Doctor Who (1963) 7.04 Extras (Part 1)

Can You Hear the Earth Scream? Making Inferno (2006)

35 minutes

A number of people were interviewed for this documentary:

• Terrence Dicks - script editor
• Barry Letts - producer
• Caroline John - Liz Shaw
• John Levene - Sgt Benton
• Nicholas Courtney - Brigadier/Brigade Leader
• Derek Ware - Private Wyatt and stuntman
• Ian Fairbairn - Bromley and stuntman

Stories are told about several other people including:

• Don Houghton - writer
• Douglas Camfield - director
• Sheila Dunn - Petra and Douglas Camfield's wife
• Derek Newark - Greg Sutton (he also played Za in An Unearthly Child)
• Olaf Pooley - Professor Stahlman

Things that are discussed

• Douglas Camfield was very meticulous and hard working. He wound up in the hospital with atrial fibrillation in the middle of shooting Inferno. Barry Letts had to take over directing the show at this point.
• Olaf Pooley was kind of aloof which was very in character for the part he played.
• There were some real world inspirations for the story which was at times titled Operation Mole-Bore and The Mo-Hole Project.
• The original story didn't include the parallel universe part of the story and there wasn't enough material to fill 7 episodes which how long the story needed to be. 
• Jon Pertwee was scared of heights which was an issue when it came to in filming some of the scenes.
• Many of the stuntmen were veterans and they had to instruct John Levene in how to carry himself and bark orders.
• There were a number of practical jokes played on various people during the filming of Inferno
• Jon Pertwee did most of his own stunts including stunt driving
• One stuntman was injured badly enough that it delayed production
• Nicholas Courtney and Caroline John had fun playing the alternate universe universe versions of their characters.
• John Levene tells a story about getting a call from a brigadier general who didn't care for how he saluted in one episode.
• Barry Letts and Terrence Dicks were not on the same page when it came to the environmental message of Inferno. Letts was much more concerned about the environment in 1970 than Dicks was.
• There are some clips from Dying for Living (1970), a BBC documentary

Thoughts

I enjoyed this documentary very much. It helped to shed a new light on a story which I wasn't crazy about.