Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4453 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-06-19
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 167 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
An experiment gone awry sends the Doctor (Jon Pertwee) to a parallel universe where his friends and companions are members of a fascist regime in this thrilling and popular episode from the long-running science fiction series Doctor Who. Inferno is the name of a project designed to drill into the Earth's core and release a powerful energy source called Stahlman's Gas; what's yielded instead is an insidious substance that transforms men into monsters. The resulting chaos interrupts the Doctor's travel in the TARDIS and knocks him into an alternate Earth run by a military dictatorship, and where Project Inferno's progress threatens to bring about an apocalypse. This seven-part story arc from 1970 is a high-water mark for the already superb Pertwee-era Doctor, a tense, imaginative adventure that evokes the U.K.'s chilling Quatermass TV productions and movies in its mix of science fiction and horror. Fans will particularly appreciate the opportunities afforded to longtime Who supporting players Nicholas Courtney (as the Brigadier) and Caroline John (as the Doctor's companion Liz) to step outside their usual roles and essay memorably villainous turns as their parallel-Earth selves.

The double-disc presentation of Inferno offers the by-now-standard wealth of extras, including commentary by Courtney, script editor Terrance Dicks, producer/director Barry Letts, and co-star John Levene (Sgt. Benton) and lengthy featurettes on the making of the story and the UNIT brigade during Pertwee's tenure (the latter featuring interviews with much of the supporting cast and crew). A short deleted scene from the episode (featuring Pertwee in a rare second turn as the voice of a radio announcer), a promo film for the BBC Visual Effects Department (which features clips from the Who stories Ambassadors of Death, Caves of Steel, and a missing episode from Doomwatch), and PDF files of the 1971 Doctor Who Annual and Radio Times round out the supplemental features. --Paul Gaita

Synopsis
John Pertwee stars as the Doctor, who is called to Earth to oversee the secret drilling operation conducted by mad scientist Stahlman.

Customer Reviews

One of The Best Doctor Whos?
I recall seeing the first transmission of this superb series and always believed it to be one of the very best of Doctor Who. Now, thanks to the wonders of DVD, it can be seen by a wider audience and a new generation of Doctor Who fans. A drilling operation is being conducted on a research centre which goes horribly wrong. The Doctor, wonderfully played by the late Jon Pertwee, finds himself in an alternative Universe struggling to convince the scientists that what they are doing could destroy the earth. The alternative universe is run by the military, brash and uncompromising, unwilling to listen to the doctors warnings. The scenes here have to be seen to be believed. Both Nicholas Courtney and the lovely Caroline John play their respective counter parts wonderfully well. It is only when the doctor emerges back in the normal Universe that the action really excites to a brilliant ending. A great series all around. And to make it much better for viewers, numerous extras abound on disc 2 which will keep not only fans, but television historians glued to the screen for hours. Sadly, it was Caroline John's last appearance in Doctor Who, so its one to treasure. During her interview, she reveals the reasons why she left the series, and it was not difficult to notice that her leaving did have an emotional effect on her.

As for the Picture, it is good, but not brilliant, although sound in a Home Cinema system is more than adequate.

One of those great Doctor Who series you should not miss.

Wolfmen Attack!!!
Long ago there was a time were the Doctor was a man, a serious man, he acted like a dignified hero and not like an over excited teenager that's just got a new Raleigh Grifter, That's a little Jib at David Tennant by the by. Ah gone are those days but we can still take a peak with BBC's DVD releases and this one, Inferno is an absolute gem, Yes it's from a different time, 1970, with different standards in special effect and production but if you're the kind of person that doesn't have the imagination to see beyond the clunky unconvincing special effects you've no business watching it.
This 7 parter tells the story of a British government sponsored Drilling experiment, The rather obtuse Scientist in charge believes that drilling through the earths crust would tap into reserves of a super gas that could cheaply fuel the UK for years to come, The Doctors involved as an adviser and as far as the chief scientist is concerned an unwelcome one, Whilst tinkering with his own experiment off activating the Tardis's Main console he quickly becomes concerned by the drilling and the sudden appearance of members of staff who after coming in contact with a mysterious green Goo have turned into bizarre green versions of Lon Chaney Jr. Later whilst the Doctor is using the Tardis console he accidentally gets transported to a parallel universe, in this universe the drilling experiment is under way in a UK governed by a 1984 Big Brother style government. In this parallel UK they successfully drill through the earths crust unleashing all sorts of bad stuff, bad stuff like the world blowing up, The doctor of course escapes back to his own universe to prevent the drilling and the same thing happening to his UK.
The Lon Chaney jr monsters running around are obviously an after thought, you get the impression they probably wrote it and thought " Bugger we've no monsters, here's 50p!! , down the corner shop and get some Green poster paint and a wolfman mask", never the less this really doesn't detract from the story, it adds a little excitement, even if it is a little bewildering. There are a few other flaws, not massive ones, I accuse myself of petty niggling to even think of them, just ignore all that and enjoy!, enjoy a ripping good Dr Who story from a time that's lost to us, savour it.

Special mention has to go to the Doctors assistant Caroline John who ( Shock horror) unlike Katy manning can Actually act!!.

Spectacular: The best of Doctor Who
This was one of the first classic Doctor Who episodes I watched, and after viewing more than 40 others, this is still my favourite.

The Doctor is being provided with the means to experiment with his TARDIS console in exchange for him working as a scientific advisor at a drilling project. But when he goes into a parallel universe using his TARDIS, he discovers the horrors that will take place if the drilling on our world isn't stopped...

This episode is fantastic. It was the last episode to be recorded without incidental music, but the ever present sound of the drill reminds us constantly of the danger the Earth is in.

If I had to point out one bad point of this story, it would be that LIz does an awful lot of running between the drill and the Doctor's hut, even in the parallel universe. However, the acting is superb, and although the sound effects of the monsters aren't very convincing, it still deserves five stars.

My final point is that the cliffhanger to episode six is the best I have ever seen in Doctor Who.