Things I've Learnt from Watching My Favourite Doctor Who Stories: Part 33 - The Green Death

 33: The Green Death

If its green and slimy, for goodness sake don't touch it!

The one with the maggots! This is quintessential classic Who and it's really difficult to think of something new to say about it.

I was too young to see it on first broadcast being only a couple of months old, my first encounter was with the Target version written by Mslcolm Hulke. It was the first novelisation I'd got , we were on holiday in Lincoln, I remember and it was the reprint version. The cover was weirdly eye-catching but not particularly exciting or evocative of Doctor Who as the show it was. The back cover spoke about UNIT and someone called Jo Grant and at the time Dr Who was the man with the scarf and curls. The illustrations inside showed a man with white curly hair and no scarf. There was someone called the BOSS and the first chapter was called Wealth in our time. It was probably a bit too much for me at the age of seven, but the pictures kept me amused and it was the start of a collection of books that continues to this day. 

It would be 21 years after the original transmission that I finally got to see the TV version, dumped in a Sunday morning slot (seriously, did the BBC not realise some Doctor Who fans went to church?) but thank heavens for video recorders. It was the fourth Pertwee story to be repeated in two years and my relationship with the third Doctor had been a bit up and down. (scroll down to Part 40 for the full story) but I was determined to enjoy it, as it hadn't been released on VHS by then. 

Pertwee six-parters are curious beasts. They seem to have more padding than the seven part stories in season seven and this one is no exception. Most of part one is dedicated to Jon Pertwee being menaced by offscreen terrors in a blue tinted quarry, while Jo and the Brigadier go off to Wales. We know it's Wales, cos the Brig gets called "Boyo!"

Yes it's as patronising to the Welsh as Terror of the Zygons is to the Scots, the following year. But there's a charm here, with ordinary characters that seem like real people. Professor Jones, the younger version of the Doctor according to Jo, with whom she falls in love, played by Stewart Bevan, plays it serious but with a twinkle and he has great chemistry with Katy Manning (no wonder, they were dating at the time!) 

I adore Katy Manning, she's a force of natural wonder, still tweeting out to us fans wherever she is in the world. She makes Jo a credible character even when she's written and treated with less respect (Yes Time Monster, I'm looking at you!) 

It's well signposted that this is her last story even the Doctor guesses it as he muses "The fledgling flies the coup!" after she declines a trip to Metebelis 3. 

Her sadness at the news that Bert, the man who accompanied her in the coalmine, had died is rather poignant. Sometimes the death of minor characters is brushed off in Who, but here for once it's acknowledged and gives Jo a bit more depth and believability than she sometimes had in the past (Yes, you again Time Monster! Curses foiled again indeed!!) 

It's the last time we see this version of the UNIT family and there's some nice moments for each of the team. We see the Brig in civvies, enjoying the hospitality of the Nuthutch. Mike Yates gets to go undercover and gets brainwashed, while Benton gets a nice comedy moment feeding the maggots in the back of Bessie! 

It's not known as the one with the maggots for nothing. These creations are really well done and look gruesome, thanks to being made with the skull of a dead ferret! OK, the CSO has aged badly but the much maligned fly isn't that bad. The Boss computer might be straight from Star Trek, but it gives Pertwee a great confrontation scene ("Freedom from freedom!") and John Dearth makes the voice of the BOSS creepy and weirdly funny at the same time. 

So, how could I not include this one? I'm going to say it again but it's so quintessentially Doctor Who and forward thinking in its message on ecology and pollution. You think the modern series is "woke?" Well, educate yourself and watch this then! 

Well meaning? Yes! 

Subtle? Possibly not! 

Great Doctor Who? Undoubtedly! 

Next Time: I don't know much about art, but I know what I like!