274 Inferno: Episode Three

EPISODE: Inferno: Episode Three
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 274
STORY NUMBER: 054
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 23 May 1970
WRITER: Don Houghton
DIRECTOR: Douglas Camfield (and Barry Letts - Uncredited)
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
RATINGS: 4.8 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - Inferno Special Edition
EPISODE FORMAT: 525 video RSC

"I have full authority. Defence of the Republic Act, 1943."

Stahlman refuses to restore the Doctor's power. Sir Keith decides to go to London to protest to the minister about Stahlman's behaviour. The Doctor wakes up in the building he was using on the outskirts of the complex but finds it being used as a storeroom. On the wall is a poster with a man's face declaring Unity is Strength. Outside he finds a symbol inscribed on the door. He is fired on by troops and drives off in Bessie but they give chase. Sheltering on the gas stores he is menaced first by the mutated Bromley and then by Private Wyatt, who he saw die. Wyatt is shot by a troop on the ground and plunges to his death. The Doctor is again chased and seeks shelter. He sees a dark haired Liz Shaw wearing a uniform but she pulls a gun on him and summons the troops. He is taken to see the Brigade-Leader: a clean shaven Brigadier with a scar over one side of his face and an eye patch. The Doctor asks to see Keith Gold, but is taken to Director Stahlmann who explains that Gold was killed in a car crash. Convinced by his knowledge of the project that the Doctor is a spy he is sentenced to execution but an alert at the drill head postpones it. Temporarily stunning Platoon Under Leader Benton the Doctor escapes to the control room and tries to repair the computer. Benton recovers and finds him, threatening to shoot the Doctor there and then. Superb, absolutely brilliant.

We've mentioned the little details in the first two episodes as helping the story, here they become crucial. The different uniforms the soldiers wear, the guns they use, the hooter noise the Brigade-Leader's phone makes, all these things help differentiate the parallel universe Earth from the real one even when you can't see the obvious touches.

Yes we can go no further, we must repeat the Eyepatch story: On the first take of these scene where Nicholas Courtney's Brigade-Leader turns round, revealing his scarred appearance, he found his fellow cast members all wearing eye patches!

Possibly the most famous Doctor Who convention anecdote ever my wife had never heard it until I mentioned it to her when we saw Inferno together in 2011.

We're told very little of what the parallel Earth is like in this episode save for an exchange between the Doctor and the Brigade Leader:

DOCTOR: Look, may I ask what is going to happen to me?
STEWART: You'll be shot. Eventually.
DOCTOR: Without a trial?
STEWART: This is your trial.
DOCTOR: Well, look, you can't possibly have the authority to do a thing like
STEWART: I have full authority. Defence of the Republic Act, 1943.
DOCTOR: Republic?
STEWART: Yes.
DOCTOR: Then what's happened to the Royal
STEWART: Executed. All of them.
DOCTOR: Pity. A charming family. I knew her great grandfather in Paris. Do you know, I remember on one occasion
BENTON 2: On your feet!
DOCTOR: Look, I've been standing here for quite some time.
BENTON 2: You'll be standing for a lot longer yet.
DOCTOR: Why is this place crawling with you oafs in uniform?
STEWART: You are talking of the Republican Security Forces. And the reason we are here is that this is a scientific labour camp.
DOCTOR: Staffed by slave labour, I take it? Well, you're all in very grave danger.
STEWART: We are in danger?
DOCTOR: Before that computer broke down, it was transmitting danger signals, was it not?
STEWART: You're very well informed.
DOCTOR: And what about Harry Slocum?
STEWART: What do you know about him?
DOCTOR: Only that he went berserk and started killing people.
STEWART: You condemn yourself. No one but a spy could know so much.
DOCTOR: Look, I am not a spy. I've seen it all before.
STEWART: Where?
DOCTOR: In another world.
STEWART: Very well. I can wait.
DOCTOR: You're just wasting time.
STEWART: We work to an orderly system. Your identity is being checked with Central Records. When we know who you are, the real interrogation will begin.
DOCTOR: But I don't exist in your world!
STEWART: Then you won't feel the bullets when we shoot you.

Put the Brigade Leader's Republic comments together with the signs on the doors, the "Unity is Strength" posters and the general manner of the army officers and we very much feel we're in a fascist state of some sort.

The "Unity is Strength" posters seen on the walls use the face of Jack Kline, the head of the BBC Special Effects workshop.

Script Editor Terrance Dicks is generally credited with having the idea of inserting a parallel Universe into the Don Houghton's drilling project story (Who And Me: The Memoir of Barry Letts, p97). Parallel Universes have been a science fiction stable for years and indeed what you see here is a textbook example of the concept, namely "What is the Nazis won World War II?" The 1964 film It Happened Here is a good example. People are usually quick to cite the Star Trek episode Mirror, Mirror as an influence, indeed one book I own The Discontinuity Guide by Paul Cornell, Martin Day & Keith Topping does it in print, but according to the list of Star Trek episode broadcast dates I have Mirror, Mirror wasn't shown in the UK till the autumn of 1970 so I can't see how it could have been!

There is, unlike earlier episodes, a small amount of music used in the chase sequences here but it's very minimalistic. Remember that Douglas Camfield, the director, and Dudley Simpson, the series regular composer, were no longer on speaking terms following a disagreement some years previously which almost certainly factors into Camfield's musical choice for the story. The lack however, gives it a different feel to many other Who stories and helps it stand out.

The stunt fall, where Private Wyatt falls to his death from the gas container, was performed by Havok member and falls specialist Roy Scammell. At the time of shooting it was, and may still be, the highest stunt fall ever.

Scammell is also playing the RSF Sentry that shoots Wyatt!

Another member of the stunt team, Alan Chuntz, was injured when he was hit by Bessie while trying to evade the car in the sequence where the Doctor is chased by the soldiers and was taken to hospital needing 12 stitches to a wound in his leg.

Chuntz is the soldier just to the left of the mirror in the above picture: you can tell something unexpected happens because Pertwee's head whips round rather quickly to see what's gone on!

All the Stuntmen who played UNIT Soldiers in episode 2 return this episode in addition to Roy Scammell & Alan Chuntz we also have Derek Martin, Billy Horrigan, Roy Street & Terry Walsh (actor) are all playing Republic Security Forces soldiers.

They're joined by two new RSF Soldiers: Nick Hobbs was a Technician in Ambassadors of Death and is in episodes 3-5 here. He returns as a Daffodil Man in Terror of the Autons, one of the UNIT Staff & an American Aide in Mind of Evil the Nuton Driver, Stunt Double for Axon Man, a Stuntman/Army Soldier & one of the Doubles for Captain Mike Yates and Sergeant Benton in Claws of Axos, a UNIT Man in Day of the Daleks, Aggedor in Curse of Peladon, a UNIT Troop & Guard in The Time Monster, Aggedor in Monster of Peladon, and a Wirrn Operator in Ark in Space. He appears in Space: 1999 as a Security Guard in Space Warp, Blake's 7 as the Hooded Figure in Cygnus Alpha, the Roger Moore James Bond film Octopussy as a South American Soldier, Inspector Morse as Night Hawk 2 in The Day of the Devil and the modern Doctor Who as Mr Nainby in Amy's Choice as well as performing stunt work on many productions over the years.

In episodes 3 & 4 is Royston Farrell had appeared as a Male Guardians Slaves in The Ark, a Male Elder in The Savages, a Laboratory Assistant, Miner, Atlantean Priest & Atlantean Refugee in The Underwater Menace, a Technician in Seeds of Death, a Roman Soldier in The War Games, and a Military Policemen in The Ambassadors of Death. He returns as a Technician in Claws of Axos. He also did stunts for Flash Gordon.

In the brief scene of our reality at the start of the episode the existing technicians are augmented by three newcomers: Natalia Lindley, just in this episode as a Technician in our reality, can also be seen in the Doomwatch episode By the Pricking of My Thumbs as a Woman. Marcelle Elliott is in the Doomwatch episode Survival Code as a WRAF Officer: she's also in episode 7 as a Technician in our reality as is Colin James who is making he only Doctor Who appearance: I can't find him on IMDB.

In the alternate reality many of their technicians are played by people already seen in our world Patricia Matthews, Sheila Knight, Keith Ashley, Derek Hunt, Richard Lawrence, Norton Clark, Michael Earl, Richard King, all from the first three episodes, and the above mentioned Marcelle Elliott appear as alternate reality technicians in episodes 3-5 while episodes 3 & 4 also feature returnees Joan Harsant, Alan Clements, Keith Norrish, Richard Cooper & Valerie Bland plus Natalia Lindley & Colin James, mentioned above.

Rather chillingly none of the three black actors seen in the earlier episodes are serving as technicians here.

For episodes 3-5 they're joined by two new alternate reality technicians:

Ronald Gough was an Atlantean Guard in The Underwater Menace and a Technician in The Silurians. He returns as a Skybase Guard in The Mutants, a Spiridon in Planet of the Daleks, an Army Soldier in Invasion of the Dinosaurs, a Zygon in Terror of the Zygon and a Marine & The Krynoid in The Seeds of Doom.

Barry Ashton had been a Highlander in Jail in The Highlanders, Scientist Franz Shultz in The Moonbase, the Double for the Doctor's Hand and The Policeman in the Antique Shop in The Evil of the Daleks, an Auton in Spearhead from Space and a UNIT Soldier in The Silurians. He returns as Proctor in The Time Monster, and Kemp in Frontier in Space. He'd been in Out of the Unknown as Frank in The Counterfeit Man, which you can see on the Out of the Unknown DVD Set, Doomwatch as man in You Killed Toby Wren and The Inquest, both of which are on The Doomwatch DVD

Ashton plays his counterpart in our reality later in this story as does Cy Town, who appears in the alternate reality in episodes 3 & 4. He was an Auton in Spearhead from Space and a Technician in Doctor Who and the Silurians. He goes on to play a Prisoner, Audience Member & Medical Orderly in The Mind of Evil, a Gel Guard in Three Doctors, a Dalek in Frontier in Space & Planet of the Daleks, a Soldier in Invasion of the Dinosaurs, a Dalek in Death to the Daleks, a Dalek in Genesis of the Daleks, multiple Vogans in Revenge of the Cybermen, an Android Villager in Android Invasion, a Traveller, Drummer, Pikeman, Brother & Servant in The Masque of Mandragora, an Bi-Al member in The Invisible Enemy, a Guard in The Sun Makers, a Dalek in Destiny of the Daleks, a Castrovalvan Warrior in Castrovalva, a Guest Gambler in Enlightenment, a Dalek in Resurrection of the Daleks, a City Person in Street in Attack of the Cybermen, a Dalek in Revelation of the Daleks & Remembrance of the Daleks, Execution Victim Harold L & a drone in The Happiness Patrol and a Haemovore in The Curse of Fenric. Outside of Doctor Who appears in the Monty Python's Flying Circus episodes Spam as a Surfer and The Money Programme as a Trumpeter plus the film Monty Python's The Meaning of Life as a Restaurant Diner. In Doomwatch he's a Man in Flood, he's a Technician in all six episodes of Moonbase 3, a Security Guard in The Sweeney Golden Boy, in Quadrophenia he's a hairdresser, in Blake's 7 he's a Rebel Technician/Federation Trooper in Blake, he's a Coach Passenger in Miss Marple: Nemesis and in Jeeves and Wooster he's the Vicar in Wooster with a Wife (or, Jeeves the Matchmaker). And if you want to know what he looks like outside of his Dalek shell then there's some screencaps of him on his Aveleyman page.

It's at this point the production of Inferno ran into very serious trouble. The location filming and first studio block, the interior shots for episodes 1 & 2, had gone off without a hitch. But during rehearsals for episodes 3 & 4 Douglas Camfield collapsed, suffering from a heart murmur exacerbated by a number of disagreements on set. He was rushed to hospital and Barry Letts, the series' producer and a seasoned director, stepped in and directed the remainder of the production. Camfield's name still appears on the credits, a move by Letts to safe guard future offers of work for Camfield. It's noticeable that Camfield doesn't return to Doctor Who until after Letts & Pertwee depart. Barry Letts safe guarding Camfield's health perhaps? Maybe, but Letts would later use Camfield on the classic serial Beau Geste and indeed had Camfield booked for another directing job when he passed away in 1984. It looks as if the reason for Camfield's absence is that he & Pertwee hadn't particularly got on during the production so we will be deprived of the services of one of Doctor Who's better directors for the next few years worth of viewings.