Inferno universe

Accessed via a power accident at the Inferno Project, the Third Doctor discovered a parallel universe where Great Britain was a republic governed by a fascist regime.

Although some details were known about the history of this world, the Third Doctor personally experienced it only in the environs of its version of the Inferno Project.

The Third Doctor described it as a "parallel space-time continuum" (TV: Inferno) whereas the Seventh Doctor called it an alternate timeline. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Revelation)

Creation
The Sixth Doctor believed the Inferno universe had only diverged from the primary reality about fifty years before he entered it in the 1970s, (PROSE: The Quantum Archangel) although no incarnation of the Doctor was present when Marianne Kyle confirmed that the first known divergence was in the 19th century. When his conversation with his third incarnation's persona revealed the identity of the British President, the Seventh Doctor wondered if the Timewyrm had any part in creating this timeline as part of her efforts to weaken him. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Revelation) Another account speculated that the Inferno universe was the original timeline and the prime universe was a divergent timeline created by the Great Intelligence. (PROSE: Night of the Intelligence)

19th century
The Confederate States of America won the American Civil War during the 1860s. In the war's aftermath, the American Confederation was established. (PROSE: The Face of the Enemy)

20th century
Joseph Stalin did not join the Bolsheviks in this universe and later become the Prime Minister of White Russia. (PROSE: The Face of the Enemy) By the 1950s few Bolsheviks were still alive (PROSE: The Schizoid Earth) and communism had lost all credibility as a political ideology. (PROSE: I, Alastair)

Professor Edward Travers died in Tibet in 1935, before ever seeing the Yeti. John Mackay survived the trip and later worked for the British Army. (PROSE: The Schizoid Earth)

This universe's Doctor was exiled to Earth in the 1930s and became an associate of Oswald Mosley. After Mosley's murder in 1936 he spearheaded the fascist revolutionary movement throughout Europe. (PROSE: I, Alastair)

The Second World War never happened since Adolf Hitler was assassinated during a military coup by the Wehrmacht in 1938. Great Britain and Russia subsequently took the opportunity to divide Europe between themselves. Meanwhile in Asia, the Japanese successfully built their Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere. (PROSE: The Face of the Enemy)

The British Royal Family were executed in 1943 after being implicated in Mosley's assassination. (PROSE: I, Alastair) Brigade Leader Alastair Lethbridge-Stewart spoke of their deaths with relish. (TV: Inferno) In the wake of the revolution Britain never decolonised, retaining her colonies in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean, although Australia broke ranks and did not march to the Empire's new fascist tune.

In the 1950s, British military forces established bases in Germany and exchanged military technology with Russia. The government was increasingly authoritarian and paranoid about espionage, even from their tentative allies of America and Russia. (PROSE: The Schizoid Earth) This world's James Lethbridge-Stewart would later suggest that it was the lack of a Second World War against Nazi Germany that had caused this: the British people had no recent warning of what could happen if they started giving up their freedoms and had no need or desire to fight for them. (PROSE: Night of the Intelligence)

The Republic was surprised when the Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart of the regular Earth's 1969 accidentally ended up in their 1959. They suspected him of being a spy and interrogated him for four months. By the time he'd left, they'd become aware of a third alternate Earth using their world as a staging ground to send warnings through time and the Republican Security Forces was proposed to deal with scientific threats. (PROSE: The Schizoid Earth)

Shortly after its founding, the RSF fought the Bannermen in Wales, where they captured the Bannermen spacecraft and reverse-engineered the alien technology. (PROSE: The Face of the Enemy) Elizabeth Shaw chose to join the Army instead of pursuing a scientific career after she left university and the regime's ideology nurtured the sadistic and cruel side of John Benton's personality. (TV: Inferno)

In the 1960s the Republic's economy grew far larger than its electricity supply and mining industry could support, especially after a serious accident at Windscale in 1966 severely contaminated the Cumbrian countryside and led to a ban on the construction of new nuclear power stations in Britain. Rolling blackouts, coal rationing and longer shifts at coal mines were instituted to try to solve the energy crisis. However these proved deeply unpopular with a public which had accepted the Party's regime as a reasonable price to pay for a high standard of living, resulting in rioting in many major cities and even strikes at coal mines, all of which were violently quelled. In need of a more permanent solution than shooting disgruntled coal miners, the government granted official approval to Eric Stahlmann's geothermal energy project then in the early stages of development at the Eastchester government research station. (PROSE: I, Alastair)

Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart became President in 1968, after opportunistically causing the death of the Leader in an alien attack on Downing Street. (PROSE: I, Alastair) He even resorted to forcibly drugging the young people who had joined a state youth organisation called the Republic Youth Army in order to impose his will on them. James Lethbridge-Stewart was alienated by his father's thirst for power and used Axos material to get himself and his family out of this reality. (PROSE: Night of the Intelligence)

Despite having caused his death, President Lethbridge-Stewart's regime claimed the Doctor's legacy for propaganda purposes, retaining his portrait in government buildings and continuing to issue posters emblazoned with his face. (TV: Inferno)

The Great Intelligence launched an attack on Britain in this universe as well. Koschei, here having not become the Master, saved the world from the Intelligence, but his TARDIS was irreparably damaged. Koschei was then captured, tortured, and pumped for information for years by the Security Directorate. (PROSE: The Face of the Enemy)

In the 1970s the world was effectively ruled by the Conclave, a parallel of the United Nations Security Council, made up of the leaders of the main continents. Great Britain represented Europe and Africa, the Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere represented Asia, and the American Confederation represented the Americas. India and Russia also had their own representatives. (PROSE: The Face of the Enemy) A parallel of UNIT was known as the European Axis Military Corps. (PROSE: Still Lives)

In 1974 after six years of work Eric Stahlmann was in the final stages of drilling at the Inferno Project. Australian mining engineer Greg Sutton was a political prisoner in Britain, forced to assist at Stahlmann's project. (TV: Inferno)

Shortly after the Third Doctor's unplanned arrival in this universe, an accident at Stahlmann's project devastated the entire surface of the planet within thirty-nine hours. (TV: Inferno) The only survivors were those in bunkers (including the Vault) space stations and on the Moon. President Lethbridge-Stewart was killed when the fallout from the disaster at Eastchester destroyed London. (PROSE: The Face of the Enemy)

While the Doctor and Jo Grant were visiting Peladon, the surviving leaders of this Earth started to cross over to the Doctor's world. They planned to kill and replace their counterparts, but UNIT — who were reluctantly working with — thwarted the plot. The Master allowed Marianne Kyle to escape, hoping she would cause trouble for the Doctor some day. (PROSE: The Face of the Enemy)

Behind the scenes

 * The world is never actually referred to as "Inferno Earth" in any known DWU story, though the phrase "the Inferno universe" occurs once in The Quantum Archangel. However "Inferno Earth" serves as a useful shorthand. It's a logical in-universe term, since the Doctor accessed that particular Earth at the Inferno Project — something the novelisation tells us is colloquially known as "the Inferno".