The Doctor Who Real Time Marathon: Inferno
Inferno: Episode 1 (09/05/10)
Another week, another research station, this one pretty cool being all industrial buildings and wasteland. The Doctor, Liz and the Brigadier took their time making an appearance, the narrative focusing on the nature of the research. Professor Stahlman is leading a project to drill through the Earth's core (stupid idea!) to tap the hugely powerful natural gasses there. His efforts are being thwarted by the safety-conscious Sir Keith Gold who is Director of the project (but only responsible for the cafeteria, according to Stahlman) and has brought in blokey, sexist drilling expert Greg Sutton from Kuwait to advise. He's already pissed off Stahlman's personal assistant, Petra Williams, but she told him where to stick it.
Meanwhile, UNIT are supplying security and allowing the Doctor (in another advisory role) to use the power from the Nuclear reactor (yes, another one!) to experiment with the still detached TARDIS Console in a storage unit away from the action. However, when an engineer touched some green goo leaking from the output pipe, it turned him green, hairy and homicidal. He's killed two scientists and a UNIT soldier and turned up the power while the Doctor and Liz were experimenting causing the Doctor and the Console to disappear into a weird, warpy void, and the reactor to overload. Liz managed to cut the power and retrieve the Doctor and they went to the reactor control with the Brigadier just in time to confront the mutant engineer.
Really good again with great location footage, interesting and well scripted characters and some fantastic, eerie incidental music. Even though Liz didn't even feature for the first fifteen minutes, the new characters and their relationships had plenty of intruduction which distracted. Oh, and there was a nice scene where Sergeant Benton was caught smirking at a rather rude comment by the Doctor about the Brigadier. And I like the title, too.
Inferno: Episode 2 (16/05/10)
A rather slow, measured episode this week. Yet again very little Liz. The engineer who'd gone green and turned up the power tried to attack the Doctor, Brigadier and Benton but was shot through the heart (twice) by Private Wyatt. It didn't kill him straight away and he tried to strangle Wyatt before expiring and burning a wall. Needless-to-say, Wyatt (and a technician the engineer had attacked) went missing and turned green, too. Wyatt attacked the Doctor when he followed him up a cooling tower but took a plunge and died.
There was another confrontation with Stahlman regarding the green ooze (which Liz and some other scientists had failed to analyse in the lab due to its extreme heat) and he decided to put the jar of ooze back in its containment box with his bare hands as it was cracking. Dick. Obviously now he's showing signs of going green! He also stopped the Doctor's supply of power and then sabotaged one of his computers which was giving danger warnings which he refused to acknowledge. Dick. The Doctor saw him trying to smash the microcircuit he'd removed and paralysed im with some 'Venusian Karate' but was unable to prove to the Brigadier that Stahlman was up to no good, and the Professor destroyed the circuit after all.
The Doctor then switched his power back on, went back to his shed, conned Liz into leaving him alone and activated the TARDIS Console. Liz and the Brigadier turned up just in time to see him disappear.
So, after two episodes, the Doctor's gone off in a strop! This new Doctor does seem to be rather temperamental. And arrogant. And Bill and Pat would never have used that Venusian Karate (though Bill may have tried to duff him up a bit with his cane)! That said, I'm taking to him quicker than I did to Pat. Maybe it's because he's more authoritarian, but with a petulant, rebellious streak. I have absolutely no idea what's going to happen next week now the Doctor's buggered off!
Inferno: Episode 3 (23/05/10)
Well, I wasn't expecting that!
After opening with an argument between Liz, the Brigadier and Stahlman (after which Sir Keith decided he'd have to head to London in order to stop Stahlman from continuing in dangerous conditions) which resulted in power remaining off at the Doctor's hut (and the Doctor thus stranded 'wherever') it at first looked like the Doctor may have travelled into the future. Then he found a poster stating 'Unity Is Strength' (very Orwell) and took Bessie (who'd been caught up in the Console's time/space field, I imagine...) for a drive where he was shot at by Benton and his men in snazzy new uniforms. Then he met a jack-booted Liz in a silly, brunette wig and was taken before Brigade Leader Lethbridge-Stewart (quite handsome without his moustache) who has a silly eyepatch.
Turns out the Doctor's in an alternative dimension where Britain is a Republic (since 1943, when they executed the Royal family) run by Fascists. Everything is almost the same (Liz is a soldier, not a scientist) but the drilling is more advanced (obviously because a Fascist society is an efficient society).
The Doctor generally spent the episode finding this out and not helping disprove their assumption he's a spy by telling them the last two weeks' plot. Sir Keith, in this dimension, was killed in a car accident, and the Doctor doesn't exist here. When an alarm went off, the Doctor Venusian Karate'd Benton and legged it... to the sabotaged computer to try and replace the circuit, but Stahlman (sans beard) has ordered Benton to shoot the Doctor. I'm wondering why Benton's wavering!
So, an alternative reality story. That's new! Quite an interesting twist. Bet this alternative Earth doesn't make it to the final episode, though!
Inferno: Episode 4 (30/05/10)
Really good again. Section Leader Shaw stopped Benton shooting the Doctor and let him fix the computer. Then there was a very silly interrogation sequence that at least looked good, before the Doctor was locked in a cell beside the scientist who went green and hairy. He was tranquillised, though, and covered in a bed sheet so the Doctor didn't notice.
Meanwhile, on our Earth, Liz worried about the Doctor a bit, and Sir Keith headed off to London to try and get the Minister to shut down the drill.
In the other dimension, the Doctor woke up from his nap to hear the scientist gurgling. He called the guard over who went into the scientist's cell and was attacked and overcome. The scientist then went after the Doctor, who escaped and hid in a jeep which took him back to the research centre. Luckily, there was a radiation suit in the back of the jeep for him to disguise himself with, and a group of radiation-suit-wearing technicians to join. Once inside, he started fiddling with the drill controls, but the Brigade Leader saw him and ordered him to stop. Whipping off his hood, the Doctor ordered the bore to be stopped and was about to be shot when alternative-Greg Sutton (who's been developing a relationship with alternate-Petra Williams) intervened. He couldn't escape, though, and was surrounded as, in a fantastic cliffhanger, the countdown reached 1 over the closing credits.
Aside from the interrogation scene, this story's really well written, well directed and well designed! You've got quiet bits with character development (Petra and Keith in particular). John Levene's doing a great job as a nasty version of Benton! Very impressed all round.
Inferno: Episode 5 (06/06/10)
A bit slow, but still good this week. The alternate universe drilling project has succeeded in breaking through the Earth's core and brought about Armageddon. Most of the technicians and soldiers legged it as soon as the earthquakes started and the Brigade Leader had the rest confined to the main HQ. Stahlman went nuts and locked himself in the drill head room with the remaining technicians, dipping their unconscious faces in the weird, green gunk.
Meanwhile, the Doctor took the Brigade Leader and Section Leader to the shed where the TARDIS Console was and used the remaining power to travel a few seconds into the future to prove he was telling the truth and could escape to save our dimension's Earth. He can't take anyone else because that would cause a Universe-shattering paradox, though, so the Brigade Leader said no.
Meanwhile, Greg and Petra planned their escape, and in our dimension Sir Keith was in a car accident. Returning to the base, the Doctor et al. were confronted by Stahlman and the technicians who had now mutated into primal Dog People with big teeth and hair, Benton was got (and had a cool mutating sequence on film) and the others hid in the Brigade Leader's office. The Doctor says he has a plan to escape, but the Dog Men have just broken a window. Bit of an odd cliffhanger but still a cool episode. The roaring Earth tremors throughout the episode were cool, and there was a sweet bit where Petra and Greg had a chat and a hug. Not sure why the Dog People are green, though, or why the goo mutated them, but never mind.
Inferno: Episode 6 (13/06/10)
That was pretty cool. Or hot may be a better word. Great cliffhanger!
The Doctor et al. escaped the Brigade Leader's office with the help of fire extinguishers, freezing CO2 disabling the Primords (Dog People). They then spent the episode trying to route the Nuclear Reactor through to the TARDIS Console, which sounds really dull but was made interesting through the dialogue. Greg Sutton played companion, asking questions and helping the Doctor, Petra did all the technical stuff, and the Brigade Leader plotted to force the Doctor to take him through to our dimension or kill him! In the end he pulled a gun on the Doctor and was shot dead by Liz Shaw! Just as lava flowed into the shed!
Lots of running around and being chased by Primords (that's their End Credit name, by the way. They aren't called anything on screen). Considering not much happened, it was all quite tense and entertaining. The cliffhanger made it look like the Doctor wasn't going to escape in time, but he clearly will. Which means the alternate Liz, Greg and Petra will burn to death as the Earth breaks apart. A bit grim, really!
Inferno: Episode 7 (20/06/10)
Bit of a drawn out conclusion this week. The Doctor did escape but arrived in our dimension in a coma. Stahlman increased the drilling process and locked himself in with the drill head. The alarm roused the Doctor enough when #2 Output pipe started to go wrong for him to tell Liz what to do and eventually, once Stahlman had completely mutated, they closed the drill down.
There was a nice coda with the Doctor getting the TARDIS Console working again and travelling a few seconds into the future and a few yards into a rubbish tip after insulting the Brigadier, but on the whole the last couple of episodes seem to have been a lot of nothing occurring. Once the Doctor was back in our dimension it was obvious he'd stop Stahlman because otherwise the world would tear apart, so it was just a case of how was the episode going to be filled? That's not to say it wasn't good. This whole series has been enjoyable. Very gritty, grown up and serious with one or two smiles along the way.
The Brigadier's likeable, Liz is a great companion in the same mould as Zoe but more mature, and Benton's a good regular character, though it would be nice to see more UNIT personnel along the same lines since everyone else changes from story to story (usually because they die!). Not sure 7 part stories are a good idea, though. Inferno did seem to be largely filler toward the end and Ambassadors seemed to fall back on the capture/escape routine. On the whole, though, Doctor Who looks great now it's in colour and Earth-bound. It would be nice to see a few alien planets again - that will depend on how long the Doctor is exiled for - but it was good to see the exile was barely referred to, and establishing the new format was the primary concern. If the series continues like this, then it's fine by me!
This is a great seven-episode story, but it would probably have made for an absolutely brilliant six-parter. It paints itself into that corner to some extent though, because the very nature of the 'alternate reality' storyline means that for there to be any drama when the Doctor comes back the whole thing has to play out all over again, but with us knowing that it'll work out OK this time, therefore undermining the drama from the off. That said, I agree that they pull it off as well as they could under the circumstances. Indeed, the direction and the sound and production design ramp up the tension to 10 from the word go, then up to 11 from about halfway through and maintain it all the way to the end. (Leading, as you and others have pointed out, to the fantastic cliffhanger to Episode 6.) Great performances all round from a stellar cast as well, including those regulars lucky enough to be making the most of their dual roles, but also from the guest actors, all of whom take some fairly stock characters on paper and really bring them to life. 'Our' Liz is somewhat underused, which is a shame considering we'll never see her again, but at least Caroline John is gifted a memorable performance opportunity for her final appearance.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, even after watching this as part of my marathon, Inferno is my least favourite story of Season 7 (but given the quality on show here that isn't a criticism). For me, the parallel Earth storyline goes on for far too long, and I think that it would have worked much better as a six part story. The only other way of preventing it from dragging (and watched all in one go, this story really does drag) would be to have had the Doctor travel to the alternate Earth an episode later, but then that would just place the slow episode earlier on with a similar, if not worse, effect. This season exhibits three different ways of presenting a 7 part story, of which only the first is really successful (whilst Ambassadors is my favourite of the season, I concede that Silurians works better structurally); Inferno goes on far too long, but as demonstrated above, it's still a great story which I enjoyed very much.
DeleteIt's a disappointing exit for Liz, but at least she gets the final shot. I can understand why they wrote her out of the series, but she's certainly the best character the show has had since Ian and Barbara. It's a shame that they chose to soften the series from here on, but that said I'm not sure this style of Quatermass-influenced gritty drama would have sustained the shows popularity in the way the more family-friendly approach did over the next few years. Plus we would have been denied the amazing friendship of the Doctor and Jo/Jon and Katy, so they clearly made the right decision.