OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 272
STORY NUMBER: 054
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 09 May 1970
WRITER: Don Houghton
DIRECTOR: Douglas Camfield
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
RATINGS: 5.7 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - Inferno Special Edition
EPISODE FORMAT: 525 video RSC
"As a matter of fact, some of the technicians have nicknamed this place the Inferno!"
The Doctor is driving to work singing as technician Harry Slocum is cycling to the the control room, called in by Sir Keith Gold to look at #2 output pipe. Professor Stahlman, the project's head, is unhappy that drilling had slowed, and is angry with Sir Keith Gold for ordering the maintenance, arguing the he is in charge of the drilling while Sir Keith "is in charge of the canteen". Slocum burns his hand on the green gunge seeping from pipe. Sir Keith tells Petra Williams, Stahlman's assistant, that he's sent for Greg Sutton a drilling consultant. A dazed Slocum savagely attacks another member of staff. Later UNIT are searching for the missing Slocum. The wrench he used to murder his colleague is still warm. The Doctor is at the project because he's interested in the penetration of the Earth's crust and is advising the project. Greg Sutton has arrived and is briefed by Sir Keith. It is 60 hours to penetration. Sir Keith introduces Greg Sutton to Petra Williams & Professor Stahlman both of whom snub him. The Doctor is worried that the computer's warnings are being ignored. He is borrowing reactor power for his own project. He has brought the Tardis console to an outbuilding and is attempting to fix it. Liz tries to persuade him it's too dangerous to make a trial run with the console but he won't be deterred. Slocum, transformed into a hairy being with green skin attacks & sabotages the reactor switching room as the Doctor begins his test. The Doctor vanishes, materialising in a nightmare limbo like dimension which he only escapes from when Liz cuts the power. He wonders where he was and where it led to. An alert sounds at the drill head. Stahlman refuses to put safety procedures into action and continues drilling. Analysing the data and hearing a UNIT troop has been murdered he deduces the problem lies in the reactor room. The Doctor & Brigadier find the wounded technician in the reactor room and are confronted by Slocum.
Right: Have you got a copy of Inferno on your shelves? No? Buy One Now at Amazon by Clicking Here. Seriously, do it. If you buy ONE Doctor Who story because of this Blog then it should be this one. It was £9.99 when I last looked which is a bargain. Take away any childhood association of watching certain stories and Inferno is my favourite Doctor Who story. Not a typical tale by any means and, as we'll see, it's the only "classic" Doctor Who story to use a certain well known Science Fiction plot device. And what's more it does it so well... But I'm getting ahead of myself here....
This episode sets up what's to come. But even the set up feels different, opening with the jolly scenes of the Doctor driving in Bessie while singing compared to Slocum, making his way across an industrial compound not dissimilar to the rocket fuel area in the last story. There's some lovely little touches here: Douglas Camfield's back directing and the notorious armyophile has immediately fixed one of the things that had been annoying Barry Letts: The UNIT soldiers are in regular army uniform. Then we have the Doctor's automatic door opener, astounding the UNIT troop but familiar to many people who put their car in a garage over night. And there's something here you probably won't notice because it's missing: There's no music in this episode, just industrial noise in the background. Little things, but it sets this first episode and thus the rest of the story aside as being something a bit different.
Because Director Douglas Camfield is at the helm, lots of the familiar faces are present and correct.
Welcome back to Sheila Dunn: She's the Director's Mrs and plays Petra Williams, a part Camfield attempted to cast Kate O'Mara in. Camfield and Dunn met working on an episode of Garry Halliday and The Gun Runners Camfield casts her in Doctor Who in The Dalek Masterplan 7: The Feast of Steven as Blossom Lefavre and The Invasion as various IE computer/phone voices. This story is her last Doctor Who appearance but you can find her in various Camfield directed productions for the rest of their careers.
Appearing as the unfortunate Harry Slocum is Camfield regular Walter Randall. He was Tonila in The Aztecs before Camfield cast him as El Akir in The Crusade, Hyksos in Golden Death & Escape Switch, the 9th and 10th episode of The Dalek Masterplan and an IE Patrolman in the missing The Invasion episode one. He returns to Doctor Who as the Guard Captain in Planet of the Spiders. There's three big sci-fi fi credits on his CV: he was in Quatermass and the Pit as a Sightseer/Man in Crowd, the Out of This World episode Impostor as Mute-O and the controversial Out of the Unknown episode To Lay a Ghost as Thomas Hobbs which you can see on the Out of the Unknown DVD Set.
The equally unfortunate Bromley is played by Ian Fairbairn who was Questa in The Macra Terror before Camfield uses him as Gregory in The Invasion. He returns as Doctor Chester in the Camfield directed The Seeds of Doom. He'd been in The Wednesday Play: Stand Up, Nigel Barton with Mrs Camfield and at least one other Camfield actor. He appears in the Timeslip story The Year of the Burn Up as Alpha 4 and then The Day of the Clone as Dr. Frazer. Camfield uses him again many times, and he's prominent in the first episode of The Professionals Private Madness, Public Danger as Ted Miller.
Derek Newark (Greg Sutton) initially appears to have no previous with Camfield, his sole prior Doctor Who being as Za in An Unearthly Child, directed by Waris Hussein. However if you read down the order on the production credits you'll spot one of the Production Assistants was Douglas Camfield. He's got an Out of This World to his name too appearing as Inspector Wright in Vanishing Act.
Olaf Pooley, playing Professor Stahlman, is the series major guest star and is one of the few Doctor Who actors to also appear in Star Trek when he was in the Voyager episode Blink of an Eye as the Cleric and he can be seen in the Doomwatch episode By the Pricking of My Thumbs as Dr. Ensor which can be seen on The Doomwatch DVD. He became the second credited Doctor Who actor to make their 100th birthday on 13th March 2014 and died just over a year later aged 101.
Christopher Benjamin (Sir Keith Gold ) is on is his Doctor Who debut here and he's one of the few actors to be in both classic and new Doctor Who returning as Henry Gordon Jago in The Talons of Weng-Chiang, and Colonel Hugh in The Unicorn and the Wasp. He was in The Prisoner three times, appearing in Arrival as the Labour Exchange Manager, The Chimes of Big Ben as Number Two's Assistant and The Girl Who Was Death as Potter. He appears in the modern The Tomorrow People story The Monsoon Man as Middlemass.
I have met David Simeon, but had no idea it was him at the time, when we gatecrashed a Doctor Who convention in Aldbourne celebrating the 40th anniversary of The Dæmons in which he plays Alastair Fergus. In Fawlty Towers he appears as Mr. Mackenzie in A Touch of Class and can be seen as the Clerk of Court at the Old Bailey) in A Fish Called Wanda.
So, for the third story in a row, we're in an industrial complex and that means Technicians and in quantity too! Unlike The Silurians and Ambassadors of Death, where the rosta of supporting artists used to play them rotated, this time we mainly have a fixed set! All of this lot play a technician in episodes 1-4 & 7:
Norton Clark had been a Greek Soldier in The Myth Makers, the Secretary in The Massacre and a Technician in Doctor Who and the Silurians. He was in UFO as the 1st Assistant Director in Mindbender and in Monty Python's Flying Circus he was a Gasman in Dinsdale!
Keith Ashley was a Citizen & Male Elder in The Savages, an Atlantean Guard & Miner in The Underwater Menace, a Firing Squad Member in The War Games, an Auton in Spearhead from Space and a Technician in Doctor Who and the Silurians. He returns as a Villager in The Dæmons a Skybase Guard in The Mutants. a Villager in Planet of the Spiders, a Dalek Operator in Genesis of the Daleks, a Zygon in Terror of the Zygons, an Android Mechanic, Android Man in Canister and Man at Space Defence Station in The Android Invasion, a Krynoid & Sir Colin's Aide in The Seeds of Doom and a Peasant, Traveller, Workman Peasant & Brother in The Masque of Mandragora
Sheila Knight had been Wigner's Secretary in The Tenth Planet, a Waxworks Visitor/Auton in Spearhead from Space and the Receptionist & a Technician in The Silurians.
Richard Lawrence was a Technician in The Tenth Planet and a Technician in Doctor Who and the Silurians. He returns as a Man in Pub/Coven in the The Dæmons. In Doomwatch he's a Detective Constable in Fire and Brimstone and a Man in Flood.
Derek Hunt had been an Atlantean Guard in Underwater Menace, a British Soldier in No Man's Land & a British Soldier in The War Games, a Regular Soldier in Spearhead from Space and a Unit Soldier in the Silurians. He returns as a UNIT Man in Day of the Daleks, a Prison Guard in Frontier in Space, a Guard in Planet of Spiders, an Android Mechanic & Android Soldier in Android Invasion, a Bi-Al Member in Invisible Enemy, a Time Lord in Invasion of Time, a Technician/Guard/Citizen in The Ribos Operation, a Passenger in Nightmare of Eden, James the Footman in Black Orchid, a Worthy in Snakedance, a Guard in Planet of Fire and a Time Lord in all 14 episodes of Trial of a Timelord: we know he's an Orange Time Lord in Terror of the Vervoids & The Ultimate Foe so assume he's wearing the same colours the whole story.
Patricia Matthews was a Gond in the Krotons, and a Technician & Plague Victim in The Silurians.
Alan Clements was a Waxwork Visitor in Spearhead from Space and a UNIT Soldier in The Silurians. He returns as a UNIT Soldier in Terror of the Zygons, an Android UNIT Soldier in The Android Invasion and a Bi-Al Member in Invisible Enemy,
Joan Harsant had been a Technician in The Silurians, would have played Boedicia in Shada. In Quatermass and the Pit she was part of the Crowd at Museum in The Enchanted and In Adam Adamant Lives!: The Deadly Bullet she's as Old Woman/Woman in Theatre. In The Black Adder she was a Nun in The Archbishop and she had a recurring role as the Cleaning Lady in The Paradise Club.
Keith Norrish is on his Doctor Who debut. He returns as the Long-Haired Boy Wholewheel Member in The Green Death, one of Irongron's Men in The Time Warrior, a Thal Officer in Genesis of the Daleks, a Workman Peasant, Brethren Member & Soldier in The masque of Mandragora, Leela's Guard in The Sunmakers, an Orderly in Frontios and a Technician in Ops Room in The Twin Dilemma. Blake's 7 he's a Federation Trooper in Bounty, a Salvage Man in Dawn of the Gods and a Guard in Moloch. In Doomwatch he's an RAF Man in Survival Code and in Porridge he's a Prison Officer in New Faces, Old Hands.
Corinne Skinner This is Trinidadian Corinne Skinner's only Doctor Who appearance. She can also be seen in The Up Pompeii Film a Belly Dancer uncredited, Live and Let Die as a Dancer, A Touch of Frost: A Minority of One as Mrs Lansdale and 53 episodes of EastEnders where she plays Audrey.
Robert Birmingham returns as the Hippy Boy Wholewheel Member in The Green Death: he's the black man talking to the blond girl in the background of the dinner party scene.
It's worth drawing attention to these two actors ethnicities, and that of Bertie Green who is only in episodes 1-4 in what is his only Doctor Who appearance. There have been more black actors in Doctor Who over the last few years but their presence here is used very subtly to make a point in the middle of the story.
The following are also in Technicians in episodes 1-4:
Richard Cooper & Valerie Bland are making their only Doctor Who appearances in this story and I can't find either on IMDB.
Richard King was a Warrior Monk in Abominable Snowmen, a Cyberman in The Moonbase, a Cyberman in The Invasion, an Alien Technician in The War Games, and a Passenger/Plague Victim/Passersby/Ambulance Man/Policeman and Technician in The Silurians. He returns as a Lunar Guard, Draconian Emperor Guard & Williams' Guard in Frontier in Space, the UNIT Soldier Typist in Invasion of the Dinosaurs, a Technician in The Android Invasion and a Time Lord in Deadly Assasin. In Adam Adamant Lives! he's a Man in Theatre in The Deadly Bullet, in Doomwatch he's a Man in In the Dark and in Moonbase 3 he's a Technician in Castor and Pollux and View of a Dead Planet.
Michael Earl was a citizen & Lab Assistant in The Savages, an Atlantean Guard in Underwater Menace, a Regular Soldier in Spearhead from Space, and a Technician in the Silurians. He returns as a Man in Pub/Coven & Villagers (inc Mr Greville) in The Dæmons, a Time Lord in Deadly Assassin,
Then there's two other actors only in episodes 1 & 2
Harry Tierney had been a Customer at Inn/Pirate in The Smugglers and a Resistance Man in The War Games. He returns as a Plain Clothes PC in Day of the Daleks. in Monty Python's Flying Circus he was another Gasman in Dinsdale!
June Gray was a Waxworks Visitor/Auton in Spearhead from Space. I can't find her on IMDB.
Finally, playing the murdered technician we have Stuntman Alan Chuntz. Despite this character dying at the start of episode 1 Chuntz is going to have a VERY busy story and we'll look at him and the other stuntmen involved next episode.
We've got proper titles for this story, no break in the middle for the reprise, but the title, writer credit and episode number captions are displayed over colour film of lava flow seen in monochrome in previous black & white Doctor Who stories.
This is the first episode we've come across to use Reverse Standards Conversion (RSC) for it's DVD release. Inferno survives as a 525 line NTSC video used to broadcast the story in America, a conversion from the original 625 line PAL video recording. These videos can be shown in the UK by applying the process by which NTSC programs are normally converted to PAL. However this results in a soft picture and a certain amount of motion judder. The RSC process - and I won't even pretend to understand the intricacies - attempts to unpick the original conversion and give a video look that's closer to the original.
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