3.19: The Green Death

In which the Doctor cross dresses and then gets dumped.

Broadcast: May-June 1973

Watched: April-May 2020

The Green Death, Episode One

“I’m not going to Metebelis 3.” Oooh foreshadowing. The scene where the Doctor and Jo are talking at cross purposes is lovely. Her departure is always seen in terms of their quasi-romantic relationship... but it’s her realisation that she has her own battles to fight, and going off to investigate independently because they’re more important than having fun with the Doctor, that’s the important part, really.

Anyway, been looking forward to this, as it’s one I’ve only seen once, about 15 years ago, and it blew me away a bit. And as it turns out there’s loads to say, so.

First question: does [producer] Barry Letts invent the season finale? From 8-11 he always quietly co-writes the last story, so clearly sees it as important. Why doesn’t he get a credit? Also who was Robert Sloman? [A Times journalist and a friend of Letts, it turns out: Jim Cooray-Smith tells me that producers weren’t meant to take extra credits without departmental permission, and Sloman needed the writing credits more than Letts, so Letts let him take sole credit on their co-writes.]

Interesting that it takes 10 years before Doctor Who visits Wales. The thought occurs that though we’ve had a couple of stories apiece in Wales and Scotland – nowhere near proportionate to population, but at least some presence – we’ve had absolutely nothing in Ireland ever. Too difficult? [Hilariously, I made this observation roughly two months after Doctor Who set an entire plot thread in Ireland, in Ascension of the Cybermen. Clearly very memorable.]

Love that it starts with a take on the Chamberlain piece of paper speech. Very nice way of communicating it’s all bullshit without saying as much. Given that this is 1973, three day week and all that, this is probably the most the real world has intruded upon Who so far.

“Putrefaction”... Do rotting bodies really start glowing green, though…?

The entire Metebelis 3 sequence is brilliant. It’s like Love & Monsters or BtVS: The Zeppo – snapshots of another story, used to send the series up – but even funnier because it’s ripping the piss out of this place the Doctor has been describing as a paradise all season.

The Green Death, Episode Two

Only just realise that Jo leaves Dr Smith for Professor Jones. Promotion.

It is, from some points of view, problematic that the first outing Jo has on her own, she needs the Doctor to come rescue her.

The giant maggots are bloody horrible.

The Green Death, Episode Three

Why on Earth have the Brig and Jo dressed up for dinner, while most of the hippies are just messing about with recorders or clay?

BOSS is... not radically different to WOTAN, is it? I mean the plots rhyme in a Smith & Jones/Eleventh Hour kind of way. Although that kind of works as a metaphor for fascism – people are convinced to serve the cause regardless of other people’s, or even their own, interests.

I like how Jo is now totally uninterested in the Doctor’s shit and obsessed with reading about the Amazon, and how obviously jealous the Doctor is.

I remember catching the cliffhanger to this one – the maggot creeping up on Jo, with the cheery “ROOM FOR LIVING” sign in the background – on BBC Two in the early nineties when I didn’t know Doctor Who was on, and being annoyed to discover what it was and that I’d missed it.

The Green Death, Episode Four

Ahh, Pertwee in drag. Those were the days. 

I remember Lance [Parkin; another friend] arguing years ago that Jo is one of the few old series characters who gets proper development. I’m not sure that’s true, to be honest. In this story she spends a lot of time going off and doing stuff independent of both the Doctor and Cliff – but every time it gets her in trouble, and she’s been doing that since season 8. I’m not sure she’s changed that much.

I like Yates’ undercover routine, the unsubtle way in which the Doctor-as-Doris writes “GET RID OF HIM” in some grime, and the way the Brig clearly loves blowing stuff up even when he thinks it’s a probably a bad idea. Which it obviously is.

The twist that BOSS is the computer sort of failed for me because I’m so familiar with the fact I didn’t realise we weren’t supposed to know. 

The Green Death, Episode Five

It’s weird that, in my mind, this isn’t just “the one with the maggots” and “the one where Jo leaves”, but “the one where Yates is brainwashed”. But that happens off screen and there’s precisely one scene in which it’s a problem. Considering Mike’s later betrayal, and the fact he’s sort of still seen as the traitor in the cosmology of Doctor Who, it feels much less significant to this story than I expected.

The milk float escape sequence is brilliant. The fact that the RAF might consider “bombing Wales” to be a solution to anything isn’t.

Anyway, I’m sort of finding this one a bit disappointing because I loved it so much when I first saw it. It’s good, but it’s just Decent Pertwee Nonsense, and when I’m four seasons into the Pertwee era it’s nothing special. It’s odd what stands up and what doesn’t, isn’t it? I wonder if this is actually one that might have worked better *out* of context.

The Green Death, Episode Six

“A beautiful creature...” Compared to actual flies it is, more like a dragonfly. Strange design choice.

Just hit me there are at least two “Mike Yates is in DANGER!” cliffhangers, which is quite funny.

Love Pertwee’s suit with the red trimming. Also the fact they give the maggots teeth and make them hiss (you know, just like real maggots) to make them scarier.

The fact that Jones’ magical meat substitute fungus is the solution is a) a bit convenient and b) a heavy handed metaphor, but it sort of works.

Love the scene where BOSS is humming to himself. He’s quite fun, for an evil supercomputer.

Cliff’s “mentioning it as an offhand comment during a discussion about logistics with his intended’s boss” is the least romantic proposal I have ever seen. But Jo’s departure, and the Doctor’s sneaking away from the party and driving off into the night, is note perfect – as with the end of The Chase, we’re shown the Doctor’s sadness through the medium of him being a complete and utter prick. It’s a lovely character note.

Anyway, that was good, I think, just not as good as it was in my memory. I do like BOSS as a representation of faceless capitalism, focused purely on profit.

Random thoughts: this is the second finale which ends with the Brig announcing his intention to get Mike Yates drunk. It’s a big influence on No Future I think (UNIT and some hippies/punks working together to beat the baddies, then having a party).