There is a "deleted scene" on the DVD -that was removed from U.K. transmission, included "overseas" -in a letter episode, a voice from a radio was done by Jon Pertwee,...it was thought to be too obvious. this indicates which copy you view. The video tapes, in color, were returned from Canada, reconverted for U.K. transmission. When this was shown on American PBS in the later 80's, it was only the second story to be in color, for Pertwee, after "Spearhead" as the previous two stories were monochrome film copy only, then.
Always thought the primords bore a striking resemblance to Oddbod from Carry On Screaming😅. That aside, as others have said, Inferno is top tier Dr Who.
Fantastic episode in which many elements appear in 'Phineas & Ferb: Across the 2nd Dimension'. Creators Daniel Povenmire and Jeff Marsh are huge Dr.Who fans.
Yeah, Inferno just whizzes along. I remember the first time I saw it in the '80s, I saw it all edited together into a "movie" version, and other than a brief break to get some pecan pie, I watched it all in one sitting, all 2 hours and 40 minutes. It feels like a dark thrill ride. It started with singing and whistling and everyone's happy and it thankfully ends happy, but everything in between is super dark.
I love that the specificity that despite watching it in the 80's, you can still remember it was pecan pie that you stopped for. Doctor Who memories embedded in our brains!
Two notable lasts for this story..1)This is the last classic Who story to feature stock music as opposed to an individual composer and 2)This is the last story to feature the original TARDIS console seen way back in the first story in 1963.
And the music, mostly by the wonderful Delia Derbyshire, who created the original theme song, is bloody terrifying. It's one of the things about Inferno that makes it creepy.
@@MichaelPhillipsatGreyOwlStudio Blue Veils and Golden Sands is the title of one piece and another is called The Delian Mode,in fact she wrote Blue Veils originally as the incidental music for an episode of the documentary series The World About Us.
@@derrenlodge6502 Delian Mode is one of the eeriest pieces of music I've ever heard. Blue Veils and Golden Sands is the one that is used when Professor Stahlman is trying to find somewhere to smash the computer circuit. It really sets an eerie tone as well, and I love the way it instantly stops when the Doctor bursts in on him. It suggests that Stahlman is under a spell that is briefly broken by the Doctor's appearance.
This series was heavily influenced by the series Doomwatch which was running the same time and had become very popular. It featured stories of modern technologies going wrong. The first one had a virus that ate plastic. This was also ran during a period of British television that favoured the down beat ending. The series UFO springs to mind.
The reason it was set in the 1980's was to serve as a prophetic warning. Imagine today's Doctor only having adventures in the year 2034...that's the idea. But this concept has been lost on modern fandom; the show wasn't just about "monsters" it was very social and political, every story a warning of what could happen IF we weren't careful.
Yes it was originally set in the 80's but future writers also didn't think of it. There are a few instances where the Doctor or Unit personnel make a comment hinting it was in the 70's. Doomwatch also took that position of warning. This was the first wave of the eco warrior.
@@colinbayley6764 Every story was social and political in its subtext. There were stories about the consequences of war, pollution and damage to the environment, social justice, hate. The writers knew what they were doing - here's an alien trapped on Earth, and he's solving apocalyptic problems for humanity ten years in the future.
If you are fond of series 7, as I am, it might be worth checking out Doomwatch. The style of series 7 are very similar and a lot of the plots in Doomwatch could quite easily have been series 7 Dr Who plots. No other series of Dr Who ever had the same tone again.
It’s great from the get go. The poll’s aren’t wrong. Easily the best 3rd Doc story and a top 10 all time story contender. Magnificent stuff. And yeah the noise of the drill definitely adds to the intensity as everyone has to shout over it
Don Houghton also wrote the last 2 Christopher Lee Hammer Dracula movies, Dracula AD 1972 and The Satanic Rites Of Dracula (although Lee refused to speak most of his lines such as “I am the apocalypse.” I was 7 when I watched Inferno in 1970 and it both enthralled and terrified me. The feral-transforming maintenance engineer Harry Slocombe (husband of Mrs Slocombe of Are You Being Served? Now there’s a franchise mashup) is played by Walter Randall, who previously played El Akir in The Crusaders and Tuthmos, head of the pyramid gang in The Dalek Masterplan.
5:45 of course Shelia Dunn was under a bit of strain this story with her husband Douglas Camfield having a heart attack during production (after location filming and recording of eps 1 & 2) 8:23 Wrong spelling there! Only one g in Mega. The archival holdings for this one are a lot better than the previous two. The NTSC copies survive for all episodes, however 70s standards conversions were rather crude so they had to do a special method (RSC) for the first DVD release. The second DVD release actually combines the colour from the RSC process with the 16mm B&W telerecordings that also survive. The images are match together using the chroma dot method that the Ambassadors DVD uses and the final product is a significant improvement over the first DVD release.
I think it was a reaction to his heart medication rather than a heart attack, but he directed all of the location shooting and then episodes 1-2 before the incident, and then Barry Letts took over the directing. Just goes to show how good Letts was. The result is seamless, you'd never know.
@@MichaelPhillipsatGreyOwlStudio Never heard the medication explanation, where did you heard that? If I'm being critical, I feel you can tell a difference in direction for the last couple/few of episodes. It's just not quite as dynamic. Far from bad, just not quite as good. Letts used Camfield's camera scripts for eps 3 and 4.
At this point in time - and for the next season as well - the sound effects were played in live as they had been since 1963, just like live television from whence all production techniques sprang.
@@TheShallowProclamation I don't know this for sure but based on the fact that the music this season is either stock, or thematic as opposed to being reactive, this "may" have been the last season in which the music was also played in live, again as per television techniques used since 1936 at Alexandra Palace.
Yes I think someone else said that from now on (or at least soon) that would all change. Incredible that you can map technological changes like that just through Doctor Who.
It’s a measure of the quality of Season 7 that Inferno is the story I would rate lowest, despite it being another quality offering. The bleak, gritty industrial aesthetic that so characterises the season is present and correct, and Douglas Camfield provides typically excellent direction, but for me this one feels a bit more overstretched at seven episodes than the two previous stories. It would prove to be the show’s last ever seven parter, and the last story to have its own special pre-title sequence, ending an occasional tradition that began with The War Machines. The volcano footage had indeed been used in Enemy of the World. The guy with the moustache who turns into a Primord is played by Walter Randall, who had been in The Aztecs and was a favourite of Camfield’s, subsequently turning up in The Crusade, The Daleks’ Master Plan and The Invasion. Sheila Dunn also had small roles in the latter two stories, but her husband turned up the nepotism here by giving her a much bigger part. In fairness, she plays it well…
The actor playing Harry Slocum is Walter Randall,who you have already seen in The Aztecs and The Invasion(Packer!...)and will turn up again later in Who
Question for the Season 7 video: How surprised are you both at how quickly you adjusted to the grounding of the Doctor, turning adventures in Space and Time into Issues on 'Present Day' Earth?
Can’t afford Patreon in the current economic climate (versus eating or keeping warm) but for those who can, you could do new reactions to all the stories you’ve previously reacted to - but in the language of interpretive dance. The Space Pirates or The Gunfighters would require some nifty choreography, methinks. 😉😂
If this one ultimately turns out to be a letdown, don't let that silly fan poll make you believe everything made afterward is utter tosh, cuz it's not 😊. You'd think 100% of people would hate polls for that reason alone! 🤪 P.s. about "Green Slime", that's also a fun yet bland movie from 1968 costarring the Bond Girl from "Thunderball"
The length of this story for me is the only detractor. I love it, but prefer some of the later 4 parters. Pertwee's era is really the point where the show is transitioning into I guess what I see as the perfect era - mostly only 4 part stories. The pacing of the stories too picks up during Pertwee, though we do still have some slower stories, or repetitive ones. Going to embarrass myself here again and say - I think it was Uncle Terry who said that the problem with 6 parters was the tendency to have the capture, escape, repeat theme going on. Some 6 parters worked around it, but once you are aware of it, it sticks out like a sore thumb. (Frontier in Space being the prime example...) But yes - this is a great story! First parallel world in WHO.
A rare trip into the concept of parallel time (an alternative present or future caused by the past going different than we knew it)...rare in scifi in general 🎩
Season Seven Overview Question: Having seen 7 years of adventuring and 54 stories at this point - which individual Story would you chose to re-watch for pleasure on a rainy bank holiday afternoon? Inferno - this isn't going to be a popular comment, but I find it a real slog to get through this story after this first episode. I'll explain why later, when we get to the crux of the plot.
You know, as we were watching it last night the Pertwee Years video came into my mind and I wondered if it had included a whole episode from Inferno. I wasn't sure as it seemed strange to include a whole episode from a story that was complete and already available on VHS 📼. But your comment confirms it.
Great story, but IMHO there’s just a little bit too much padding in episodes 5 and 6. But other people seem to disagree. Interesting to see what you think when we get there. BTW the actor playing Greg Sutton was a caveman in An Unearthly Child. Amazing what difference modern clothes make!
I kind of see what you mean about the padding, all that stuff about getting the power through, etc., but at the same time, it never feels padded to me because it's so intense.
Haven’t watched yet. I'm actually nervous. This is my all time favourite story in the Whoniverse. Treat it kindly. 😄I trust your impeccable judgement except for The Chase and The Krotons. 😉
