UNIT is providing security for an experimental drilling project designed to penetrate the Earth’s crust. The recently exiled Doctor, played by an impeccably dressed Jon Pertwee, is on hand to advise and hopefully abscond with something to fix his broken TARDIS. Complications in the form of mutants and green goo arise and the Doctor is transported to a parallel Earth where a similar experiment is in the advance stages of blowing up the planet.
Inferno is considered not only to be one of the most popular stories in Doctor Who, but also one of the bleakest. And it’s not hard to see why. It’s rare to have a story where the Doctor is completely out of his depth. As things literally begin to heat up on parallel Earth, Pertwee is superb as he allows the cracks to surface on his usual defiant bravado.
As well as a restored version of the story, the DVD release contains the usual quality commentaries, informative trivia tracks and hit and miss featurettes. Of particular interest is Lost in the Dark Dimension; a candid look at the lengths fans went, including suing the BBC, to get the show back on air after its cancellation in 1989.
This review was originally published in Filmink.
John Noonan 