Inferno might have suffered from its reputation for me a bit. It comes highly recommended, widely considered one of the best Third Doctor stories of the original show run (if not the best Third Doctor story like this). Even before I had ever even heard of Time Scales, or checked out the Third Doctor's era for myself, I had heard of Inferno and how good it was. So I came into it with pretty high expectations, and enough rough knowledge of the story to be pretty excited about it.

Unfortunately, I don't think this is my personal favourite when it comes to the Third Doctor. There are quite a few serials out there I quite enjoyed more and felt were more tightly produced than Inferno, which is a little bloated at seven parts. For example, in Part 1, we get a pretty solid set-up of everything, get a sense of the stakes, our main characters, and the central drama unfolding. Then, Part 2 pretty much reiterates the whole thing again.

Inferno gets a little repetitive around these things and I can't tell you how sick I got of watching the Doctor wrassle with a Primord in the same outdoor industrial set. It's very tiring, but also important to remember that this story is doing a lot of novel things, is assuming you are watching it week-to-week, and is extremely ahead of its time in terms of ideas like alternate universes and travelling between them

That stuff with the alternate Earth is fantastic and by far the most memorable aspect of Inferno. Watching it all go so wrong on another world does wonders for the sense of urgency in the Doctor's actions. It's also really fun seeing everyone much more militaristic and fashy. The Brigadier is great and Nicholas Courtney is clearly having a blast with this part. Liz Shaw on the other hand, once again not only feels wasted but is a lot more awkward around this material. I also found some of the scientists a little underwhelming, and Petra's actor was a little awkward with the dual roles as well, at least in my opinion.

Still, there is some very interesting underlying politics that makes Inferno quite compelling. Doctor Who has always explored these ideas of fascism throughout its history and as early as the first appearance of the Daleks. To see it all so clearly expressed in something like Inferno makes it feel very essential to this era and the general history of the franchise.

I also was not a fan of some of the special effects. With bad green screen, goofy camera effects to indicate switching dimensions, and silly looking make-up in our monsters, I just really got taken out of this story time and time again. This was especially true with the big ending and monster transformation.

Still, in spite of my criticisms, I am really only defending a relatively low score. It should speak very highly of Inferno that I'm rating it fairly well and feel like this is a scathing criticism. It's not. I just found it a more flawed and average story than I would have expected. I certainly have found stuff like Spearhead from Space, Terror of the Autons, and The Sea Devils more fun, but they are also less thoughtful than Inferno. This serial definitely had cool ideas and I absolutely would recommend it. In spite of its limitations it is a great expression of the Third Doctor era in a lot of ways, and the general politics of Doctor Who.