 This story is considered by many fans to be one of the best stories of the Third Doctor era.
"Inferno" is Caroline John's last regular story as Liz Shaw. She and the producers mutually agreed to her departure after the filming of this story, and so no departure scene could be recorded. This is the first time in the show this occurred.
In the next story ("Terror of the Autons", at the start of Season Eight) it is merely mentioned that Liz went back to Cambridge. The actual circumstances surrounding her departure from UNIT are told in the Virgin Books' The Missing Adventures novel "The Scales of Injustice" by Gary Russell.
This though is not Caroline John's last involvement in the show. She played the part of Liz Shaw (albeit as an illusory image) in the 1983 Twentieth Anniversary Special "The Five Doctors" and Liz is one of many companions who appeared in the Thirtieth-Anniversary Children In Need special "Dimensions in Time", in 1993. She also headlines the direct-to-video P.R.O.B.E. adventures. She properly returned to the role of Liz in the Big Finish Productions audio story "The Blue Tooth", which takes place just after "Inferno". Caroline John also starred as Madam Salvador in the Seventh Doctor Big Finish Productions audio story "Dust Breeding".
Caroline John has stated that she enjoyed playing the role of Section Leader Elizabeth Shaw as it was fun playing 'baddie' Liz. She also says she hated doing the scenes when she was playing the 'goodie' version because it was boring compared to being an evil character. She was particularly upset though about the scene in which Shaw shoots Brigade Leader Lethbridge-Stewart, as she was pregnant at the time. As a result, the scene was recorded with the weapon fired from out-of-shot, after which Shaw was shown returning the gun to her holster.
Christopher Benjamin, who plays Sir Keith Gold, also played Henry Gordon Jago in the Fourth Doctor story "The Talons of Weng-Chiang" and Colonel Hugh Curbishley in the Tenth Doctor story "The Unicorn and the Wasp".
The role of Petra was given to Sheila Dunn after Kate O'Mara was not available to play the part. Kate O'Mara would, years later, be cast as the Rani, a renegade Time Lord. Sheila Dunn was the wife of this story's director, Douglas Camfield.
The working title for this story included: "The Mo-Hole Project" - after the real-life Project Mohole.
As had been done to a more limited extent on "Doctor Who and the Silurians" earlier in the season, Producer Barry Letts decided to experiment with the recording schedule for "Inferno". Normally, there was one recording day for Doctor Who each week, during which one episode would be recorded. However, Barry Letts decided again that it would be more efficient to record two episodes over two consecutive days on a biweekly basis. This way, sets could be left up overnight, reducing the wear and tear which came from having them taken down and set back up every week. As such this story was made in four distinct recording sessions rather than seven.
After the original director, Douglas Camfield, fell ill, Producer Barry Letts elected to direct the studio blocks for episodes 3-7 himself. As BBC regulations at the time prevented any person from being credited for more than one production role, Douglas Camfield was credited as directing the whole story.
The opening credits for this story were unusual in that following the opening title sequence the story’s title, writer's credit and episode number captions are faded up and focused over a special stock footage montage of volcanic eruptions with no music.
Nicholas Courtney and Caroline John were credited in episode 5 as "Brigade Leader Lethbridge Stewart" and "Section Leader Elizabeth Shaw".
This story marks the first time a Doctor Who story is set in a parallel universe where it is implied that the royal family were executed. The Brigade Leader speaks of the 'Defence of the Republic Act, 1943' and the Party's slogan is 'Unity is Strength'.
The Tenth Doctor also travels to a parallel universe where Great Britain has a president, in the 2006 Cybermen story "Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel". This is not the same parallel universe as its president appears to be in place of a prime minister the Royal cypher of Queen Elizabeth II is visible on the police helmets.
In the parallel world, the name tag on Professor Stahlman's uniform reads ‘Stahlmann’, despite the credits for episode 5 spelling his name as ‘Stahlman’, like his non-fascist counterpart. It is unclear whether the name tag is in error, the credits are in error or was done intentionally as an indication of a further difference between the two universes.
Fan speculation, carried forward in comic strips and original novels, suggest that the dictator may be the parallel version of The Doctor. The Virgin Books' The New Adventures novel "Timewyrm: Revelation" by Paul Cornell states that the dictator was one of the alternative regenerations the Time Lords offered The Doctor in "The War Games".
The rifles used by the UNIT troops in the alternative universe are Soviet Simonov SKSs (forerunners of the Kalashnikov AK-47).
During the scenes set on the parallel Earth, images (supposedly) of the UK's dictatorial leader are seen on posters. The image used is that of Visual Effects Designer Jack Kine, in homage to the 1954 BBC adaptation of "Nineteen Eighty-Four" where the face of Big Brother was Head of Television Design Roy Oxley (Jack Kine had worked on the visual effects for that production).
Bessie travels with The Doctor and the TARDIS console into the parallel universe, despite the fact that it is ten feet away from them - It seems that only those elements that don't already exist on the fascist Earth are transported.
This story marks the last appearance of the original TARDIS console, which had been used on the show since the very first story, " An Unearthly Child". The story shows it removed from the TARDIS and malfunctioning badly.
The Doctor mentions on two occasions that he and The Brigadier had been together for years, although in real life they had been depicted previously together for only one season plus two Second Doctor stories.
"Inferno" has long been the subject of a myth that it was extended with the entire ‘parallel universe’ scenario being added to fill it out to seven episodes. This, however, is untrue, as the only aspect added to the original story outline was the inclusion of the Primord creatures.
The mutant creatures were never actually called Primords in the story, although they were credited as such in the closing credits of the episodes in which they appear and in the publicity material for this story.
Primords were humans mutated by slime produced as a by product of Project Inferno. In some circumstances, the infection could be transmitted if a Primord touched a human and heat would cause the transformation to progress at a more rapid pace. Primords were resistant to gunfire. Their known weaknesses were falls from a great height and rapid application of cold, such as from a fire extinguisher. The degree of intelligence displayed by the Primords was variable; they acted primarily on instinct, but displayed signs of organisation and tactics. They made a high-pitched, screeching sound, which The Doctor claimed that he had heard before during the eruption of Krakatoa in 1883. This could imply that he had encountered (or at least heard of) the creatures before. In the 2005 Ninth Doctor story "Rose" a sketch that washed up on the shores of Sumatra following the eruption was seen, depicting the Ninth Doctor in front of a volcano.
Derek Ware did not actually perform the scene where the mutated RSF Private Wyatt is shot and falls to his death from the top of one of the cooling towers, in case he was injured, as he was also needed for studio recording. His place was taken by Roy Scammell, who strangely also played the RSF sentry who fires the fatal shot. Derek Ware also stated in an interview that Roy Scammell had already signed the contract to do the fall before Ware had been cast as Private Wyatt. At the time it was filmed, the fall was the highest fall ever performed by a British stuntman.
Interestingly this story takes place over five days. However, The Doctor is missing for nearly 48 hours from our world - but only 24 hours seem to pass on the parallel Earth according to the penetration countdown.
The BBC Books The Past Doctors Stories sequel to this story, "The Face of the Enemy" by David A. McIntee, later revealed that despite The Doctor's assumption, the parallel Earth had in fact not disintegrated, but the surface had been devastated beyond recovery. It also implied that many survivors of the disaster had since become Primords.
All seven episodes exist as both 16mm black & white telerecordings, as recovered from BBC Enterprises in 1978, and PAL conversions of NTSC 2" colour videotape as recovered from TV Ontario in Canada in 1985. However, due to the complexities of conversion, the original conversions to 625-line PAL left the picture looking a little blurred and faded when the story was released on VHS in May 1994. When Inferno was released on DVD, in 2006, the picture quality had been markedly enhanced through the use of the "Reverse Standards Conversion" procedure that had previously been used with great success on "The Claws of Axos".
The Canadian videotapes include an additional scene in Episode 5 that was not originally transmitted in the UK, but was retained for overseas screening. Set in the Brigade Leader's office where the survivors listen to a radio broadcast done by Jon Pertwee in the style of Lord Haw Haw, the scene was cut because Jon Pertwee's voice was considered to be too identifiable. It is also interesting to note that the radio announcer names the area where the Inferno project is taking place as being Eastchester; the name is not mentioned anywhere else in the story. The scene was included as an extra on the DVD release, with the episode itself presented exactly as originally transmitted.
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The Firsts:
The first Doctor Who story to be set in a parallel universe.
The first time The Doctor is seen to use Venusian Karate.
The first Doctor Who story to be written by Don Houghton.
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(Position = 14 out of 159)
(Position = 32 out of 200)
