Inferno: my review
jph...@aol.com
7 episodes. Written by: Don Houghton. Directed by: Douglas Camfield,
Barry Letts (uncredited).
THE PLOT
"Inferno" is the nickname given to the site of a drilling project, the
brainchild of Professor Stahlman (Olaf Pooley). Stahlman believes that
by piercing the Earth's core, he can release a gas that will provide a
tremendous new energy source.
All is not well with this project, however. Stahlman is over-anxious
to complete the drilling quickly, disregarding safety and ignoring all
dissenting voices. This has put him at odds with Sir Keith Gold
(Christopher Benjamin), the executive director whose calls for caution
have led Stahlman to regard him as an enemy. As the drilling nears
completion, a green liquid begins to emerge from the #2 drill - a
substance which, when touched, transforms men into Primords, murderous
savages.
The Doctor should be on hand to find answers to these transformations.
But he has been using power from the project's reactor to try to
repair his TARDIS console. An experimental run has carried him
sideways in time - to an alternate dimension where the UK is a fascist
government, with fascist versions of all of the Doctor's associates.
In this dimension, the drilling is even more advanced, with the
problems leading the Doctor to a horrifying yet inescapable
conclusion: If Stahlman's project is not stopped, it will mean the end
of the world!
CHARACTERS
The Doctor: This story finds the Doctor at both his most urgent and
his most arrogant. None of the Doctors exactly suffers fools gladly,
but the 3rd Doctor is particularly characterized by this trait. Here,
he is seen needling and belittling Stahlman from literally their first
seconds on screen together. It is not a particularly constructive
approach, as it makes it all the easier for the pig-headed Stahlman to
dismiss him as a crank. In all of Season Seven's stories, it is easy
to see that the Doctor's antagonistic attitude toward all types of
bureaucrats often complicates his problems. It's actually rather
refreshing, to see the Doctor's own faults acting against him
(something that would, if memories hold, drop away in later seasons,
when Pertwee's Doctor would be just as pompous but with no negative
consequences).
Pertwee continues to bring a refreshing intensity to his performance,
commanding the viewer's attention at every turn. When he cries out
that the Earth is "screaming out its rage," his line delivery really
sells it, making a line that could have been laughably melodramatic
into something truly chilling. His palpable regret at leaving the
parallel Liz and Greg and Petra to their deaths, wishing he "could
save all of (them)," also comes through. More than any other actor to
play the role, Pertwee truly dominates the screen. He would only
intermittently have the same level of intensity as he has in his debut
season... but in Season Seven, at least, he has been consistently
outstanding, and it is actually with some reluctance that I will be
skipping to Tom's debut season after this.
Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart: It is interesting to note the ways in
which the Brigadier and his fascist counterpart, the Brigade Leader,
are both similar and different. In many ways, they are not very far
apart. Note the scene in Episode One in which the Doctor mocks the
Brigadier's appearance in an old troop photo. Though the Brigadier
(just) tolerates the Doctor's good-natured mockery, when Benton smiles
along with him, he fixes the sergeant with a rather vicious glare,
wiping the smile instantly off the man's face. The harsher tendencies
of the Brigade Leader are there... but kept in check by a basically
good man, in a system where military authority has its limits.
They are not the same man, however. We have seen how the Brigadier
reacts, when faced with his own death. In Ambassadors, the Brig was
caught unarmed, at the mercy of an enemy he had every reason to
believe would shoot him, during the warehouse shootout early in the
story. He stood up to that, facing his death with discipline and
courage. The Brigade Leader does not face death with courage, and
abandons his discipline, becoming almost as mindless and savage in his
desperate fight for self-preservation as the Primords are. Nicholas
Courtney is quite strong in both personas, but he clearly relishes the
villainous turn he's allowed to give in the middle episodes.
Liz Shaw: Has become a very real friend to the Doctor, and feels
genuine concern when he disappears. When the Brigadier dismisses her
worries by stating that the Doctor can take care of himself, she
replies with a curt, "He's not indestructible, you know." The Doctor
has shown enough of himself to her that she realizes that he is a
great deal more vulnerable than he lets on. We also see how much faith
the Doctor places in his judgment, notably in his interactions with
her parallel counterpart. He dismisses the Brigade Leader as an oaf
pretty much instantly. However, he never stops trying to reason with
Section Leader Shaw, and eventually succeeds in convincing her of the
truth of his story. Their relationship has been well-played all
season, remains very well-played here; and when the Doctor says, "I'll
miss you, Liz," to her at the end, I could not help echoing the
sentiment.
THOUGHTS
And so ends what almost certainly stands as the finest season in
Doctor Who's history. This story ends the season on a high note. It's
an even question as to whether this or Dr. Who & the Silurians is the
season's best story. I can see either argument. Silurians had a
noticeable lull in its middle episodes, getting bogged down a bit
during the transition between the story's set up and its climax. This
story is much better-paced, with no noticeable lulls. Inferno is edge-
of-your-seat stuff from the first episode to the last. Both see the
regular cast on top form, and both stories have fine guest casts and
production values. Silurians just pips it for me by being a bit more
substantial. Inferno is a fine cross between the mad scientist, end-of-
the-world, and zombie subgenres, but Silurians has fare more meat to
it, and lingers in the memory a bit longer. Both stories, however, are
outstanding - among the very best serials in Doctor Who's enormously
long history.
Inferno is a last for the series in many respects. It is the final
story to have its own, unique post-titles credit sequence (with the
story, writer and, episode credits being shown over stock shots of a
volcanic eruption). This is a mild shame, as I always rather enjoyed
these story-specific credit sequences. Yes, the series titles
themselves do a fine job of setting the mood. But there is just an
extra touch of mood-setting to seeing some apocalyptic images, that
adds an extra layer to the interactions of the actors in studio. It
would have been nice to have continued to have one or two stories per
season get their own minor credit sequence.
It is also the series' final 7-parter. It's easy enough to see why the
7-part format was abandoned. Outside of Seasons One and Seven, it was
never a common format (Evil of the Daleks is the only 7-parter outside
those two seasons), and both script editor Terrance Dicks and producer
Barry Letts were vocal in their dislike of the format. As I said in my
last review, I'm fairly certain the ratings for Inferno suffered from
too many 7-parters in a row; by the time this story came around, I
strongly suspect viewers were just a bit fatigued by the extra-long
serials, no matter how good the quality of the stories.
Still, while I would never advocate having three 7-parters in a single
season, it must be said that the format has its advantages. One of
these is obvious simply from reciting the titles of the 7-parters: The
Daleks, Marco Polo, The Evil of the Daleks, Dr. Who & the Silurians,
The Ambassadors of Death, Inferno. What do all of these wildly
different stories have in common? They're all very good to excellent!
Really, I think one of Dicks' chief complaints about the format points
to another potential virtue. With a 6-parter, script editors and
writers might be tempted to take a good 4-part story and just
"stretch" a little. With a 7-parter, Dicks has commented on an
increased awareness of the need to keep the story alive to generate
interest over such a long period. This certainly makes the job of the
writer and script editor harder. But it manifests itself in sharper
stories, where the stakes are continually raised. It is odd that the
series' 7-parters rarely feel as padded as the 6-parters do, and I
suspect that this increased awareness of keeping the story going is a
large part of the reason why. I'm not saying that the 7-parter should
ever have been a dominant length. But I'm not sure it should have been
done away with altogether. I think there could have been a place for
the 7-parter in later Who seasons, and in a way I think their
curtailment may have been more of a loss than a gain for the series.
In any case, there isn't much new for me to say about Inferno. It is a
story that's been widely praised, and with good reason. The pace never
flags, the direction by both Douglas Camfield (on location) and Barry
Letts (in studio) is sharp. Camfield's location scenes seem a little
stronger than Letts' studio work, but that is probably simply down to
the added texture and editing flexibility afforded by film. Certainly,
on first viewing, I had no idea that the studio scenes were directed
by Letts, who does an admirable job of keeping the directorial style
of the entire piece uniform.
It is another superbly-structured serial, a strength of the entire
season. The first episode is particularly strong in laying out every
story thread up-front. Nothing that happens in the rest of the serial
is not established in that first episode. The parallel universe
subplot? The Doctor makes his test run in Episode 1, and runs into
that intriguing barrier that makes him determined to take another run
immediately. Sir Keith preparing a complaint to the Ministry? Stahlman
going increasingly insane in his insistence on making sure the project
goes ahead? Well, we see Stahlman's stubbornness (not yet insane, but
certainly obsessive) almost immediately, along with his antagonistic
attitude toward Sir Keith. The Primords are established immediately,
and provide the first cliffhanger. Even the harsh characterization of
the Brigade Leader is given some groundwork in the "real" Brigadier,
when he gives Benton that rather vicious glare for laughing along with
the Doctor at his expense.
I could pick a few nits if I really wanted to, mind you. We're told in
Episode Five, for instance, that Sir Keith has persuaded the Minister
to suspend drilling pending an inquiry. Then, in Episode Seven, Sir
Keith suddenly doesn't have the authority to stop the drilling. Um,
oops? Also, the Primords do look a bit silly. Not bad by regular Who
standards, mind, but a bit tacky by Season Seven Who standards. Still,
these issues aren't enough to make me lower my score. As with the rest
of the season, Inferno is not only excellent Dr. Who, but just flat-
out excellent television.
Rating: 10/10.
The Doctor
jph...@aol.com <jph...@aol.com> wrote:
>INFERNO
>
>
>Rating: 10/10.
>
Agreed! This this top line classic DW. Imagina a 4-parter today?
Would it work?
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