I first saw The Green Death on BBC Four in April 2006. BBC Four has never regularly repeated Doctor Who and I can’t recall seeing any other stories there around that time – I’d definitely have checked the TV guide after stumbling across this one. I’d later assumed that this broadcast was part of some themed event, and indeed that appears to be the case – a whole week of 1970s-themed programming, inspired by the recent broadcast of Life On Mars, which I had watched. Titles like Tomorrow’s World and The Old Grey Whistle Test would have meant nothing to me at the time. But along with programmes covering the Three Day Week and the IRA, interviews with Frederick Forsyth and Len Deighton, various contemporary documentaries, plus concerts from the likes of The Kinks and David Bowie, this schedule looks made for the me of today!
Life On Mars had planted some seeds and, given the chance, the week’s programming might have fed my new curiosity about the 1970s. Yet 2006 Me couldn’t have indulged this with more BBC Four because the living room was strictly my parents’ realm after a certain time. Reasonably, they expected to be left in peace to watch ‘adult’ programmes, so I saw little digital telly in the evenings. However, my enthusiasm for Doctor Who was obviously appreciated at this point as I recall sitting on the floor, quite close to the TV, with both of my parents in the room. I was used to having to get up at 7 or 8am on weekends for my UK Gold omnibuses of 20th century Doctor Who, so it was nice to sit down with it ‘live’ at a more ‘normal’ time. And to be sharing it – while 21st century Doctor Who was often a family affair on Saturday evenings, I rarely had early morning company.
The Green Death was split across three nights on BBC Four, with two episodes broadcast each night. One of the main memories that stuck with me was, unsurprisingly, the maggots. The Radio Times’ description for the second night is the marvellously simple synopsis of ‘More maggoty machinations’.
Jo and the Doctor’s parting is all there and set up wonderfully in the story’s first episode. Jo has found something she is clearly instantly passionate about and there is no consideration needed – she’s determined to head off to Professor Cliff Jones and Metebelis III won’t be tempting her from what she cares about right then and now. A time machine isn’t always a good enough reason to put part of life on hold. That enthusiasm of hers and the consequent loss of interest in having an adventure with the Doctor is all nicely there, which is great when we’ll see them split up for the next couple of episodes.
There are lots of elements I can appreciate more when revisiting stories, but it was rather unexpected that watching The Green Death as an adult meant I really enjoyed the verisimilitude of an industrial facility. This is probably somewhat personal, but I’ve now either worked within or had need to visit various industrial facilities as part of my jobs. Few of them are that new and some have had sections that were constructed in the 1960s, so the style of the labyrinthine Global Chemicals with nooks and crannies and random storage is all fairly familiar to me.
The inclusion of the miners also makes it feel perfectly part of 1973, where they had been prominent in the news headlines for the last couple of years. The casting of the miners could be seen as mixed: while Mostyn Evans as Dai (the second to succumb to The Green Death) is a reasonably burly figure, the slimmer builds of Talfryn Thomas as Dave and Roy Evans as Bert probably don’t fit our modern-day idea of physical labourers. However, having looked at plenty of imagery and footage of 1970s’ miners in recent years, the men’s build is often varied and probably partly depended on their exact role. You’ve got older miners who would have been brought up during the depression and we’re still firmly in a time before mass gym membership. There are various other influences and the overall result is shorter blokes with narrower builds. Therefore I think the casting is bang on, and I love having faces like these: characterful and lived in – just ordinary. It’s something modern television often seems to struggle with when casting characters like these in period pieces. Modern actors aren’t cast old enough, they haven’t smoked 20 a day for 20 years and don’t look like they’ve spent most nights in the working men’s club.
UNIT
I can feel UNIT slowly fading out as it’s Episode 4 before they turn up in force. The Brigadier spends the first half of the story out of uniform, instead sporting a magnificent sheepskin coat (confession: I own such a coat). When he goes to confront Stevens, it feels appropriate that he says, “Two of my friends are still down there,” rather than referring to them as “my people” or “my colleagues”. Mike Yates is also in civies for the latter half of the story so he can go undercover. Having now seen Invasion of the Dinosaurs, it’s apparent that the idea of Mike working with the bad guys worked well and that it might have been better to keep the audience guessing as to whether he was on our side or theirs.
When is a tree not a tree? When it’s CSO…
My original viewing of The Green Death was the first time I remember noticing that what I was watching wasn’t all real: at some point, the Brigadier and the rest of UNIT clearly weren’t really in that field. There’s are shots with trees in the background and the trees aren’t moving, and they definitely should have been. I knew from watching Doctor Who Confidential that you could change a background using green screen. But that was for things you couldn’t actually film, like London during the Blitz or an alien world. This was just a field and trees! It bothered me, and it bothered me that I couldn’t figure it out. It would be a while before I learned about CSO – even longer before I learned about the time pressures of 1970s’ location filming. I look forward to this part of the story each time now as it feels like a nice little marker for my fandom: if I kept watching stories, if I kept buying DVDs with extras on, and if I kept reading the books and magazines, maybe one day I could figure it all out…
Goodbye Jo
Jo gets plenty to do in her final story. I love her scenes with Bert. He’s lovely towards her and I like how she isn’t brave enough when they’re moving down the mine so asks him ever so sweetly and politely, “Do you mind going down first?” as they leave the cage. He’s old enough to be a father figure looking out for her and it helps to make it all the more horrifying when he touches the Green. We’ve seen two others die from it by then, so are aware that it’s Very Bad and poor Bert is as good as gone.
I like that the Doctor and Cliff Jones get on as it would have been easy, perhaps obvious, to put the younger man and older man at loggerheads with Jo caught between them. But instead there is instant mutual respect. It means Cliff doesn’t have to prove himself to the Doctor and all that ultimately matters is his and Jo’s relationship, which can grow more easily on screen. While I think the engagement is far too fast, the story’s six episodes gives plenty of time for their relationship to develop. It’s there in subtle moments early on when Cliff puts his hand on Jo’s after dinner, and fully later on when Jo clearly plans to stay up chatting with Cliff, only for the Doctor to drag him away to chat fungus.
Jo is both excited for new adventures with Cliff and also sad to be saying goodbye to the Doctor, seeking some approval with, “You don’t mind, do you?” It doesn’t feel like a totally final goodbye in the way many companion goodbyes are, yet Jo knows she’ll be away some time on her trip to the Amazon and the Doctor will be off travelling too. They will try to meet again someday, but who knows where or when it might be. Their moment alone saying goodbye is lovely, as is the way the news is shared with the UNIT ‘family’ – it feels right that they are all there. Wonderfully, for the briefest second Mike immediately looks downcast, before putting on a brave face and offering his congratulations. Afterwards, the Brigadier catches him and offers a hand on his shoulder, “Never mind, Mike. Let’s have a drink.” Mike and Jo have had something but never Something, so these lovely small touches are just what’s needed.
The Doctor and Jo have said all they needed to by the time he quietly sneaks out, noticed only by her – the word “goodbye” isn’t needed. Watching him drive off from Jo at the end was memorably moving the first time around and I think this remains the best companion exit of the show’s 20th century run.
