there could even be a description of the practice of rotating titles in and out of print, which I understand is standard procedure in the UK but, with the exception of the Disney company, is generally not done here in the USA. Ted Watson (talk) 22:01, 7 March 2008 (UTC) (Minor revision: Ted Watson (talk) 22:07, 9 March 2008 (UTC)) UPDATE: I have noticed that the passage as I found it has been deleted from the articles on several other Who serials with no disputes whatsoever at those locations, so I accept that as an answer to my first question here and will remove my revision of the passage from this article. Perhaps the idea for the "Who on video" article should be posted on the main article's talk page, eh? Ted Watson (talk) 19:24, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

CSO backgrounds
I am reverting the passage about the debated blue backgrounds to two shots for one very simple reason: It includes the claim that the "green screen" process was involved in this 1971 serial, but that alternative to blue-screen was not invented until much later. I read at the time (most likely in Starlog) that the effects crew of Superman (1978) had to fine-tune the system to precise shades of blue because the costume's tights had to be blue and wouldn't have shown otherwise. There was no mention that a system using a different color screen existed but was unavailable to this company. Green screen simply had yet to be created then, let alone in 1971. Hence, I am reverting rather than putting up a cite request tag. --Ted Watson (talk) 21:06, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

The Axons
Shouldn't they have their own article? Crimsonraptor (talk) 15:23, 22 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Why? Which other stories did they appear in? -- Red rose64 (talk) 19:47, 22 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Actually one was in the new spin-off series K-9 (or at least it looks exactly the same: ). I'm not sure as to whether or not that's notable enough in addition to their recent comic strip appearance, but they sure are memorable. Sorry, I'm just a real DW nut :) Crimsonraptor (talk) 21:02, 23 September 2010 (UTC)
 * No, that wouldn't be enough. Without a reliable source to back it up it would be original research anyway. Alzarian16 (talk) 21:15, 23 September 2010 (UTC)

TARDIS doors
I made, and was reverted. My edit summary isn't long enough to describe the situation, but the problem I have is in the sentence "The doors of the console room do not open directly into the exterior as in all other adventures; instead they open into a corridor with the 'roundel' motif.", which the person adding it admitted was unreferenced. The thing is, in the Classic Series stories, console room doors don't open directly to the exterior. Right from the start, they opened into a sort of passageway, and the console room doors are seen to have roundels on both sides.

In the New Series we have an entirely different situation. There is only one pair of doors, the backs of which are always visible from the inside when closed - they are the insides of the police box doors, and have no roundels. But we are talking about the Classic Series, where two pairs of doors are shown: the police box doors (the backs of which are never shown), and the doors of the console room, both sides of which are often shown, and clearly have roundels front and back. There is therefore some sort of corridor or passageway between the two pairs. Whether this has roundels on its walls or not we simply don't know because we never go in there.

The editor adding the paragraph admitted that it was unreferenced, and attempted to justify it on the grounds that other comments were not cited. I'm sorry, but I call WP:BURDEN here; and WP:V also states that "anything challenged or likely to be challenged [should] be attributed in the form of an inline citation that directly supports the material". He has since added a ref to http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/The_Claws_of_Axos which I consider to be inadmissible per WP:USERG. -- Red rose64 (talk) 08:13, 20 December 2011 (UTC)

"In the Classic Series stories, console room doors don't open directly to the exterior. Right from the start, they opened into a sort of passageway, and the console room doors are seen to have roundels on both sides." That statement is wholly incorrect. Some examples you might want to reference for your error are An Unearthly Child (this being "right from the start"), The Daleks, The Web Planet, Colony In Space, Pyramids of Mars. There is only one single instance of the console room doors opening into a corridor (or vestibule) that leads from the console room to the exterior doors and that occurs in The Claws of Axos. Making it unique and thus noteworthy.

The video is available on YouTube if you don't have access to the DVD. As are all the other examples above. Doubtless YouTube - actually hard visual evidence - is inadmissable too.TVArchivistUK (talk) 23:43, 20 December 2011 (UTC)


 * In fact there are at least two instances of the console room doors opening onto something other than the outside world, as well as "Claws" in "The Seeds of Death" episode one we see a metallic corridor or some such before Pat and co exit from the Tardis.81.111.126.82 (talk) 19:26, 9 August 2013 (UTC)

Preservation and restoration
The article states: "The original 625 line PAL videotapes of episodes two and three were wiped/destroyed. In 1985 525 line NTSC copies were returned from Canada."

On the evidence of the Region 2 DVD this information is incomplete. Having just viewed episode 2 I find that some scenes are noticeably sharper and less grainy than others, suggesting that they were taken from a better source. The fact that the shifts in quality only occur at scene transitions (with the better material mainly taken from scenes set in UNIT HQ) supports this argument.

The reverse standards converted NTSC material is usually identifiable by the video's grainier and generally less sharp appearance and fluctuations in horizontal lines (the most extreme examples of the latter occurring not in this story but in "The Sea Devils") and sometimes by the audio's inferior treble response, due to the soundtrack being a duplicate.

The fact that the DVD extras include deleted scenes taken from original studio sessions would seem to imply that those same sessions supplied PAL-quality material that was used to replace the reverse standards converted NTSC material wherever possible. I may have more to say once I've viewed episode 3 and the deleted scenes. Lee M (talk) 04:26, 31 December 2011 (UTC)


 * OK, having viewed the remaining episodes and extras, I'm clear about what's going on with these episodes.


 * An unedited studio recording block containing material from Episodes 1 and 2 still exists. Excerpts from this appear as an extra on the DVD.
 * Episodes 1 and 4 are taken from the survivivng PAL masters. Some of the footage in Episode 1 may have been replaced by corresponding footage from the unedited studio block, which is at least one generation better in terms of quality.
 * Episode 2 is a combination of the RSC NTSC material and surviving PAL-format shots as follows: The recap is taken from the end of Episode 1; Chinn's telephone conversation (shot as one scene but split into two), the Army's takeover from UNIT, scenes of the Master hypnotising UNIT guards, and two insert shots showing the Master hypnotising a UNIT driver, are taken from the unedited studio block.
 * Episode 3 is taken from the RSC NTSC recording, except for the final few shots which are taken from the recap at the beginning of Episode 4 (but with audio from the Episode 3 recording).
 * Therefore I will amend the article based on a simplified description of the above. Lee M (talk) 21:25, 31 December 2011 (UTC)
 * Please be very careful that you satisfy WP:V and do not fall foul of WP:NOR. -- Red rose64 (talk) 22:05, 31 December 2011 (UTC)
 * The information concerning the surviving studio block is verifiable from the notes accompanying the Deleted and Extended Scenes section of the DVD. As for the rest, well... Lee M (talk) 04:08, 1 January 2012 (UTC)


 * Also all info relating to restoration of Dr Who episodes released on dvd can be found at the Doctor Who Restoration Team website, can this be cited as source for wiki Who pages???81.111.126.82 (talk) 19:42, 9 August 2013 (UTC)

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