Doctor Who (1963) 7.04.02

Inferno - Part 2

The Doctor, the Brigadier, Sgt Benton, and Pvt Wyatt deal with Slocum who seems to have turned up the the power level in the nuclear reactor. Wyatt shoots Slocum but it only slows him down. Wyatt collapses after Slocum knocks him down. Slocum finally dies from the wounds he sustained and the Doctor turned down the power level at the nuclear reactor.

Sutton manages to do his part and get the coolant flowing again. This gets the drill rig back under control. None of this seems to phase Professor Stahlman who is intent on making up for lost time by moving forward the time table.

Pvt Wyatt and the scientist who was keeping an eye on the nuclear reactor start to act strange, like Slocum. Wyatt attacks the Doctor but he is killed when he falls from a great height.

Sir Keith shows the Doctor, Prof Stahlman, the Brigadier, and a few scientists a vial of the green liquid that was found leaking from the drill rig. Professor Stahlman continues to act as though the only problem is that his experiments are behind schedule. The Brigadier and Sir Keith try talking some sense into the the Professor but he wont listen.

Professor Stahlman gets infected by the sample of green liquid when he touches it. He then sabotages the computer that the Doctor says is trying to warn them about the danger of continuing with the drilling project. The Doctor catches him in the act but is unable to convince the Brigadier of the seriousness of the situation.

The Doctor returns to his workspace where Liz Shaw is working on repairing some of the circuits on which the Doctor has been working. The Doctor sends her on an errand. She quickly returns with the Brigadier when she realizes that the Doctor is up to something. They get there just in time to see the Doctor activate the circuits from the TARDIS and disappear.

Thoughts

These purpose of the first two episodes seems to be to establish the main characters and the situation at the drilling project. Professor Stahlman seems determined to do things his way. The Doctor is just an observer but he can't sit still as long as he can see that something is going wrong. 

Still no alternate universe but my guess is that part of the story will emerge once the Doctor rematerializes. Hopefully that will be in the next episode. 

There seem to be a number of female scientists working at the drilling project. I think I counted at least four. None of them have speaking roles but neither do most of the male scientists at the project. Liz and Petra are the only female characters with any lines and even they don't get much to do in this story, at least so far.

I'm still noticing inconsistencies. One minute Liz doesn't have a sonic screwdriver and the next minute she does.

I'm more intrigued by this story than I was after watching the first episode but it still has yet to win me over.