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.

"Greg, I'm frightened," simpers Petra as she falls into his arms, a final admission that they like each other but there's very little time for niceties. They seem to become instant lovers, a kiss tip-toeing on the edge, and while on the one hand it's all very sudden, it's actually rather realistic that two people with an unrequited attraction should cast their doubts aside in the face of impending cataclysm. If I was trapped in a doomed scientific establishment, with the world due to end in a matter of days, I think I'd fall into the arms of Greg Sutton too (and Petra Williams at a push).

It might have been quite awkward for director Douglas Camfield to see his wife in the arms of another through the camera lens, but then it was his choice to cast her, so he'd have been fully aware. However, Camfield did not direct the studio scenes for episodes 3-7 because he fell ill after an adverse reaction to medication, so producer Barry Letts stepped in uncredited.

Letts' wide shot of Sheila Dunn standing helplessly alone, lights flashing and sirens blaring around her, calling for Greg, is beautifully forlorn. Sheila Dunn was a very beautiful woman.

And so this Earth is doomed. The Doctor concludes that there may be only a matter of weeks, or days, until the planet "dissolves in a fury of expanding gases". There is nothing that can put a cap on the escaping forces from beneath the Earth's crust. There is no solution, no fix, no plan. The Doctor has lost, and with him, so has humanity. His immediate thought is one of escape, back to "his" world, so that he can prevent the same catastrophe happening there, where the drilling is running slightly behind. It's a big ask to get the RSF crew to help him escape to safety while they have to stay behind and perish, and no wonder the Brigade Leader suggests the Doctor take them with him.

There's also a return for rabid Bromley, who's had more comebacks than Lulu, although we mustn't forget that the infected Bromley should still be alive and on the prowl in "our" world. Here, he is gunned down by the Brigade Leader and extinguished to death by the Doctor, who concludes that he "seems to be dead this time", as Ian Fairbairn merrily breathes away!

Nicholas Courtney rather overplays the Brigade Leader's anger in some scenes, teetering dangerously close to cheap children's TV when he hollers: "I will not listen to treasoooooon!" The whole episode is generally very shouty and noisy indeed, especially Derek Newark, but somehow he manages to sound convincingly angry, whereas Courtney doesn't at all.

The Doctor's demonstration of the TARDIS console's time-travelling abilities answers a question I had in an earlier episode about what's happened to the rest of the TARDIS. I wondered whether the police box shell and its console-less contents had travelled to the parallel world too, but it seems not. The console is a separate piece of equipment which contains the ability to time travel. Without the console, the TARDIS cannot move. It's literally the heart of the TARDIS. I still don't understand how he got it out of the Ship though.

And then we meet the Primords (not named as such on screen, only in the end credits). These creatures have come in for a bit of stick over the years, but there's nothing wrong with Marion Richards' make-up, it's more the Tina Turner wigs that let them down. The initial reveal of the Stahlmann Primord is spoiled by too much dry ice on the studio floor, but Benton's gruesome transformation is much more effective, shot on film to give it that unearthly remove. More than a decade before the ground-breaking effects of The Howling, An American Werewolf in London and Michael Jackson's Thriller, Doctor Who achieved a creditable creature transformation on a sliver of the budget. It's just a pity that it's all ruined by John Levene staring into camera like he's from a Benny Hill sketch, complete with Christmas cracker false teeth (there's a similarly silly shot of Olaf Pooley doing the same later on - shame on you, Barry Letts!).

It's quite a departure for Doctor Who to essentially kill off one of its main players, however, even if it is an alternative Benton. Make no mistake, Platoon Under Leader Benton is a dead man, mutated from a thuggish squaddie into a hairy primordial monster, and that's quite dark when you think about it. The UNIT years were to become quite a cosy, happy family affair in later years, and it would have been interesting to see how much more of an impact this story would have had in Seasons 9 or 10. In some ways, Inferno came too early, and as fantastic as it is, crowning Season 7, I do think it would be even better as the finale to a later series.

The cliffhanger is a hairy green hand smashing through a pane of glass, not the most tense of moments to leave us on, but when you've had a whole episode full of apocalyptic fatalism, I can forgive that!

By the way... a deleted scene from this episode available on the DVD mentions that drilling project is in a place called Eastchester, and that the date is July 23rd (a Tuesday in "our" 1970). 

First broadcast: June 6th, 1970

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: I appreciate Don Houghton's focus on the developing relationship between Petra and Greg, a demonstration of the resilience of humanity as the Earth collapses about them.
The Bad: Those Primord wigs; those Primord fangs.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★☆☆

"Now listen to me" tally: 6
Neck-rub tally: 0

NEXT TIME: Episode 6...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Episode 1; Episode 2; Episode 3; Episode 4; Episode 6; Episode 7

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site: http://doctorwhocastandcrew.blogspot.com/2014/04/inferno.html

Inferno is available on BBC DVD. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Inferno-Special-DVD/dp/B00BEYWVGW