Doctor Who complete reviews: Inferno

Jon Pertwee concludes his opening season as The Doctor in good - but possibly overrated - style...

Doctor Who - Inferno

What with all the warnings about global warming, volcanic ash and extreme temperatures, it’s only a matter of time before the solemn BBC newsreaders announce that the world is about to explode in a fiery ball of flame. And of course, knowing the BBC’s track record of eccentric news telling (non-stop ticker tape repeating the same old thing while an angry looking reporter stands there speculating on what could be rather than what IS happening), they’ll actually make the end of the world look like a gaudy soap opera.

Mercifully, there’s no BBC crew to cover the end of the world in Inferno. All we get is a tinny voiceover on a radio (which sounds suspiciously like Jon Pertwee), and even then it’s a deleted scene that didn’t make it into the final cut on the original British print of Episode 5. Instead, the reactions of the horrified parallel universe characters sell the doomsday scenario perfectly.

"It’s disturbing to see Benton, Liz and The Brigadier as hard-nosed, vicious opponents of The Doctor"

But let’s backtrack here. It’s finale time already in what’s been quite a short season - well, in comparison to the lengthy 1960s seasons. Inferno is the last in the acclaimed Season 7, a run of gritty but rewarding tales. It’s been frequently singled out by fans as the jewel in the season’s crown. There is a lot of weight to this argument, and while it’s undeniably a great story… I don’t know, I’d still rather sit through The Silurians or The Ambassadors Of Death.

Inferno basically comprises two stories in one, or to be more precise, two worlds in one. The Doctor’s tinkering with the TARDIS console results in a trip to parallel Earth. In both worlds, a team of scientists are penetrating the Earth’s crust to tap into pockets of Stahlman’s Gas, which will supposedly revolutionise modern science as we know it. Well, that’s according to Stahlman, but then he would say that. The Doctor, of course, knows better, and having found out for once that a computer knows best, faces a race against time to stop the project in order to avert the end of the world.

The first most successful aspect of Inferno is the fact that The Doctor spectacularly fails in the parallel Earth. His pleas fall on deaf ears, especially since he’s surrounded by enemies. Ah, the irony - his friends in the real world turn out to be brutal thugs in the parallel world, and that’s the second trump card. It’s disturbing to see Benton, Liz and The Brigadier as hard-nosed, vicious opponents of The Doctor. In the end, only Elizabeth (as she’s referred to) gets a chance to redeem herself, but both Benton and The Brigade Leader (as he’s referred to) do not.

The Parallel Benton and Brigadier are exaggerated versions of their Earth counterparts, but with the warmth and humanity stripped away. All the militaristic traits have taken over, leaving no trace of empathy or compassion whatsoever. Benton is the archetypal military man, barking orders at his soldiers and even threatening to shoot The Doctor. The Brigade Leader is slightly more complicated. He may be cruel, vicious, sadistic, humourless, all the adjectives - but in his last few minutes, all that bluster and power is stripped away, leaving a cowardly, self-pitying shell of a man. “We’ll all be roasted… alive…” he moans, as he desperately tries to hitch a lift back with The Doctor. He even punches like a girl when he loses his rag with Greg Sutton. Clearly, parallel Earth training academies didn’t provide the best self-defence classes.

"Nicholas Courtney delivers a blistering performance as the Brigade Leader, making a sharp contrast to the reliably rock-solid Brigadier"

Part of the reason for Inferno’s high acclaim is due to the strong acting by the regulars. Nicholas Courtney, in particular, delivers a blistering performance as the Brigade Leader, making a sharp contrast to the reliably rock-solid Brigadier. It’s a carefully studied performance, especially as he gradually regresses from militaristic bully boy into a cowering wreck. John Levene, too, is fantastic, worlds apart from the familiar, happy-go-lucky Sergeant Benton. Again, Levene’s performance is totally real and well studied. His pitiful shrieks as he’s turned into a Primord are also well done. Shame about the end result of Primord Benton, but more on that later.

Caroline John’s short but sweet association with Doctor Who draws to a close here, but what a story to go out on. Not only does John give a good performance as Liz, but she is also very convincing as Elizabeth. The parallel Liz is the only one out of the regulars to actually use her intelligence and help The Doctor to return home. Quite what this says about the underlying personalities of Liz, The Brig and Benton, I don’t know. Has Benton got some dark streak tucked away behind the cheery exterior? Is The Brigadier really a coward? It’s all giddy stuff when you think about it, and Inferno raises these questions perfectly.

In the middle of all this madness is of course, Jon Pertwee’s Doctor. Pertwee has really made the character of The Doctor his own throughout the season. Given that he’s generally regarded as the suave, confident man of action, Inferno is interesting in that he’s totally outside his comfort zone. He’s apparently stranded. No friends. No hope. And what’s worse, he’s facing a literal race against time for his own survival. Thinking about it, Inferno is the story of the Third Doctor’s exile to Earth in microcosm. He’s taken out of his usual life, and thrown into a situation which he has no control over. Pertwee is absolutely excellent in this story, especially in the parallel Earth scenes where he’s taken down a peg or two. And even back home, he’s bursting with energy, whether it’s trying to find a solution to halt the drilling, attempting to mend the TARDIS or taking the mickey out of Stahlman.

"Barry Letts may have been working from Camfield’s notes, as he has claimed, but it still ranks among his best work on the show"

Energy is very much the key to the parallel Earth scenes. Episodes Three to Six are a frantic race against time, and both Douglas Camfield and Barry Letts ramp up the action to breathtaking extremes. It’s a shame that Camfield tends to get all the credit for Inferno, when in fact, Barry Letts handled a good chunk of the work. Both men do a brilliant job, using rapid jump cuts, ominous camera angles and sound effects to create a real sense of impending doom. The sound of Inferno is very much a key element in that it’s almost deafening. The loud roar of the drill makes such an impact that the characters have to shout at the tops of their voices. This is taken to the limit in Episode 6, as time rapidly runs out for all of the characters. You can almost smell the panic in the air (not to mention the smelly BO as characters sweat like pigs with the increasing heat levels). Letts may have been working from Camfield’s notes, as he has claimed, but it still ranks among his best work on the show. Camfield’s location filming is also highly impressive, with a strong emphasis on action. The car chase in Episode Three is beautifully shot, with hand-held camera work and the stunt men really earning their pay that day. The shots on the rigs are also well handled, and of course there’s trademark Camfield flourishes such as the jump cut from Slocum bashing in the worker’s head to Benton hammering the nail in the wall. Great, great stuff.

So how come Inferno isn’t quite the perfect Who story for me? Possibly, this is down to the characterisation, which is a bit broad. While the regulars are very well catered for, the guest stars have to make do with rather clichéd cut-outs. Take Stahlman, the epitome of mad-scientist-slash-loony entrepreneur-slash-boss-from-hell. Stahlman’s clearly off his rocker, but we’re given no real clue as to why he refuses to heed anyone’s warnings about the perils of the drilling. It just seems that he’s running on his own arrogance, and so, just ploughs on regardless to satisfy his own ego. He even inexplicably handles the cracked jar of green goo that causes him to turn into a Primord, again for no other good reason but to go against what The Doctor says. Blinkered arrogance is all well and good, but for seven whole episodes, the concept gets a bit wearing. Olaf Pooley does a reasonable job with what he’s got, but overall, Stahlman just becomes an annoying, repetitive pain in the arse.

"Sutton is your archetypal man’s man, all Brut and rubbish chat-up lines from the Gene Hunt Guidebook Of Wooing A Bird"

Greg Sutton and Petra Williams are the love interests. Aaaaah. Even The Doctor admits that there’s nothing like a happy ending as the two drive off into the sunset at the end. The problem is though, again, they’re cutouts. Sutton is your archetypal man’s man, all Brut and rubbish chat-up lines from the Gene Hunt Guidebook Of Wooing A Bird. Sutton seems to divide his time between vying for the affections of Petra and shouting at Stahlman (a common pastime, apparently). At least the parallel version of Sutton is a bit better, since his no-nonsense, down-to-earth practicality proves to be a considerable asset in getting The Doctor back home. And Derek Newark is very good as Sutton, a far cry from the grunting caveman of An Unearthly Child. Sadly, Sheila Dunn (Mrs Camfield) is a bit wooden as Petra, and it doesn’t help that her character’s a stereotyped Ice Maiden, even when she’s eventually won over by Greg and his bad chat-up lines. Out of all the guest characters, the only vaguely likeable one is Sir Keith Gold (well played by Christopher Benjamin), but again, it just seems to be non-stop bickering between him and Stahlman.

The most contentious aspect of Inferno is of course, the goofy-looking Primords, a gaggle of shaggy Scooby Doo lookalikes. There’s no real point to the Primords - the story could have actually functioned without them. In their transitional period, they look quite effective, especially zombie-looking Bromley (who seems to spend the story staggering around with his arms outstretched) but in their ultimate form, it’s hard to take them seriously. The shot of Benton popping up from the floor in Primord form looks like something from Chucklevision.

The other problem with Inferno is that inevitably, the last episode is going to be something of a damp squib. You can’t have the apocalypse two weeks on the trot, that’s too bleak even for Doctor Who - and so it doesn’t take Mystic Meg to predict that The Doctor will save the day in the nick of time. So while there’s that same feeling of panic and dread in the last episode, in a way, the characters are really just marking time before the happy ending comes, Greg and Petra hug, and Stahlman goes off to the Great Scooby Doo Mystery Machine In The Sky.

And even Liz goes off without a song and dance. It’s a shame, since Caroline John has done some great work - although it’s nice to see that the frosty persona of Spearhead From Space has gone. The last shot we see of her is laughing her head off at The Doctor choking on humble pie as he begs The Brigadier to help him rescue the TARDIS from the rubbish tip.

It may not be my favourite of the season, but I can understand why Inferno is so highly regarded. It’s fast paced. It’s brave and ambitious. It even adds a disturbing take on the UNIT family that we’re now starting to get to know. And of course, the direction is first class from both Camfield and Letts. Altogether, it signs off Season Seven in fine style, a season that’s one of the most consistent in Doctor Who’s long timeframe.

John Bensalhia limbered up for this mammoth task with a full four-series review of Blake's 7, and writes professionally and recreationally all over the web. Check out his portfolio of work at Wordprofectors.

Check out John's previous Doctor Who review, The Ambassadors Of Death