Escape To Danger No.26

I can't quite remember at what point I became aware of exactly what constituted the established range of Target novelisations and what was brand new on the shelves.

I do recall getting the "Nightmare of Eden" and "The Horns of Nimon" novelisations from the local library, and not being particularly shocked to see "The Monster of Peladon" for sale at WH Smith's.

Not particularly delighted, but not particularly shocked either.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure that "The Creature From the Pit" was the first instance when I consciously thought of one of the novels as being a new release. (15th January 1981, fact fans!). And then the whole range went on hiatus due to the Writer's Guild persuading Terrance Dicks to go on strike.

None of which appears to have much to do with Season Seven's "Inferno", but with the vast majority of the Pertwee stories in the Target bag as it were, the four that remained to be published when I became aware of (cough) the Target Library were conspicuous by their absence.
 

Is that John Levene under all that? It's so hard to tell...

So, the feeling at the time (fuelled by comments from Terrance Dicks, if memory serves) was that the un-novelised Pertwee tales weren't much good, and that there wasn't much demand to relive them in print.

By that reasoning then, "The Ambassadors of Death", "Inferno", "The Mind of Evil" and "The Time Monster" are all duller fare than "The Curse of Peladon" "Frontier In Space" and "Planet of the Spiders", for example.

Pfft. Go figure.

For many, "Inferno" is probably best remembered for The Eyepatch Story, the convention anecdote by Nicholas Courtney that has reached almost legendary status for its ubiquity.

Mind you, I suppose it's rather difficult to tread new ground when greeted with questions like "Do you remember any particularly amusing incidents involving eyepatches?"

Actually, Courtney gives a surprisingly good and nuanced performance as his parallel Earth character, the Brigade Leader. Caroline John finally gets something to really get her teeth into as well, which makes her off-screen departure between seasons all the more saddening.

Being replaced by Katy Manning can't make you feel that great about yourself...

And staying on this parallel Earth (which we can't do for long, since it will be burnt to a cinder by the end of Episode 6), here's a shot of Olaf Pooley, who sadly passed away last year having reached 101 years of age.

Man, that Stahlman's Gas must be good stuff...

Some great photos from "Inferno" were often to be seen when magazines ran articles on the various stunt groups to work on the series ("Cry Havoc!" was a title that sounds familiar, and was probably used more than once).

That's Derek Ware above, whose HAVOC group worked on this story. (Do they warrant caps lock? Dammit, I think they do).

Ware apparantly didn't actually do that really impressive fall that you see on screen himself, but here's Pertwee checking to make sure...

And speaking of the leading man, here he is getting to know more of his fellow cast. (Was this before or after he ran over Alan Chuntz in Bessie? Who knows...)

Serial DDD has some seriously impressive location work, and also some great sound design. While the studio material is probably not quite as good, it remains much more than merely adequate. (Douglas Camfield probably blocked so much studio out, that Barry Letts couldn't really go wrong when he took over from an ill Camfield at short notice).

As mentioned at the top, "Inferno" was for many years neglected and unloved until its VHS release led to one of fandom's best WTF moments. (The reputation of the rest of Season Seven was still languishing also, just starting to emerge as a welcome alternative to the stereotypical textbook view of the Pertwee years that became popular around the Twentieth Anniversary, when huge chunks of the series' past were pigeonholed for convenience).

Although I'm still not totally convinced by the mad-dash-to-save-a-world that is Episode 7, I must admit that the planet being engulfed in molten lava would have been a pretty downbeat ending for the story, and the series as a whole.

And it is rather refreshing to see the Third Doctor totally fail to save the world...