The Green Death
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| 069 - The Green Death | |
| Doctor | Jon Pertwee (Third Doctor) |
|---|---|
| Writer | Robert Sloman Barry Letts (uncredited) |
| Director | Michael Bryant |
| Script Editor | Terrance Dicks |
| Producer | Barry Letts |
| Executive producer(s) | None |
| Production code | TTT |
| Series | Season 10 |
| Length | 6 episodes, 25 mins each |
| Transmission date | May 19–June 23, 1973 |
| Preceded by | Planet of the Daleks |
| Followed by | The Time Warrior |
The Green Death is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from May 19, 1973 to June 23, 1973. This serial was the last to feature Katy Manning in the role of Jo Grant.
Contents |
[edit] Synopsis
A death at an abandoned coal pit brings UNIT and the Doctor to the South Wales town of Llanfairfach when the body is found glowing bright green. Are pollutants from Global Chemicals responsible? And who is the mysterious BOSS?
[edit] Plot
The Welsh mining village of Llanfairfach has little initial interest for the Doctor, who prefers a challenging visit to the blue planet of Metebelis Three to a trip to South Wales. However, Jo Grant is keen to go to the village to meet the acclaimed environmentalist and Nobel Prize winner Professor Clifford Jones; while Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart is intrigued enough by the death of a bright green miner to drive her down. The miner was found in a disused mine, and the main source of employment in the village is now the Global Chemicals plastics factory. Its boss, Stevens, promises prosperity for all, but Professor Jones and the other environmentalists at his “Nuthutch” are unconvinced. In light of the protests, Stevens accepts the Brigadier’s offer of additional security at his factory. Stevens is well connected and even enjoys Cabinet support for his factory and its new plastic production process.
Jo is not impressed with the Brigadier’s siding with the corporate giant against the protestors and decides to venture down to the mine herself, accompanied by a friendly miner called Bert. One of the Global Chemicals employees cuts the lift cable and this imperils their journey and leaves them stranded in the mine. By this time the Doctor has reached the village, with just a blue crystal to show for his visit to Metebelis Three, and goes into the mine in search of Jo. She and Bert have found Dai Evans, one of the other miners, glowing bright green. It seems there is some serious pollution at work in the mine and head off to find a way out. Things get even worse when Bert finds a slick of green slime and touches it, he too seems to contract “the green death”. By the time the Doctor finds Dai, the miner is dead, and the Time Lord becomes very worried for Jo’s safety. He ventures in deeper and finds Jo and Bert near a vast lake of green slime filled with giant maggots.
Back at Global Chemicals, Stevens is behaving very curiously. He is using strange headphones to listen to calming messages and when one of his employees, Fell, looks helpful to the environmentalists, he is somehow reconditioned with the same headphones and shortly afterward kills himself. Another staff member, Elgin, saves the Doctor and Jo from drowning in the green slime when he helps them out of a shaft that links the mine and the factory complex – proving the link between the two.
The Doctor, Jo and the Brigadier end the day with a nourishing meal of fungus at the Nuthutch, but the frivolity is cut short when they hear Bert too has died. The Doctor has brought a maggot egg back from the mine and it hatches but the maggot escapes before any full analysis can be made of it. He is further infuriated when the Brigadier seals the mine with explosives and clears the area using UNIT troops. This fails and the maggots simply burrow through.
At Global Chemicals events are taking an even more sinister turn. Mike Yates has been sent in undercover by the Brigadier and is contacted by the Doctor, who dons some improbable disguises to get through the gates and move freely. Having liased with Yates the Doctor learns that Stevens take his instructions from the top floor of the complex, and heads there to find out who is in charge. The BOSS, or Biomorphic Organisational Systems Supervisor, turns out to be a super-computer with its own meglomaniac personality. It runs the company, controls Stevens and other key staff members, and is responsible for the polluting chemical process. The Doctor rejects the brain-washing technique that Stevens, who now returns to BOSS, subjects him to – but Mike Yates is more susceptible and is converted into one of the computer’s slaves. After the Doctor escapes, Mike is sent to the Nutchutch to kill the Doctor. His conditioning is deep and only broken by the Doctor’s use of the blue crystal he brought from Metebelis Three.
Jo has meanwhile alienated Cliff, with whom she is falling in love, by ruining one of his slides. Determined to make amends she heads to the sealed mine in search of a maggot to run some tests on. He works out the fungus she spilt on the slides is actually a curative and then sets off to stop her, but they are both caught in an RAF bombing raid intended to kill the maggots. Cliff is also infected with a maggot and begins to turn green – and all before he was able to share his knowledge of the cure. Fortunately the Doctor is able to replicate the tests and arrives at the same conclusion. He and Sergeant Benton drive around the slag heaps and the mine, liberally scattering the fungus which proves deadly to the maggots, and disposing of a deadly giant fly which attacks them. Luckily they get to Jo and Cliff in time and Professor Jones is given the antidote.
The Doctor returns to Global Chemicals to confront BOSS. The computer plans to link up with others and effect a corporate takeover of the human race. However, Stevens, whose conditioning is partially broken by the Doctor using the crystal, tells him to get out while he triggers an explosion which destroys himself, the computer, and the company headquarters.
The menace defeated, UNIT troops and environmentalists gather at the Nuthutch for a celebration made all the more special when Jo and Cliff announce they are getting engaged and then plan to travel the Amazon looking for a rare fungus. The Doctor offers his blessing and gives Jo the blue crystal as a present, but is evidently very upset by the situation and quietly slips away while the party is in full swing.
[edit] Cast
- Doctor Who — Jon Pertwee
- Jo Grant — Katy Manning
- Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart — Nicholas Courtney
- Captain Mike Yates — Richard Franklin
- Sergeant Benton — John Levene
- Professor Clifford Jones — Stewart Bevan
- Nancy — Mitzi McKenzie
- Stevens — Jerome Willis
- Hinks — Ben Howard
- Fell — John Rolfe
- Elgin — Tony Adams
- James — Roy Skelton
- Voice of BOSS — John Dearth
- Minister of Ecology — Richard Beale
- Dave — Talfryn Thomas
- Bert — Roy Evans
- Dai Evans — Mostyn Evans
- Hughes — John Scott Martin
- Milkman — Ray Handy
- Cleaner — Jean Burgess
- Guards — Terry Walsh, Brian Justice
[edit] Notes
- A novelisation of this serial, written by Malcolm Hulke, was published by Target Books in August 1975.
- This story marked the final appearance of Katy Manning as Jo Grant. Although Manning continues to attend fan conventions and play characters for Big Finish Productions audio plays, she has never reprised her role as Jo Grant. Manning stated during a 1993 convention that she would consider reprising the role, but would portray Jo Grant "radically" different from the way she portrayed the character in the series.
- This story marks the only farewell scene between the Third Doctor and one of his companions. Liz Shaw's actual departure was never seen on screen and Sarah Jane Smith remained a companion beyond the Doctor's third incarnation and she departed the TARDIS crew during the Doctor's fourth incarnation.
- Manning's departure, coupled with the death of Roger Delgado (who played the Master) and the announced departure of producer Barry Letts, was a major motivation in Jon Pertwee's decision to leave the series the following year.
- The Doctor's desire to journey to Metebelis Three was a running theme throughout the season.
- The Brigadier addresses the prime minister as "Jeremy," which was a production joke referring to Liberal Party candidate Jeremy Thorpe.
- After leaving the series, Manning became the only former companion to appear nude (with a Dalek) in a magazine. John Barrowman's Jack Harkness was filmed naked from behind for the episode Bad Wolf (2005). However, the footage was vetoed by the BBC before the broadcast.
- Tony Adams, who played Elgin, was taken ill during the recording and so Roy Skelton was brought in to play a new character called Mr. James who was given the lines written for Elgin. In a DVD featurette called Global Conspiracy, Adams reprises his role as Elgin and he actually uses his real illness as an explanation for his character's sudden absence towards the end of the story.
- The story deals with the concept of scientific discoveries made by serendipity or "happy accidents", and preshadows the invention of the Internet (see also The War Machines, which features a similar computer threat).
- During the recording of the footage of the maggots around the quarrysite, several of the maggot props were in fact inflated condoms (some inflated with air, others with water).
- The Doctor temporarily stumps BOSS by asking it "If I were to tell you that the next thing I say would be true, but the last thing I said was a lie, would you believe me?" This is an almost verbatim quote from the Star Trek episode I, Mudd. The question is an example of the liar paradox, which dates back to at least the fourth century BC.
- This story marks the final appearance of the howlaround title sequence introduced in 1970. It also is the last appearance of the logo introduced in Spearhead from Space until the 1996 television movie. The 1996 version of this logo has been used for marketing purposes by the BBC since that time, and is still used for the "classic series".
- Curiously, the closing title graphics are run upside down and backwards on Episodes 2, 5, and 6. The reasons for this are unclear and range from saving time rewinding the film to trying something new with the titles as they would not be used again
- This story was released on DVD in the United Kingdom on May 10, 2004. It came out on VHS in October 1996 as a tribute to Jon Pertwee, who had recently died. This story was shown on BBC2 in 1994, and as part of "1973 Week" on BBC FOUR in 2006.
[edit] External links
- The Green Death episode guide on the BBC website
- The Green Death at Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time (Travel)
- The Green Death at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
[edit] Reviews
- The Green Death reviews at Outpost Gallifrey
- The Green Death reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide
[edit] Target novelisation
| UNIT television stories |
|---|
| Second Doctor: (The Web of Fear) | The Invasion |
| Third Doctor: Spearhead from Space | Doctor Who and the Silurians | The Ambassadors of Death | Inferno | Terror of the Autons | The Mind of Evil | The Claws of Axos | The Dæmons | Day of the Daleks | The Time Monster | The Three Doctors | The Green Death | Invasion of the Dinosaurs | Planet of the Spiders |
| Fourth Doctor: Robot | Terror of the Zygons | The Android Invasion |
| Seventh Doctor: Battlefield |
| Tenth Doctor: The Christmas Invasion |
| Minor Appearances: The Time Warrior | The Seeds of Doom | The Five Doctors | Aliens of London/World War Three |
| See also: UNIT dating controversy |
