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Sep 20, 2013 Web Exclusive By Mark Redfern

In the early 1970s, Doctor Who transformed into a very different show from what had come before. Jon Pertwee’s Third Doctor was more of a decisive man of action than his predecessors, the frail, old First Doctor (William Hartnell) and the scruffy Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton). The show was broadcast in color for the first time. And the time- and space-traveling Doctor was banished to 1970s Earth by his Time Lord superiors, making him unable to return to his home planet of Gallifrey or journey anywhere else in his TARDIS craft. In reality, the exile was because of budgetary concerns—money was saved by the production team not having to create alien planets and spaceships each week and by reusing more of the same sets and locations. So The Doctor went to work for UNIT (United Nations Intelligence Taskforce), headed up by Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (Nicholas Courtney), and helped them investigate paranormal and extraterrestrial threats to Earth.

1970’s Inferno is the last serial of the Third Doctor’s first season (and seventh season overall), and the last one to feature The Doctor’s companion Liz Shaw (Caroline John). It holds up fairly well 43 years later, as do many of the serials from this era (which was overseen by producer Barry Letts and script editor Terrance Dicks).

UNIT and The Doctor are tasked with monitoring a big drilling project to penetrate the Earth’s crust. Professor Stahlman (Olaf Pooley) leads the project with an intense single-mindedness that puts him at odds with The Doctor, project director Sir Keith Gold (Christopher Benjamin), and freelance oil drilling expert Greg Sutton (Derek Newark), all of whom think he should be more cautious and less in a hurry to reach the Earth’s crust at all costs. Employees at the drill site are being infected by toxic green slime that seeps out of the drill pipes and transforms them into primordial, subhuman, almost werewolf-like creatures. Meanwhile, The Doctor is harnessing the power of the drill’s nuclear reactor to try to get his TARDIS to work again, so that he can escape Earth.

Letts and Dicks realized that the initial story wasn’t enough to fill the required seven episodes, so they added a clever twist in which The Doctor does get his TARDIS to work, but travels to a parallel Earth instead. In this alternate universe, Britain has been a fascist state ever since the Royal Family was executed in 1943. There he finds a similar crisis as on his own Earth, but with much colder and more brutal versions of the Brigadier (complete with eye-patch) and Liz.

Criticizing an old Doctor Who episode for not having great special effects or a big enough budget is like knocking a silent film for not having sound: they did the best they could with the means at their disposal. The makeup on the mutated workers looks unconvincing and there’s some obvious blue screen work, but unlike many old Doctor Who episodes, Inferno is well paced and frequently suspenseful. The countdown at the end of episode four is particularly tense, with well framed close-ups and smart editing choices. There’s also some nifty stunt work and a bit of an environmental message. Most fun of all are the scenes set in the alternate reality.

Inferno was originally released on DVD back in 2006. This special edition features enhanced picture quality and some new special features on top of the ones from the original DVD. Extras include audio commentary featuring Courtney, John Levene (Sergeant Benton), Letts, and Dicks; along with documentaries on the HAVOC stunt team, the making of Inferno, UNIT, and how Doctor Who was kept alive in the years it was off the air.

Classic Doctor Who can sometimes be a slow and dated experience for fans who grew up on the new series, and with 36 years’ worth of classic Who episodes to choose from, it can be an overwhelming task to even work out which ones to watch. For a solid representation of the best the Third Doctor era has to offer, this is as good a time and place as any to start. (www.bbcamerica.com)

Author rating: 7/10