By Jessica Holmes
I have good news and bad news. Being the little ray of sunshine that I am, I like to start with bad news . So here goes: we’re heading into the last Doctor Who serial of 1970. Yes, already. The tradeoff for some pretty spiffy stunt-work and shooting in colour is apparently a reduced episode count. The good news is that Doctor Who is turning up the heat and delivering a real firecracker of a story, full of action, monsters, and some great character work. Let’s dig into “Inferno”.
In Case You Missed It
If you didn’t catch it, that’s a pity, because it’s good fun so far. Last week, Doctor Who turned its attention to the stars. This week, we’re looking in the opposite direction, deep under the ground. Professor Stahlman’s (Olaf Pooley) mission to drill deeper into the crust of the Earth than anyone before is nearing completion, but there’s trouble afoot.
Concerned about the safety of the project, the government’s representative, Sir Keith (Christopher Benjamin) sends for a drilling consultant. And he was right to, because there’s something other than slurry coming up the pipes. It’s green, it burns, and it’s turned one of the technicians into a green hairy monster.
This is a little beyond the consultant Sutton’s (Derek Newark) expertise, and following a murder on site, UNIT gets a call.
All this is very much to the displeasure of Stahlman, who resents any potential pauses or delays to his precious project. It’s not just his scientific curiosity at stake here. He’s hoping to find a pocket of the imaginatively-named ‘Stahlman’s Gas’, a potential fuel source that could keep Britain’s lights on for centuries.
The Doctor of course is already there, both to keep an eye on the project and to borrow power from the on-site nuclear reactor as he continues attempting to get his TARDIS working again.
It’s going… interestingly. His first test flight sends him careening into a hall of mirrors/pocket outside of known space and time. To be fair, the green hairy bloke sabotaging the nuclear reactor didn’t really help matters.
On investigating the reactor, the Doctor and Brigadier come under attack from the downright rabid green bloke, who requires two shots to the heart to take down. As he keels over, he leaves a scorch mark on the wall behind him.
With even the normally unflappable Brigadier perturbed by the incident, Stahlman comes under even more pressure to exercise caution, and even more stubbornly refuses.
But the problem is far from over. Following the death of the original monster man, two more turn feral. And there’s more of that green goo coming up the pipes, the rate increasing as they dig ever deeper.
Even the main computer in the control room is starting to put out alarming predictions of impending doom. Nevertheless, Stahlman insists he knows better. He’s even going to accelerate drilling.
Oh, and he’s also infected with the green goo. This place is a health and safety nightmare.
Following a confrontation after the Doctor catches him sabotaging the computer, Stahlman kicks the Doctor out, sending him back to his work shed for a good sulk. And to work on the TARDIS console. Liz is adamantly against him making another test run, but since when has the Doctor been one to do as he’s told?
So he de-materialises—right as Stahlman cuts the power to his shed. This is where things get really good.
After another trip through the ‘hall of mirrors’, he ends up back in the work shed… but it’s not the one he left. His equipment is missing, there’s fascist posters all around, and it’s not long before people start shooting at him.
Following a brilliant chase sequence, the Doctor finally runs into a familiar face. It’s Liz! Or so he thinks, up to the point she blows the whistle on him and puts him under arrest. Well, this is Liz Shaw, but it’s not the sharp-tongued skeptical scientist we know. This one is a sharp-tongued skeptical security officer. And she’s had a run-in with a box of hair dye.
On being dragged before the site’s ‘Brigade Leader’ Lethbridge-Stewart (sans ‘tache, plus eyepatch), the Doctor puts the pieces together and realises where he is: a parallel space-time continuum.
Things aren’t too hunky-dory here either, with the drilling project significantly closer to completion, and all the chaos that entails.
As in ‘our’ universe, Stahlman is best described using words that don't meet our editorial guidelines. Sir Keith’s counterpart is just plain unlucky; he’s dead, killed in a car crash on his way to request government intervention.
The Doctor takes advantage of a moment of distraction to repair the computer, saving the drill control from imminent destruction. And how do Liz and the Brigade Leader thank him? A thorough grilling, followed by some light torture.
And once the drill has cooled off a bit, Stahlman decides to push on, faster than ever. Unable to get the answers he wants out of the Doctor (who is completely honest when questioned), the Brigade Leader throws him into a cell.
His neighbour looks a bit green around the gills.
As the newly-transformed green bloke (I probably should have given them a proper name. Demons? Morlocks? I know! Stahlman's Monsters) tears his way out of the cell, the Doctor takes advantage of the opportunity and escapes. And because his sense of moral duty is apparently stronger than his sense of self-preservation, he jumps right back into the fire, disguising himself as a technician to take another look at the site computer. And he doesn’t like what he finds.
Stahlman’s on the verge of unleashing terrible forces beyond imagination. The drilling must stop immediately. But will they listen? Considering how quick Stahlman was to grab the nearest gun, it's not likely.
Spot The Difference
This is a story that could be a fairly run-of-the-mill ‘stop the mad scientist before he kills us all’ tale, were it not for the interesting choice to throw a ‘parallel universe’ into the mix.
For one it makes the Doctor’s job that much harder. Saving one world is hard enough, but two?
From the outset it’s plain to see that even discounting the trouble with the drill, the world the Doctor finds himself in is not in good shape. The fascists are in power, the facility is staffed by slave labour, and everyone’s moral compass is way out of alignment.
Perhaps more interesting than the differences, however, are the similarities. Despite the probably many differences in Britain’s 20th-century history (it’s not stated when Britain turned fascist, but it seems to have been at least a couple of decades), the characters have broadly ended up in the same place as their counterparts, albeit with different job titles.
Lethbridge-Stewart is still in charge of the military presence at the facility, Liz still works for him but now as a security officer rather than scientific advisor, Sutton’s still an oil rigger and Stahlman is still a pain in the derriere.
As observed by the Doctor, the changes in their history might have altered their circumstances, but not the fundamental way they think.
Take the most glaringly different individual, Lethbridge-Stewart. Here’s a man who takes his sense of duty and service very seriously. Which is to say, he’s an affable but very by-the-book sort. He’s brave and dependable, yes, but although he protests when ordered to do things he doesn’t agree with, he will ultimately bend to the will of his superiors. This willingness to defer to authority I think explains to an extent why his counterpart is so downright villainous. When the authority is fascist, and he’s a man who follows authority, is it any surprise that he’s now the most overtly villainous member of the main cast?
It goes further than that, though. The Brigade Leader isn’t ‘just following orders’. He clearly enjoys it. His counterpart’s affability and dry wit is twisted into a sort of sadism and gleeful brutality. It leads me to wonder if that capability was always lurking under the surface, or if it took decades of living in this messed-up world to turn tolerance of cruelty into enjoyment. I really have to hand it to Courtney for carrying it off. He’s not playing a villain who just happens to look like the Brigadier. This is Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart. And he’s a monster.
On the other hand you’ve got Sutton, who is more or less indistinguishable from his other self. He comes off as a bit sexist and condescending to Stahlman’s assistant Petra (Sheila Dunn), but he’s also one of the strongest voices urging Stahlman to exercise caution and prioritise everyone's safety, no matter who it gets him into trouble with. This too makes sense. He never has much respect for authority in the main timeline, and the same is true in the fascist world.
Then there's Liz. Both versions of Liz are skeptics, but only the fascist version is close-minded. Despite being told point-blank who the Doctor is and where he’s from, she chooses not to believe him, offering her own counter-narrative that fits better within her worldview.
Part of it likely comes from her change of background. Unlike her counterpart, the fascist version of Liz didn’t pursue a career in science. Could we perhaps take it that this version of Britain is even more hostile to women in science? Hard to say; Stahlman does still have a female assistant. Maybe it’s more indicative of the anti-intellectualism common to totalitarian governments, or on a societal scale the way that fascism snuffs out curiosity. If the wrong questions might get you disappeared, you might be wise to stop asking.
As for Stahlman… Suffice to say I deeply want to strangle both versions of him. In both worlds he’s a stubborn narrow-minded nitwit who thinks he knows better than everyone else, is on a sure path to disaster, and seems determined to drag everyone down with him. I think I have to save any deeper commentary for next time, when we might have a better idea of why he’s like this.
Final Thoughts
There is one thing that doesn’t quite gel with the other plot threads. I get the whole idea that there are terrible things buried deep underground, that's a tale old as time, but… why does it turn you green and hairy? Is there a mythological connection or implication I’m missing? It just seems a bit of a random choice for a story that seems to have its other plot details quite well thought out.
All the same, I’m greatly enjoying this so far. Be sure to join me next time and we’ll dig even deeper into Inferno—let’s just hope we don’t unleash any horrors when we do.
