Unofficial Fandom 50: Inferno [1/50]
Nov. 9th, 2025 08:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thisbluespiritI've been thinking for a while of doing Fandom 50 or Fannish 50 and just doing posts on what some fandoms/parts of fandom I like are and why I like them, but then I felt too flaky to sign up. So this is me doing but not doing it. It gives me something to aim for, but not to worry if I don't make it - or if I want to continue. Also I don't have to decide which of those two is best to sign up for - it's very confusing!
I was thinking about doing something like this for ages, because I love manifestos, but there are so few of us left in these parts, it would be ridiculous to expect to get people into things, so they'd just be annoying. But it's always useful to explain exactly what things are again, and it means I can hopefully spend a bit more time chatting about things I love.
(Anything above any cut text should be safe from any major spoilers; if I feel the need to get spoilery in my love, that will always go under a cut).
Obviously, I had to start with Doctor Who, but since that would be a very big post as a whole, I shall probably mainly pick some serials/episodes in between other fandoms. This might be more useful anyway, because while DW, even in the older eras does have some continuity and context and development, it is nevertheless, even in modern eras, still the nearest thing to an anthology show the BBC have left, so if anyone gets curious, there's no reason not to just watch most individual installments.
So I thought I'd remind myself how much I love Doctor Who by talking about one of my absolute favourites, which is from my "least favourite"* Classic Who era - the Third Doctor's run, because DW is awesome generally.
Inferno (BBC 1970)
gifset (by timelordinaustralia)
What is it?
The seven-part** final serial of the Third Doctor's first season, written by Don Houghton & directed by Douglas Camfield (& producer Barry Letts for eps 5-7, as Camfield suffered a minor heart attack during recording) & guest starring Olaf Pooley, Derek Newark, Sheila Dunn & Christopher Benjamin. The show had lately been reinvented in a swither by the BBC between that and cancelling it, and so returned that season in colour, with a new Doctor (Jon Pertwee), now exiled to Earth and stripped of the ability to pilot the TARDIS,working for the military outfit, UNIT, aka the Brigadier (Nicholas Courtney) and his handful of men, along with brilliant Cambridge scientist Dr. Liz Shaw (Caroline John).
Inferno finds UNIT safeguarding Professor Stahlman's project to drill through to the Earth's core in search of a new energy source he believes he will find there (Stahlman's Gas). The Doctor, meanwhile, is using Stahlman's reactor to power his experiments to get the TARDIS working again. But the project's computer is predicting catastrophe if the core is penetrated, Stahlman is refusing to listen, people are turning into monsters, and the Doctor's test TARDIS trip takes him sideways, leaving him trapped in a fascist parallel earth where Stahlman's project is hours ahead of the one in our world - and things are turning apocalyptic fast...
Why do I love it?
7 episodes is a hard length to pull off (see the rest of the season, even though I love it all), but Inferno does it beautifully - it gives the story sufficient time to allow us to understand and care about what's going in the 'real' world and the parallel Earth, the characters and their parallel world counterparts, and give the fates of both the weight needed, while tension is maintained by the constant hum of the drill - the mounting, unheeded sound of the world ending. The Doctor, the Brig and Liz are a really strong trio and this is not only another great story for them, but lets us see alternate versions of the latter two. Among the guest characters, Greg and Petra (particularly the parallel universe versions) are favourites.
It has that very UK 70s TV thing that always gets me so hard of being simultaneously one of the most bleak and optimistic DW serials , including a cliffhanger that, for once, people aren't getting out of, a real and wild act of altruism made by people with no reason to carry it out - without hope, reward and little witness - and the Doctor, after a year of frustration, anger and isolation at being trapped on Earth by the Time Lords, finds new hope himself: "So, free will is not an illusion, after all." ♥
On paper it's got a whole lot of would what become very typical Third Doctor era ingredients (unwise 70s scientific projects! green slime! HAVOC!***), but in practice, it truly is something special, and I love it.
ETA: An Inferno-related fannish recs-list.
* It's comparative. Like, yes, but also. It's DW. I love it anyway.
** Seven parts here = 7 x25 mins (although minus the intros/outros and 5 episode recaps and often with shorter runtimes - most given DW serials are about the same length as a regular/shortish film, the six-parters as a long film. It's just that some of them also feel like wading through porridge).
***HAVOC = stunt outfit run by Derek Ware. I think they were HAVOC officially by this point, but at any rate, they were definitely present and correct, pulling off the then record for highest UK TV stunt fall during the course of it, and in another case, getting accidentally actually run over by Pertwee in the course of duty). Also, of course, not that I am saying there is anything wrong with lots of green slime, dodgy scientific projects causing trouble and HAVOC. Obv all top notch ingredients!
I was thinking about doing something like this for ages, because I love manifestos, but there are so few of us left in these parts, it would be ridiculous to expect to get people into things, so they'd just be annoying. But it's always useful to explain exactly what things are again, and it means I can hopefully spend a bit more time chatting about things I love.
(Anything above any cut text should be safe from any major spoilers; if I feel the need to get spoilery in my love, that will always go under a cut).
Obviously, I had to start with Doctor Who, but since that would be a very big post as a whole, I shall probably mainly pick some serials/episodes in between other fandoms. This might be more useful anyway, because while DW, even in the older eras does have some continuity and context and development, it is nevertheless, even in modern eras, still the nearest thing to an anthology show the BBC have left, so if anyone gets curious, there's no reason not to just watch most individual installments.
So I thought I'd remind myself how much I love Doctor Who by talking about one of my absolute favourites, which is from my "least favourite"* Classic Who era - the Third Doctor's run, because DW is awesome generally.
Inferno (BBC 1970)
gifset (by timelordinaustralia)
What is it?
The seven-part** final serial of the Third Doctor's first season, written by Don Houghton & directed by Douglas Camfield (& producer Barry Letts for eps 5-7, as Camfield suffered a minor heart attack during recording) & guest starring Olaf Pooley, Derek Newark, Sheila Dunn & Christopher Benjamin. The show had lately been reinvented in a swither by the BBC between that and cancelling it, and so returned that season in colour, with a new Doctor (Jon Pertwee), now exiled to Earth and stripped of the ability to pilot the TARDIS,working for the military outfit, UNIT, aka the Brigadier (Nicholas Courtney) and his handful of men, along with brilliant Cambridge scientist Dr. Liz Shaw (Caroline John).
Inferno finds UNIT safeguarding Professor Stahlman's project to drill through to the Earth's core in search of a new energy source he believes he will find there (Stahlman's Gas). The Doctor, meanwhile, is using Stahlman's reactor to power his experiments to get the TARDIS working again. But the project's computer is predicting catastrophe if the core is penetrated, Stahlman is refusing to listen, people are turning into monsters, and the Doctor's test TARDIS trip takes him sideways, leaving him trapped in a fascist parallel earth where Stahlman's project is hours ahead of the one in our world - and things are turning apocalyptic fast...
Why do I love it?
7 episodes is a hard length to pull off (see the rest of the season, even though I love it all), but Inferno does it beautifully - it gives the story sufficient time to allow us to understand and care about what's going in the 'real' world and the parallel Earth, the characters and their parallel world counterparts, and give the fates of both the weight needed, while tension is maintained by the constant hum of the drill - the mounting, unheeded sound of the world ending. The Doctor, the Brig and Liz are a really strong trio and this is not only another great story for them, but lets us see alternate versions of the latter two. Among the guest characters, Greg and Petra (particularly the parallel universe versions) are favourites.
It has that very UK 70s TV thing that always gets me so hard of being simultaneously one of the most bleak and optimistic DW serials , including a cliffhanger that, for once, people aren't getting out of, a real and wild act of altruism made by people with no reason to carry it out - without hope, reward and little witness - and the Doctor, after a year of frustration, anger and isolation at being trapped on Earth by the Time Lords, finds new hope himself: "So, free will is not an illusion, after all." ♥
On paper it's got a whole lot of would what become very typical Third Doctor era ingredients (unwise 70s scientific projects! green slime! HAVOC!***), but in practice, it truly is something special, and I love it.
ETA: An Inferno-related fannish recs-list.
* It's comparative. Like, yes, but also. It's DW. I love it anyway.
** Seven parts here = 7 x25 mins (although minus the intros/outros and 5 episode recaps and often with shorter runtimes - most given DW serials are about the same length as a regular/shortish film, the six-parters as a long film. It's just that some of them also feel like wading through porridge).
***HAVOC = stunt outfit run by Derek Ware. I think they were HAVOC officially by this point, but at any rate, they were definitely present and correct, pulling off the then record for highest UK TV stunt fall during the course of it, and in another case, getting accidentally actually run over by Pertwee in the course of duty). Also, of course, not that I am saying there is anything wrong with lots of green slime, dodgy scientific projects causing trouble and HAVOC. Obv all top notch ingredients!
no subject
Date: 2025-11-09 09:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-11-09 10:36 pm (UTC)Doesn't mean I don't love him & his era, especially Season Seven - and Inferno, to repeat the gist of my post, really is something special. <3
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Date: 2025-11-10 05:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-11-10 06:55 am (UTC)I've found that a useful mindset when doing the fandom primers for Snowflake :) (and I never expect anyone to take them up, but actually in each case I got at least one person to pick up whatever I was talking about, so hopefully you will too :)
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Date: 2025-11-10 05:44 pm (UTC)Aw, thank you! And as I'm not linking anywhere else, probably not - but, of course, you never know with the occasional thing, of course. <3
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Date: 2025-11-10 09:03 am (UTC)Am I somehow unclear about how much I enjoy people enthusing about things?
while tension is maintained by the constant hum of the drill - the mounting, unheeded sound of the world ending.
See? That's great.
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Date: 2025-11-10 05:46 pm (UTC)No! Just manifestos are a specific kind of tone that really does feel a bit pointless in this increasingly small fannish space, and they're often a lot of effort, so I wanted to find something that felt a bit more reasonable, but might still be helpful either as an explanation or an intro.
And thank you! Inferno is a very good end-of-the-world. <3
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Date: 2025-11-10 01:58 pm (UTC)Inferno was the second Pertwee serial I watched back in the day, love it bits.
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Date: 2025-11-10 05:48 pm (UTC)True, it is so much of what we're here for! <3
Inferno was the second Pertwee serial I watched back in the day, love it bits.
It took me quite a long time before I managed to get hold of it, once I started collecting DW on VHS - the six (or more) parters were so much more expensive! - but once I finally did, I loved it. It really is so good. <3<3<3
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Date: 2025-11-10 02:57 pm (UTC)I can see why you're doing your own version of fandom 50. It's a lot to commit to!
no subject
Date: 2025-11-10 05:51 pm (UTC)It is! I admit I don't want to part with any unnecessary bits of Ambassadors of
...
DEATH
either, even if I'm sure I should, but it's certainly true that Silurians would benefit from a severe trimming of rubber Silurians wandering the moors to the sound of Dudley Simpson's kazoo! XD
I can see why you're doing your own version of fandom 50. It's a lot to commit to!
It is, and there are two of them! How is a person supposed to know which to sign up to??? Anyway, I'm doing it uncommitted now, so fingers crossed I will continue to ramble about stuff for at least a few more posts.
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Date: 2025-11-11 04:27 pm (UTC)Obv great minds think alike about 50 thingies. I guess flipping a coin is the only way!
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Date: 2025-11-10 05:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-11-10 05:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-11-10 05:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-11-10 06:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-11-11 03:39 pm (UTC)So I thought I'd remind myself how much I love Doctor Who by talking about one of my absolute favourites, which is from my "least favourite"* Classic Who era - the Third Doctor's run, because DW is awesome generally.
It so is, isn't it? I also feel like the Third Doctor's era is my least favorite (well, at least until I think about the Sixth Doctor, but that's another issue entirely), and yet I do love all the UNIT folks, and there are so many individual stories that are just terrific. I mean, I rewatched "The Green Death" a while back, and that's just as good as everyone remembers it being, it really, really is. And "The Mind of Evil" will always be a favorite. And... Well, you get the idea. :)
"Inferno" is one I certainly remember as a very good ep, but it occurs to me that I haven't watched it in... Gosh, decades? I should probably remedy that.
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Date: 2025-11-11 06:59 pm (UTC)Exactly! And then obv Delgado is fantastic and all that, too. Six is a mixed batch, of course, but I do rather love him as an incarnation despite everything, and he does generally not have so many six part planets of endless beige at least, lol. (tbf tho, he does have Twin Dilemma, it's true... XD)
I mean, I rewatched "The Green Death" a while back, and that's just as good as everyone remembers it being, it really, really is. And "The Mind of Evil" will always be a favorite. And... Well, you get the idea. :)
Green Death is such a joy! I've only seen the Mind of Evil once because it took me forever to finally obtain the DVD, so I didn't watch it until a few years ago while being ill, but it was great, and I look forward to seeing it again. That's Don Houghton, too, isn't it? It's a shame he didn't write more Three, because Inferno and Mind of Evil are a pretty outstanding pair of stories.
"Inferno" is one I certainly remember as a very good ep, but it occurs to me that I haven't watched it in... Gosh, decades? I should probably remedy that.
*nods*
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Date: 2025-11-11 07:49 pm (UTC)"The Twin Dilemma" brings things down a lot, all by itself. :) Honestly, I've grown fonder and more forgiving of Six and his stories since I first saw them, that one excluded, but it's probably always going to be at the bottom of my list, through no fault of Colin's.
Green Death is such a joy!
It's so good! Everything about it is great.
And, you know, I do find that this is usually my reaction when I go back and watch individual Pertwee eps. I almost always like both him and the story better than I somehow expect to. Well, except for "The Sea Devils," which I re-watched a while back, too. It does have at least one memorably great scene, of course, but otherwise it's mostly boring warmed-over "Silurians." Still, you have to be glad it exists, just for the Delgado bits.
I've only seen the Mind of Evil once because it took me forever to finally obtain the DVD, so I didn't watch it until a few years ago while being ill, but it was great, and I look forward to seeing it again.
You absolutely should watch it again! OK, it's probably not objectively one of the very-greatest-ever Who episodes, but it does make the list of personal favorites, just because the Doctor/Master dynamics are so great, in so many ways. (I could go on and on about that, but I will restrain myself. :))
That's Don Houghton, too, isn't it?
I had to go and check, but yes, it is! Go, him! And, yeah, given how great those are, it's a pity we didn't get more from him.
no subject
Date: 2025-11-13 08:29 pm (UTC)It's simultaneously objectively good AND the sort of thing where you are legally obliged to yell along with the dialogue: "Gone to get you a maggot!" "I'm up on the slag heap with the professor!" "Never thought I'd fire in anger at a dratted caterpillar but..." XD
"The Sea Devils," which I re-watched a while back, too. It does have at least one memorably great scene, of course, but otherwise it's mostly boring warmed-over "Silurians." Still, you have to be glad it exists, just for the Delgado bits.
I haven't watched that in forever - maybe not since the BBC repeated it in the 90s when they seemed determined to only ever show Pertwee episodes in their random repeats - and while it wasn't my favourite, I do feel that there are at least four great scenes in it, being obv. Delgado and the Clangers, the Doctor-Master swordfight, Three swiping all Jo's sandwiches (the rotter), and that bit where the stuntman has to climb down the cliff in Katy Manning's outfit. Well, all the bits with Delgado at the prison, really. He's so charming when he's pretending to be good. You want to believe him AND YET. You know it would never end well, lol.
But, yeah, a lot of hanging about in subs and no Brigadier, I seem to recall.
I think the Target novelisation was surprisingly good, though. My head has all this great backstory for the prison governor that I'm always taken aback isn't in the actual thing.
OK, it's probably not objectively one of the very-greatest-ever Who episodes, but it does make the list of personal favorites, just because the Doctor/Master dynamics are so great, in so many ways. (I could go on and on about that, but I will restrain myself. :))
No, no, it is good! Lots of good stuff for a lot of characters, including being a great one for Jo. Much as I love Delgado, I'm not super-biased just because of Doctor/Master stuff and I really enjoyed it, too.
I had to go and check, but yes, it is! Go, him! And, yeah, given how great those are, it's a pity we didn't get more from him.
I'm pretty sure he also did S&S's only non-Hammond serial, A5, although I don't like that so much - but that's not because of what it is as a story, which would be great in anything else, just that it was almost normal compared to Hammond's sheer weirdness! Normal TV in my S&S? *backs away hastily*
no subject
Date: 2025-11-14 07:22 pm (UTC)You know what, I think we need a version of it that's edited down to just that stuff, and, well, all the scenes with Delgado. Those are the only parts worth remembering anyway, honestly. As evidenced by the fact that apparently I'd forgotten most of the rest of it, and am probably in the middle of forgetting it all again. :)
But, yeah, a lot of hanging about in subs and no Brigadier, I seem to recall.
The lack of Brigadier was so disappointing.
I think the Target novelisation was surprisingly good, though.
Ooh, interesting. I don't think I've read that one. Will definitely keep an eye out for it as I slowly and sporadically fill in the gaps in my collection.
including being a great one for Jo.
That's true, actually, "Mind of Evil" is pretty great for Jo. Aww, see, I have good taste in episodes. :)
just that it was almost normal compared to Hammond's sheer weirdness! Normal TV in my S&S?
LOL, S&S so redefines the very definition of what normal is by comparison to most of what it's doing. :)