The maggots are beginning to change into nasty flying things. At the Nuthutch, Nancy, the Doctor, the Brigadier and Benton find a maggot that has gone
The Doctor and Benton drive around in Bessie and feed the fungus to the maggots. Benton says
"Here kitty, kitty, kitty, come and get your lovely dindins!"
The Doctor quite rightly chastises him for this, because maggots are not cats!
Stevens talks to Mike Yates, who is being held prisoner in the Global Chemicals base. He says
"Well, young man, you have escaped us once. Believe me, it won't happen again."
but he's wrong, because (almost immediately) Yates pushes his guards away and then runs for it.
The flying thing chases after Bessie, with the SFX trying their hardest to make its attack as terrifying as possible - but that isn't very terrifying, mew. Even the Brigadier shouting "look out!" doesn't help much. There's a lot of CSO used in this bit - Barry Letts must have loved it, but it would be tough to argue these effects aren't pretty bad. They are, however, quite charming, which means these scenes become memorable for the right reasons rather than the wrong ones, if only just.
The threat of the flying thing is diminished even further when the Doctor defeats it really easily, by throwing his coat at it and causing it to crash. Yates also escapes really easily from Global Chemicals, managing most of his getaway off-screen. They must know they're on the last episode and so need to get to the climax as fast as possible.
Yates tells the Doctor what he has found out just as the Doctor has developed a cure for turning bright green and ded, which he leaves with Nancy and Jo to use on Professor Jones. The Doctor and all the UNIT mannys go to the base, but the one guard on the gate has a gun and won't let them in so they are all stuck.
Inside the base, Stevens is doing all the W-word while the BOSS is more concerned with picking his theme music:
"Stevens, you know, we should have arranged for a symphony orchestra to herald my triumph. To take over the world, to sweep into power on the crest of a wave of Wagnerian sound! You like that idea, of course? No? Oh, er... the 1812, perhaps? Or... would we dare... the Glorious Ninth?"
Fortunately for the Doctor, the sound of the BOSS hypno-eyesing all of the Global Chemicals mannys disables the guard and allows him to get into the base. Because the Brigadier, Benton, and all the other heavily armed UNIT soldiers they had with them weren't capable of doing anything. No wonder the Doctor tells them to wait outside while he goes in alone, they're useless, mew.
Stevens wants to get on with taking over the world, but the BOSS is too busy singing Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. Stevens ends up putting the hypno-eyesing headphones on himself to "connect" to the BOSS.
The Doctor arrives, so it is time for the ultimate showdown.
BOSS: "Stevens no longer exists, Doctor. Say what you have to say to me."Doctor: "Of course you still exist. Don't listen to this... this machine. Fight it!"BOSS: "Too late, Doctor. In five minutes, my power will be extended to seven other complexes throughout the world. Think of that. You have failed in your poor little attempt to halt our progress towards maximum efficiency and productivity."
The Doctor appeals to Stevens's humannyty, and with the help of the Metebelis 3 crystal de-hypno-eyeses him. Stevens presses the buttons right next to his hed that will cause the base to blow up, then tells the Doctor to get out.
There's no real need for Stevens to stay and get blowed up too, since he is freed from the headphones and isn't restrained in any other way, he just knows how this sort of thing is supposed to end and so is determined to do it properly. (While Stevens does stay to press loads of other buttons, it's clear from the lighting and the noises the BOSS is making that it is already going to blow up, so it is not at all clear that he needed to stay and self-sacrifice.)
After the big explosion for a climax, the denouement takes place at the Nuthutch, where Jones has recovered from having been got by a maggot. His marriage proposal to Jo (in the presence of the Doctor) is as socially clumsy as she is physically, which is the story's way of telling us they are well-suited and deserve each other, despite theirs having been a short relationship even by cat standards.
All the UNIT mannys come in and congratulate them, with Yates only sounding a little jealous of Jo when he says to her
"I'm sure he'll make you very happy."
The Brigadier commiserates with him and says
"Never mind, Mike, let's have a drink."
This is a callback to their pub visit together at the end of The Dæmons, and shows that they are still the best of friends.
The Doctor gives Jo the Metebelis 3 crystal as a "wedding present," as he realises this is the only context in which she is ever going to be interested in it. They have a quiet chat before Jones comes and, once again, steals her away from him.
As Jo and Jones celebrate with Nancy and the UNIT mannys, the Doctor slips out. Only Jo notices him go.
The Doctor goes outside, seems to consider for a moment taking a doggy with him as his next Companion, and then gets into Bessie and drives away. Alone. It's the end of an era.
Will his next car be called Josie?
What's so good about The Green Death?
Despite being made almost 50 years ago, The Green Death feels as modern as anything from the Doctor Who TV series being made today. This is because its central theme of environmentalism vs capitalism (or, to put it in even simpler terms, solidarity vs greed, the many vs the few) is, if anything, even more relevant now than in the 1970s - global corporations are more powerful, and the environmental issues more pressing.
The Green Death, therefore, feels prescient, as though Letts and Sloman had some real insight into the near-future UNIT era they were trying to predict. They even got it right in predicting that the politicians, when the crunch came, would be on the side of the capitalists.
On the subject of the capitalists, it's hard to imagine a story like The Green Death being made by the modern BBC and presenting corporations as unambiguous baddys. And by this I do not mean that they would present a more nuanced take on the issues, I mean that they would be more likely to suggest that a villainous executive is a singular example of a rogue agent, rather than it being the whole system that is fundamentally broken. This is the same series, after all, that gave us a story about how we shouldn't worry about an impending environmental catastrophe because the Earth would fix itself. To say nothing of Kerblam!
Global Chemicals, meanwhile, stands in for all corporate greed and abuse of power. The pollution that Professor Jones and his friends stand against could be that of any irresponsibly polluting company, the maggots a side-effect of any reckless pursuit of profit. If that seems too simplistic a message for a modern audience, I would compare it to the racism allegory in Star Trek's Let That Be Your Last Battlefield - about as subtle as a brick, but exactly what was needed for the times.
In the case of The Green Death, "the times" could be any time from the 1970s until now, and doubtless the near-future UNIT era as well.
Pertwee Six-Parter Padding Analysis
The Green Death fully justifies its six parts, with less padding across its episodes than you would see in many four-parters. Even scenes which at first glance appear to be padding later turn out not to be, such as the cutaway scenes of the Doctor's adventures on Metebelis 3 - when watching part one they appear to be merely filler, designed to keep the Doctor away from the main action until late on in the episode, but they become relevant much later when the Doctor makes use of the crystal he obtained there.
If anything, The Green Death is too short, and could have used a seventh episode like some of the stories of season seven. This might have allowed us to see more of some of the minor characters from the Nuthutch or Global Chemicals, or made room to develop the subplot about the takeover of Global Chemicals - as it is we never did find out what became of Elgin.
No comments:
Post a Comment