Monday, 6 July 2020

Who Reviews Inferno by Matt Rabjohns



Is Seven episodes too long for a Doctor Who story? Absolutely not. The reason why not is because three exquisite Doctor Who stories in a row were all seven episodes, not one of them was laboured, or slow to get going on full throttle. These were the three season 7 series stories, in Jon Pertwee's debut season. And by far the most impactful and superb of these stories for me was, and still is, Inferno by Don Houghton.

Inferno surely must rank in the echelons of the very best Doctor Who stories ever. It has every single ingredient that makes the best of the show.

1: Douglas Camfield as the Director: Dougie was always one of the most respected directors to ever grace the show. His art of always getting the absolute best from his cast and crew was absolutely second to none. Inferno is a true illumination of this. It was such a sad shame that during the show's production he was taken unwell and could no longer commit to the rest of the filming. But it is an astonishing credit to Barry Letts that he took over the reins for the rest of the recording, and one cannot tell whose scenes are who’s at all. There is no slip in performance at all from anyone.

2: The cast of the story are all absolutely sublime. Olaf Pooley is simply fantastic as the pig headed and unreasonable Professor Stahlman. Sheila Dunn (coincidentally the wife of the Director Dougie!) was absolutely winning as his not quite so hard-nosed underling Petra Williams. When the trouble begins and we see her go through quite some brilliant emotional curves. It is an absolute delight to see Christopher Benjamin in a story too. Maybe he's not as well remembered for his Sir Keith Gold as he is for his Henry Gordon Jago, but Sir Keith is just as brilliantly judged character by Christopher. His being at loggerheads with Stahlman is a strong part of the story. Nick Courtney gets to be evil as his alternate universe Brigade Leader, who is the total antithesis of the Brigadier. And its little wonder Nick stated this story was his favourite of all time.

3: The constant blaring of the drill head noise means that everyone has to basically shout to be heard. This scenario adds a real tension as the story passes, and there are countless superb set pieces and shots that really impress to give this story an epic quality not matched by many other Doctor Who stories.

4: The cliffhanger to part 6 is one of the most horrifying and stark climaxes to an episode ever in the entirety of the show. In fact, it may be unique in that this is the only time in the history of the show where this cliffhanger will not be resolved at all, and that all the characters are going to face a horrific death. This was an extremely bold way to end an episode, and I don’t know about any other fans of this story but I was truly pushed out of my comfort zone with this incredible ending of the episode.

5: This story also has the distinction of having the single largest stunt fall in the history of the programme too, and it’s an extremely impressive scene. Derek Ware was the brave man who did the over 90 feet fall. It’s a cracker of a scene and one that truly sticks in the mind long after watching.

Perhaps maybe the monsters of the piece, the Primords, may just be the weakest part of the story. They don't look overtly convincing as primal regressed hairy brutes. But despite this, the story telling is so strong that this little quibble barely matters at all. Or at least it doesn’t bother me in the slightest!

In the whole of this absolutely incredible story, there is only one disappointment in store. This was sadly to be Caroline John's last story. This is such a shame as it means that she never got a goodbye story at all. And for me this was a bit unforgivable as I absolutely loved Caroline John's performance as the scientist. In fact, I would state that she is definitively my favourite companion of Jon's Doctor. But despite the fact she doesn’t get a goodbye scene, at least her last story is one of such quality.

That the story has its own special introductory story titles too which are very effective, with shots of lava and fierce volcanoes being displayed as the credits for each seven episodes roll. This also gives the story a unique feel too.

Jon Pertwee too gets to really shine in this story. I think this is the story where all the foundations of his Doctor's character really emerge in full. This was the story where they’d worked out what would make this now Earthbound Doctor tick, and Jon plays it off to terrific effect. He gets several pivotal scenes and is a brilliant, brilliant Doctor indeed. His verbal bashes with Stahlman are greatly amusing, a little touch of humour amongst the flow of perhaps one of the show’s most mature and adult scripts ever.

Saying this I'm not sure whether this story is one totally right for little kids. For this story's tone is so intense and frenetic and taught that it truly at times seems more like a film than a TV studio production. I cannot believe that with the quality of this story that it had the lowest viewing figures of the season and the whole Jon Pertwee era. I don’t know what outside influences may have had an impact on this, but it still seems nonsensical to me. Because Inferno most assuredly is one of the most superb and brilliant entries in the whole Doctor Who canon. It definitely deserves the mantle of a "Must See".




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