Inferno Episode 7

The one where the end of our world is averted...

It's the season finale! The titles make it feel even more eventful, thanks to the red hot volcanic explosions and spewing seas of lava. But the action cuts abruptly to the quiet of the "real world" workshop, where the Doctor lies unconscious on the ground, having returned from the apocalyptic parallel Earth. The reprise is the last we see of the alternative universe characters, our final sight of them cowering from an encroaching wave of volcanic lava. Make no mistake, Elizabeth Shaw, the Brigade Leader, Greg Sutton and Dr Petra Williams are dead, and that's a pretty bleak (if inevitable) twist. Inferno certainly pulls no punches.

The frustrating thing here is that the viewers know what calamity awaits the "real world" unless Stahlman slows down (or halts) the drilling, but the Doctor is unconscious in some kind of coma, and so unable to warn anybody. This leads to several more minutes of people trying in vain to warn Stahlman themselves, but it seems the professor just isn't listening to reason. Olaf Pooley gets to do some "proper" acting once again after a couple of weeks bound in Scooby-Doo make-up, although the part is essentially just him saying "no, leave me alone, I know what I'm doing" over and over again. It's interesting that the Earth seems to be communicating with him in some way, calling him almost, but this is never properly picked up on (probably rightly so).

I love it when Stahlman reaches out his hirsute hand and smears deadly green goo from the depths of the Earth's core all over his face and open mouth, like he's devouring chocolate for the first time in decades. It's a mildly disgusting scene to be honest, because you just know that the goo was actually something like Swarfega, and so wouldn't have been the most pleasant experience for Pooley!

Back in the workshop, the comatose Doctor could be unconscious for several hours, or even months, claims Liz. The Brigadier insists they call a doctor for him, and it's interesting that he doesn't automatically think of Liz as a doctor (although she certainly reminds him of that!), reinforcing the subtle character trait that the Brig is a tad sexist on the quiet, never quite acknowledging that a woman can be a man's equal. Mind you, I kind of agree with him that the Doctor ought to have better medical attention, because if Dr Liz has her way, he could be lying on this mattress in a drafty hut in the grounds of Project Inferno for several months!

When the Doctor does finally come round, we learn that a pulse of 170 beats per minute is quite normal for him (for humans, a resting heartbeat is between 60 and 100), but more interestingly there's a suggestion that, before his sojourn to alt-Earth in Inferno, he was unaware of the existence of parallel universes. I believe this is the first time the Doctor travelled to a parallel world on TV.

The Doctor makes his way to central control to try and stop the drilling, and goes about it in a much more practical and effective way than he's tried previously - he takes a giant spanner to the computer terminals! Something extreme such as this has to be done, because Stahlman just isn't listening to anybody, not Petra, not Greg, not Sir Keith... he's not even bothered by orders from central Government to halt the drilling. He's gone rogue, he's out of control, determined to penetrate the Earth's crust at any cost. It's unconvincing how nobody seems to be able to stop the drilling other than Stahlman on the grounds that they don't have the authority (Sir Keith is a bit of a wet lettuce in this way). At times like this, authority has to go by the wayside in favour of logic!

The Doctor escapes his UNIT captors. He is literally the only man who can save the world, but before he can get back to central control, he has an old friend to contend with. Yes, it's Bromley again! I'd kept it in the back of my mind throughout the story that "our" Bromley was still on the loose (I think he was last scene leering at Liz as she passed by in episode 2), despite the alt-Bromley popping up numerous times in the parallel world. I'm glad that writer Don Houghton hasn't forgotten that fact, and here he is to have his revenge one last time. The scene is actually quite scary, with Ian Fairbairn lunging toward the camera before being extinguished by the Doctor (again!). It made for a cracking Target novel cover too!

"We have no proof of an emergency situation," claims Sir Keith, just as the heat shield slides open to reveal a rabidly infected Professor Stahlman, complete with green skin, fright wig and plastic fangs. Good timing, Stahlman! The professor is soon dealt with, and there's then a race against time as the Doctor desperately tries to stop the drill piercing the Earth's crust. We've seen what will happen if it does reach penetration zero - frankly, the world will end - and so there's a genuine tenseness to this final scene, as the Doctor whips out his screwdriver (a Phillips, not a sonic!) to try and save the planet. We get a gorgeous shot of just how vast these sets are as everybody waits with bated breath, and then the relief when the Doctor and Greg saunter back out of the drill head room to the sound of the computer confirming that drilling has ceased at -35 seconds. Thirty-five seconds away from utter destruction!

The final five minutes are an interesting coda to the story, and the season. After we learn that Petra and Greg have gone back to London together (awwww!), the Doctor and the Brigadier fall out after the Brig accuses the Doctor of exacerbating the disaster by disappearing to a parallel dimension. This spurs the Doctor on to want to leave this planet behind for good, if he can get his TARDIS operational again. Rather presciently, the Doctor asserts: "Goodbye Liz, I shall miss you, my dear... but I've had about all I can stand of this pompous, self-opinionated idiot here!"

The story (and the season) ends with the Doctor and Brigadier making it up, and Caroline John laughing the cutest little laugh as the closing titles crash in. What a wonderful way to end the season. It's the last we'd ever see of Dr Elizabeth Shaw (the real one, at least), but she was not afforded a farewell scene because of circumstances behind the scenes. Caroline John was a fantastic companion to the Doctor, and is much overlooked and underrated. She never got to travel to alien worlds, or slip forward or backwards in time, but she was an eminently capable and gutsy lady who did not suffer fools gladly, and stuck up for herself and her gender (except, oddly, against the Doctor, who she really did have a soft spot for). It's nice that Liz and the Doctor have a big hug at the end, and it's nice that the Doctor does say goodbye, even if it is temporarily. When Doctor Who returned six months later, Liz was gone, and that is a real damn shame.

Inferno is a masterpiece of the Pertwee era, and although I've said before that I think it's impact would be even greater if it had been in Seasons 9 or 10, it remains a true highlight of the classic series. It's written intelligently and thoughtfully (although I had to laugh when the Brigadier says they'll "dismantle the nuclear reactor tomorrow", as if it takes just a few hours rather than several years!), and the guest cast are all fine. Nicholas Courtney sometimes struggles with where to pitch his neurotic Brigade Leader, and Derek Newark is awfully shouty in either universe, but overall it's one of the very best stories in the canon.

For the rest of the year, Doctor Who's Saturday teatime slot was soaked up either by sport (principally Wimbledon and the Commonwealth Games), Basil Brush, the Pink Panther Show, or a random episode of The Virginian (on Boxing Day). When it returned in the new year of 1971, there would be several new recruits for viewers to meet...

First broadcast: June 20th, 1970

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: Caroline John chuckling into the end credits is the perfect way to end what has been a terribly serious run of stories.
The Bad: It takes Professor Stahlman mutating into a rabid green monster for anybody to believe that they really should stop the drilling. Does nobody have a sense of responsibility?
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★☆☆ (story average: 8.4 out of 10)

"Now listen to me" tally: 8 - we get two of these in quick succession. Firstly, when the Doctor arrives at central control, he commands: "Now listen to me, all of you - you're not to attempt to penetrate the Earth's crust." This is followed by: "Now Liz, listen to me..." as he's being manhandled back out of central control.
Neck-rub tally: 0 - still not a single neck-rub in all of Season 7!

NEXT TIME: Terror of the Autons...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Episode 1; Episode 2; Episode 3; Episode 4; Episode 5; Episode 6

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