Day 140 — May 20th 2021
Inferno Episodes Five and Six
Inferno — Episode Five
There’s something so brilliantly Doctor Who about having your hero fight off a monster with a fire extinguisher. There’s a through-line from that right the way to the brilliant sequence in The Fires of Pompeii where the Tenth Doctor Who uses a water pistol to fight the Pyrovile, and I love it. I’ve never been a huge fan of the idea that Doctor Who is particularly a pacifist — they seem to do an awful lot of blowing up baddies in all their incarnations — so I love it when they do something a bit unique when backed into a corner.
Tell you what, though, it’s convenient that there’s so many fire extinguishers laying around this place, innit? I don’t think I’ve ever seen one in a Doctor Who base before, so that’s some good luck.
Something else rather brilliant — but for different reasons — is how often they have to explain away the lack of UNIT soldiers when we start heading towards the climax of the stories in this season. I get that they can only afford to hire so many extras, but drawing attention to it so often is more noticeable than just letting us imagine there’s more soldiers just off screen. Today the Brigade Leader explains that ‘The technicians and staff have got away. Most of my security guards have gone with them,’ leaving us with just a handful of characters for the last few instalments.
But this is just a variation on a theme. In The Ambassadors of Death the Brig explained that Carrington had ‘arrested all my men and moved in his own troops’, while in Doctor Who and the Silurians there aren’t UNIT soldiers to hand as ‘the last of’ them have just been sent down into the caves. Off screen, of course…!
Even right at the start of the Season — when the budget was presumably at its highest — they had to come up with an excuse;
Doctor Who: ‘Well, how many men can you raise?’
Brigadier: ‘Just my headquarters staff.’
Doctor Who: ‘Well then, that’ll have to do, won’t it?’
Oh I know it’s a petty thing to point out, but it’s been keeping me amused as we head into the climax of all these stories, and I’m looking forward to keeping track of the excuses as the Pertwee years roll on!
And I’m only being silly because this episode is filled with great dialogue elsewhere. I’m really keen on Sutton rolling his eyes and growing ever more exasperated with the Brigade Leader;
Sutton:’You know it’s marvellous, isn’t it? The world’s going up in flame and they’re still playing at toy soldiers!’
And then there’s Doctor Who’s warning to the people of this universe that they’ve brought about the destruction of the world;
Doctor Who: ‘Compared to the forces that you people have unleashed, an atomic blast would be like a summer breeze…’
It feels fitting that having said goodbye to David Whitaker with the last story — perhaps the writer I’ve always felt wrote some of the best dialogue for the programme — we’re introduced to Don Houghton in with this one, who seems to be a natural successor. It’s a shame that he only did the two stories for the series, as based on what I’ve seen so far he’s definitely a favourite.
He even gets to give us some lovely dialogue about the TARDIS console, which once again proves that the season where Doctor Who can’t use his ship is the home of the best descriptions of it;
Brigade Leader: ‘You expect us to believe that you came here in this?’
Doctor Who: ‘That’s right.’
Section Leader : ‘But this isn’t a vehicle at all!’
Doctor Who: ‘No, but she’s a very important part of one…’
It seems fitting that we should get this dialogue in this story, as it’s the last time the original TARDIS console constructed in 1963 will appear on screen. It’s already looking a little tatty around the edges, and when it next shows up in the middle of Season Eight it’ll be in the form of a brand new replacement. I have to admit that I find it strange that they decided to keep the green colouring of the console — it was only painted that colour to show up better as ‘white’ on black and white televisions — but I also sort of love it, simply because it’s so bizarre.
Another 8/10.
Inferno — Episode Six
I feel like I’ve spent a lot of time during Season Seven praising both Jon Pertwee and Caroline John. And rightly so, because both of them have been brilliant. I’m so pleased to discover that I’ve taken to Pertwee’s Doctor Who right from the off this time around — having waited until his final season to ‘click’ with him during my last marathon — and although I feel like John hasn’t been given enough to do as the sidekick during this series, she’s been brilliant whenever she’s on screen.
I’m sure I once read that John distanced herself from the series for a long time because she thought people were disappointed by her performance, and I’m so glad that she was able to discover just how brilliant we think she is.
But while I’ve been praising those two I’ve rather overlooked the third member of the team in Season Seven. Nicholas Courtney is a real fan favourite, and I think it’s fair to say that pretty much everyone loves the Brigadier. But because Courtney is so dependable and uniformly brilliant it’s all too easy to take his part in the series for granted. He reaches a new high in this episode, playing the part of the Brigade Leader as he realises the world is about to end, and that means he’s facing down his own death. It starts off as little moments in the performance, before he has a full breakdown by the end of the episode, culminating in his being shot;
Petra: ‘Quickly, Doctor. The power won’t last for long.’
Brigade Leader: ‘Long enough. You’re going to take us with you, Doctor.’
Doctor Who: ‘I can’t. It’s impossible.’
Brigade Leader: ‘I advise you to try.’
Doctor Who: ‘I can’t. I literally can’t! It’d create a cosmic disaster.’
Brigade Leader: ‘You’re not going to leave us here!’
Doctor Who: ‘Do you think I want to? I’d give anything to save you all.’
Section Leader: ‘Let him go, Brigade Leader.’
Brigade Leader: ‘We helped him. we’ve every right to go. I’ll give you until three, Doctor. One…’
Doctor Who: ‘You’ll have to shoot me, Brigade Leader. I have no intention of taking you.’
Brigade Leader: ‘Two. Three…’
I’ve been skimming through the Black Archive for The Ambassadors of Death today, and it was their noting of Doctor Who, Liz and the Brigadier as a trio which really made me think about it as such. I’ve never particularly considered the Brigadier to be a companion, and I think I’d still say that now, but I don’t really think Liz is a companion either. She’s more of an assistant, and her relationship with Doctor Who feels different to that of Zoe, or Polly, Jamie or any of the others we’ve had before.
I suspect that it’s part of the programme’s new format — Season Seven feels so unique in Doctor Who’s history, so perhaps it’s no surprise that the characters don’t fit the usual format. I’ll be really interested to see if the introduction of Jo in a couple of days’ time feels more akin to the traditional companions, or if the format of the UNIT stories means we’re changed forever now.
I’ve not said very much about the wolf creatures that have been introduced in the last couple of episodes, but I think they’re brilliant. It helps that I suspect they’re not brilliant. I reckon if my wife were to watch this episode she’d say they look rubbish and wonder how I can take it all seriously. But for whatever reason they’re really effective. A lot of that has to be down to the direction — Camfield gets to shoot them in the film material, including Benton’s transformation in the last episode, which was especially good — and even Letts is doing something interesting with them.
There’s a fantastic shot in this one where one of the creatures stares directly down the camera lens and it’s brilliant.
Part of me wanted to come into this story and be all contrary, tell everyone that Inferno isn’t half as good as everyone says it is and tear it to pieces, but I’ve been really enjoying it. I think there’s a reason it’s always regarded as a classic… Another 8/10.
