Doctor Who: Inferno

By: Terrance Dicks

Narrated by: Caroline John

Length: 4 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's Summary

Caroline John reads this thrilling novelisation of a classic Doctor Who adventure.

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 green 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... Caroline John, who played Liz Shaw in the original Doctor Who TV serial, reads Terrance Dicks' complete and unabridged novelisation, first published by Target Books in 1984.

©2011 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2011 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Solid Reading of a Faithful Adaptation

Produced at the time when Target novelizations of Doctor Who stories were limited by their page count, "Infero" captures the essential story that takes place across seven episodes but still feels a bit lacking.

Terrance Dicks' retelling of the classic serial is faithful and straightforward. But in a story that feature a parallel universe with parallel versions of several regular characters, a bit more background might have been nice. Again, Dicks is limited by a page count. It'd be fascinating to see what he could do with the story now. (Dicks does a nice job of fleshing out the background and history in several of his earlier Pertwee era novels, "The Auton Invasion" and "Day of the Daleks")

This time around, I listened to the BBC audio book release of "Inferno," which is up to the usual high standards set for this line. Caroline John acquits herself fairly well as a reader, though she still falls into the second tier of readers for the line. The novel helped me pound out a couple of longer runs on warm afternoons and for that, I'm grateful. But in many ways hearing the story of "Inferno" only made me want to dust off the DVD copy of the serial and watch it again.

A well paced and tense story from start to finish

If you could sum up Doctor Who: Inferno in three words, what would they be?

Jon Pertwee's best

What other book might you compare Doctor Who: Inferno to, and why?

It's difficult to compare to another book as it is unlike any other book I have read in terms of how I feel about the story.

Which scene did you most enjoy?

Where the Doctor first meets the alternate universe's Brigadier.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Definitely. The knowledge that the clock is ticking down to potential disaster allows the plot to gain a sense of impending doom and an urgency to read to the end.

Any additional comments?

Caroline John's wonderful performance makes the story all the more enjoyable and the sound effects were enhancing rather than intrusive to the timing of the story reading. Fans of the original television adventure will enjoy this production immensely.