Doctor Who: Inferno [DVD]

Classic Who fans don't require reviews of these stories we've grown up watching them all. For younger Who fans who never witnessed the classic years and want to try some old Who these sort of stories for me are great. Forget the effects watch and appreciate how clever the stories and writing are - Pertwee is in my opinion the best Doctor and this story is superb - The Doctor has been exiled to Earth since Spearhead from Space and wants to escape so is constantly messing about with the TARDIS console - on this occasion he is using power from a nuclear power station which is in process of trying to create unlimited power for the World, something goes wrong and as the Doctor is trying an experiment the power gets switched off while he is in the time vortex - he wakes up in a hostile parallel universe where there are doubles of everybody from the universe he actually comes from. The Brigadier in this universe isn't very pleasant and Nick Courtney plays both his roles brilliantly - the World is heading for Armageddon and the Doctor needs to find a way to get back to his Universe to warn his Brigadier, Liz Shaw and the stubborn Professor Stahlman - A brilliant story and if you love Doctor Who this is a must especially if you've never seen it.

This is the last story for Jon Pertwee in his first year as the Doctor and the last story for Caroline John as Liz Shaw as in Jon Second series he gets a new companion Jo Grant, but until then he has to contend with a secret drilling project that if having gone down enough through the Earth's crust disaster will strike.The Doctor fed up of nobody taking any interest into stopping the project decides to work on the console from his Tardis and in doing so with enough power from the Nuclear Power Plant manages to dematerialize but ends up transporting him to a parallel earth, same place but very different changes the Brigadier is now called Brigade Leader with an eye patch and a scar, Liz Shaw no longer a scientist but working for Brigade Leader and wearing a uniform and a black wig and Sgt Benton meaning very mean and nasty with Doctor when he is being interrogated when they think he is a spy.This Parallel Earth has already drilled through the earth's crust and is starting to wipe out the people, with everything the Doctor has learnt in this world has to try and get back to prevent the same thing happening and stopping events before being destroyed, The Doctor has to get back to change Project Inferno which is almost complete so he doesn't witness the end of the world all over again.This is great for all of the main cast and guest actors to show their ability of switching from being one character trait in one world then doing a complete u-turn and showed they could do anything when asked of them.This is one for the fans to see a different Nicholas Courtney portray Brigade Leader and being super mean and evil, no wonder it was his favourite story.There is commentary and all the usual extras with documentaries including cast and crew on the making of the story and part one of a special feature all about the UNIT family.This is a must have for anyone interested in classic who and to complete your collection.Next time we see the parallel world would be in New Who Under Showrunner Russell T Davis.

Inferno is a brilliant story, well presented with just enough twists and turns to keep excitement levels high and to make this a fun ride. This was a serial of which I was unaware as a young teen in the mid to late `70s. At the time the only way you could experience the thrill of Jon Pertwee's Doctor stories, apart from very sporadic omnibus showings that you just happened to hear about, was via Target's brilliant novelisations. (I loved these so much that at the end of 1978 phoned in to Capital Radio to tell them that buying them was the best thing that I could remember about the year!) To my knowledge Target didn't issue Inferno as a novel, so my first experience of this early story is this DVD and I've had a great time with it. There are some genuinely exciting and, dare I say it from behind my sofa, scary moments and the actors all seem to be having a whale of a time, with some great monster transformations- especially by John Levene- and the HAVOC team serve up some wonderfully over the top stunts. It's a shame that Caroline John didn't have longer in the role of Liz Shaw, she really comes into her own in this story.Wonderful fun; one of the best Dr Who stories ever.

This special edition of the season 7 story, is well worth the upgrade in my opinion. Everyone who knows the story will testify that season 7 is one of the best DW years, all four stories in the season are great, but Inferno just has the edge over the others for me. The picture quality is light years better than the 2006 DVD release. I haven't viewed the extras yet, but all the original extras have been ported across. Well worth the money, which is a paltry £6.50 on Amazon. I recommend anyone who hasn't bought this SE version, buy it you won't regret it.

The 1970's rule in this episode from Doctor Who. A clever twist on parallel worlds. There is much to enjoy the episodes which make up inferno. There is room for the actors and characters to breath and to create two different worlds each with an outcome deoendent on each other. Sit back, relax and enjoy a classic Dr Who episode. Well worth the watch and well worth the admission price.