Inferno - Episode 6

As we approach the end of this story it seems that after a rather leisurely pace in the previous episode, we get back to a brisker pace as the Doctor tries to get back to his own universe. I like how no one is really stopping the Doctor from doing what he wants to do. They have all pretty much accepted that they are doomed and are happy to at least help the Doctor even if they don’t fully understand him.

The effect that is used when Petra, Liz and the Brigade Leader go outside is quite good and does a great job of convincing us that the world is start to go out of control. It gets even better towards the end of the episode as the Doctor is trying to take off and you can’t accuse them of trying to fob us off with unconvincing still images.

Whereas in the previous two episodes, it was at least half of the episode before we get to go back to the original universe but in this episode its five minutes. I love the scene between the Brigadier and Benton when Benton comes without Stahlman. By the end the way that the Brigadier was raising his voice seemed to be very similar to how the Brigade Leader has been acting in the previous episodes. After the slightly claustrophobic feel that the alternate universe was starting to do to me, it was good that we had a decent amount of time in the original universe.

I didn’t notice until this episode but Nicholas Courtney is truly fantastic as the Brigade Leader. He’s using his power (or what he thinks is power) to cover up the fact that he is freaking out just as much as everyone else. This comes to a head when Sutton stands up to him and when the Brigade Leader’s gun doesn’t go off there is a nice fight scene. Caroline John continues to show what she can do when she’s allowed to. The other Liz has mellowed a bit since we first saw her but she’s still quite a strong character and John should be praised for the way that she manages to distinguish the two versions of the same character without going over the top

The highlight of this episode came towards the end when the Brigade Leader is about to force the Doctor to take all of them with him back to his world. This when molten lava is heading towards the hut and it’s a great way to end the episode. I found this episode to be more entertaining than the previous one. It feels like they were actually building towards something which bearing in mind that it’s the last episode next is the least that we should be getting. Tomorrow’s going to be a weird episode for a few reasons which is something that I will go into tomorrow.