The Green Death (1973) Review

"I am the BOSS. I'm all around you."

The Green Death is a combination of vintage Doctor Who and absurdities. It's got bits that are better than The Ambassadors Of Death and its got bits that are almost as bad as Terror Of The Autons.

PLOT

Hoping to increase efficiency, productivity and profit, Global Chemicals somehow gets an experimental supercomputer to run their business. Meanwhile, they are resisted by the "Nuthutch", a group of ecologists trying to create a clean environment.
When Global Chemicals causes mutated maggots and diseases to appear, UNIT are tasked to investigate and get involved with the Nuthutch's operations.

The story is great. It's complex, has two different plotlines running simultaneously, the characters are fantastic, the direction is high standard(notable scenes include Fell's reprocessing and the intercutting between professor Jones and Stevens), the villains are some of the best ever and it feels very important.
However, there is some bad acting here as well, the writing is obnoxiously in-your-face and unsubtle, the first few episodes down in the mines are dreadful and the Brigadier is starting to feel like a clueless pensioner.

CHARACTERS

I absolutely love, love, love Stevens and the BOSS. They are both portrayed by master class actors. Stevens has this immediately distinctive "director" look about him that makes him perfect for the role, plus his interactions with practically everyone are gold. It's only a shame he never met Jo Grant.

And the BOSS is just mindblowingly good. I can still hear him call out "Stevens...!" Everything he says is quotable and the oscilloscope used as his face is very memorable. Plus, he is given fantastic character depth. Other than the Master, he's easily my favourite of the Pertwee-era villains. The scene where he tries to work out the Liar's Paradox is awesome.

Jon Pertwee is also given a lot to do, like investigating the mines, uncovering the mystery behind Global Chemicals. He has great chemistry with the BOSS, I must say.

I liked the way they handled Jo's departure, even though I wasn't very fond of professor Jones. He just kind of annoyed me with his nonstop jokes. I think his worst moment was when he shouted "isn't life great?" at the end. Ugh, as Jo might've said.

Mike Yates shines! It's nice that they brought him back and gave him a bit of a villainous role, since he is an integral part of the UNIT Family as far as I'm concerned. He's the adventurous one. His little story in Global Chemicals was entertaining.

I think the maggots looked okay. Giving them rat skulls was an inspired choice as it makes them a bit more menacing. I was far more interested in the computer storyline though.

Hi, Benton. You da man! Hey, that maggot-calling scene might've been campy, but at least he still looks and acts like a UNIT officer, unlike the rest of this lot.

Elgin was little too sarcastic for my liking, but it's sad that the actor got sick. I think he would've been fine in the rest of the story.

NOTES

*Probably the most wonderful directorial choice in this serial is having us see the wheels turn in the BOSS's metaphorical head.

*Why does an oil company need an experimental computer?

*Metebelis III looked fantastic. I hope we can have a whole episode there someday.

*Another great directorial moment was the zoom on Jones's face when Elgin gives his bio. It's like an old documentary.

*Where did Jo get that fancy purple dress from? And why was she wearing it for a simple dinner?

*I can see the sonic screwdriver is starting to go to regular use. I still can't understand how the people back then thought it was a get-out-of-jail-for-free card though, given that it hasn't been used more than twice in one serial so far.

*How can the BOSS feel "his circuits are on fire" at the end? I mean, I can buy sentience through inefficiency, but physical pain?

*So, was Stevens hypnotised or brainwashed or what? Why was he on the BOSS's side for so long?

*Given that this is one of the very few Doctor Who stories I have on DVD, I can't help noticing the difference between video and film a lot better. I remember noticing it years earlier on other British series as well and struggling to understand why people suddenly seemed to move a lot more fluently.

*That first man acting like he's rocking in the CSO lift looks dreadful.

*But the CSO in this story isn't as bad as Terror Of The Autons, so I won't bang on it too much.

*Given that I hate mosquitoes, that giant one looked pretty terrifying actually.

BEST QUOTE

"Connect, connect, connect, connect, connect, connect, connect, zim-bom!" - The BOSS enjoying his world takeover.

CONCLUSION

Terrific and terrible at the same time.