Who Review: Inferno

The Doctor has been called to join a team of expert consultants for a project nicknamed “Inferno,” a project for which U.N.I.T. is providing security. “Inferno” aims to drill into the Earth’s crust, releasing “Stahlman’s gas” that can be used as a powerful fuel source. Professor Stahlman resents the presence of these consultants whom he considers over-cautious hindrances to his project. The Doctor doesn’t much like Professor Stahlman and his over-confident, high-handed arrogance. If it wasn’t for the fact he is being given access to nuclear power for his own experiments (he’s trying to “fix” the TARDIS), the Doctor would leave. As the drill approaches the Earth’s crust, machine failures, computer warnings, and a strange green slime oozing from the drill entry point alarm the consultants. Ignoring their protests, Stahlman insists on pushing on. But the slime is more than just a toxic by-product; it infects all who come in contact with it, transforming them into high-energy monsters. The Earth is fighting back, but will the Doctor be able to persuade Professor Stahlman to abandon his project before it’s too late?

SPOILER ALERT!! My comments may (and likely will) contain spoilers for those that haven’t seen this serial. If you want to stay spoiler-free, please watch the story before you continue reading!

The final story of the season is yet another seven-parter. Script Editor/Producer team Terrance Dicks and Barry Letts didn’t like the seven-part format, but had been lumbered with it from the previous production team. It seems obvious to me both here, and in the previous two stories, that they struggled to stretch stories to fill the time. Some of the “filler” is painfully apparent (see “Doctor Who and the Silurians”), but I think “Inferno” manages to expand the story in a way that gives it an interesting twist, and pushes the story forward.

“Inferno” begins with a formula we’ve already seen a few times up to this point in Who history, where a project goes awry but the person in charge is too stubborn and arrogant to admit fault and stop (see “The Ice Warriors” and “Doctor Who and the Silurians,” for example). There’s plenty of dramatic tension as the Doctor threatens to walk out, government ministers get involved, and an expert oil driller tries to convince Stahlman’s loyal assistant, Dr. Petra Williams, to slow the project. But it’s all to no avail.

The Doctor’s TARDIS experiments land him and Bessie (his car) in an alternate universe. In this world, the Brigadier is a Brigade Leader, Liz Shaw is a Section Leader (not a scientist), and Director Stahlmann is further along in the “Inferno” project, though just as determined to see things through despite the warnings from the computer, the green ooze, and the equipment failures. This excursion into a parallel world clearly exists to stretch a four-part story into seven parts, but it’s not a pointless diversion. We get to see a world that could have been, where Britain is under fascist rule, and “Inferno” is being run as a scientific labor camp. The Brigade Leader has a scar and an eye patch, and commands his men with an iron fist. Rather than questioning her superior officer, Elizabeth Shaw falls in line with him. The fact that this parallel project is further along allows the Doctor (and us) to see what happens when the warnings are ignored. “Primords” (the name given in the end titles to the creatures created when the slime infects people) attacking, earthquakes, lava running through the streets, and eventually the end of life on Earth. When the Doctor manages to return to his “normal” world, he sounds the alarm with a lot more authority. He can rally people to his side by convincing them that he has seen how this all plays out, and it’s not good.

One plot hole people often point to is the fact that while we have alternate versions of the Brigadier, Liz, Sergeant Benton, Professor Stahlman, and all the others, there isn’t an alternate version of the Doctor. This could be explained by saying in this universe, the Doctor wasn’t exiled to Earth, so he simply wasn’t there for this. It does seem unlikely though, given the number of times the Doctor has been around to save the Earth from destruction, that he wouldn’t be there this time. Alternatively, this could be a universe in which the Doctor never left his home planet. Since the Doctor insists that he can’t take the Brigade Leader back with him because it would create a devastating paradox, that idea would be undermined if he were to meet his alternate self in this world.

When the Doctor realizes he is in an alternate universe, created as a result of people making different choices, it dawns on him that many similar universes must exist, and that “free will isn’t an illusion.” This is an interesting point for the series to make since it either justifies the idea that the Doctor and his companions must not interfere in history, since they could change things (see “The Aztecs”), or it means it doesn’t matter if the Doctor changes history in one universe, because somewhere there’s a universe in which the Doctor didn’t change history. It also casts a question over the New Series’ obsession over “fixed points in time”–which time line? If there are infinite parallel universes, are the “fixed points in time” the same in all of them? Surely not, since those things might not have even happened in some of those universes. This “free will” line of the Doctor’s is all the more fascinating because it’s a throw-away line. It doesn’t impact this story, so it’s not necessary for the plot. It’s simply the Doctor ruminating on his situation. That opens the possibility that the Doctor later learns about “fixed points in time” and modifies his view. But it’s an interesting discussion point for the show, nonetheless. 🙂

Must-see Who? I would say, if you had to pick one story out of the four from this season, it would be “Spearhead from Space.” But if you had to pick one of the three 7-part stories to watch, it would be this one. While it could have been a 4-parter, they’ve made it work as a 7-parter more successfully (I think). Not essential Who, but good Who.