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!