The Green Death
Global Chemicals promises to bring cheap new sources of synthetic oil to the world, and bring new jobs and money to the people of the Welsh village of Llanfairfach where the coal mine has been closed down. Local activitst and bioligist Cliff Jones and his people at the Wholeweal community see it as a threat to world ecology, and as they protest, a man emerges from the old mine with his skin glowing a ghastly green. Within minutes he is dead. The UNIT crew soon arrive (the Doctor after finally making his trip to Metebelis 3 only to find it's not the paradise he had hoped it would be) and discover that Global's refining process creates tonnes of toxic waste which has been poured into the old mine and given rise to a colony of giant maggots. But the biggest threat behind Global is not the deranged manager, Stevens, but the mad computer, the BOSS, which has set its sights on world domination no matter the cost to humankind.
Who knew the Doctor was an environmentalist? In these days of global warming a story like The Green Death will still be relevant despite being almost 22 years old. Granted the mutated giant maggots and the huge flies they would eventually change into are an extreme realization of the threats of pollution, but that doesn't make them any less frightening when hoardes of them are seen swimming about in a pool of toxic waste and then erupting from the very ground as they tunnel to the surface.
The poor Brigadier and his crew at UNIT find themselves on a political tightrope with the Prime Minister himself ordering the Brigadier to place UNIT at the disposal of Global Chemicals despite the suspicious circumstances surround their link to the dead green men coming out of the mines. Was this another of the production team's swipes at the government, having made civil servants into interfering buffoons they now portray the PM himself as firmly on the side of big business? Despite his smacking down the Brogaider does what he does best: he blows things up. The mine. The maggots. Almost blows up Jo and Cliff too.
Jo has changed in her time with the Doctor. In Nightdreamers Tom Arden hamfistedly makes some reference to Jo feeling that her time with the Doctor might be coming to an end, and in episode one of The Green Death she takes her first step towards that by refusing to accompany the Doctor to Metebelis 3 and go to pitch in with Professor Jones and his lot, regardless of what it may do to her UNIt career. The Doctor sadly remarks "the fledgling leaves the nest" and by the end of episode six, she indeed does; Jo falls in love with Professor Jones, a man she admits reminds her of the Doctor, only younger, and they are off to get married and take an expedition down the Amazon together. The Doctor is thrown by this - it is obvious that during his time on Earth he has grown attached to Jo like no previous companion, and he is visibly heart(s) broken, leaving the engagement party on his own and driving off into the sunset in Bessie. The devotion between the two characters has been very obvious during theit time together, one rescuing the other when it was necessary, and I found it most obvious when the Doctor goes down the mine looking for Jo in episode 2; he has not seen her since before he left for Metebelis 3 and when he does find her his relief at seeing her safe, and hers at seeing him coming to look for her, is what real friendship is all about. Jo always knew that if there was trouble the Doctor would be there to get her out of it, and the choice between a hero figure and a man she loved for similar qualities would be wrenching.
The season ends with the Doctor on his own, and who knows what he got up to next. Did he just hang around Earth with the Brigadier some more, or was he off on his own for a spell, just him and the TARDIS for the very first time? There is some interesting ground to be covered there and maybe one of the writers for the BBC novels will look into that, let us see how this Doctor functions without a companion to prop him up.
Alas there is no such interesting material to look into, so onward we go with the next season, the last set of adventures for the third Doctor...
NEXT EPISODE : THE TIME WARRIOR
Who knew the Doctor was an environmentalist? In these days of global warming a story like The Green Death will still be relevant despite being almost 22 years old. Granted the mutated giant maggots and the huge flies they would eventually change into are an extreme realization of the threats of pollution, but that doesn't make them any less frightening when hoardes of them are seen swimming about in a pool of toxic waste and then erupting from the very ground as they tunnel to the surface.
The poor Brigadier and his crew at UNIT find themselves on a political tightrope with the Prime Minister himself ordering the Brigadier to place UNIT at the disposal of Global Chemicals despite the suspicious circumstances surround their link to the dead green men coming out of the mines. Was this another of the production team's swipes at the government, having made civil servants into interfering buffoons they now portray the PM himself as firmly on the side of big business? Despite his smacking down the Brogaider does what he does best: he blows things up. The mine. The maggots. Almost blows up Jo and Cliff too.
Jo has changed in her time with the Doctor. In Nightdreamers Tom Arden hamfistedly makes some reference to Jo feeling that her time with the Doctor might be coming to an end, and in episode one of The Green Death she takes her first step towards that by refusing to accompany the Doctor to Metebelis 3 and go to pitch in with Professor Jones and his lot, regardless of what it may do to her UNIt career. The Doctor sadly remarks "the fledgling leaves the nest" and by the end of episode six, she indeed does; Jo falls in love with Professor Jones, a man she admits reminds her of the Doctor, only younger, and they are off to get married and take an expedition down the Amazon together. The Doctor is thrown by this - it is obvious that during his time on Earth he has grown attached to Jo like no previous companion, and he is visibly heart(s) broken, leaving the engagement party on his own and driving off into the sunset in Bessie. The devotion between the two characters has been very obvious during theit time together, one rescuing the other when it was necessary, and I found it most obvious when the Doctor goes down the mine looking for Jo in episode 2; he has not seen her since before he left for Metebelis 3 and when he does find her his relief at seeing her safe, and hers at seeing him coming to look for her, is what real friendship is all about. Jo always knew that if there was trouble the Doctor would be there to get her out of it, and the choice between a hero figure and a man she loved for similar qualities would be wrenching.
The season ends with the Doctor on his own, and who knows what he got up to next. Did he just hang around Earth with the Brigadier some more, or was he off on his own for a spell, just him and the TARDIS for the very first time? There is some interesting ground to be covered there and maybe one of the writers for the BBC novels will look into that, let us see how this Doctor functions without a companion to prop him up.
Alas there is no such interesting material to look into, so onward we go with the next season, the last set of adventures for the third Doctor...
NEXT EPISODE : THE TIME WARRIOR
Labels: Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart, Jo Grant, The 3rd Doctor, UNIT
posted by Sean Hoover @ 8:04 PM
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