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| Of fungus and maggots! A disturbing ecological terror for the Doctor and Jo Grant in the new BBC DVD release of Classic DOCTOR WHO: The Green Death. Images: BBC. |
DOCTOR WHO – THE GREEN DEATH (SPECIAL EDITION 2-DISC SET)
Starring Jon Pertwee as the Doctor and Katy Manning as Jo Grant
Written by Robert Sloman
Directed by Michael E. Briant
Available 5th August 2013 from BBC DVD
Reviewed by Scott Weller
How green (death) was my valley!
They’ve been fighting all manner of weird and vicious alien invaders from outer space on and off during their previous three exciting years together, but now our heroic and exiled Time Lord DOCTOR WHO, and his ever faithful and lovely companion Jo Grant face an altogether different, but just as lethal, man-made adversary, in the intriguing, very 1970’s socially relevant story of pollution and ecological disaster-The Green Death-forever remembered as “the one with the maggots” to a generation of fans and regular viewers back in the shows tenth anniversary conclusion, as well as being a tale that crafts a fittingly emotional and satisfying send-off to UNIT’s finest dizzy heroine, and a firm family favourite, played with such delightful charm and zest by Katy Manning.
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| It's a case of mushroom mania for the Doctor (Jon Pertwee). |
Conjured up by producer Barry Letts and script editor Terrance Dicks at that time as the ultimate morality play for the series, wanting to stir up debate about what mankind and industry was doing, and is still doing even now, to harm our planet and its ecological balance, The Green Deathsees the serene and beautiful Welsh valleys threatened by the Global Chemicals company’s power mad ambitions to create a new, clean controlled energy source to aid our planet, when, in actuality, they are turning a blind eye to the lethal by-product emerging from their technological advances: a pollutant super-bug and its maggot infection carriers spreading their unnatural influence through the nearby coal mines and soon the entire area, of which even the resourceful Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (an always nicely pitched Sorting It Out the British Way performance from Nicholas Courtney) and his solid military forces of UNIT have trouble containing. As the Doctor and Jo, with new friend Dr. Clifford Jones (a youthfully memorable Stewart Bevan) race to find a solution to the problem, a second threat emerges from the industry giant via the wavelength terrors of its globally immersed super computer, BOSS, wanting to establish itself as the Skynet of its time and take over the world/enslave humanity. Enemies to the left of them, enemies to the right of them, indeed…
Like a GOOD LIFE episode gone very, very rogue, Robert Sloman’s capable script, despite some heavy handed preaching early on, certainly has its heart in the right place, and is choc-full of strong characters, incident and memorable cliffhangers, with a pace that never flags or proves boring, shored up further by inventive and exuberantly experimental direction from the series then top WHO director Michael E. Briant. Only the BOSS aspects of the plot comes across as a little uninspired-at the same time States-side, Captain Kirk in STAR TREK was facing down bigger and better machine villains like this on a regular basis- but the overall confection is well worth the six episode duration.
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| Jo Grant (Katy Manning) and her new love, Dr. Clifford Jones (Stewart Bevan). |
Star Pertwee has some fine moments of heroism and charm (and even gets to the indulge in some comedy drag!), but also proves to be a lot more vulnerable, too, especially by its close when he has to say goodbye to his dear friend Jo, coming of age and showing a more independent nature than we’ve seen before- the character and Katy Manning’s departure carefully and assuredly plotted through the story. Jo’s goodbye is a truly affecting and emotional moment for the actor and his role, as well as the viewers who have enjoyed watching the duo these past three years- its the closest the Doctor has had to a loving relationship with a companion at this point in the series history. As his “fledgling flies the coup”, its an end of an era for Pertwee’s time on the show, of which story seeds for his own departure are already in motion for exploration and exploitation by the conclusion of the following season (linked to the Doctor’s opening solo trip to the infamous Metebelis III- the famous blue planet of the Acteon galaxy, where he just about survives its environment and animalistic horrors in order to retrieve one of its infamous blue crystals- a piece of curiosity that would come back to haunt him with disastrous consequences, and the ultimate catalyst for his regeneration into Tom Baker).
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| A helpless Doctor and Brigadier (Nicholas Courtney) watch as Dave (Talfryn Thomas) tries to save the mine-trapped Jo. |
Primed with good scripts, a fine guest cast includes the aforementioned Stewart Bevan as Jo’s new beau, the younger but similarly enthusiastic and charismatic replacement to the Doctor in Clifford Jones, dedicated leader of a small group of hippy scientists in their “Nut Hutch” research home, winning her heart and dedication against the threat to mankind posed by big business and pollution, primarily in the controlling form of Jerome Willis as the manipulative, power playing Global Chemicals boss, Stevens, seemingly unconcerned about the fate of the Welsh landscape, and the world, about to be apocalyptically blighted with the deadly fruits of his labours. John Dearth, as the insane computer voice of the BOSS, and Steven’s ultimate behind the scenes puppet master and tormentor, clearly relishes his role, proving as devious and egotistic as the humans who created him and unwittingly launched its ambition onto the world.
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| The ingeniously created, memorable maggots of the story. Seventies BBC SPFX at their most inventive. |
But by the beginning of episode two, its the creepy monster threat, uncovered in the mines by the Doctor and Jo, that prove to the most remembered and iconic aspect of the story. Praise should go out to the talented and versatile BBC special effects team of the time in bringing the grotesque and often disgusting looking maggot creatures to life through a variety of ingenious methods (including numerous types of puppets and the use of real-life maggots in large numbers). The effects may seem variable by today’s CGI standards but they were certainly good enough at the time to make a lasting impact on a generation of early fans. The creatures (alongside a metamorphosed giant red-eyed fly, making a brief appearance in the final episode) would quickly become the kind of classic WHO monsters that kiddie viewers would find instantly repulsive, yet endlessly fascinating.
For every success linked to the creatures, though, there are a few occasional other failures. Some of the Colour Separation Overlay scene techniques linked to some of the cave interior scenes look woefully inadequate, causing some pretty bad looking yellow line composition overspill, but, as is customary for so much of the original series, the overall conviction of the actors and the fast-paced directing quickly override such concerns.
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| Jerome Willis as the Global Chemicals power baron, Stevens. |
Unleashed into the surrounding area, the story’s exterior filming in Wales counterbalances these problems, and is picturesque and effective- bad enough that the Coalfields would later be menaced by Margaret Thatcher, now they’ve got maggots and the Green Death! Meanwhile, back at Auntie Beeb’s then powerhouse Shepherd’s Bush studio empire, the production design around this horrible new threat is equally well assured- with all the caves and tunnels built for this story the designers name of John Burrows now seems quite apt, whilst the computer room of Global Chemicals has a very familiar feel to it, effectively utilising rented props from Gerry Anderson/ CENTURY 21’s then defunct UFO TV series!
Forty years on from its original viewing behind the sofa, this special release DVD’s picture quality re-mastering is assuredly an enormous improvement on its previous 2005 version-the aforementioned filmed location sequences being particular standouts.
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| A parting of the ways for Jon Pertwee. |
All of the original extras from that 2005 set have been retained- the classic and affectionate audio commentary with Katy Manning, the late Barry Letts and cuddly WHO writing legend Terrance Dicks, single interviews with Stewart Bevan, Robert Sloman and visual effects assistant on the story, and maggot builder, Colin Mapson. Plus, Global Conspiracy, a fun if overlong documentary spoof looking at the story’s events and its after effects on the local community at Llanfairfach, from die-hard Pertwee fan Mark Gatiss (a huge admirer of this particular adventure), with the additional help of the story’s original supporting stars (including Jerome Willis and Tony Adams).
But the standout is the all-new documentary from stalwart WHO DVD talent Chris Chapman- appropriately titled The One with the Maggots- which has fresh and interesting contributions from Terrance Dicks, Michael Briant, Colin Mapson, then Assistant Floor manager Karilyn Collier, and, reunited at last, Katy Manning and Stewart Bevan (who, at the time the story was originally made, were a real-life item), happily and affectionately talking about what it was like to work together on the story, its importance to them and the behind the scenes aspects of the series, especially how the crew were all blubbing at the end when their favourite lady left the production and the series.
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| Katy Manning and Stewart Bevan cosy up for some brand new, lively reminiscing. |
There’s also a new bonus audio commentary, as veteran WHO fan and Rory Kinnear lookalike Toby Hadoke puts on his best Pertwee style authoritativeness to moderate several episodes with Richard Franklin (whose character of Mike Yates has some lively spying business in the tale) and guest actress Mitzi McKenzie (who played fungus food growing scientist Nancy), plus Katy Manning and modern WHO series guru Russell T. Davies, talking about the importance to them, and the series, of the story’s final tear-jerking episode.
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| Pertwee has some fun on location in 1973- part of some rare behind the scenes footage on the DVD. |
Other new brief gems for classic series veterans to savour include two news segments from the Wales Today programme: the first showing some silent, and very rare, colour footage of the filming of the story back in 1973 (really nice to see), followed by the late Pertwee returning to the location site in 1994 and opening the new country park built over the old colliery. As ever, Pertwee, one of WHO’s finest ever promotional ambassadors, is on enthusiastic form and his presence in both these short and sweet items makes us all miss him more than ever during the current Fiftieth Anniversary of the show. With the departure of Katy Manning, the DVD also bears a taster of what the actress did straight after WHO, becoming a presenter on an arts and crafts series of the day called Serendipity.Looked at with today's television-making techniques, it’s all very primitive, but Manning’s enthusiasm and delight at being at the shows helm, despite her clear to see inexperience, warmly radiates.
Bookend rounding off this welcome celebration of all things Manning is the actress contribution to the modern WHO series era through two 2010 episodes of its hit spin-off, the much-missed Elisabeth Sladen starring vehicle THE SARAH JANE ADVENTURES. Specially written for her to appear by then series maestro Russell T. Davies, Death of the Doctor is a fine and dandy adventure story (and also the writers first and last scribbles for Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor), where she and her grandson attend the so-called funeral of our Time Lord hero alongside her successor inside the TARDIS, Sarah Jane Smith- ultimately discovering that he’s very much alive and well, if stranded on an alien planet, and ready to fight alongside them against a strange group of Ostrich-like funeral director aliens with designs on Earth and time travel domination.
With Death, fans of SJA will greatly enjoy the accompanying and very revealing behind the scenes optional audio commentary from Manning and Davies, the latter revealing what might have happened to one of the series characters had the show continued and Miss Sladen not have been so sadly and tragically lost from us.
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| Jo returns to meet her successor, Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen), in Death of the Doctor- a nostalgic adventure from THE SARAH JANE ADVENTURES. |
The overall Welsh flavor of the DVD continues, not only playing an important part of the shows classic era, its territories would also go on to define the modern WHO series as well, serving as the primary location base for the 2004 resurrected series. This DVD release goes into huge detail on the shows eventual return to our TV screens with the Doctor Forever! documentary, The Unquiet Dead, focusing on how a group of dedicated TV professionals, and fans of the series, finally managed to bring it back to the BBC despite overwhelming odds and notable dissent from top corporation higher-ups, including the series old eighties enemy Michael Grade and Mark Thompson. Then Head of BBC Drama Jane Tranter and new WHO Svengali Russell T. Davies, who make impressive contributions to the documentary, should be congratulated on their brave decisions and bold stubbornness at bringing back the show back to acclaimed heights in a new, more modern and more expensive looking way- You’d think that WHO’s out of the wilderness resurrection, quickly opening up a popular family viewing slot on Saturday nights, would have been a no-brainer decision for a wanting to get back on track, ratings seeking Corporation, but it ultimately proved a far more problematic and difficult task than anyone could have realized. The Unquiet Dead establishes itself as a genuine highlight of the entire WHO DVD series range, full of fascinating behind the scenes info (how original series veteran Tom Baker was going to be the star of the series all over again, how the Daleks almost never returned, and how the Canadians wanted to dub over Christopher Eccleston’s voice, being just some of the many intriguing revelations!).
Finally, there’s the always epic production information subtitles-worth digesting into your brain along with some tea and biscuits, and of their time RADIO TIMES magazine story listings, a solid photo gallery, some Easter Eggs to keep your eyes primed, and another exciting Coming Soon trailer: prepare for icy chills and avalanches galore when Patrick Troughton encounters unthawed Martian invaders in The Ice Warriors. "SSSS...."
KOOL TV RATING (Story and extras): Fondly regarded as quintessential WHO for the period, The Green Death has held up well for the most part: tea-time horror that doesn’t cross the borderlands of later years, whilst possessing a moral code emanating from its series characters that should be applauded and appreciated more than ever. 4 out of 5
Get hold of The Green Death here:
