The Green Death Episode Five

The one where Captain Yates tries to kill the Doctor...

So the mastermind behind all of this industrial pollution is a big ole computer on the top floor of Global Chemicals, voiced wonderfully by John Dearth (later to turn up in the flesh in Planet of the Spiders). Dearth's vocalization is splendidly arch and smug, giving BOSS oodles of personality for Jon Pertwee to bounce off. BOSS refers to humans as "inefficient organic machines", and also refers to his designers. He is the only computer ever to be linked to a human brain (Stevens), and this is how BOSS learnt that inefficiency is a basic human trait for success.

I've been wondering how BOSS came about, and it would seem it was designed by Global Chemicals to run the business more efficiently, with profit its ultimate aim. BOSS is biomorphic, which means it operates and computes with the benefits (and drawbacks) of both the mechanical and organic brain. BOSS programmed Stevens to programme him to be more inefficient, and now it is self-controlling, self-sufficient and a raving megalomaniac. Decades before Black Mirror, Doctor Who was warning the world of the dangers of Artificial Intelligence, which - alongside this story's other concern, about global pollution - is even more relevant today.

"Today Llanfairfach, tomorrow the world?" goads the Doctor, who tries to confuse BOSS with one of those elliptical riddles known as the Liar Paradox (look it up, it'll fry your mind!). It's interesting that the riddle genuinely does befuddle BOSS, but in truth he could explore any one of a number of theories that claim to resolve it (theories by Tarski, Prior, Kripke, Barwise, Etchemendy or Irvine) and come out on top. Anyhow, the riddle allows the Doctor to try an escape, and the scene where the lift door opens and we zoom in on Stevens' implacable face as BOSS's voice repeats: "I shall answer it! I shall, I shall, I shall!" is quite unsettling.

The Doctor is then held prisoner with a set of headphones and a pretty light effect, which is BOSS's attempt to overcome the Doctor's mind. It proves fruitless however, and the Doctor starts to recite Pi in order to fend off boredom! We discover that all those killer maggots outside are a mere side-effect of Global Chemicals' pollutant process. They are incidental, and nothing to do with BOSS's main plot, which is to dominate the world. The maggots are not BOSS's killer army of monsters. This story is essentially about industrial megalomania, capitalism literally gone mad. "What's good for Global Chemicals is good for the world," insists Stevens. "Is good for you!"

Undercover Mike Yates helps the Doctor to escape (rather amusingly, in a milk float, despite most floats being restricted to around 16mph due to their electric motor output!). The Doctor swaps the milk float for his trusty Bessie and rejoins the Brigadier, who's been busy ineffectually bombing the maggots, complete with a CSO Ready Brek glow. The mix of studio, location and model footage here is embarrassingly ill-judged. We go from the Doctor arriving in Bessie on location at Ogilvie Colliery, to the Doctor talking to the Brigadier and Benton in BBC TV Centre's TC3, to an aerial shot of a toy Bessie moving through the slag with a tiny dolly Doctor and Benton inside, back to CSO studio, and then location again. It's hilariously bad and embarrassing to boot. I really wish I'd not seen it.

Professor Jones is given concussion during UNIT's bombing raid, but instead of being rushed to hospital, he's settled in at Wholeweal to be cared for by a particularly positive Nancy. Later, the Doctor says there's no point taking Cliff to hospital because "ordinary treatment won't work", but here he's referring to the infection that they've only just discovered. When he first arrived at the Nuthutch they believed he only had concussion, so the hospital would surely have been the best place for him? It's the latest in a string of examples in Doctor Who where the injured are not hospitalised because it would inconveniently remove them from the plot (see also: The Time Monster).

The Doctor manages to slow Cliff's infection down by administering some antibiotics, which is very thoughtful of him, but couldn't he have done something similar for poor Hinks when he was attacked at Wholeweal? Just because he was a bad guy doesn't mean his life was any less valuable. The Doctor's cursory regard for Hinks (who's surely dead by now) is a little out of character.

Suddenly, Mike Yates turns up at Wholeweal, brainwashed by Stevens and hellbent on killing the Doctor. Luckily, the Doctor's been carrying around that bulky blue sapphire he picked up on Metebelis III and he manages to unpick Yates's brainwashing. Richard Franklin's array of ugly faces, gurning and mugging is impressive!

The final scenes in Global Chemicals see Mike returning to Stevens pretending to have killed the Doctor, but giving himself away by resisting the order to kill Jo too. He is left alone with brainwashed James, a character who has appeared from nowhere as a late replacement for Elgin, played by Tony Adams, who'd developed peritonitis and had to leave the production. This is a real shame because James's fate would have been far more poignant if it had happened to Elgin, as originally intended. James is brought out of his trance by the Metebelis sapphire, and manages to tell Yates that BOSS plans to affect world domination at precisely 4pm. But James dies giving this information, and we find that Stevens set Yates up all along.

The brief appearance of James means that Roy Skelton plays three different characters in two consecutive stories (Wester and a Dalek voice in Planet of the Daleks, and James here) - more if you count his additional uncredited voice for other Spiridons too.

First broadcast: June 16th, 1973

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: John Dearth as the voice of BOSS is deliciously formidable.
The Bad: That haphazard editing together of location, studio, CSO and model shots is atrocious.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆

"Now listen to me" tally: 26 - The Doctor says: "Now Mike, listen to me" just before he breaks his brainwashing.
Neck-rub tally: 13

NEXT TIME: Episode Six...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Episode One; Episode Two; Episode Three; Episode Four; Episode Six

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site: http://doctorwhocastandcrew.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-green-death.html

The Green Death is available on BBC DVD. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Green-Death-Special/dp/B00CX3FTA8