278 Inferno: Episode Seven

EPISODE: Inferno: Episode Seven
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 278
STORY NUMBER: 054
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 20 June 1970
WRITER: Don Houghton
DIRECTOR: Douglas Camfield (and Barry Letts - Uncredited)
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
RATINGS: 5.5 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - Inferno Special Edition
EPISODE FORMAT: 525 video RSC

"Stop this drilling and start filling up that shaft!"

The Doctor is found lying in a coma on the floor of his hut. As Liz treats him members of staff at the site are becoming increasingly concerned to the safety of the drilling. The Doctor wakes and attempts to explain to Liz & The Brigadier what has happened.

LIZ: Doctor, where did you go? Where did the Tardis console take you?
DOCTOR: Same time, same place, only a different dimension. It was a parallel world, Liz. Terrible things are happening there. Terrible things. It wasn't this Earth, and yet it was. I didn't go backwards into the past, or forwards into the future. I slipped sideways.

Sir Keith Gold, his arm in a sling arrives, and together they try unsuccessfully to convince Stahlman to stop drilling. The Doctor tries to damage the drilling apparatus but Stahlman has the Brigadier arrest him. The Doctor escapes and confronts the Primord Bromley.

He returns to the control room to find that Stahlman has sealed himself in the drillhead and inside Stahlman completes his transformation into a Primord.

The Doctor tries to convince everyone to shut the drilling down but nobody will take responsibility for doing so. When the Primord Stahlman emerges the Doctor & Sutton restrain him with fire extinguishers as Petra begins the shut down procedure. Realising that the drill will keep going for a while yet the Doctor overrides the safety procedures and shuts it down with seconds to spare before penetration. The shaft is ordered to be filled. Later Sir Keith comes to bid farewell to the Doctor. Petra Williams and Greg Sutton have already left - together. The Doctor then bids farewell to Liz and dismisses the Brigadier with a few curt remarks as he dematerialises the now working Tardis console. However it rematerialises just a few yards away on the rubbish dump and the Doctor is forced to contritely ask the Brigadier for help retrieving it as Liz watches them leave together.

DOCTOR: Er, Brigadier, my dear fellow, I wonder whether I could borrow a couple of your stalwart chaps to give me a hand in bringing the Tardis back? It's landed in rather an inaccessible position.
BRIGADIER: Pompous, self-opinionated idiot, I believe you said, Doctor?
DOCTOR: Yes, well we don't want to bear a grudge for a few hasty words, do we? No, not after all the years that we've worked together. Now come long, my dear fellow, put on a smile. Just remember .....

This episode is driven by you knowing what will happen if the Doctor fails: you've seen it during the last few episodes and were reminded in the reprise as the lava approaches the door. But for the start of the episode he's unconscious: Will the Doctor recover in time? And when he does will people heed his warnings? Disaster is of course averted with moments to spare. In many ways this episode is just a coda to the Alternate Universe episodes: having gained knowledge there the Doctor must use it here. It needs the previous episodes to back it up which is why it didn't really work when it was released in The Pertwee Years VHS along with The Dæmons part 5 and Frontier in Space 6 in March 1992. It was chosen because I suspect they knew they had a good story and went for the final episode to give it closure. (in many ways Frontier 6 is also an odd choice: That's there because Pertwee thought the Draconians were his favourite monster. They're hardly in 6, 5 would have been a much better choice showing the Emperor's court). I very much suspect though that any other episode of the story seen in complete isolation would have suffered (but if pushed I might have gone for episode 3) Inferno really is a whole tale spread over the seven episodes. It's the longest Doctor Who story I'm happy sitting down to watch completely and can, given the time, watch all seven episodes on the bounce.

At this point in my writing of the original Episode A Day blog I needed to reduce the lead my writing has over publication so I can watch a certain story due out in a short while on DVD. I intended to spread Inferno out over a good few days. I ended up watching it in a day and a half, I just wanted to keep coming back for more.

I said at the top of the story it was one of my favourites and I stand by that view now. Even despite some monsters that, while adequate, aren't quite from the top drawer and some not wonderfully inspiring cliff hangers it is brilliant stuff unlike any other Doctor Who story. Buy a copy on DVD NOW!

A quick bit of familiar face spotting from this last episode: The pair of UNIT Soldiers escorting, and then immobilised by, The Doctor are regular Havoc stuntmen Derek Martin and Terry Walsh, who were also UNIT soldiers in episode 2.

The UNIT Soldiers in the studio this episode are Alan Chuntz, who was a UNIT Soldier on location in episode 2 as well as various other roles in the story, and Ian Elliot, making his Doctor Who debut. He returns as a Daffodil Man in Inferno, a UNIT Soldier in Mind of Evil, a Colonist in Colony in Space, a Villagers (inc Mr Greville) in The Dæmons, a Guard Warrior in The Mutants, a Stuntmen/UNIT Trooper in The Time Monster, one of the Army Patrol with Norton & a UNIT Soldier in Invasion of the Dinosaurs, a Villager in Planet of Spiders, an Android Villager in the Android Invasion, a Guard in Seeds of Doom and a Haemovore in Curse of Fenric. In Doomwatch he's an Ambulance Driver in Tomorrow, the Rat, a Man in You Killed Toby Wren, a Man in No Room for Error, a Man in Flight Into Yesterday, a Manservant in High Mountain and a Man in Flood.

It might be the final episode of the story but there's still some new technicians:

Alistair Baine was in the unbroadcast The Professionals episode Klansmen as Mr. Culver and appears in the new series of Doctor Who as Winston Katusi in The End of Time: Part One.

Sue Patterson is making her only Doctor Who appearance and I can't find her on IMDB.

In addition the following have, up till now, only played a technician in the Alternate Universe: Cy Town in episodes 3-4, Barry Ashton in episodes 3-5, and Judith Pollard & Steve Tierney, both episode 5 only.

These were Technicians in our universe in earlier episodes and technicians in the Alternate Universe. From episodes 1-4 we have: Sheila Knight, Patricia Matthews, Joan Harsant, Alan Clements, Keith Norrish, Richard Lawrence, Derek Hunt, Norton Clark & Keith Ashley From episode 3 we have Marcelle Elliott & Colin James. And finally, from episodes 1-4 but not appearing in the Alternate Universe we have Robert Birmingham & Corinne Skinner, who are both black actors. Their absence in the Alternate Universe is a sobering reflection on the regime there.

So which Technician is in which episode in which Universe? In order to squeeze the information into the space available I've adopted the terminology used during the production, which I'm not that fond of! The Real Universe is referred to as Warp 1, the Alternate Universe as Warp II.

Actor	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
Sheila Knight	I	I	I & II	I & II	II		I
Patricia Matthews	I	I	I & II	I & II	II		I
Richard Lawrence	I	I	I & II	I & II	II		I
Derek Hunt	I	I	I & II	I & II	II		I
Norton Clark	I	I	I & II	I & II	II		I
Keith Ashley	I	I	I & II	I & II	II		I
Richard King	I	I	I & II	I & II	II
Michael Earl	I	I	I & II	I & II	II
Joan Harsant	I	I	I & II	I & II			I
Alan Clements	I	I	I & II	I & II			I
Keith Norrish	I	I	I & II	I & II			I
Valerie Bland	I	I	I & II	I & II
Richard Cooper	I	I	I & II	I & II
Corinne Skinner	I	I	I	I			I
Robert Birmingham	I	I	I	I			I
Bertie Green	I	I	I	I
Harry Tierney	I	I
June Gray	I	I
Alan Chuntz	I			II
Marcelle Elliott			I & II	II	II		I
Barry Ashton			II	II	II		I
Ronald Gough			II	II	II
Colin James			I & II	II			I
Natalia Lindley			I & II	II
Cy Town			II	II			I
Roy Scammell				II
Roy Street				II
Derek Martin				II
Billy Horrigan				II
Terry Walsh				II
Judith Pollard					II		I
Steve Tierney					II		I
Sue Patterson							I
Alistair Baine							I

This episode marks the departure of Caroline John from the series, without a proper leaving scene! She just disappears between series. Some have argued it makes more sense if you watch Inferno before Ambassadors of Death because at the end of that story she stays behind to help at the space research centre. Her departure was instigated by Barry Letts, who felt the character didn't work, but has been very keen to stress that he liked Caroline John as an actress and indeed later cast her in the classic serial production of Sherlock Holmes' Hound of the Baskervilles opposite Tom Baker.

As it happens Caroline John was looking to leave the series anywhere: she was pregnant with her first child and wouldn't be able to be available for the filming dates. She returned to work after giving birth appearing in many television programs. I spotted her in a Midsomer Murder repeat recently and she's got a prominent on screen role as Liam Neeson's Mother in Law in Love Actually. She makes one Doctor Who reappearance in the 20th anniversary story The Five Doctors and died on 5th June 2012.

The end of this serial also sees Douglas Camfield take another absence from the program. His imdb entry seems to indicate he did little work for the rest of 1970 but was working again in early 1971 and pretty constantly after that. We've already seen that he didn't get on with Pertwee and wouldn't return to the program till after he left but there's also stories of his wife, Sheila Dunn (who makes her last Doctor Who appearance in this episode) forbidding him to do any more due to the stress it caused him.

This is also the last seven part Doctor Who story. Seven parts was the longest format the show attempted regularly: The Daleks & Marco Polo in it's first season, Evil of the Daleks in it's Fourth then Silurians, Ambassadors of Death & Inferno in it's Seventh. From here on in it's mainly four and six parters with a few notable exceptions. This season used three seven parters partly to fill an odd number of episodes but also as a budgetary matter: The same sets stretched over a seven parter cost less money. This story uses the same five sets in nearly every episode: Control room, drill head, Brigadier's office, Reactor Room and Doctor's Warehouse. However the success of this season, reaping higher viewing figures in the winter months before tailing off slightly in the summer, insured the show's survival and gave the production team a budget increase that allowed them to do more stories in the next season which had the same number of episodes.

Having reached the end of Season Seven there an interesting observation: This is the first season since the first not to feature a returning Monster. We've seen no Daleks, Cybermen, Yeti or Ice Warriors. In fact we've not seen the inside of the Tardis either or even the exterior since the first story. The only elements used in this series from previous stories are The Doctor, Brigadier, Sergeant Benton, UNIT and the Tardis console, albeit outside of it's usual location. Recurring elements become more common, and indeed we'll get one of this season's monsters returning in the first story next year. It's not until Season 13 that we get another whole season with no recurring monsters (though UNIT appear) a trick repeated several time subsequently. For all Tom Baker's fame as the Doctor and his association with the role in the public mind he only faces a familiar alien foe on five occasions and three of those are in his first season!

In addition to the final episode of Inferno showing up on the Pertwee years, the whole story was released on video in 1994 including an extended cut of episode 5 with a scene not present on the UK broadcast copy. The story was originally released on DVD on 19 th June 2006 and a Special Edition DVD with improved picture quality and additional special features was released on 27th May 2013.

When I started buying the Doctor Who books four Pertwee stories remained unnovelised: Ambassadors of Death, Mind of Evil, Time Monster & this one. Inferno was the first of them to print getting published in 1984 four years after the previous Pertwee tale, Monster of Peladon, had appeared.

277 Inferno: Episode Six

EPISODE: Inferno: Episode Six
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 277
STORY NUMBER: 054
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 13 June 1970
WRITER: Don Houghton
DIRECTOR: Douglas Camfield (and Barry Letts - Uncredited)
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
RATINGS: 5.7 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - Inferno Special Edition
EPISODE FORMAT: 525 video RSC

"Listen to that! Do you want to end your lives fighting like animals?"

Escaping from the Brigade-Leader's office with the aid of Fire Extinguishers which they use to cool the Primords the Doctor & Sutton contain them using the coolant for the drill head. The Brigade & Section Leaders take Petra to the power room where she attempts to reconnect the power to the Tardis Console, but she is forced out by the Stahlmann Primord. Sutton returns with her and they activate the power making it back to the Doctor. The Brigade Leader pulls his gun on the Doctor threatening to shoot him if he won't take them with him. Liz shoots the Brigade Leader and orders the Doctor too leave as Lava pours towards the building .....

When I listened to the Abominable Snowmen I was impressed by how the tension was ratcheted up over the six episodes. It's the same here as we know the Doctor is under real time pressure to get off the Inferno Earth and return to our own before that world is destroyed. The noise just gets louder as this episode goes on, it's noticeable how much quieter it is on the real Earth during this episodes brief visit there! There's a lovely visual effect over the location footage to indicate the rising heat, presumably at Douglas Camfield's direction.

By using a parallel Universe this story allows members of the cast to play not one but two versions of themselves, so when Nicholas Courtney died in 2011 and Liz & I decided to watch one of his stories, this was the one we chose. But he not only gets to play the Brigadier and his evil counterpart the Brigade Leader, in this episode he also gets to take the second character for a huge jump off the deep end as he sinks first into hopeless despair and then insanity in the face of his imminent death doing everything in his power to find a method of escape. It's a brilliant performance from Courtney and underlines what a good actor he was.

STEWART: How long is all this going to take?
WILLIAMS: I don't know.
STEWART: Well, can't you hurry it up, Doctor Williams?
WILLIAMS: No, not if I'm to do the job properly.
STEWART: You must! We've very little time!
WILLIAMS: Brigade Leader, I'm trying very hard to carry out a complex scientific task under impossible conditions. You will not help matters by bullying me.
STEWART: You are insolent, Doctor Williams.
WILLIAMS: Am I? Then it's about time that you learned that some problems just can't be solved by brute force and terror.
SHAW: Better let her get on with it, Leader. We're in her hands.
STEWART: We've got to the power through to the hut. It's our only chance.
SHAW: But the Doctor said he can't take us with him.
STEWART: Do you think he wants to help us? He's only concerned with his own safety.
SHAW: I think he's telling the truth. I think he has been all along.
STEWART: When the time comes, he will take us. He'll have no choice.

STEWART: Doctor Williams. You must hurry!
WILLIAMS: As I've already told you, Brigade Leader, I'm hurrying as fast as I can.
SHAW: All right, Brigade Leader, we're still here.
STEWART: I don't like your tone. Those explosions are getting closer. I'm thinking about the safety of all of us.
SHAW: Oh, yes, yes, of course you are.
STEWART: We've all got to get out of here!
WILLIAMS: You go if you want to. I shall stay here and finish the work.
STEWART: You carry on with your work!
SHAW: Where's there to go?
STEWART: If that spacecraft of the Doctor's works, you'll see for yourself.
SHAW: You don't really think you can force him to take us? He's not the sort of man you can frighten.
STEWART: Once that thing's working, we can take it over.
SHAW: We don't know how to operate it.
STEWART: Doctor Williams can learn how to operate it. She's a scientist!
SHAW: That device is beyond all our comprehension.
STEWART: Then I shall have to persuade him to operate it for us.
SHAW: And if he tries to go by himself?
STEWART: And leaves us to die? I shall make sure that he dies first.

SHAW: The power's coming through!
DOCTOR: It's coming through all right, and it's gaining rapidly.
SHAW: Hurry, Doctor!
DOCTOR: Well done, Doctor Williams!
WILLIAMS: Quickly, Doctor. The power won't last for long.
STEWART: Long enough. You're going to take us with you, Doctor.

DOCTOR: I can't. It's impossible.
STEWART: I advise you to try.
DOCTOR: I can't. I literally can't! It'd create a cosmic disaster.
STEWART: You're not going to leave us here!
DOCTOR: Do you think I want to? I'd give anything to save you all.
GREG: It's not loaded!

SHAW: Let him go, Brigade Leader.
STEWART: We helped him. we've every right to go. I'll give you until three, Doctor. One
DOCTOR: You'll have to shoot me, Brigade Leader. I have no intention of taking you.
STEWART: Two. Three

At which point Section Leader Shaw has finally had enough of her superior officer and shoots him just as the lava is about to roll in the door!

Nice little comparison between the two universes halfway through the episode: in the real universe Sutton visits the hut to find out what happens to the Doctor under the pretext of wanting to see his machine. Shortly afterwards the alternate Sutton end up in their version of the hut with the console!

One of the faults Parallel Universe stories have is the inevitable sequel. Star Trek, especially Deep Space 9 repetitively returns to the Mirror, Mirror Universe and also works events from Next Generation's Yesterday's Enterprise into the main continuity, both of which devalue the original. The X-Men have returned to the Age of Apocalypse twice now. New Doctor Who flips back and forth to the universe where the Cybermen were created like it was the room next door. I very much feel it's best to do the Parallel Universe and then leave well alone. And the best way to do that is to destroy it at the end of the story, just as Doctor Who does here. Any sealed portal can always be undone, any prohibition broken. A decently apocalyptic finale should enshrine your parallel universe to one off status, not that it stopped Yesterday's Enterprise or the Age of Apocalypse from being revisited!

One new actor this week and that's Walter Henry, playing a Primord. IMDB reckons he's the double for Bento during his transformation, I'm not so sure. Walter Henry had been a Person in Square of Troy in The Myth Makers, an English Sailor/Scotsmen in Hold/Highlander in The Highlanders, a Mine Worker in The Macra Terror and a Plague Victim in Doctor Who and the Silurians earlier this season. He returns as a Peasant, Traveller, Workman Peasant and Brethren Member in Masque of Mandragora, a Time Lord in Deadly Assassin and a Cafe Patron in City of Death. In The Prisoner he's a Servant in Dance of the Dead, in Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) he's the Policeman at Kay's Bedside in That's How Murder Snowballs and in Monty Python's Flying Circus he's one of the many Gasman in Dinsdale! In The Sweeney Flying Squad Detective in Ringer, Jackpot, Queen's Pawn, Jigsaw & Contact Breaker while in it's film version Sweeney! he's an Oil Conference Executive. In The Professionals he's a CI5 Man in Killer with a Long Arm, Stannard in The Rack and Cantwell in A Stirring of Dust. He's in the 1979 Quatermass as an Elderly Soldier in An Endangered Species, in Are You Being Served? he's the Priest in Heir Apparent and in Blake's 7 he's Zukan's Technician in Warlord. He was in The Empire Strikes Back as a Rebel Technician on Hoth and Return of the Jedi as a Council Member in the Briefing Room. He's also in The Italian Job as The Projectionist. He's in both unofficial James Bond films as a Casino Patron in Casino Royale and as a Man carrying papers on Largo's ship The Flying Saucer in Never Say Never Again. He was a regular in the Carry On Films appearing in Carry On Jack as a Deckhand, Carry On Cleo as a Roman Soldier, Carry On Doctor as a Visitor, Carry On Up the Khyber as a Burpa, Carry On Camping as a Man in Cinema, Carry On at Your Convenience as a Man in Cinema, Carry On Matron as a Wedding Guest, Carry On Abroad as a Stall-Holder and Carry On Emmannuelle as the Customs Officer.

276 Inferno: Episode Five

EPISODE: Inferno: Episode Five
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 276
STORY NUMBER: 054
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 06 June 1970
WRITER: Don Houghton
DIRECTOR: Douglas Camfield (and Barry Letts - Uncredited)
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
RATINGS: 5.4 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - Inferno Special Edition
EPISODE FORMAT: 525 video RSC

"Too late, Mister Sutton. You've unleashed the energies of the Earth's core!"

In the chaos following the penetration of the core Stahlmann begins exposing technicians to the slime. The Doctor rescues Sutton but Stahlmann seals himself in the drill head room. The Brigade-Leader assumes control of the situation but it quickly becomes clear it is hopeless with the Doctor predicting catastrophe. He demonstrates the Tardis console to the Brigade-leader to convince him to allow him to return and save the other Earth. Hearing Stahlmann's voice Petra opens the heat shield revealing he and the technicians have been mutated into the Primord creatures the others became. Platoon-Under leader Benton is captured by them and transformed. The Doctor and the survivors seek shelter in the Brigade-Leader's office. In the real world, Sir Keith Gold is on the way back to the complex when he is involved in a car accident. The Doctor announced he has a plan to escape just as the Primord creatures penetrate the office.

The story is transformed in this episode becoming a disaster movie.

GREG: Surely there must be some way of sealing the shaft? Why don't the government evacuate us all and blow up the whole area?
DOCTOR: Too late, Mister Sutton. You've unleashed the energies of the Earth's core.
GREG: All right, but we must cap the bore somehow.
DOCTOR: No substance on this Earth is strong enough to withstand those pressures.
GREG: Okay, so what's going to happen?
STEWART: Well, Doctor, what is going to happen?
DOCTOR: Well, the heat and the pressures'll continue to build up until the Earth dissolves in a fury of expanding gasses, just as it was billions of years ago.
SHAW: How long have we got?
DOCTOR: Maybe a few weeks, maybe only a few days.
GREG: So it's Doomsday? We just sit back and wait for it.

GREG: Well, that's enough for me. There's no point in us hanging around any longer.
STEWART: If you're thinking of deserting.
GREG: Evacuating is the word. If I've only got a little time left to live, I'm going to spend it as far away from this place as I can get!
SHAW: We were ordered to remain here.
STEWART: And that's exactly what we're going to do.
GREG: You speak for yourself!
STEWART: You still have a job to do here, Sutton!
GREG: You just don't listen, do you? You heard what he said. There's nothing we can do. Is that right, Doctor?
DOCTOR: Yes, I'm afraid so.
GREG: Well, I'm clearing out! Coming, Petra?
STEWART: You will stay here and do your duty!
GREG: You're still loyal to your glorious republic. I'd like to know what your precious dictator can do for you now.
STEWART: I will not listen to treason!
DOCTOR: Gentlemen, stop arguing. Just save your energy.
GREG: For what? We're all under sentence of death. Oh, come on, Petra.
BENTON 2: I've managed to round up a few of the men, Leader.
STEWART: Good. Post them outside. No one is to leave this building without my permission. No one, Benton!
BENTON 2: Understood, Leader.
GREG: You know it's marvellous, isn't it? The world's going up in flame and they're still playing at toy soldiers!

The Doctor can't save the people he's met, they're going to die when there's a catastrophic explosion. And to make it worse there's a real risk that before then they'll get transformed into a Primord (the name is never heard on screen but that's what they're called) as is shown by Benton being transformed in the episode.

GREG: Well, we shouldn't have just left Benton! You don't mind sacrificing your men, do you, Brigade Leader?
DOCTOR: Believe me, Mister Sutton, there was nothing we could have done.
GREG: Well not now, there isn't. He's probably been killed by those things!
DOCTOR: Worse than that, he'll have become one of them. The heat will accelerate the process.

The Benton here may be a bully but you still feel something when he meets his fate because the real one is so likeable!

The Doctor's only choice is to escape back to his Earth and prevent the same thing happening there. And to do that he needs these versions of his friends to sacrifice what remains of their lives to help him escape. He can't take them with him because they've got counterparts in this world.

SHAW: There's nothing we can do. Absolutely nothing!
DOCTOR: You could help me to save a world, you know.
SHAW: You said we'd passed the point of no return.
DOCTOR: Not this one, Elizabeth. The other one.
STEWART: Even now, you stick to this absurd story.
DOCTOR: This other world exists, Brigade Leader. It's as true as the one you know yourselves.
SHAW: And we're all somehow duplicated there?
DOCTOR: Yes. You, the Brigade Leader, Stallmann, Sutton, Petra, all of you. You could save your other selves.
SHAW: Save them? How?
DOCTOR: With the aid of the Tardis.
STEWART: Tardis?
SHAW: You mean that odd-looking contraption we found in the hut?
DOCTOR: Yes.
SHAW: Could it take you back?
DOCTOR: Yes, possibly. If I could use your nuclear reactor for power.
SHAW: But if this other world is parallel, they'll be in same situation as us.
DOCTOR: Not necessarily. Work on their project is not so advanced as yours. I may be able to stop them before they penetrate the Earth's crust.
STEWART: I think we'll take another look at this wonderful machine of yours.

STEWART: If the power was connected, you could make the journey back?
DOCTOR: Perhaps.
STEWART: And take others with you.
DOCTOR: No! No, I couldn't possibly do that.
SHAW: Why not?
DOCTOR: It would create a dimensional paradox. It would shatter the space-time continuum of all universes.
STEWART: If you can save yourself, you can save us.

STEWART: So, we're expected to sacrifice all our lives so as the Doctor can get back to his other world.
SHAW: We haven't got any lives to sacrifice. It's only a question of time.
WILLIAMS: What do you think, Greg?
GREG: It's the weirdest story I've ever heard, but I'm prepared to believe the Doctor.
SHAW: You're outvoted, Brigade Leader.
STEWART: It makes very little difference as we're all trapped in here anyway.

It's interesting that when Nu Who returns to parallel universes that after the Doctor's accidental arrival on the alternate Earth the only characters that move freely between the two have no counterparts on the opposite world. Of course some of the characters on the Inferno Earth don't take this too well. And all through the episode the lack of music once again works in it's favour with the ominous rumblings and occasional explosions in the background.

An extra scene was recorded for this episode but not transmitted in the UK. The Doctor, Brigade-Leader and Section leader Shaw are listening to radio reports of destruction all over England.

"In London today the Minister for Energy and Resource has made a statement about the disaster at the drilling project at Eastchester. The entire operation has now been abandoned and the area is being evacuated. There can be no doubt that the wave of earth tremors and quakes are in some way connected with the penetration of the Earth's outer crust. The Leader has called a cabinet meeting..."

The radio voice is Jon Pertwee and when he heard the final version acting-director Barry Letts decided it was too obviously his star actor doing one of his silly voices and cut it. However the section made it onto the 525 line version of the tapes used for transmission in the US and appeared in the video version of this story. It was excised from the main print on the DVD but survives as a deleted scene on the DVD's special features disc.

We can't be 100% sure where the fictional location of Eastchester is but this isn't the only Doctor Who story to feature attempting to drill through the Earth's crust, The Daleks are doing it in Bedfordshire in Dalek Invasion of Earth. What makes the Earth's crust in England so thin in the Doctor Who Universe that people want to drill through it here?

We know that the alternate world's Sir Keith had been recently killed in a car accident so as soon as we see the real Sir Keith in a car, our only visit to our world this episode, we worry!

GOLD: Where are we, Patterson? I don't recognise this.
PATTERSON: Different route, sir. Trying to avoid the traffic.
GOLD: What's the matter with this thing?
PATTERSON: No idea, sir. It was working on the way up.
GOLD: It took me a day's hard talking to convince the Minister, now I can't even get in touch with the complex.
PATTERSON: Are they going to slow down the drilling, sir?
GOLD: They're going to suspend it, pending a full review of the project. Where the devil are we? It looks like the middle of nowhere. All right, Patterson, what's going on?
PATTERSON: I'm sorry, sir. I don't understand.
GOLD: Answer me, please.
PATTERSON: Orders, sir.
GOLD: From whom? Professor Stahlman, wasn't it.
PATTERSON: Yes sir.
GOLD: Was I ever supposed to get back from the Ministry?
PATTERSON: Not if you were successful, sir. I was to drive as far off the route as I could and stage a breakdown.
GOLD: The man's raving mad.
PATTERSON: He threatened to have me sacked, sir.
GOLD: Well, you realise now that I have the Minister's full authority behind me.
PATTERSON: Yes, sir.
GOLD: All right. If you can break all records getting back to the complex, I might just forget about all this.
PATTERSON: Thank you, sir, I'll be very grateful.
GOLD: So you should be. Now put your foot down.
PATTERSON: Sir, I'd, er, I'd like you to know that I objected to the order, sir.
GOLD: Keep your eyes on the road! Look out!

Sir Keith's chauffeur Patterson is the one new speaking character this episode and he's played by Keith James making his only credited Doctor Who appearance. He's had a long career but the only thing on his CV I'm sure I've seen him in is The Sweeney episode On the Run where he plays Lakin.

The massed ranks of the Primords are filled with those who we know:

Pat Gorman made his Doctor Who debut as a Freedom Fighter in Dalek Invasion of Earth going on to play a Planetarian in Mission to the Unknown, a Greek Soldier in The Myth Makers, a Guard in The Massacre, a Worker in The War Machines, a Monk in The Abominable Snowmen, a Guard in The Enemy of the World, a Cyberman in The Invasion, a Technician in The Seeds of Death, a Military Policeman in The War Games, the Silurian Scientist in Doctor Who and the Silurians and a Technician in The Ambassadors of Death. He's back as the Auton Leader in Terror of the Autons, a Primitive, Voice and Long in Colony in Space, a Coven Member in The Dæmons, a Guard & a Film Cameraman in Day of the Daleks, a Sea Devil in The Sea Devils, a UNIT Soldier in The Three Doctors, an Earth Guard & a Sea Devil in Frontier in Space, a Global Chemicals Guard / 'Nuthatch' Resident in The Green Death, a UNIT Corporal in Invasion of the Dinosaurs, a Guard in The Monster of Peladon, a Soldier in Planet of the Spiders, the Gate Guard in Robot, a Thal Soldier in Genesis of the Daleks, a Cyberman / Dead Crewman in Revenge of the Cybermen, a Guard in The Seeds of Doom, a Soldier / Brother in The Masque of Mandragora, a Chancellory Guard in The Deadly Assassin, a Medic in The Invisible Enemy, a Kro in The Ribos Operation, the Pilot in The Armageddon Factor, a Thug in City of Death! a Gundan in Warriors' Gate a Foster in The Keeper of Traken, a policeman in Timeflight, Grogan in Enlightenment, a Soldier in The Caves of Androzani and a Slave Worker / Cyberman in Attack of the Cybermen. And it's not just Doctor Who he's appeared in! He was in Blake's 7 as a Scavenger in Deliverance, a Federation Trooper / Rebel in Voice from the Past, the Trantinian planet hopper Captain in Gambit, a Death Squad Trooper in Powerplay, a Federation Trooper in The Harvest of Kairos & Rumours of Death, a Hommik Warrior in Power, a Helot in Traitor and a Federation Trooper in Games & Blake. He's in The Prisoner as a Hospital Orderly in Hammer Into Anvil and Doomwatch as a Man in Hear No Evil. In Fawlty Towers he's a Hotel Guest in The Builders and in Porridge he plays a Prison Officer in The Desperate Hours. He was the Captain of the Guard in the I, Claudius episode Reign of Terror, was a Flying Squad Officer in The Sweeney episodes Thou Shalt Not Kill & Latin Lady and was in The Professionals 5 times as a Golfer in Killer with a Long Arm, a CI5 Agent in Close Quarters & Servant of Two Masters, a Security Man in Weekend in the Country and a Police Superintendent at inquest in Discovered in a Graveyard. He was a Blind Man in the fifth episode of The Day of the Triffids, the Killer in The Nightmare Man, a Legionnaire in Beau Geste, a Policeman in The Young Ones: Interesting and many, many, many more!

Dave Carter is a regular who Katy Manning takes great pleasure in pointing out on DVD commentaries every time she spots him! He's already been a Male Rebel in The Power of the Daleks, an IE guard in The Invasion and in The Silurians he's the Old Silurian, other unidentified Silurians & an Ambulance Man. he'll be back as the Museum Attendant in Terror of the Autons, a Prison Officer in The Mind of Evil, a Skybase Guard in The Mutants a Roundhead Officer in The Time Monster, Sergeant Duffy in Invasion of the Dinosaurs and Grierson in The Android Invasion. There's an Adam Adamant Lives! on his CV where he plays a Partygoer/Tourist in Death Has a Thousand Faces and an episode of The Tomorrow People, The Living Skins: Cold War where he's a Guard.

Philip Ryan was a Radio Engineer & Male Rebel in Power of the Daleks, a Soldier in The Web of Fear (director: Douglas Camfield) plus the Redcoat in The Mind Robber and Jackson in the Adam Adamant Lives! episode Death Has a Thousand Faces.

Peter Thompson was a Workman & Computer Voice in The Invasion (director: D Camfield), while in Doomwatch he was an Airline Passenger in The Plastic Eaters.

Apparently Olaf Pooley was very unhappy at the Primord makeup he had to wear. Looking at the Primord Stahlmann it's not obvious it's him at all so I'm wondering if he did actually refuse to wear it and another actor fills in!

There's two new alternate reality Technicians this episode:

Steve Tierney returns as a Lunar Guard, Draconian Emperor Guard and Williams' Guard in Frontier in Space while Judith Pollard is making her only Doctor Who appearance here in Inferno. We'll see their real world selves in episode 7.

We also get a new RSF Soldier and it's not a HAVOC Stuntman, but it is a familiar name:

Les Conrad had been a Tavern Customer in The Massacre, a Unit Soldier in The Invasion, a Pirate in The Space Pirates, an 1862 Union Soldier and an Alien Guard in The War Games, a UNIT Soldier in Doctor Who and the Silurians and a UNIT Soldier, Control Room Assistant & Policeman in The Ambassadors of Death. He returns as a UNIT soldier again in Terror of the Autons, a Prisoner & Military Policeman in The Mind of Evil, a Colonist in The Colony in Space, a UNIT Soldier in Time Monster, a Technician/Guard/Citizen in Pirate Planet, a Policeman in Timeflight, a 1983 Schoolmaster in Mawdryn Undead, a Gunrunner in Caves of Androzani, a Jacondan Guard in The Twin Dilemma, which also features his twin sons as the Sylvest twins, and a guard in Vengeance on Varos. He'd been a British Soldier in The Andromeda Breakthrough: Gale Warning, a man in Doomwatch: Burial at Sea, appears in the Blake's 7 episode Gold as a Space Princess Guard/Passenger, is a soldier in The Day of the Triffids and is a Legionnaire in the Douglas Camfield helmed classic serial of Beau Geste.

Finally Stunt Doubling for Doctor Who for the first time is Terry Walsh: he will spend a large part of the rest of the seventies performing this role for two different Doctors!