Doctor Who (TV Series) Inferno: Episode 1 (1970) User Reviews

Classic Pertwee Doctor Who story.

[poolandrews · 7/10 · 1 July 2007]

Doctor Who: Inferno: Episode 1 starts as the Doctor (Jon Pertwee) arrives at a top secret Government research facility where Professor Stahlman (Olaf Pooley) is in charge of a project to drill to the center of the Earth in search of a powerful natural gas that could be used as a fuel. The Doctor & his assistant Liz Shaw (Caroline John) are officially there as advisor's but the Doctor is using the nuclear capabilities of the facility to try & get the TARDIS working, meanwhile Bigadier Lethbridge Stewart (Nicholas Courtney) has a murder on his hands as a maintenance man named Harry Slocum (Walter Randall) brutally killed a fellow work mate. Could it have anything to do with the green slime he touched & why has he changed colour?

This Doctor Who adventure was episode 19 from season 7 & originally aired here in the UK during May 1970, this was the fourth & final story from Pertwee's first season as the Doctor, it was also the final story for his assistant Liz Shaw & thankfully it marked the end of the mammoth seven parters which I've never really been a fan of. Directed by Douglas Camfield (who was eventually replaced by producer Barry Letts) Inferno is considered by some to be Pertwee's finest story, personally I can't say because I haven't seen all of his stories but it's definitely a good one even at this early stage. The script by Don Houghton basically sets things up during this initial episode, not that much happens but it sets the character's & situation up effectively enough, it's intriguing & certainly watchable & the mystery element of not knowing where the story is going retains one interest especially what that green slime is all about! This is a nice enough first part & I will certainly be checking out episode 2.

Director Camfield (Letts?) does an OK job, the locations & sets add atmosphere. I'm not sure about the blue/green man with hairy hands though, apparently this aspect of the story was added by the Doctor Who production team who felt the story needed a monster & didn't feature in Houghton's original scripts.

Inferno: Episode 1 as a stand alone part doesn't have much going for it but hopefully it will become part of a bigger & better thing which I'm sure it will. A good start to what should be a good story.

Better than it has any right to be

[Leofwine_draca · 7/10 · 30 May 2015]

Review of the Complete Story:

On the face of it, as a DR WHO serial INFERNO sounds a bit odd: a lengthy story in which the Doctor spends much of the running time trapped in an alternate reality doesn't sound too hot. And yet, thanks to quality writing throughout, this turns out to be a rather splendid effort that brings to life the sci-fi staple of alternate realities in a realistic and entertaining way.

The story sees an Earthbound Doctor and his companion Liz Shaw working at a power station which is drilling into the centre of the Earth. Unfortunately, the drilling releases some kind of primordial goo that turns those who touch it into snarling killer werewolves. During the course of the story, the Doctor ends up in an alternate reality where he discovers fatalistic consequences for the Earth itself.

There's plenty of fun to be had here, and the elements are stacked in the story's favour. The nuclear power station setting is an evocative one, and the presence of the Brigadier and his men is as welcome as ever. Jon Pertwee is on top energetic form and we even get a chance to see an 'evil' Brigadier and Liz Shaw, which for novelty value is unique. The 'end of the world' countdown scenario is packed with tension. The addition of the cheesy werewolf villains I'm less sure about it, but at least it ups the pace of the narrative and adds to lots of those fun cliffhanger endings for each of the seven episodes. All in all a sterling effort.

Best of the early Pertwees- Review of whole story

[jimpayne1967 · 9/10 · 22 October 2015]

This was the final story in Jon Pertwee's debut season and, although flawed, it is by some distance the best of a series that whilst an improvement on latter period Patrick Troughton seemed a bit stilted and a bit stuck- not least because after a ruling by the Time Lords Pertwee is stuck on earth to help UNIT ( a hush-hush military brigade headed by the Brigadier ( Nicholas Courtney)) and there is no time travel.

The story concerns a mission at a research station to bore through the earth's crust with a view to harnessing what lies beneath as a form of cheap energy ( my opposition to 'fracking' can probably be traced back to this tale!). At the head of the mission is the brilliant, stubborn to the point of being pig-headed Professor Stahlman (Olaf Pooley). He is assisted by lots of extras in white coats as well as the efficient blonde Petra (Sheila Dunn) and a man drafted in from the oil trade Greg (Derek Newark). Stahlman's boss is, nominally, the man from the ministry Sir Keith played by one of England's finest character actors of the day Christopher Benjamin. UNIT are around as security and the Doctor has tagged along so that he can get use of the nuclear reactor that he hopes will power his TARDIS and therefore get round the Time Lords' ruling. A man is killed by a technician who has become infected by a substance that has leaked into the facility and so UNIT are deployed. The Doctor is curious about what is going on and as usual points out the failings of the project and again as was usual the project leader falls out with him.

The Doctor takes the huff and leaves Stahlman and co to their own devices and tries out his TARDIS console. His experiments initially prove unsuccessful and also dangerous but eventually he sort of gets things moving. He arrives in a facility that is superficially similar to the one he left but when he goes to explore he finds it's very different. He had left behind Britain of 1970 and arrived in a Britain of 1970 that is a totalitarian in which UNIT is headed by an eye patch wearing Brigade Leader and in which the Doctor's own assistant Liz ( Caroline John) is now dark haired and black booted . The project conducted by Stahlman is more advanced than in the original world and is headed for eventual disaster. The Doctor realises this quickly but realises that he needs to get back to the world he came from to prevent a catastrophe there. He is able to get the reluctant assistance of the Brigade Leader, Liz, Petra and Greg in in this mission and eventually gets back to the 'real' 1970 to save the day.

Although 7 parts is quite long there is not much fat on this story and whilst some of the effects are a bit ropey the sets look convincingly drab and the constant sound of the giant drilling device gives this an eerie almost nightmarish quality. The cliffhangers at the end of each episode are all good and at least two ( end of 4 and 6) are amongst the best of any era of the show. The plot twist of entering a parallel time continuum is one of the cleverer ideas Doctor Who ever had and the differences as well as similarities between the characters of the two worlds are well done. The final episode probably carries the only real 'fat' in the story- the doctor being arrested after he tries to vandalise the project then escaping feels like something added to make the episode long enough and although I rarely like final shots that show characters laughing at what they are seeing the final scene of the Doc and Brigadier falling out then making up whilst Liz laughs at them is a nice way to finish

There are other faults. Stahlman is like almost every other male scientist the Doctor comes across a maniac and a stupid one at that. The Primords - the name given to those who touch the green poison that is leaking into the facility are not realised very well. Did they really have to look like the monsters from Carry On Screaming and have their teeth from a joke shop? The Greg character is great in the parallel world but in the real world he does not actually do anything except fancy Petra.

The real problem though is that the story is never followed up. I cannot imagine the Pertwee Doctor- a man greedy for knowledge- would never have investigated the possibilities of parallel universes more. And of course it is the final episode for Liz who was always one of the more underrated companions. Until Romana came along eight years later Liz was the only companion who properly worked with the doctor and she is never in awe of him. She looks great in her slightly kinky totalitarian world too.

This story is not perfect but it is very, very good- arguably the best of the whole Pertwee era

Welcome to the Inferno.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 10/10 · 24 August 2015]

Pertwee's first seasons will always be a grand purple patch, and Inferno is the icing on the top.

Right from the off, you know it's going to be good, there's just something about it. The bright and cheery opening 3 minutes gives you a very false sense, it becomes very dark almost instantly.

The Doctor and Liz are on sight of a huge project, where Professor Stahlman and his team are drilling the earth's layers. A nasty green slime is seeping out of the pipe, with horrific consequences for unlucky engineer Harry. Safety conscious Sir Keith, seemingly second in command under Stahlman brings in Oil rig specialist Greg Sutton, in case of emergency (an Omen if ever there was!!) and the Doctor fiddles about with the TARDIS consul. UNIT are on hand. Suspicious murders are starting to occur.

I loved how Greg's advances are brushed off by Petra, and Stahlman's less then friendly welcome, nice to be valued.

Episode 1 is an absolute joy, I can find not one single fault to it, the story is building up incredibly. The acting is flawless, I love each character, the production values are superb, the music is a perfect fit. Inferno can do no wrong, no wonder it's held in such high regard.

An unease runs throughout, you're just waiting for something to happen, it was brilliantly done. The idea of the Doctor landing up in Limbo with the TARDIS consul's jump is a fantastic idea.

Trouble At The Drillhead

[ShadeGrenade · 10/10 · 20 September 2006]

One of the few disadvantages the new 'Doctor Who' has is its inability to gradually develop an atmosphere of menace. With only forty-five minutes to tell the story, the setting and characters have to be established quickly, so we can get onto the monsters. Classic 'Who' had no such constraints, of course, and nowhere is this better illustrated than in the opening instalment of 'Inferno'. At a top secret complex somewhere in England, a Government-funded project is underway to seek a new source of energy by breaking through the Earth's crust. 'Sir Keith Gold' ( Christopher Benjamin ) is showing engineer 'Greg Sutton' ( Derek Newark ) around the control centre, while elsewhere a rigger named 'Slocum' ( Walter Randall ) touches a green slime oozing from one of the outlet pipes. When we next see him he has transmogrified into a vicious, green-skinned monster. The Doctor ( Jon Pertwee ) hopes to steal power from the project's reactor to reactivate his TARDIS.

Don Houghton's script combines ideas from several sources - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 'When The World Screamed', the film 'Crack In The World' ( 1965 ), and the second issue of Gold Key's 'Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea' comic 'Monsters From The Moho'. The pacing is slower than modern drama, the exposition more detailed, yet this is a good opener to what turned out to be one of the all-time great 'Who' stories. It was directed by the late, great Douglas Camfield, just before he fell ill and had to be replaced at short notice by Barry Letts. It is to the latter's credit that the finished serial looks like the work of one person.

Brilliant in every way, a nearly flawless, truly classic story (#54, Inferno)

[ametaphysicalshark · 18 January 2008]

"Inferno" is widely regarded as a great story, though some will argue that it is very padded. I couldn't disagree more with those who do. I find "Inferno" to be a perfect seven-parter, perhaps the best argument for the format in Doctor Who. Douglas Houghton's script is wonderful, making nearly three full hours seem like a mere 90 minute story. It's a wonderful concept that makes "Inferno" as good as it is, as the Doctor finds himself thrown into a parallel universe where he meets a British Republic and military forces far less amiable than U.N.I.T., the Brigadier who is ruthless and wears an eyepatch (and no mustache), and the parallel universe Liz Shaw who is dressed in a fetishistic Nazi-type uniform complete with boots and a short skirt.

The plot is good and includes a good science fiction concept, which for one of the most highly-regarded (and best) science fiction programmes in history is certainly quite the rare occurrence. This Doctor Who story does not attempt to be scary and feels sophisticated and smart in the vein of a well-written low budget 70's science fiction thriller.

The writing is fantastic across the seven episodes, with wonderful dashes of humor and clever dialogue throughout. The story is also very well-directed. It must be noted that Nicholas Courtney as the Brigadier and Caroline John as Liz Shaw are fantastic in their rather difficult double roles. Jon Pertwee gives one of his most memorable turns as the Doctor here.

Did I mention that the final wrap-up scene is handled better here than in probably any other Doctor Who story? Excellent writing for that final scene, absolutely unforgettable.

Episode Ratings:

Episode 1: 9/10 Episode 2: 9/10 Episode 3: 10/10 Episode 4: 9/10 Episode 5: 10/10 Episode 6: 10/10 Episode 7: 10/10

Overall: Average rating amounts to 9.57/10

Impression of season 7: Average rating based on all stories amounts to 8.2/10 but I will raise that to an 9 out of 10 for the entire season. A brilliant season which is undoubtedly one of the best Doctor Who has to offer.

Quatermass Meets 28 Days Later

[Theo Robertson · 10/10 · 5 February 2010]

One of the problems DOCTOR WHO suffers from is that it's perceived to be a kids show . Whilst it's difficult to defend the Colin Baker / Slyvester McCoy eras from these cruel allegations - Dare I say slander ? - it's very easy to show a non fan certain years from the show that disprove this such as the dramatic realism of the first season or the horror show of the early Tom Baker years . Certainly season seven is a combination of dramatic realism and horror show and nothing emulates this better than the season finale Inferno

Plotwise Inferno could play out like a QUATERMASS serial . UNIT are called in to provide security at The Inferno Project led by Professor Stahlman . The project will lead to a completely new energy source found under the Earth's crust . An engineer becomes infected by the green slime leaking from the drill head and one can't help wondering if Alex Garland was inspired by this to write 28 DAYS LATER as the engineer infects other humans . By the end of the second episode the Doctor manages to send himself in to an alternative dimension where the Inferno Project is ahead of schedule but people who he thought of as friends back in our world are now cruel fascists and the Inferno Project will eventually lead to the destruction of Earth

Words fail to convey what a wonderful piece of imagination Don Houghton's script is . DOCTOR WHO used an alternative universe plot in Rise Of The Cybermen in 2006 but that was merely as a plot device . where as here it's central to the plot . The only unfortunate thing is that once you know the plot turns such as The Doctor meeting the alternative Liz and Brigade Leader in episode three the impact is lessened somewhat . It's also one of the very few stories where the title character doesn't stop a calamity . Watch out for little touches of irony where in our universe Stahlman refers to Sgt Benton as " ape like " where in the alternative universe Benton literally does end up at that fate . Interesting to note that Keith Gold is Jewish by implication and yet still exists in the alternative world . Did Britain find it's own interpretation of ( Non anti-semitic ) fascism ? We never know but Houghton's script allows food for thought

Douglas Camfield is considered to be the greatest director to have worked on the classic series . He didn't complete Inferno because he suffered a heart attack and was replaced in episodes 3-7 by producer Barry Letts who followed Camfield's meticulous shooting script to the letter . Camfield never used Dudley Simpson as a composer so instead used brooding amorphous stock music that sets the tone of the story . Again this seems to have inspired 28 DAYS LATER where the scenes at the Manchester road block could be virtually interchangeable as some of the scenes in Inferno . There's also a fantastic cliffhanger to episode four where the countdown to penetration zero and the soundtrack briefly continues in to the end credits

Inferno concludes one of the very best seasons DOCTOR WHO has ever produced . Even forty years after broadcast it remains some of the most thought provoking television the BBC has ever made . By a bitter irony season seven didn't fair very well with the general public but considering the show almost ended in 1969 season seven did put in to motion the success of the Pertwee years under the producership of Barry Letts where audience figures rose to get an average of 10 million viewers a week . Later Pertwee seasons became more family friendly but season seven helps to prove that there's a massive difference between a children's show and a family show

Hot stuff!

[A_Kind_Of_CineMagic · 10/10 · 21 September 2014]

Review of all 7 episodes:

Inferno has a tremendous reputation and that is very well deserved, it is fabulous in almost every way. The brilliance of the story, script and acting is clear throughout and particularly in the famous portion of the story which involves an alternative reality with fascist versions of the Brigadier, Liz, Benton and guest characters. This highly entertaining aspect of the story brings out fantastic performances from Nicholas Courtney and Caroline John as villainous versions of their regular characters. When this alternative reality is brought in, it is Doctor Who at its truly magnificent best.

The story involves a scientific project lead by Professor Stahlman to drill through the earth's crust which runs into trouble due to Stahlman's refusal to slow down or take precautions and due to a mysterious green substance coming from underground which causes physical and mental changes to those who touch it. The Doctor throws in a whole new dimension - literally - when he accidentally causes the TARDIS console to transport him to a parallel universe where the same scenario is occurring but in a fascist Britain.

The entire script is superb, intelligent and believable with great dialogue delivered perfectly by the whole cast. Pertwee, Courtney and Caroline John are at their very best throughout whilst John Levene not only fully establishes Benton as an extremely good regular character he also plays the fascist version of Benton with gusto. There are great realistic guest characters played to perfection. Olaf Pooley (Stahlman), Christopher Benjamin (Sir Keith), Sheila Dunn (Petra Williams) and Derek Newark (Greg Sutton) could not be better. The story has a nice gritty, grown up science fiction feel but also has bags of action, stunts, thrills and fun.

The plot thread where people touch a substance emanating from beneath the Earth's crust and turn into werewolf-like creatures known as 'primords' is the least impressive aspect of the story in my opinion and even that is very entertaining. At first I disliked the primords subplot but after repeated viewings I realised it makes more sense than it first appeared. The substance affects the people physically and mentally at different rates depending on how much they touch. It drives them to seek extreme heat and to try to achieve the penetration of the earth's crust. They use the knowledge they had before being affected to help them. It is actually a fun idea providing a lot of thrills but the make-up effects were limited by the age and budget. That does not detract from the quality of this really fantastic story which I would put easily in my top 15 or 20 stories of all time. It is a true classic.

The vast majority of this 7 parter is truly special and it deserves the huge praise it receives.

My Ratings: All 7 Episodes - 10/10

Season 7 Review:

Season 7 was the biggest change in the show's history. A new colour presentation instead of black and white. A new Doctor with a very different persona. A new format with fewer stories which generally had more episodes. A new concentration on contemporary Earth. A new team helping the Doctor with the extensive use of UNIT. This all worked terrifically well thanks to the incredible writing, acting and production. It simply is one of the best seasons of Doctor Who (both classic and new series) of all time. Near perfect magic.

Season 7 average rating: 9.34/10

Inferno Revisited

[timdalton007 · 10/10 · 4 July 2015]

(Note: A Review Of All Seven Episodes)

A little more than forty-five years ago, Doctor Who aired one of the most unique stories in its history. Coming at the end of Season Seven, Jon Pertwee's first year as the Third Doctor, Inferno in many ways is that season's ultimate triumph. Not only that, it is perhaps not only amongst the best stories in all of Doctor Who but the best story of the entire Pertwee era.

At its heart perhaps, Inferno is a simple mad scientist story. UNIT and the Doctor are yet again at a government funded scientific project that is attempting to drill through the Earth's crust to penetrate pockets of Stahlman's Gas, which is theorized to be able to provide nearly cheap endless energy. The project, nicknamed "the Inferno" by the technicians working upon it, is headed by a brilliant but egotistical Professor Stahlman who views virtually everyone around him with suspicion due to his belief they are trying to slow/ stop him and his project.

While the Doctor and Liz are there working on the TARDIS console in an attempt to get in working, the Brigadier and UNIT are investigating a series of strange events and deaths. Despite growing concerns, the project proceeds on even when a mysterious green substance begins to ooze out of one of the drill's output pipers from deep within the Earth itself. Unable to stop the project and becoming increasingly confrontational with Stahlman, the Doctor's attempts to fix the TARDIS land him in a parallel universe where the project not only exists in a Fascist Britain along with familiar faces, but is actually considerably ahead of the one he left behind.

It's when the story reaches the parallel Fascist Britain that the story really picks up. Everyone but the Doctor is represented here raging from an even more egotistical Professor Stahlman, Sergeant Benton as a despicable thug and Liz not as a brilliant scientist but the assistant to the worst one of all: the Brigadier (known in this world as the Brigade Leader). It is a world stripped of morality and these seemingly familiar characters embody that fact.

Indeed, the real star of the story might be Nicholas Courtney. Up until his passing in 2011, he would always cite this story as his favorite and it isn't hard to see why. While he's legendary to Doctor Who fans for playing the Brigadier, it's really here that we get to see the man's acting chops. The Brigade Leader might look like the Brigadier but he certainly isn't him: behind the eye-patch is a bully who is really nothing more then a coward at heart who struggles to deal with the situation once things go wrong and his troops all but desert him. As the Brigade Leader, Courtney loses all the charm and dry humor he brought to the Brigadier and plays a thoroughly nasty and likable piece of work which helped to make the story all the more iconic.

The story also benefits from its extra episodes in other ways. The story has time to unfold and remains tense thanks to Don Houghton's script and the combined direction of Douglas Camfield and Barry Letts. Houghton's script uses the extra episodes to its advantage, throwing the parallel universe plot into the middle of the story and actually being better for it since it allows us to see the consequences of the project in a parallel world which heightens the tension once the story shifts back to the "normal" universe. The story's direction both from Camfield (who did the first two episodes and all the exterior film sequences before becoming ill) and Letts (who directed all the interior scenes in the rest of the story) give the story an almost feature film like quality despite it being set largely within a couple of buildings though it's perhaps the filmed sequences which standout the best.

The production values of the story are strong as well. There's some excellent excellent set design to the costumes, especially when the story shifts over to the fascist parallel world. The Primords, the monsters of the story, prove the old saying that "less is more" as the designers go for a simpler approach to them, using the fact that they're played by actors in make-up to their advantage. Last but not least is the music which isn't much a score as a collection of stock music, some of which was composed by Delia Derbyshire. The music though was well picked as it adds tension and atmosphere when it's used, which is sparingly used. All of which makes Inferno one of the best looking and least dated Doctor Who stories of its time.

After Inferno aired, the series would never quite be the same again. By the time the next season started airing in January 1971, a number of changed would take place. Inferno would be the last of the more adult oriented Doctor Who with morally ambiguous plots and themes, and it would be the crowning triumph of the season that helped bring Doctor Who out of black and white and into color. It was, and remains, a story unlike any other in Doctor Who and the best story of the Pertwee era.

Then you won't feel the bullets when we shoot you.

[wetmars · 10/10 · 12 February 2021]

First off, superb introduction as we approach the finale of Season 7. Three singing, in the beginning, is funny to listen to. Too bad it got stuck in my head 10 minutes later after that scene, lol. In the plot, UNIT starts its drilling project and, the guy who was working gets exposed to a green burning liquid that leaked from a machine which turns him into something else, poor guy. All he was doing his usual work. The dialogue is enjoyable to listen to. Some of them are pretty laughable. The side characters are neatly written. Well done, Don Houghton. It's a shame that we didn't get a proper departure from Liz. She was an engaging and intelligent companion. I would love to see her more. "Funny gadgets?" "I'll think of something. I hope." The scene where the Doctor disappears along with his console was pretty weird. I must say, the Doctor and the Brigadier are getting along more.

There seems to be a nuclear meltdown, alarming everyone at UNIT. The Doctor confronts the infected guy. Later, a UNIT soldier fires at him making him feel unsafe attacking the UNIT soldier, and then dies. I feel bad for the dude. He had much to live for. Three more men die from the ongoing infection. The Doctor suspects there's a link to this and the 1883 volcanic eruption of Krakatoa. Eric gets infected as well. He should have listened to the Doctor instead of being dumb, arrogant, and arguing. The Doctor disappears and lands on a parallel world.

I assume that this is the first time that the writers did a parallel story. It was excellently so well-done. The car chase was intense. I can agree that the makeup aged horribly, but I have no problem with that. We meet a different Liz who is strict and, I love how they did the Brigade-Leader, excellent performance Courtney did, also John's. Too bad. The situation is more worse in the parallel world.

Episode 4 had an intense cliffhanger, well-done. Especially when it comes to countdowns. After that, things have gone to hell. The Brigade-Leader and Liz would finally trust the Doctor. I like how it feels terrifying throughout the last episodes because there isn't any music. That lava cliffhanger has to be one of the best cliffhangers ever. I feel bad for the people who had to wait for a week to see what happened next.

The Doctor finally returns to his world, but he's in a coma. Liz listens to his mumblings and orders UNIT personnel to reverse everything to solve the nuclear meltdown. Stahlman gets infected and gets "attacked" by fire extinguishers. Interesting observation how he says "It's getting cold in here." but it's getting hot in the control room. Later on, the personnel dismantles the drilling operation. "Brigadier, there are times when you strongly remind me of your other self." lol. Brilliant conclusion after all.

Next time, we'll see a mysterious renegade Time Lord who will team up with the Autons terrorizing Earth, but there is a new companion.

10/10, one of the best finales.

A First-Rate Adventure

[JamesHitchcock · 6 December 2014]

The seventh season of "Doctor Who" was the first of the seventies, and apart from marking the start of a new decade it also marked a new start for the series in several other ways. It was the first to be broadcast in colour. It saw the debuts of Jon Pertwee's Third Doctor and of a new assistant, Liz Shaw. It also saw a change in the basic concept underlying the series. The First and Second Doctors had been wanderers through time and space; the Third, for reasons explained in "The War Games" (the last serial of season six), found himself confined to Earth by order of the Time Lords. These Earth-bound episodes were clearly influenced by an earlier British science fiction television series, "Quatermass". The Doctor finds himself working as scientific adviser to UNIT (United Nations Intelligence Taskforce), a quasi-military force charged with defending the Earth against threats

"Inferno" is the name of a scientific project to drill through the Earth's crust in to tap into a new source of cheap energy. The Doctor is involved because UNIT is responsible for security. He is also using the project's nuclear reactor to power experiments on the TARDIS console, and one of these goes awry, sending him into a parallel universe where history has taken a different course.

On the parallel Earth, Great Britain is a republic ruled by a Fascist regime. (We learn that the Royal Family were executed many years earlier). The Inferno project, moreover, is also taking place in this universe, with many of the same personnel involved, although sometimes in slightly different roles. Liz Shaw, for example, is a "Section Leader" with the Republican Security Force, the regime's secret police. While in this universe the Doctor realises something which he has already suspected, namely that there are serious safety issues with the Inferno project. Indeed, it is so dangerous that it could lead to the destruction of the entire earth. Can the Doctor manage to return to his own universe? And, if he does, can he persuade those responsible, especially the arrogant and obsessive project director Professor Stahlman, to stop the drilling before it is too late?

The one plot point which is never really integrated with the rest of the story is that fluorescent green slime which mutates all those who come into contact with it into subhuman creatures known as "Primords". (This may have been done because the serial does not otherwise contain any monsters and younger members of the audience may have been disappointed if the Doctor did not have any evil creatures to flee from).

This serial marked the last appearance of Caroline John as Liz; apparently she wanted to continue in the part but was written out by the producers who felt the character was "too intellectual"- Liz is supposed to be a brilliant scientist- and that audiences could not therefore identify with her. Her predecessor as the Doctor's companion, Zoe, was also something of an intellectual, but as she was also a sweet and innocent teenager was presumably felt to be more acceptable. I always thought that Caroline's departure was a pity; the stories always seem to work better if the Doctor's companion is (as far as possible, given that he is a member of a super-human species) his intellectual equal, and Liz made a refreshing change from all those female sci-fi characters whose main function is to stand about looking pretty or to run away screaming whenever danger threatens.

"Inferno" is one of the more original "Doctor Who" serials. The "alternate history" element provides an intriguingly different slant, as well as allowing some of the actors to explore two different, but complementary, personalities. The two versions of Stahlman do not seem very different, but then even in our timeline he is the sort of natural- born Fascist for whom a totalitarian regime would be his natural habitat. Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, however, is transformed in the alternate universe into a ruthless secret policeman and Liz into his subordinate, although she is at least intelligent enough to realise that some things are more important than mindless obedience to orders. The scriptwriters were presumably trying to make the point that functionaries tend to take on the personality of the regime they serve.

Jon Pertwee is probably my favourite Doctor Who, with Tom Baker a close second, and (the Primords apart) this is one of the most intelligent and entertaining of his adventures. It even manages to incorporate a neat philosophical point about predestination and free will. A first-rate adventure.

This one blew me away!

[laurawanco · 10/10 · 27 June 2021]

This is by far the best Classic Who story I've seen so far! It's a fairly standard parallel dimension story, but it's executed perfectly. 3 hours fly by like they're nothing. The stakes are clearly set up right out the gate and escalate the further it goes on. Things get very dark near the end as the parallel world devolves into chaos and the only thing left to those that live there is the chance of saving at least 1 person. It's incredibly compelling, I started off multitasking while watching it (I do that a lot since I'm trying to power through 26 seasons) but by episode 2 it had my full attention. This is going right up there with the Aztecs, the Time Meddler, the Enemy of the World, and the Mind Robber as (in my opinion) the best this has to offer up to this point.