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Inferno (Doctor Who)
Encyclopedia
Don Houghton came to Terrence Dicks with an idea for the story based on the real life Project Mohole
. A smaller budget for the serial drove the idea of a parallel world, where the studio could use the same actors in multiple roles. Despite Douglas Camfield
receiving sole credit as director, Episodes 3-7 were directed by producer Barry Letts
after Camfield had a minor heart attack on April 27, 1970. Letts later stated that Camfield's preparations were so meticulous, that he just followed the other man's plans anyway. Camfield remained credited as director, as BBC regulations at the time forbade any person from being credited for more than one production role, and they did not want Camfield's illness to become widely known, lest it harm his career.
Derek Ware did not actually perform the scene where the mutated RSF Trooper 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 also played the soldier who fires the fatal shot. Ware also stated in an interview that Scammell had already signed the contract to do the fall before Ware had been cast as Wyatt. At the time it was filmed, the fall was the highest fall ever performed by a British stuntman. John Levene's portrayal of Benton as a Primord was inspired by Richard III
(so nicknamed because of the Primord creature's hump).
Caroline John enjoyed her role as Section Leader Elizabeth Shaw and says that it was fun playing "fascist" Liz. She also says she hated doing the scenes when she was playing the normal 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.
During the scenes set on the parallel Earth, images (supposedly) of the British Republic'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
(Kine had worked on the visual effects for that production).
Episode 6 has a small damaged section on the domestically recorded videotape, which the Doctor Who Restoration Team
replaced by painstakingly recolouring the appropriate section of the existing b/w film recording.
, though little was commissioned for this particular programme; it included: "Blue Veils & Golden Sands", "The Delian Mode" (both by Delia Derbyshire
) & "TARDIS Control On & Warp Transfer" (Brian Hodgson
).
in The Talons of Weng-Chiang
and Colonel Hugh Curbishley in The Unicorn and the Wasp
. He also played Tardelli in the audio play Grand Theft Cosmos
.
The role of Petra was given to Sheila Dunn after Kate O'Mara
was not available to play the part. O'Mara would, years later, be cast as the Rani
, a renegade Time Lord. Dunn was the wife of this story's director, Douglas Camfield.
Derek Newark had previously played Za in An Unearthly Child
.
, was published by Target Books
in June 1984.
Project Mohole
Project Mohole was an ambitious attempt to drill through the Earth's crust into the Mohorovičić discontinuity, and to provide an Earth science complement to the high profile Space Race. The project was initially led by the American Miscellaneous Society with funding from the National Science...
. A smaller budget for the serial drove the idea of a parallel world, where the studio could use the same actors in multiple roles. Despite Douglas Camfield
Douglas Camfield
Douglas Gaston Sydney Camfield was an accomplished director for television from the 1960s to the 1980s. His programme credits include Z-Cars, Paul Temple, Van der Valk, The Sweeney, Shoestring, The Professionals, Out of the Unknown, The Nightmare Man, the BBC dramatisation of Beau Geste and...
receiving sole credit as director, Episodes 3-7 were directed by producer Barry Letts
Barry Letts
Barry Leopold Letts was a British actor, television director, writer and producer best known for his work on the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who, and for producing the BBC's Sunday Classic drama serials in the late 1970s and early 1980s...
after Camfield had a minor heart attack on April 27, 1970. Letts later stated that Camfield's preparations were so meticulous, that he just followed the other man's plans anyway. Camfield remained credited as director, as BBC regulations at the time forbade any person from being credited for more than one production role, and they did not want Camfield's illness to become widely known, lest it harm his career.
Derek Ware did not actually perform the scene where the mutated RSF Trooper 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 also played the soldier who fires the fatal shot. Ware also stated in an interview that Scammell had already signed the contract to do the fall before Ware had been cast as Wyatt. At the time it was filmed, the fall was the highest fall ever performed by a British stuntman. John Levene's portrayal of Benton as a Primord was inspired by Richard III
Richard III (play)
Richard III is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1591. It depicts the Machiavellian rise to power and subsequent short reign of Richard III of England. The play is grouped among the histories in the First Folio and is most often classified...
(so nicknamed because of the Primord creature's hump).
Caroline John enjoyed her role as Section Leader Elizabeth Shaw and says that it was fun playing "fascist" Liz. She also says she hated doing the scenes when she was playing the normal 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.
During the scenes set on the parallel Earth, images (supposedly) of the British Republic'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
Nineteen Eighty-Four (TV programme)
Nineteen Eighty-Four is a British television adaptation of the novel of the same name by George Orwell, originally broadcast on BBC Television in December 1954. The production proved to be hugely controversial, with questions asked in Parliament and many viewer complaints over its supposed...
where the face of Big Brother
Big Brother (1984)
Big Brother is a fictional character in George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. He is the enigmatic dictator of Oceania, a totalitarian state taken to its utmost logical consequence – where the ruling Party wields total power for its own sake over the inhabitants.In the society that Orwell...
was Head of Television Design Roy Oxley
Roy Oxley
Roy Oxley was a production designer at BBC television who became famous after the BBC chose him to model for a photo to be shown during their adaptation of George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty Four....
(Kine had worked on the visual effects for that production).
Episode 6 has a small damaged section on the domestically recorded videotape, which the Doctor Who Restoration Team
Doctor Who Restoration Team
The Doctor Who Restoration Team is a loose collection of Doctor Who fans, many within the television industry, who restore Doctor Who episodes for release on DVD....
replaced by painstakingly recolouring the appropriate section of the existing b/w film recording.
Music
Music for this episode was made by BBC Radiophonic WorkshopBBC Radiophonic Workshop
The BBC Radiophonic Workshop, one of the sound effects units of the BBC, was created in 1958 to produce effects and new music for radio, and was closed in March 1998, although much of its traditional work had already been outsourced by 1995. It was based in the BBC's Maida Vale Studios in Delaware...
, though little was commissioned for this particular programme; it included: "Blue Veils & Golden Sands", "The Delian Mode" (both by Delia Derbyshire
Delia Derbyshire
Delia Ann Derbyshire was an English musician and composer of electronic music and musique concrète. She is best known for her electronic realisation of Ron Grainer's theme music to the British science fiction television series Doctor Who and for her work with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.-Early...
) & "TARDIS Control On & Warp Transfer" (Brian Hodgson
Brian Hodgson
Brian Hodgson is a British television composer and sound technician. Born in Liverpool in 1938, Hodgson joined the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in 1962 where he became the original sound effects creator for the science fiction programme Doctor Who...
).
Cast notes
Christopher Benjamin, who plays Sir Keith Gold, also played Henry Gordon JagoHenry Gordon Jago
Henry Gordon Jago was a character who appeared in the 1977 Doctor Who television serial, The Talons of Weng-Chiang. He was played by Christopher Benjamin. He worked so well with Trevor Baxter's character, Professor George Litefoot, the production team briefly considered giving them their own...
in The Talons of Weng-Chiang
The Talons of Weng-Chiang
The Talons of Weng-Chiang is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 26 February to 2 April 1977.-Synopsis:...
and Colonel Hugh Curbishley in The Unicorn and the Wasp
The Unicorn and the Wasp
"The Unicorn and the Wasp" is the 7th episode in the revised fourth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was aired by BBC One on 17 May 2008 at 19:00. Perhaps due to its later broadcast, it received an overnight audience rating of 7.7 million, making it the...
. He also played Tardelli in the audio play Grand Theft Cosmos
Grand Theft Cosmos
Grand Theft Cosmos is an audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. This audio drama was produced by Big Finish Productions.-Cast:*The Doctor — Paul McGann*Lucie Miller — Sheridan Smith...
.
The role of Petra was given to Sheila Dunn after Kate O'Mara
Kate O'Mara
Kate O'Mara is an English film, stage and television actress. She is perhaps most widely known for her role as Caress Morell, the scheming sister of Alexis Colby in the 1980s American primetime soap opera Dynasty, though is also known for playing other villains such as The Rani in Doctor Who and...
was not available to play the part. O'Mara would, years later, be cast as the Rani
Rani (Doctor Who)
The Rani is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. She was played by Kate O'Mara. The word "Rani" means "queen" in the Urdu and Hindi languages and "The Rani" follows the naming convention for other renegade timelords, "The Doctor," "The Monk," "The War...
, a renegade Time Lord. Dunn was the wife of this story's director, Douglas Camfield.
Derek Newark had previously played Za in An Unearthly Child
An Unearthly Child
The serial that became An Unearthly Child was originally commissioned from writer Anthony Coburn in June 1963, when it was intended to run as the second Doctor Who serial. At this stage, it was planned that the series would open with a serial entitled The Giants, to be written by BBC staff...
.
In print
A novelisation of this serial, written by Terrance DicksTerrance Dicks
Terrance Dicks is an English writer, best known for his work in television and for writing a large number of popular children's books during the 1970s and 80s.- Early career :...
, was published by Target Books
Target Books
Target Books was a British publishing imprint, established in 1973 by Universal-Tandem Publishing Co Ltd, a paperback publishing company. The imprint was established as a children's imprint to complement the adult Tandem imprint, and became well known for their highly successful range of...
in June 1984.
VHS and DVD releases
- The original 625-line PALPALPAL, short for Phase Alternating Line, is an analogue television colour encoding system used in broadcast television systems in many countries. Other common analogue television systems are NTSC and SECAM. This page primarily discusses the PAL colour encoding system...
videotapes were wiped for reuse in the mid 1970s. BBC Enterprises retained the b/w film recordings made for overseas sales. In 1985, a set of 525-line NTSCNTSCNTSC, named for the National Television System Committee, is the analog television system that is used in most of North America, most of South America , Burma, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, and some Pacific island nations and territories .Most countries using the NTSC standard, as...
videotapes were returned from CanadaCanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. 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 VHSVHSThe Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
in May 1994 in the UK. When Inferno was released on Region 2 DVDDVDA DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
on 19 June 2006, however, the picture quality had been markedly enhanced through the use of the "Reverse Standards ConversionReverse Standards ConversionReverse Standards Conversion or RSC is a process developed by a team led by James Insell at the BBC for the restoration of video recordings which have already been converted between different video standards using early conversion techniques....
" procedure. - The Canadian videotapes include an additional scene in Episode 5 that was not originally transmitted in the UK, but was retained for overseas screening (and has also appeared on both the UK Gold transmissions and the BBC Video release). 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 Pertwee's voice was 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 (using the b/w film recording for reference when editing).
- The final episode of this story was also issued on the VHS release The Pertwee Years along with the final episodes of both The DæmonsThe DæmonsThe Dæmons is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in five weekly parts from May 22 to June 19, 1971.-Plot:...
and Frontier in SpaceFrontier in SpaceFrontier in Space is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from February 24 to March 31, 1973...
.
External links
Reviews
- Inferno reviews at Outpost GallifreyOutpost GallifreyOutpost Gallifrey was a fan website for the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was active as a complete fan site from 1995 until 2007, then existing solely as a portal to the still-active parts of the site, including its news page and forums Outpost Gallifrey was a fan website...