Inferno is a seven parter, so it can be hard going. But it has the amazing novelty of the alternative totalitarian Earth where the Brigadier is a Brigade leader and everyone behaves a little harder and nastier than in the ‘real’ world. It is an ambitious project that stands up well as a storyline but has perhaps lost a little impact with the passage of time.

9/10

Commentary

Commentary is by Nicholas Courteney, (the Brigadier), Barry Letts, (producer) Terrance Dicks (script editor) and John Levene, (Benton). This is a lot of people to talk even for seven episodes, so uniquely, John Levene talks on his own through most of episode three. He is a very soft spoken man, who seems surprised to have become such a star as he was in his Benton days and enjoys talking about what he sees on screen. It isn’t a polished commentary, but it is very Human.

9/10

Extras (Disc Two)

Can You Hear the Earth Scream is a retrospective documentary about the making of Inferno. It also serves as a tribute to those no longer with us at the time. Barry Letts especially pays tribute to Douglas Camfield who fell ill during the making of the series. Ironically, Barry Letts is now gone and the next Doctor Who episode to appear on TV is going to include a tribute to him. Sadly these very old stories, over thirty years old now, are inevitably going to be part obituary.

10/10

The U.N.I.T. family – Part One is a little puzzling because, why part one? Where is part two? Anyway, this takes the story of U.N.I.T. up to the end of Jon Pertwee’s first year as The Doctor, which was the height of the U.N.I.T. era, really, since The Doctor was confined to Earth and forced to work with them. The only problem is a slight tendency to repeat anecdotes already seen in previous documentaries.

9/10

The Visual Effects Promo Film was made in the 1970s using scenes from BBC programmes, including Doctor Who – Inferno. It looks very dated in terms of style and the narrator has a peculiar Californian accent which seems at odds with a BBC programme. But watch this, the earliest visual effects from the colour era, then pick just about any Doctor Who Confidential episode and they make an interesting comparison showing just how physical effects have given way to CGI.

9/10

The Deleted Scene is a section in which Jon Pertwee recorded a broadcast as the Minister of Energy. It was left out of the British version as the producer thought it still sounded like Jon Pertwee and audiences would recognise him. In the North American version, where they aren’t as familiar with British accents, it was left in and so survives for the DVD extras.

9/10

PDF materials includes the 1971 Doctor Who Annual, which is a bit of a treasure. Also the ubiquitous Radio Times Listings.

9/10

The photo gallery isn’t bad. Too many black and white stills, possibly. Of course, long before colour pictures in newspapers, high quality promotional pictures would usually be black and white.

7/10

Overall, the extras are quite good on this double disc presentation. The seven episode story is hard going simply because of the length, but it stands as an interesting historical record of early 1970s television.

9 out of 10