Doctor Who: Inferno

Meddling in the unknown tends to be a deadly practice in the Dr. Who stories, and "Doctor Who: Inferno (Story 54)" brings on a fresh disaster from below the Earth's crust. The sci-fi threat is never really explained, but the rest of the serial is absolutely brilliant -- harrowing, intense, and featuring a brief glimpse of an alternate reality.

UNIT is overseeing security for a special drilling project, which is planning to release energy-rich Stahlman's Gas from under the Earth's crust. But then a strange green goop oozes out of the pipes, causing anyone who touches it to turn into a savage greeny-gray creature -- and anyone who touches THEM will also be infected.

The project's leader, Professor Stahlman, refuses to acknowledge that anything might be wrong, claiming that everybody is conspiring to stop the drilling -- and even sabotaging the computer when it predicts failure. And the Doctor may be the only person who can stop the disaster.

Unfortunately, the Doctor's attempts to fix the Tardis have transported him into a parallel universe, where Britain is a fascist state and the Brigadier is a controlling little tyrant. Unfortunately, the drilling project is going on in this world as well -- and though the Doctor soon learns that it spells doom for the Earth, he may not be able to get back in time to save our reality.

The biggest problem with "Inferno" is the green goop, which is... never really explained. I would have preferred a little more explanation for why it turns people into manged gray-skinned freaks. B

ut aside from that quibble, this particular serial is a powerful, intense sci-fi story, especially since the Doctor is rendered helpless through most of it. In fact, it's kind of nightmarish when he's trapped in the fascist Other-Britain, unable to get home, stop the drilling, or do much of anything.

And the most terrifying part of the story is that the exact same events are unfurling in our own world, only slightly more slowly (probably due to that pesky free speech). The Other-Britain is swarmed by gray ape-people and faced with... well, the whole planet blowing up due to improbable science, and the Doctor can't really deal with it.

Jon Pertwee gives his best Dr. Who performance thus far, mostly relying on the Third Doctor's sharp-eyed, acerbic charm and short temper, but also showing his more charismatic side. Nicholas Courtney also has a wonderful turn as both the usual Brigadier and the cruel, power-hungry Brigade Leader, which gives a glimpse of what the stuffy, bossy soldier would have turned into in a different world.

"Doctor Who: Inferno (Story 54)" is a strong, lean story with lots of suspense -- and a particularly good subplot set in a parallel world. Definitely a must-see for fans of Who.

I am in complete agreement with your reviewers who see this adventure as being one of the best of the Pertwee years.

One of the things for me which makes this interesting is not just the parallel world notion, which surprisingly has not been used too much, but the limits to that notion.

For instance the Doctor finds himself in an alternate universe which is slightly different from the one he begins from. Not only is it different but he, qua the Doctor is not in it, nor has he been. Also the concept that one parallel universe can be destroyed without destroying the others is a novel idea too.

This adventure has almost everything you could want to find in a show geared towards adults and young adults alike. The typical villain and mad scientist are found together in one mean man along with a devoted follower who is intelligent but too uncertain to question his authority. There are the Primords, who are the unfortunate by-products of the scientific process and then there are the populates of the alternative earth...
These neo-fascists clearly intended to resemble to gestapo/SS of the Third Reich and accurately portray an authoritarian regime. There is another aspect to this too which was controversial in England upon the show's broadcast and that was the appearance in uniform of Caroline Shaw. Adult viewing increased considerably.

The adventure is rather long, unecessarily so, and could have done with a better editing. Even so there is a good story here with much to consider for some time. The action scenes and outdoor shots as well as make up and costume have much to commend them. A very good concept which is pretty well executed. No pun intended.

The loss of the character Liz from the series was a hard blow. The Doctor clearly needed a companion who had at least half a brain but instead the third Doctor was portrayed as a well meaning but chauvinistic person rather than the enlightened man of reason he had set out being.

Hopefully this will make it ot DVD sooner rather than later.

The one and only sideways time story of Dr. Who. Inferno is probably the best DW story period. A very strong story about the alternate Universe and is detailed in the background of characters in that Universe. Liz kinda wanted to be a scientist but decided not to, sort of thing. The show stopper for me was the Brigade Leader. A kind of coward/bully/tyrant of lawful order on an obsessive-compulsive level. Very scary. Greg Sutton(Derek Newark) was in an Unearthly child the first DW story. Greg Sutton was also a very strong character in Inferno. What would've been really interesting(though not nessecary) would be an alternate Doctor Who, probably a pathetic anxious fearfull man; the compete opposite of Dr. Who, Jon Pertwee's character. But that wasn't really nessecary for this story. It would've been interesting though.