I must admit, I’m not a big fan of Jon Pertwee’s portrayal of Doctor Who (he is the third one, in case you aren’t familiar enough with the show).  He is way too flamboyant for such a great character. Gay, if you will. I think the cape gives it away. Personally, I feel Pertwee was better at playing Worzel Gummidge, a popular British children’s TV show character from the 70s – and I have a hard time seeing him as anything different.

Additionally, the storylines from that era were hampered by severe budget cuts, really awful popular trends, and bad special effects, made even worse with the introduction of colour (new for Doctor Who during this time). The BBC proved they were even more powerful than the Time Lords, by taking away the TARDIS. Stranding the Doctor on Earth is like taking spaceships away from Star Trek, or lightsabers from Star Wars. Or water from fish. It doesn’t work at all.

However, the Doctor has some great companions during this period, my favourite of which is Brigadier Alastair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart. Or just “The Brigadier”, as he would be known to fans throughout his very long association with the Doctor. He’s like an olderbrother. Yeah, he can be mean, but he’ll have your back in a fight. The chemistry between him and the Doctor is worth watching, no matter how bad any particular story. 

So, with that, I sat down to watch Inferno, one of the highest rated stories from the Pertwee era. I swear people were doing too many drugs in the early ‘70s, because I can’t imagine what people didn’t watch. This story is awful. It also wasn’t meant to be watched in a single sitting. 

The plot is simple: a mad scientist has convinced the British government he can solve the energy crisis by digging 28 (give or take) miles through the crust and into a pocket of natural gas. Of course, there are always dire consequences when someone dreams up a solution to an energy crisis. In this case, it’s green werewolves running around and the potential to end life on Earth (how? Well, the title of the story hints at that).

The Doctor realizes this before anyone else (as usual). However, before he can do anything about it, he’s whisked away into a parallel dimension, where exactly the same mad scientist is digging to the exact same pocket of gas. Except, here the government is fascist, and the people digging the hole are slightly faster at it. The green werewolves are wreaking havoc here as well. 

So, what’s not to like? Well, it’s a 7 part storyline – far too long for a decent Who story (where the average was 4 parts). The stupid green werewolves (the BBC’s website calls them “Primords”, but I prefer “Stupid Green Werewolves”, because they are, well, stupid) are completely silly, and useless (and just a bit too easy to eliminate). The mad scientist has way too much power for someone in his position. The Brigadier could squish this guy with his left testicle – but doesn’t. The Doctor cares as little about the story as we should, and is too busy fixing the TARDIS console (hang on, how did he get to keep this?) to care enough about anything going on. Of course, this brings me to my next point. The Doctor is stranded on Earth without a TARDIS, yet manages to twiddle enough with the console (the steering wheel of his time machine) to travel to a different dimension with it. So what the Hell is the rest of the TARDIS needed for? I’m sure this is answered in an earlier or later episode - but for the sake of this story, it’s just bad scriptwriting.

So, is there something to like? Of course. The parallel dimension sub-plot is sublime, where established characters get turned upside down, and it’s just plain fun. Seeing the Brigadier futz around with an eye patch while getting squeamish at the sight of seeing his world come to an end is a joy. There’s a decent attempt to educate the audience about energy conservation, and the “technology vs. nature” debate is at the centre of this story. According to the BBC, this is the last time the original TARDIS console prop was used in the series, and there’s an inside joke about where it ended up at the very end of this story. 

How does it look?
As usual, the people working hard on these Who DVDs love what they do. The quality of the transfer is probably better than what most people saw in the early ‘70s (if, in fact, they even had colour TVs). Inferno was sourced from a US master, not a BBC master (which was destroyed), and so therefore won’t ever look as good as it could have. It’s not perfect, but you’re an idiot if you can find fault with the quality of the DVD, yet have no problem with green werewolves running around an abandoned factory. 

How does it sound?
Again, perfectly adequate. No use of surrounds or LFE, but come on, it’s Doctor Who. 

Extras
Ah, the joy of a 2 disc Doctor Who set. Sure, there’s the typical commentary on disc 1, which goes something like this: 

Producer person: ah, look, there’s Jerry…remember him? I caught him eating an egg sandwich behind the camera one time…what a nice chap.

Actor/actress: look at those clothes. Oh, who was the costume designer? She was wonderful. Oh yes, it was Betty. I remember working again with her on [insert Shakespeare play here].

Producer person: I can’t remember this scene at all

Actor/actress: Look how skinny I was. 

And on it goes. I’ve only ever enjoyed the Tom Baker commentary tracks, which are hilarious, because Bakes doesn’t have a clue what’s going on. The rest of the participants just want to drop names and recall useless anecdotes about dead crew members. I didn’t listen to very much of this track, so I could be proven wrong. 

As for Disc 2, there’s a bunch of great stuff.  There’s a making-of featurette, which would have been more enjoyable had I actually liked the story. However, it’s very informative, and fun to watch. There’s also a fantastic documentary about UNIT, the organization the Doctor joins after being stranded on Earth. It’s only part one of a series, and is a great introduction to the characters and events that involve this extended family of the series. 

There’s also a deleted scene, which is unintentionally hilarious, and gladly left out of the finished story. A short film promoting the BBC special effects department is also funny, but for all the wrong reasons. It’s worth watching, if only to be thankful that you live in 2006. I’m a big fan of the included Doctor Who annuals on these Who DVDs (accessed via a PC only, as it’s a PDF file). As a kid, I collected many annuals (not just Doctor Who), and this brings backs many memories. I’m not sure this as popular to US Who fans, who – I take it – didn’t grow up wanting to find a pile of annuals in their Christmas presents. 

The Bottom Line
So, overall, if you’re a fan of Doctor Who, you shouldn’t even be reading this. Just rent the damn thing already. I can’t justify buying it, because I’m not a fan of this Doctor. I grew up with Tom Baker’s rendition, and can find very little fault with his adventures (even if some of them are as bad, if not worse than Inferno). These earlier adventures are not nostalgic for me, and so I’m more aware of the faults of BBC budget cuts. This particular adventure would have been much better had the green monsters been left out altogether, or perhaps if the plot had focused on the alternate Earth. Or…well, you get the idea. It’s just another so-so Doctor Who DVD that I’ll probably never watch again. However, this particular story has its fans (it has many 5-star ratings on Amazon.com, for instance), and it’s great to see the BBC putting quite a bit of effort into releasing a DVD like this. I loved the extras on Disc 2, and can’t wait for more 2-disc sets like this. Only, I hope next time, it’s a Tom Baker episode.