"Inferno" - Episode 6

Doctor Who (1963) - Season Seven
Airdate: June 13, 1970
Jon Pertwee, Caroline John
Written by Don Houghton
Produced by Barry Letts
Directed by Douglas Camfield

It isn't just the writing that makes this such a fantastic episode. The performances have a lot to do with it as well. Several cast members deserve special notice. Nicholas Courtney is simply outstanding as the Brigade Leader. He's such a beloved figure among "Doctor Who" fans, but it has to be said that the program rarely gave him a great deal to do. It's hardly surprising that he'd cite this as his personal favorite story. Derek Newark also puts in a fantastic performance as Greg Sutton. This is actually his second appearance on "Doctor Who". He played Za, a cave man desperate for the secret of fire, in the first ever "Doctor Who" story back in 1963. Olaf Pooley deserves special recognition for putting a believable sheen on an otherwise one-note character in Prof. Stahlman. Finally, Christopher Benjamin doesn't get a great deal to work with in Sir Keith Gold, but I have to mention him because he'll be so outstanding as Henry Gordon Jago in "The Talons of Weng-Chiang" in Season Fourteen.

But the direction gets a lot of credit as well. As I said before, Barry Letts was a last-minute replacement for the ailing Douglas Camfield, but he certainly keeps things moving, which is a tremendous asset in a seven-part story. He's helped along by some outstanding sound design. Once the catastrophe strikes, we're treated to a ceaseless soundtrack of low rumbling, punctuated by the sound of distant explosions. Along with the tremendous energy of the cast, this gives Episodes 5 and 6 a relentless sense of urgency which is a real asset at this point in the story. Just when most seven-parters are flagging, this one is hitting its absolute peak.

Before we carry on to the conclusion, I'd like to point out two novels that have expanded on the events we've seen here. "Timewyrm: Revelation", one of the earliest New Adventures novels published by Virgin books, and the first novel by Paul Cornell, suggests an answer to a question this story never asks: where's the Doctor? All of the characters in this story exist in both worlds except for the Doctor. The simple answer would be that the Time Lords never exiled the Doctor to Earth in the alt-universe, so he simply wasn't around. But Cornell's novel suggests that the face of the fascist dictator we see on propaganda posters littered around the complex is one of the faces the Time Lords offered him in "The War Games". It isn't really, at least not one of the ones we saw, but it's an intriguing idea. I have no idea why or how the Doctor would set himself up as a fascist dictator, but it's a mind-blowing concept.

Years later, author David A. McIntee wrote "The Face of the Enemy", a Doctor-less novel involving UNIT and the Master dealing with survivors from the other universe. I don't recall the details, as it's been a very long time since I read it, but it's a well-regarded novel. It also has Ian Chesterton in it, which is a nice touch.