Inferno (novelisation)

Inferno
Based on:	Inferno
Doctor:	Third Doctor
Companion(s):	Liz
Featuring:	The Brig, Benton
Main enemy:	Primords
Main setting:	Earth, late 20th century, Parallel Earth
Key crew
Publisher:	Target Books
Writer:	Terrance Dicks
Read by:	Caroline John
Cover by:	Nick Spender
Release details
Release number:	89
Release date:	18 October 1984
Format:	Hardcover and paperback editions; 15 Chapters, 126 Pages
ISBN:	ISBN 0-426-19617-1
Publication Order
← Previous	The Aztecs
Next →	The Highlanders
TV series order
← Previous	The Ambassadors of Death
Next →	Doctor Who and the Terror of the Autons

Inferno was a novelisation based on the 1970 television serial Inferno.

Publisher's summary

Inferno is the name of a top-secret drilling project to penetrate the Earth's crust and release a major new energy source.

A crisis develops when a noxious liquid leaks out as drilling progresses – the green poison has a grotesquely debilitating effect on human beings.

As the Earth's plight worsens, the Doctor is trapped in a parallel world, unable to rescue the planet and its inhabitants from the destructive force of Inferno...

Chapter titles

1. Project Inferno
2. The Beast
3. Mutant
4. The Slime
5. Dimension of Terror
6. The Nightmare
7. Death Sentence
8. Countdown to Doom
9. Penetration-Zero
10. The Monsters
11. Escape Plan
12. Doomsday
13. Return to Danger
14. The Last Mutation
15. The Doctor Takes a Trip

Deviations from televised story

• The "door handle" is confirmed to be the sonic screwdriver.
• Private Wyatt is on guard outside the Doctor's workshop at the Inferno Project, not Private Latimer.
• As in the televised version, the Primords are never named — being referred to mainly as "mutants".
• The Doctor deduces how the parallel Earth became a dictatorship.
• Stahlman's motivation is explored in more detail.
• Stahlman is said to have grown up in the ruins of post-war Germany (so he's either younger in the novelisation or the story is set circa 1990, unless he is describing the First World War).
• The Doctor is traumatised by the destruction of the other Earth.
• Stahlman is described as burly and Liz as having reddish-brown hair, neither of which entirely reflects their on screen appearance.
• Stahlman's first name is given as Eric.
• It is explained that the Doctor plans to use a power surge from the project's reactor to overload the blocks placed on the TARDIS.
• Benton refers to Bromley by name: In the televised version, his surname is only given in the credits.
• The character of Latimer is unnamed.
• The location of the Inferno Project is changed from Eastchester to East Manchester. (Eastchester is referred to by name only once in the televised version, in a scene on the parallel world cut from the UK transmission of episode five but retained for overseas screening, and which also appeared on the 1994 BBC Video release of the story.)
• The scene between Sir Keith Gold and Patterson before the car crash is removed. Sir Keith states he was unconscious for several hours after the accident, explaining his disappearance.

Writing and publishing notes

• One of several titles commissioned by outgoing range editor Christine Donohoe and edited by Nigel Robinson.
• This novelisation was later released as part of The UNIT Collection.

Additional cover images

• 

  1984 Hardback edition

British publication history

• Hardback

W.H. Allen & Co. Ltd. UK

• Paperback

Target

Audiobook

This Target Book was released as an audiobook on 7 April 2011 complete and unabridged by BBC Audio and read by Caroline John.

The cover blurb and thumbnail illustrations were retained in the accompanying booklet with sleevenotes by David J. Howe. Music and sound effects by Simon Power.

The audiobook was reissued on 5 April 2018 as part of The UNIT Collection.

• 

  Audiobook cover

• 

  The UNIT Collection

External links

to be added