Inferno (Doctor Who)
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| 054 - Inferno | |
| Doctor | Jon Pertwee (Third Doctor) |
|---|---|
| Writer | Don Houghton |
| Director | Douglas Camfield Barry Letts (episodes 3-7, uncredited) |
| Script Editor | Terrance Dicks |
| Producer | Barry Letts |
| Executive producer(s) | None |
| Production code | DDD |
| Series | Season 7 |
| Length | 7 episodes, 25 mins each |
| Transmission date | May 9–June 20, 1970 |
| Preceded by | The Ambassadors of Death |
| Followed by | Terror of the Autons |
| IMDb profile | |
Inferno is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in seven weekly parts from May 9 to June 20, 1970. This serial was the last regular appearance of Caroline John in the role of Liz Shaw.
Contents |
[edit] Synopsis
The Inferno project plans to drill through the Earth's crust to harness a potentially unlimited new source of energy at its core. However, when an experiment throws the Third Doctor into a parallel universe, he discovers the horrible consequences that will result. But even if he makes it back to his own universe, can he convince anybody of what he has seen?
[edit] Plot
The Inferno is the nickname given to a project to penetrate the Earth's crust to liberate pockets of Stahlman's Gas at its core, which is theorized to be able to provide massive amounts of energy. Professor Stahlman himself is ill-tempered and obsessive about any interference with the progress of his work. Sir Keith Gold, the project director, is concerned about this and tells Petra Williams, Stahlman's assistant that he is calling Greg Sutton, a drilling expert, to consult on safety issues. UNIT is overseeing security at the project, and the Third Doctor is here too, for his own reasons. He is using the output of the project's nuclear reactor to power experiments on the TARDIS console, hoping to end the exile on Earth imposed on him by the Time Lords (The War Games).
The project, however, has its own problems. Slocum, a worker repairing one of the drill pipes encounters a super-hot green slime seeping out of the pipe that rapidly mutates him into a feral creature, which goes berserk and kills one of the other workers. While the Brigadier and Sergeant Benton investigate, the Slocum creature enters the reactor control room and attacks Bromley, the technician there, then pushes the reactor power to maximum.
At the same time, the Doctor is using the TARDIS console, and the energy rush shifts the console and the Doctor into a dimensional limbo, from which he is barely saved when Liz manages to cut the power. Alarms go off as the drill is in danger of shutting down due to the overload. When the Doctor reaches the reactor control and starts to lower the power output, Slocum attacks…
The Doctor tries to calm Slocum down while he screeches horribly, but a UNIT soldier, Wyatt, tries to shoot Slocum and is attacked. Slocum eventually collapses, as does Wyatt, and the former's body is so hot that it scorched the wall where he fell. The Doctor voices his concern that Slocum's mutated form seems to be filled with some strange power. He has also heard the screeching before — during the 1883 explosion of Krakatoa. Benton informs the Brigadier that Bromley and Wyatt have gone missing, and the Doctor encounters Wyatt, who is in the process of mutating, on the cooling towers. Wyatt tumbles over to his death, but the Doctor does not notice the mutated Bromley on the towers as well.
The drill has been bringing up more quantities of the green slime, but Stahlman dismisses any connection between that and the incidents at the project. When a jar of the slime starts to bubble over, he impulsively grips it, superficially burning his hand. Stahlman places the jar in a box which he orders frozen, and secretly sabotages the project computer, which was predicting disaster. He also orders that the power be cut off to the Doctor's hut, so that the drilling can be accelerated, with penetration occurring in 49 hours. The Doctor, in the meantime, sends Liz away on a wild goose chase while he hooks up the console again. Noticing the power drain, Stahlman cuts the power to the console just as Liz and the Brigadier rush back to the hut. As they look on, the Doctor, his console and his roadster Bessie seemingly fade out of existence…
The Doctor arrives in a parallel universe. On this world, a Republic of Great Britain exists, and is run by a fascist regime after the execution of the Royal Family. The Inferno project is also ongoing, but the security is provided by Brigade Leader Lethbridge-Stewart, a sinister man with an eyepatch, Section Leader Elizabeth Shaw, and Platoon Under Leader Benton. The project is also much more accelerated, with only a few hours before penetration…
The Doctor, captured and under interrogation, tries to convince the parallel versions of his friends that he is from another universe, but they believe he is trying to feign insanity. Here, Director Stahlman has also been infected with the green slime, and is mutating. The Doctor is placed in a cell with a sedated Bromley, but the alarm is raised when Bromley awakens fully mutated. Escaping, the Doctor makes his way to the main control room to stop the drilling but is discovered. The Doctor pleads for them to stop, telling them that the screeching is the sound of the planet "screaming out its rage," but to no avail…
As Stahlman holds a gun on the Doctor, penetration is achieved, an explosion is heard and an earth tremor rocks the installation. The temperature rises rapidly as more green slime oozes out of the cracked pipes. As the Doctor and the parallel Sutton try to contain the explosion, Stahlman, now fully mutated, attacks them. They manage to escape, leaving Stahlman behind a heat shield with the bodies of the unconscious workers. Stahlman rubs the slime on their faces, mutating them as well.There are seismic disturbances all over the country, and the Doctor explains that now that the crust has been penetrated, the planet will soon revert back to the gases it sprung from.
The Doctor tries to convince the others that he can stop this from happening in his own universe if they will help him to return, and shows them the TARDIS console. The Brigade Leader demands that the Doctor save them, too, but the Doctor says that they do not belong in the other universe. Refusing to accept this, the Brigade Leader orders everyone back to the control room, where Stahlman and his fellow mutants attack, infecting Benton as well…
Finally agreeing to help the Doctor, the group fights their way out using fire extinguishers to paralyze the mutants. By this time, the sky has turned red and the heat is overwhelming. The parallel Petra, with Sutton's help, manages to feed power to the TARDIS console. At the last moment, the Brigade Leader snaps and threatens to shoot the Doctor if he doesn't save them, but is gunned down by Section Leader Shaw. As a wall of lava sweeps towards the hut and the others watch the end coming towards them, the Doctor transfers back to his own universe…
The Doctor is back but unconscious in a healing coma, and there are only three hours left before penetration zero. When he awakes, the Doctor goes to the main control room and tries to smash the controls. He is unsuccessful and has to be restrained, but manages to tell Liz to put a new circuit into the computer that Stahlman had sabotaged. Liz does so, and the computer advises drilling be stopped at once. In the meantime, Stahlman orders everyone out of the drill head area, then when they are gone he picks up a handful of slime and rubs it into his face, causing himself to completely mutate. The Doctor escapes from the sickbay and returns to the control room, dealing with the Bromley mutant on the way. As Sir Keith struggles with the decision to order a shutdown, the Stahlman mutant emerges and has to be subdued with fire extinguishers. With seconds to go, Sir Keith orders that the drill be shut down and the shaft filled in.
Later, Sir Keith informs the Doctor that the project is being abandoned and everyone is leaving. The Doctor announces that he, too, is leaving. The Brigadier and Liz protest, and the Doctor sharply tells the Brigadier that he reminds him of his fascist counterpart. The Doctor activates the console and vanishes, but only makes it as far as a nearby garbage dump. Suitably chastened, he asks the Brigadier to help him retrieve the console, much to Liz's amusement.
[edit] Cast
- Doctor Who — Jon Pertwee
- Liz Shaw/Section Leader Elizabeth Shaw — Caroline John
- Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart/Brigade Leader Lethbridge-Stewart — Nicholas Courtney
- Sergeant Benton/Platoon Under Leader Benton — John Levene
- Professor Stahlman/Director Stahlman — Olaf Pooley
- Sir Keith Gold — Christopher Benjamin
- Petra Williams — Sheila Dunn
- Greg Sutton — Derek Newark
- Bromley — Ian Fairbairn
- Harry Slocum — Walter Randall
- Private Wyatt — Derek Ware
- Private Latimer — David Simeon
- RAF Sentry — Roy Scammell
- Patterson — Keith James
- Primords — Dave Carter, Pat Gorman, Walter Henry, Philip Ryan, Peter Thompson
[edit] Cast notes
- Christopher Benjamin, who played Sir Keith Gold, would also play the part of Henry Gordon Jago in the Fourth Doctor serial, The Talons of Weng-Chiang.
- The role of Petra was given to Shiela Dunn after Kate O'Mara was not available to play the part. O'Mara would, years later, be cast as the Rani, a renegade Time Lord.
[edit] Primord
Referred to as Primords in the end credits, but never named in the televised story itself, these mutated creatures were the result of humans, being exposed to slime that was produced as a byproduct of Project Inferno.
In some circumstances, the infection could be transmitted if a Primord touched a human and heat would cause the transformation to progress at a more rapid pace. The creatures were never actually called Primords in the story, although they were credited as such. Primords were resistant to gunfire, and could only be killed by a rapid loss in body temperature or a massive physical trauma (such as a fall from a great height). They could be slowed down by large bursts of extreme cold such as fire extinguishers. The degree of intelligence displayed by the Primords was variable; they acted primarily on instinct, but displayed signs of organisation and tactics. They made a high pitched, screeching sound, which the Doctor claimed that he had heard before during the eruption of Krakatoa in 1883.
The BBC Books sequel to the serial, The Face of the Enemy by David A. McIntee, later revealed that despite the Doctor's assumption, the parallel Earth had in fact not disintegrated, but the surface had been devastated beyond recovery. It also implied that many survivors of the disaster had since become Primords. Like all Doctor Who spin-off media, its canonicity in relation to the television series is unclear.
John Levene's portrayal of Benton as a Primord was inspired by Richard III (so nicknamed because of the Primord creature's hump).
[edit] In print
- A novelisation of this serial, written by Terrance Dicks, was published by Target Books in June 1984.
[edit] Continuity
- The Doctor's remark that he had heard the screeching sound the Primords made before at Krakatoa could imply that he had encountered (or at least heard) the creatures before. In the 2005 series episode Rose a sketch that washed up on the shores of Sumatra following the eruption was seen, depicting the Ninth Doctor in front of a volcano.
- Fan speculation, carried forward in the comic strips and novelisations, suggest that the dictator may be the parallel version of the Doctor. The Virgin New Adventure Timewyrm: Revelation by Paul Cornell states that the dictator was one of the alternative regenerations the Time Lords offered the Doctor in The War Games.
- Liz Shaw does not feature in any subsequent serials, although an illusory image of her is seen in The Five Doctors (and the character is one of many in the Children in Need skit, Dimensions in Time). The circumstances surrounding her departure from UNIT are told in the Virgin Missing Adventures novel The Scales of Injustice by Gary Russell; like all Doctor Who spin-offs, the canonicity of this novel is uncertain. In the next serial (Terror of the Autons at the start of the following season) it is merely mentioned that Liz went back to Cambridge.
- This story marks the last appearance of the original TARDIS console which had been used on the series since the very first story, An Unearthly Child. The story shows it (again) removed from the TARDIS and malfunctioning badly.
- In the following year's story, The Mind of Evil, the Doctor is forced by an evil alien Mind Parasite to face his deepest fear. This turns out to be the destruction of the parallel world that he witnesses in Inferno. He tells Jo after recovering, "Not long ago I saw an entire world consumed by fire."
- The BBC Books Doctor Who novel The Face of the Enemy, by David A. McIntee, is a sequel to Inferno.
[edit] Production
- Working titles for this story included Operation: Mole-Bore, The Mo-Hole Project (after the real-life Project Mohole) and Project: Inferno.
- The opening credits for this serial were unusual in that after the initial titles, the name and part number of the serial were superimposed on footage of a lava flow, with no music.
- In spite of Douglas Camfield being credited as director, most of the studio-recorded sequences were directed by producer Barry Letts after Camfield had a minor heart attack. Camfield remained credited as director, as BBC regulations at the time forbade the same person being credited as producer and director.
- Episode 6 has a small damaged section on the tape, which the Doctor Who Restoration Team replaced by painstakingly recolouring the appropriate section of the existing black-and-white film prints.
- Caroline John strongly disliked her role and wig as Section Leader Elizabeth Shaw. She was particularly upset about the scene in which Shaw shoots Brigade Leader Lethbridge-Stewart, as she never wanted to hold a gun in her hand. As a result, the scene was filmed without Shaw seen firing the gun.
[edit] Outside references
- During the scenes set on the parallel Earth, images (supposedly) of the UK's dictatorial leader are seen on posters. The image used is that of Visual Effects Designer Jack Kine, in homage to the 1954 BBC adaptation of Nineteen Eighty-Four where the face of Big Brother was Head of Television Design Roy Oxley (Kine had worked on the visual effects for that production).
[edit] Broadcast and video releases
- Originally recorded on 625-line PAL video, the original version of the story was lost in the wipings of episodes in the mid 1970s. BBC Enterprises retained black-and-white film prints. In 1985, a set of 525-line NTSC videotapes were returned from Canada. Due to the complexities of conversion, the original conversions to 625-line PAL left the picture looking a little blurred and faded when the story was released on VHS in May 1994 in the UK. When Inferno was released on Region 2 DVD on 19 June 2006, however, the picture quality had been markedly enhanced through the use of the "Reverse Standards Conversion" procedure (see also The Claws of Axos).
- The videotapes include an additional scene in Episode 5 that was not originally transmitted in the UK, but was retained for overseas screening (and has also appeared on both the UK Gold transmissions and the BBC Video release). Set in the Brigade Leader's office where the survivors listen to a radio broadcast done by Jon Pertwee in the style of Lord Haw Haw, the scene was cut because Pertwee's voice was too identifiable. The scene was included as an extra on the DVD release, with the episode itself presented exactly as originally transmitted (using black-and-white telerecordings for reference when cutting).
- In the late 1980s, KTEH, a PBS member station in California, broadcast the serial repeatedly on its schedule when it encountered budget problems.
[edit] External links
- Inferno episode guide on the BBC website
- Inferno DVD page on the Doctor Who Restoration Team Website
- Inferno at Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time (Travel)
- Inferno at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
[edit] Reviews
- Inferno reviews at Outpost Gallifrey
- Inferno reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide
[edit] Target novelisation
| UNIT television stories |
|---|
| Second Doctor: (The Web of Fear) | The Invasion |
| Third Doctor: Spearhead from Space | Doctor Who and the Silurians | The Ambassadors of Death | Inferno | Terror of the Autons | The Mind of Evil | The Claws of Axos | The Dæmons | Day of the Daleks | The Time Monster | The Three Doctors | The Green Death | Invasion of the Dinosaurs | Planet of the Spiders |
| Fourth Doctor: Robot | Terror of the Zygons | The Android Invasion |
| Seventh Doctor: Battlefield |
| Tenth Doctor: The Christmas Invasion |
| Minor Appearances: The Time Warrior | The Seeds of Doom | The Five Doctors | Aliens of London/World War Three |
| See also: UNIT dating controversy |
