Inferno Episode 5

The one where Benton is turned into a primordial creature...

The opening fight between the Doctor, Stahlmann and Sutton at the drill head feels rather underpowered, mainly because you can't clearly tell who is who due to the silly baggy white suits they're wearing (a great disguise for the fact there's a stuntman at work!). There's lots of balletic somersaults too, a fight arrangement which leaves me cold because you simply never see moves such as that in real fights (unless you're in a WWF ring). I just find it silly.

A lot of screen time in this episode is given to Petra and Greg, whose relationship develops at a swift pace once it's revealed the Earth is on a relentless course for destruction. There were hints of an attraction earlier, but here it seems the inevitability of "the final end" brings them closer, breaking down the awkwardness. Petra is the first to show concern for Greg after he's been battered by an iron bar, and things really warm up later on when Greg convinces Petra that there really is no hope, and no help on its way.

Inferno Episode 4

The one where we hear the Earth screaming out its rage...

Writer Don Houghton wastes no time in fleshing out most of the characters in the parallel world a little bit more, and in some cases slightly more than so than the "real world" versions. It's great to see Elizabeth Shaw already beginning to show slight chinks in her armour with her curiosity about her parallel self. She asks what the other Liz is like, and the Doctor explains that she is a scientist, something Elizabeth had considered doing when she was younger (she studied physics at university). The very fact she asks about alt-Liz shows that at least she doesn't disbelief the Doctor's parallel world explanation outright. On the face of it, his claim that he is from a parallel world is frankly ludicrous, but there's something within Elizabeth that makes her at least consider it. Her willingness to listen to the Doctor is also demonstrated in her allowing him to fix the computer with the micro-circuit.

Houghton also packs in more characterisation for Dr Williams into two scenes than he gave the alt-Petra in the entire previous three episodes. The exchange between her and Greg about his future after the project is over, how he could be a good "servant of the state" if it wasn't for his tendency to speak out of turn, is nicely written, showing that Petra has a soft spot for Greg that she is currently unwilling to admit. It's hard to see what she might see in Greg in "our" world though, seeing as he's such a sexist pig! There are also suggestions that people who don't toe the line in this fascist Britain get "disposed of", or "liquidated" as Stahlmann says at one point...

Inferno Episode 3

The one where the Doctor travels to a parallel Earth...

Oh, the beauty of the very first scene, which manages to utilise the combined effects of studio videotape, film stock and Colour Separation Overlay in quick succession! Whenever this rather jarring combination of edits crops up (such as when the Doctor drives Bessie from filmed location into studio garage set in episode 1) I'm reminded of how the Monty Python boys used to poke fun at this quirk in a number of sketches, most effectively in the Society for Putting Things on Top of Other Things/ Escape from Film sketch ("Good lord! I'm on film!").

Anyway, the Doctor's disappeared (along with the TARDIS console and Bessie) and Stahlman refuses to switch the nuclear feed back on. We then get a cheap visual effect reminiscent of the opening titles of that terrifyingly creepy 1970s kids' show Picture Box, along with a whooshing noise, which is supposed to represent transportation to a parallel dimension (it also reminds me of the equally cheap-looking interstitial vortex in Battlefield). But from this moment on, things get serious. Seriously bleak.

Inferno Episode 2

The one where the Doctor uses Venusian karate for the first time...

The opening scene, where the rabid Harry Slocum is cornered in the switch room by the Doctor and UNIT, is a tense way to start, although I had to snigger when the Doctor says "There's nothing to be frightened of, old chap", and then Slocum looks in horror at the ringing trimphone! That trimphone continues to ring throughout the scene too, like a troublesome wasp that won't go away!

This is followed by a lovely scene shot on location at the Berry Wiggins and Co oil refinery in Kent (known as KCA International since 1977), with the Brigadier and the Doctor just chatting calmly atop the walkway. It's just two characters having a thoughtful and honest chat about what's going on and what they can do next. It's all punctuated with some well-chosen stock music entitled Galaxy Atmosphere which gives everything a doomy, solemn air, with its deep, resonant bass drum. Director Douglas Camfield notoriously disliked Doctor Who's regular musician Dudley Simpson's work, but his library choice here is arguably much more effective than what Simpson may have composed.

Inferno Episode 1

The one where the Doctor gets his face stretched in limbo...

The production team really enjoyed experimenting with the title sequence in Season 7, didn't they? Apart from the theme tune starting at differing places (the initial stutter of earlier stories is rectified here), there's the different ways of telling us what the story's called - traditional with Spearhead from Space, adding a controversial "Doctor Who" to The Silurians, and the energetic zoom and TWANG of The Ambassadors of Death. Here we have the titles intercut with images of exploding volcanoes and rolling seas of lava. It sets us up suitably for something apocalyptic...

The story begins with the Doctor hollering a bit of Verdi as he speeds towards another industrial location, a Season 7 stalwart, followed by drill site maintenance man Harry Slocum whistling his way to work on a bicycle. Slocum bumps into Bromley and they exchange pleasantries, but neither of them seem very keen on talking to each other any more than they have to, and the lines seem rushed, garbled and lost.

The Ambassadors of Death Episode 7

The one where General Carrington's plan comes unravelled...

There's a lot of exposition at the start of episode 7, with General Carrington explaining his motivation like a comic book super villain. The difference is that the villain here is written sympathetically, as a man who has been doing all of this for what he perceives is a good reason, his "moral duty". He is keen for the Doctor to understand his motivation, and why he's done what he's done. The Doctor certainly does understand ("You had to do what you had to do"), but of course he does not agree with it. Carrington actually seeks the Doctor's "approval" twice, at the top and tail of this episode, and John Abineri gives a nice performance. It's the old adage that the bad guys never think that what they're doing is evil; they think what they're doing is for a good reason. As a certain Osirian once said: "Your evil is my good."

It's also interesting to note that all of this plotting and killing was triggered by the accidental death of astronaut Jim Daniels on the Mars Probe 6 mission. Carrington lost a friend because the aliens didn't understand that their touch would kill. It's all one big misunderstanding through a lack of communication.

The Ambassadors of Death Episode 6

The one where we finally see the alien ambassadors...

The first 10 minutes of this episode are really trippy, and must certainly have stretched both the patience and skills of the DVD Restoration Team when adding the US broadcast home video colour signal to the UK 16mm black and white film. The Recovery 7's arrival on the alien spaceship is not as poor as it could be, with the use of Colour Separation Overlay (CSO) being quite effective, even if the ship does look like an enormous colon.

When the Doctor enters the astronauts' waiting room, that's when the eyes really get put through their paces. It's a kaleidoscope of day-glow reds, greens and blues which bleed uncontrollably around the frame, but this adds a suitably weird and wonderful atmosphere to the scenes. When we finally get to see the alien creature in its raw form, it's thanks to the creative use of CSO, which makes them look fuzzy and indistinct, like humanoid interference. It's really effective in maintaining the creatures' mystery, especially shot through a Venetian blind! They remind me a lot of the Chameleons from The Faceless Ones (also co-written by Malcolm Hulke).

The Ambassadors of Death Episode 5

The one where Dr Lennox is served a radioactive meal...

I'm getting a bit frustrated by The Ambassadors of Death now. I used to think I quite liked it, but now I come to sit down and assess it as a drama serial, I find it's actually rather boring. Writer Malcolm Hulke (uncredited, in favour of David Whitaker) is in no hurry for the plot to go anywhere fast, and when you've got seven episodes to fill, you can barely afford to be complacent. There certainly is not enough material here for the allocated slots, and it really shows. You can tell that this story has been cobbled together by committee (Whitaker provided the basic story and scripted episodes 1-3, while assistant script editor Trevor Ray wrote the final draft of episode 1 and Hulke the final drafts of the rest) because it's so tentative, reluctant to power ahead. Despite the premise (bullet-proof alien astronauts, abducted Earth rockets), it's not great entertainment.

The pedestrian nature of proceedings is summed up perfectly for me by the disinterested performance of Joanna Ross as the space centre technician, who seems resolutely unmoved and appears utterly bored by the possibility of the Recovery 7 hurtling into the Sun's orbit. There's absolutely no urgency in these scenes, with Ross, as well as the almost comatose Ronald Allen and Carl Conway, failing to translate any of the real-life panic which might arise in an emergency such as this. Allen has been serenely flat throughout, so I can only blame director Michael Ferguson for turning what should have been a tense moment (the Doctor could die, for heavens sake!) into something akin to a rehearsed reading of the script.

The Ambassadors of Death Episode 4

The one where the ambassadors start killing people...

Although Liz is now a prisoner of Reegan's at the secret laboratory, that doesn't mean she becomes compliant and fearful. Far from it, Liz gives as good as she gets and remains as defiant as ever. When Reegan tells her to "start making yourself useful", she spits: "What if I don't?", and later when she is manhandled by Masters (the second Masters in as many stories!) she struggles to free herself, and snarls: "Don't touch me!" A Doctor Who girl with a fighting spirit (perhaps the first?).

I love how dismissive the Doctor is of General Carrington and his wild theories. First he tries to convince the Brigadier and the Doctor that the radioactive astronauts have been abducted by foreign powers to use as weapons, then tries to back this up by saying that the men's bodies found at the gravel pit had newspaper cuttings on them written in a foreign language. His additional attempt to compound his xenophobic theory with the use of foreign hair combs is ludicrous, and the Doctor sees this too.