History Recap / DoctorWhoS7E4Inferno

* Stalhman points out that as long as he's dazzled the Minister with promises of cheaper power, there's nothing Sir Keith can say to sway him, even Sir Keith to his dismay notes he has a point. Subverted in that the Minister does agree to suspend the drilling, pending an investigation.

* EndsWithASmile: As Doctor and Brigadier go to deall with poorly parked TARDIS, the doesn't follow them but stays in the garage and so we see last shot of the serial - Liz Shaw barely holding laugh over the unfolded scene.

'''Production code:''' DDD

Written by Don Houghton. This seven-episode serial first aired from May 9 to June 20, 1970.

JustForFun/{{The one w|ith}}here the Doctor goes {{dumpster div|e}}ing.

And the one where the Brig becomes evil without his moustache.

And the one where the Brig becomes evil without his moustache.

JustForFun/{{The one w|ith}}here the Doctor goes dumpster diving.

* ApocalypseHow: The alternate Earth apparently experiences a Class X, as the Doctor tells the alternate Inferno team that within the next few days the world will blow itself apart. We don't see the actual ''destruction'' of that Earth, but we see it very shortly before the implied end, with lava exploding throughout the country and a wall of lava advancing through the Project area.
** The Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse books retcon this into a Class 4, in which the planet remains physically intact but is reduced to a burnt-out wasteland, with those (un)fortunate enough to have survived the catastrophe having all become Primords in the meantime.

* SpecialEditionTitle: Uniqeuely for the Third Doctor's era, the story title, episode number and writer are not shown in the opening "time tunnel" sequence; instead they are imposed over stock footage of lava flow.

* PoorCommunicationKills: The Doctor finds an already mutating Stahlman about to smash an important circuit. The man attacks him, so the Doctor paralyses him with the old Venusian Akkido. The Brigader comes in wondering what's going on, but rather than just ''saying'' "I found him about to smash something and he attacked me" the Doctor... doesn't, instead just telling the Brig to follow him.

* FauxAffablyEvil: Director Stahlmann is ''marginally'' more willing to listen than Professor Stahlman but is more willing to have dissenters ''murdered' to keep his doomed project running.

* DeadpanSnarker: Being a facist hasn't stopped the Brigade Leader from sharing the same snarky traits as his GoodCounterpart:

** Upon learning that the royal family, the Doctor recalls knowing “her” (presumably the incumbent Queen) great-grandfather in Paris.

* SchmuckBait: The Doctor to warp 2 Benton: "Have you ever seen anything like this?" Cue Venusian Karate when the dope walks over to see what the Doctor means.

* DownerEnding: An entire alternate world, filled with people the Doctor knows in the original world and has spent the last four episodes trying desperately to save, winds up being infested with proto-human Zombies. Further, the Doctor's last-second escape leaves him with the sight of those few redeemable people left in the world about to be killed by lava. [[KickTheDog Oh, didn't I mention that the entire world was also coated in insane levels of lava along with those zombies]]? About the only ''good'' thing to come from this adventure is that the Doctor is at least able to prevent it from happening to our own world. But he's still left essentially scarred from the experience in the other world. Hell, "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS8E2TheMindOfEvil The Mind of Evil]]" shows that the memory of this is his ''worst fear''.

* DeadpanSnarker: Being a facist hasnt stopped the Brigade Leader from sharing the same snarky traits as his GoodCounterpart:

The Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse takes the "fascist empire" angle and runs with it by having the tyrannical overlord of Earth be an alternate Third Doctor. (There is no indication of this in the actual story, which on the contrary heavily implies that the Doctor was only able to travel to that universe because he didn't already exist in it, but this is HandWaved as it being a different incarnation, much like in the other multi-Doctor stories.) The novels claim that the face on posters of the dictator (actually that of BBC special effects expert Jack Kine) was also one of the faces offered for the Second Doctor to regenerate into in ''The War Games''. However, it bears no resemblance to any of the ones seen in that serial, which were simple sketches.

* HellIsThatSound: The electronic screeching and roaring of the Primords, brought to you by the finest synthesizers the Beeb's money can buy.

The one where the Doctor goes dumpster diving.