Customer Reviews

Doctor Who: Inferno

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Seems that folks have bought into the theory that if we can drill down through the Earth's crust, we will find a limitless energy source waiting for us. The Doctor is not so sure and makes a half hearted attempt to stop things. However he is distracted by a side project he is working on so his attempts lack the effort needed to make any progress. The scientist in charge of the drilling project, Stahlman, is depicted fairly one dimensionally as a raving mad genius. Everyone around him opposes his methods except his sidekick, Petra, and yet he still gets his way on everything, bullying people (including Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart) into doing as he wants.

As with many of the novelizations, there is not much in the way of character development, but lots in the way of action. The Doctor spends some time in a parallel universe where he witnesses the end result of the drilling. He manages to make his way back to the "right" universe and sets off to whole heartedly put an end to the drilling. The parallel universe plot line was quite interesting and well done as it included the same folks as the normal universe but in quite different states of mind.

The Doctor's assistant in this one is Liz Shaw.

Regarded by many Doctor Who fans as one of the great stories, I have to say that 'Inferno' has always left me cold.

UNIT has been called in to a project to penetrate the Earth's crust to reach pockets of Stahlman's gas, which will provide a new source of power. But something strange is happening: a popular repair man undergoes a strange mutation and goes berserk, and the man in charge of the drilling operation, Professor Stahlman, won't trust his own computer.

In the midst of all this, the Doctor's experiments with the TARDIS console transfers him to a parallel Earth, where events are further advanced...

Following this story on TV, the production team returned to a less adult version of Doctor Who and, sadly, it is the last TV story to feature Liz Shaw. Fortunately, the writers of original Doctor Who novels have featured her in several more books. On the positive side, Sergeant Benton returns to the regular cast (he previously appeared as a corporal in 'Invasion').

'Inferno' was slow on TV, and its still slow in this novel. The reality is, not a lot happens. If you liked it on TV or video, by all means get the book.

This is Dr Who, and indeed science fiction at it's best. An absolutely stunning story with characters the reader can immediately love or hate, non-stop action from cover to cover, and plot twists that keep your eyes glued to the pages. Terrance Dicks is brilliant.