"Inferno" - Episode 5

Doctor Who (1963) - Season Seven
Airdate: June 6, 1970
Jon Pertwee, Caroline John
Written by Don Houghton
Produced by Barry Letts
Directed by Douglas Camfield

Thanks to the unusual structure of this story, this is the episode where things finally start kicking into high gear. The episode actually opens with the "point of no return", the penetration of the Earth's crust. There's not a lot in the way of explanations, but dialogue in this episode makes it abundantly clear that there is nothing that can be done to save the world. That's right, the entire planet is doomed. And that happens at the beginning of this episode. This simplifies the story a bit. Now the Doctor turns his focus entirely on getting back to his home reality, since there's still a chance he can prevent a similar disaster there. But there are more pressing concerns. The intense heat emanating from the drill head has completed the metamorphosis of everyone infected by the mysterious green ooze.

So the Doctor has to convince the alt-versions of Lethbridge-Stewart, Liz, Greg Sutton, and Petra Williams to help him connect the TARDIS console to the nuclear reactor so that he can get back to where he came from. Not unreasonably, the Brigade Leader asks if he can take anyone with him, and he responds with some waffle about dimensional paradoxes shattering all of the universes. I guess we're supposed to just accept this explanation, but honestly, it sounds like he's just making shit up to me. I don't know why he would do that, but that's how it strikes me.

Anyway, that's all we really need to know about this episode, so let's talk about the role of the Primords in this story. I have been less than charitable towards them so far, because they seem to exist mainly to provide cliffhangers on demand. They are never explained, not even badly. As I said in Episode 1, we just have to accept them. Some fans have assumed that they must have something to do with Stahlman's Gas, the energy source that's motivated this entire project, but that's sheer conjecture. But they do have an important role to play in the story, of sorts.

"Doctor Who" has always been a series that tried to appeal to a family audience, which means both children and adults. The role of the Primords is basically to hold the attention of the children. When I was a kid, I loved this story, and it was all about the Primords. As I got older, I started to see the story differently, but ended up loving it even more. For me now, the Primords are just a side-show. It's really about the characters putting aside their differences and working together. The fascist world is all about dividing people. Everyone has a specified role, and a strictly limited scope of authority. Helping the Doctor to get back to his reality requires everyone to work together, irrespective of any of that.

And these characters are so sharply drawn, they end up helping the Doctor for entirely different reasons. Greg Sutton is a pragmatist. He knows he's going to die, but he at least wants to achieve something of value before he does, even if he doesn't really understand any of this alternate universe stuff. Elizabeth Shaw wants to believe that somewhere, there's a version of her who chose a different path, and has a better life, and she wants to help that person. Petra is in love with Greg Sutton, and now that the rules of her world have crashed down, she's no longer responsible to the state, and she's free to pursue her own agenda. The Brigade Leader is simply fighting for any chance of survival. His own survival is all that matters.

This level of depth is very unusual for "Doctor Who", but it's this that my older self latched onto when the men in monster suits lost some of their appeal. To a child, "Doctor Who" is basically monsters, spaceships, and the boring bits. As a child, I never knew and I never cared what the boring bits were for. As an adult, I see the show very differently. "Doctor Who" will always have monsters and spaceships, but it's the "boring bits" that make or break a story. This story has some of the best boring bits in the history of the program. Because the characters are so good, because there's actual drama going on, I'll happily overlook the silliness of the Primords.