Serial: DDD  Episode Nos. 272, 273, 274, 275, 276, 277, and 278.  Title: Inferno

A top security drilling project is attempting the first penetration of the Earth's crust, and the Doctor is worried about signs of danger predicting catastrophe, not the least of which is a green substance drawn up by the pipes that causes those who touch it to mutate into primordial creatures.  After his warnings are ignored, the Doctor attempts to leave using the TARDIS console,
only to find himself transported to a parallel world where the drilling is still going on, but under a governmental dictatorship that is even more deaf to the screams of rage from the Earth's deep Inferno...

This is the last story to feature Caroline John as Liz Shaw (who left off-screen between seasons).

starring Jon Pertwee as Doctor Who, Caroline John as Liz Shaw, Nicholas Courtney as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, and John Levene as Sergeant Benton.. Written by Don Houghton, Produced by Barry Letts, Directed by Douglas Camfield.

Originally transmitted from 9 May 1970 to 20 June 1970 on BBC1.

DVD Features:

On Disc 1:

- All 7 episodes of this serial. The episodes are 25 minutes each.

- Episode selection and scene selection menus, and optional subtitles for the hearing impaired.

- Commentary track with actors Nicholas Courtney (the Brigadier) and John Levene (Sergeant Benton), producer/director

Barry Letts, and script editor Terrance Dicks.

- Information Text subtitles option. This plays pop-up production trivia throughout the story.

- 30-second trailer for the new series DVD box set starring Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper.

- 1 Easter Egg. Highlight the blank area that follows to learn what it is and how to reach it:

- From the Episode Selection menu, go to Episode 7 and press play. As the episode begins to run, press rewind.

The program will rewind 30 seconds further back than the opening titles. When it’s done rewinding, either let

your player go forward by itself again, or you may need to press play once it’s at the start. (This depends on how

your player was programmed by its manufacturer.) Anyway, this 30-second extra bit is the opening countdown

chalkboard slate from the leader on the master tape of Episode 7.

On Disc 2:

- the 30-second trailer for the new series DVD box set (again)

- “Can You Hear the Earth Scream?” A new 35-minute making-of-Inferno documentary featuring interviews with

actors Nicholas Courtney (the Brigadier), Caroline John (Liz Shaw), John Levene (Sergeant Benton),

producer/director Barry Letts, script editor Terrance Dicks, and stuntmen Ian Fairbairn, Derek Ware, and

Alan Chuntz (the latter in an archival segment).

- “The UNIT Family –Part One” A new 36-minute featurette about the family of characters that surrounded the Doctor

during his exile to Earth by the Time Lords. This is “Part One” and spotlights the late Second Doctor and early

Third Doctor eras. (Future parts of this will appear as a series on subsequent DVD releases.)

Features interviews with actors Nicholas Courtney, Caroline John, and John Levene, stuntman Derek Ware,

script editor Terrance Dicks, producer Barry Letts, and script editor/producer Derrick Sherwin.

- Visual Effects Promo Film. A 6-minute film made in 1970 by the BBC Visual Effects Department to tout their capabilities

to the industry at-large. It includes many shots made for the 1970 season of Doctor Who including for Inferno.

- Deleted Scene. This presents a scene from episode 5 of the story where the Doctor, the Brigade Leader, and Section

Leader Shaw listen to a radio news report of earth tremors all over England. This was removed from the program

before its original BBC broadcast because the news reader’s voice was so obviously Jon Pertwee’s own voice.

The scene survived intact in the North American tapes that were sold for overseas broadcast, and it is presented here.

(This scene was left in the body of the program when this story was released on VHS. Here it’s been moved to

a Deleted Scene option, as it should be.)

- Pertwee Years Intro. This presents the first 3 minutes of the VHS tape The Pertwee Years that came out in the early 90s

and features Jon Pertwee introducing his era, the tape in general, and episode 7 of Inferno.

- Photo Gallery. This plays a 7-minute reel of behind-the-scenes photo stills.

- Doctor Who Annual 1971. Pop this DVD into a PC or laptop, and you can have a look at the entire 76-page

1971 Doctor Who Annual using Acrobat Reader. (Annuals are short story and artwork collections that were

sold in the year listed on the cover.)

- Radio Times Billings. Similarly, the TV listings billings from the Radio Times magazine are presented here as a pdf file

for Acrobat Reader.

- Subtitles option for the hearing impaired.

- Another Easter Egg. Highlight the blank area here to see what it is and how to reach it:

- On the main menu, page 1, arrow down to the “Next” button, then press your left arrow. A green “Doctor Who”

logo will appear on the left-hand side of the screen. Click this and you will see the complete opening titles for

this story, including the special molten lava footage, clean of captions.

Note: The recordings from which the Inferno episodes are sourced here are the only surviving full color copies. They hail from

North American broadcast masters that were made in the 1970s for sale in Canada. The Doctor Who Restoration Team

have applied their new Reverse Standards Conversion process to these episodes so that they are now without most of the

motion artefacts that were present in the VHS release of this story, however, the picture quality is still noticeably inferior

compared with the rest of the Doctor Who DVD range, and really not much better than a normal VHS release used to look.

This was the best that could be done, however, and the story itself is so top-notch it will hopefully not detract too much from

your viewing enjoyment.