Episode #69 : The Green Death

"Stevens, listen to me. You've seen where this efficiency of yours leads. Wholesale pollution of the countryside. Devilish creatures spawned by the filthy by-products of your technology. Men... men walking around like brainless vegetables. Death. Disease. Destruction."

Episode 69:    The Green Death.
Companions:  3rd Doctor and Jo Grant.
Air Date:        Six episodes. 19th May to 23rd June 1973.

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? Where are the giant maggots coming from? And who is the mysterious BOSS?

The Green Death is an excellent story that deals with issues just as relevant to us now in the 21st century as they were to us forty years ago; pollution and it's effects on the environment. In this story a mining company has closed down and started pumping vast amounts of chemical waste into the tunnels. The resulting mess has created a new form of life... giant, almost invulnerable, maggots that eventually transform into some monstrous fly-like insect. All of it orchestrated by the company's new machine BOSS - Biomorphic Organisational Systems Supervisor - which has achieved a form of sentience.

Throughout the current season of the show the Doctor has made a few references to wanting to visit Metebelis III, an apparently beautiful blue world famed for it's crystals. At long last we get a visit to that planet and it isn't anywhere near how he describes it. In fact it seems to be full of monsters, ranging from giant tentacles to enormous birds. We do come back to this planet in a few episodes time.

There is great chemistry between the characters in this story which has been lacking of late. Jo seems ever more ditzy than usual but it is endearing to see her fall in love with the local hippy scientist. Jo leaves the Doctor in this story to marry her new love and you get a real sense of conflicting happiness and sadness on the part of the Doctor. Even the Brigadier doesn't seem quite so trigger happy in this story.

The effects bring back a lot of memories of watching science fiction as a kid, and I really can't fault them in this story. The maggots seem a bit odd at times but they still give the creeps even now. The only element which I feel doesn't work is the giant fly. I mentioned this way back in the 1st Doctor story "Planet of the Giants". In that story there is a admittedly static model of a giant fly that looked awesome, but here we have something that truly does look like it was a rush job of paper-mache, bits and paint. When the BBC could do something that looked as good as it did in Planet of the Giants, it does beg the question why couldn't they do it here?

It is sad to see Jo leave the show and she is remembered with fondness by many fans. But it is time to get a stronger companion I think and we do that in the next story. Jo does make a re-appearance in the SJA adventure "Death of the Doctor" which I will cover later on.

I suggest The Green Death as one of the better Jon Pertwee era stories and well worth checking out if you haven't seen it.