The Green Death Episode Three

The one where the Brigadier talks to the Prime Minister...

One thing classic Doctor Who is often criticised for is its perceived lack of emotional realism. Those without the time or inclination to look properly say the characters rarely react or emote as people really would in the situations they find themselves in. This observation is often made in direct comparison to the 21st century reboot, ignoring the fact the two series were made in vastly different times with vastly contrasting remits.

But classic Who did do emotion, it's all over the place if you bother to look. It's particularly prevalent during eras where the regular cast obviously get on like a house on fire - William Hartnell and Maureen O'Brien, Patrick Troughton and Deborah Watling, Jon Pertwee and Katy Manning, Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred - and The Green Death is one of the most emotionally mature stories the series ever did. Just look at the nuance in Talfryn Thomas's small performance as Dave at the top of this episode, where he rues the deaths of Hughes and Dai, and fears for Bert. They were his work colleagues, his mates, and it's great that writer Robert Sloman and director Michael E Briant allow time to reflect this little human moment. And The Green Death is full of them.

For instance, take John Rolfe's performance as Fell. It's a pretty two-dimensional part on the face of it, but he manages to give Fell an emotional presence which makes his ultimate plight - and fate - deliciously tragic. He is brainwashed by BOSS to carry out Stevens' orders, but is questioned at every turn by his old friend Elgin, who notices the marked change in Fell's personality. Alarm bells really start to ring when Fell tries to flood the shaft containing the Doctor and Jo with deadly pollution! Rolfe plays Fell's internal struggle so well, almost completely via facial expression, but when Fell reports to Stevens for "help", it's his pained delivery which hits hardest: "I've got a... head... ache", and when Stevens tries to condition him again, Fell whimpers: "You've done... something... to my mind."

At that, Fell calmly leaves the room, races down the corridor and launches himself off a balcony, smashing down onto the concrete ground several floors below. The combination of this brutal demise, the twittering birdsong on the soundtrack, and Jerome Willis's solemn reaction to his colleague's death is stunning. Stevens may be a bit of a bastard, but it seems coercing people into self-destruction is a step he'd never necessarily take. Stevens looks utterly defeated as BOSS goads him for being a "sentimentalist". It's all beautifully written, directed and played.

As is the battle of wills between Stevens and the Brigadier, who demands that Global Chemicals be placed under the control of UNIT while an international investigation is carried out. The Brigadier warns Stevens that he has contacts in the Cabinet, only to be trumped by Stevens, who boasts he has friends in high places too. When he says this you expect him to ask secretary Stella to call the Prime Minister or Home Secretary, but instead he dials up the Minister for Ecology! Mind you, when the Minister puts PM Jeremy on the line, the Brigadier is well and truly shut down, and the "told you so" look on Stevens's face is stinging. It's hard to see our Brig humiliated.

There is an effort to explain how an international paramilitary organisation can be placed under the control of a single domestic government, but it fails to fully justify how UNIT UK can be put at the disposal of a private sector industrialist in South Wales. Methinks the government of the day is showing its corruption a little too much. Still, the acting between Willis and Courtney here is fantastic: "Are you threatening me, Mr Stevens?" - "Yes, I think perhaps I am."

A few other quick observations:

• Oddly, the registration plate of the ambulance which takes Bert away to hospital is registered to an orange 1972 Austin Morris, which was de-registered in 1981.
• The CSO when the Doctor and Jo punt their way through a foot of green slime and maggots is appallingly poor.
• When Fell bursts into Stevens' office he seems to interrupt a very cosy moment between Stevens and Hinks, who's perched conspiratorially on the corner of the desk...!
• The scene where BOSS tries to recondition Fell is nicely done, using Mirrorlon to distort the faces of Stevens and Hinks. I know it's not going to happen, but the entire set-up still smacks of the Nestenes or the Cybermen turning up.
• "Never trust a Venusian shanghorn with a perigosto stick," advises the Doctor at the Wholeweal party. What's a shanghorn? Well, Doctor Who extended fiction claims it's either a rhino-like herbivore which can easily be put to sleep with music (from Big Finish's Voyage to Venus), or a shark-like creature mentioned in Paul Cornell's 2010 web story The War of Art. The Mark Morris novel Ghosts of India also mentions shanghorn-running on the planet Ty. As for a perigosto stick, I used to get a very irreverent fanzine called Perigosto Stick in the 1990s edited by sometime Dalek operator Nicholas Pegg, but within Doctor Who extended fiction it's referred to in books Love and War, Seeing I, Goth Opera, Deadly Reunion, The Devil Goblins from Neptune, Beltempest and the novelisation of The Daemons.

At Wholeweal, there's a hippy party in full swing, complete with the obligatory perpetual motion sculpture, flute-playing, yoga, self-actualisation, elderberry wine and fungus meals. The Brigadier is in formal dress, Jo is in an appalling lilac off-the-shoulder dress, and in the background a black man whispers sweet nothings with a blonde white girl. I love it! The Green Death feels like the ultimate 1970s Doctor Who story, more so than The Time Monster the previous year.

And it's these scenes back at the Nuthutch which ramp up the emotional realism once more, first with the news of poor Bert's demise. The Doctor reassures the grieving Jo as Cliff clutches her hand (stop fighting, lads!), and the feeling of loss is palpable, thanks to Katy Manning's heartfelt performance. Later, Jo and Cliff sit huddled together in the Room for Living, lit only by the light of the fire. "He was such a perky little man," weeps Jo. "He called me Blodwen." And the words Cliff uses to ease Jo's grief are perfect, full of charm and poetry and truth. It's at this precise moment that you can see Jo Grant fall in love with Professor Jones as they look one another in the eyes, and begin to kiss...

...Only to be interrupted by the Doctor and the Brigadier. Pertwee is sensational here, stopping dead in his tracks as he realises what they've burst in on. He urges Jo to get some sleep, but she claims she's finding Cliff's book on the Amazon far too interesting. The Doctor tests Jo by revealing the beautiful blue sapphire he managed to get from Metebelis III, but she's far more interested in Cliff's planned expedition up the Amazon. There. Right there, in that moment, the Doctor knows he's lost her, and it's all written on Pertwee's sorrowful face. This doesn't stop him rather selfishly taking Cliff away with him though, leaving Jo sitting alone by the fireside, aching to pick up where she and her new hero left off...

The emergence of the maggot from the egg the Doctor took from the mine is well done, and for once CSO is utilised well to show it shuffling inexorably across the floor toward Jo. The final camera shot of the maggot's point of view as it approaches Jo's back is chilling. Jo would not have been left alone and vulnerable like this is it wasn't for the Doctor's jealousy.

Now tell me that classic Doctor Who lacked emotional depth.

First broadcast: June 2nd, 1973

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: The scenes at Wholeweal at the end are sublime, and written and acted beautifully.
The Bad: The CSO punting scene. Urgh!
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★★☆

"Now listen to me" tally: 25
Neck-rub tally: 13

NEXT TIME: Episode Four...

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