“The Green Death” is the last adventure of the tenth season of “Doctor Who” classic series which aired in 1973. It follows “Planet of the Daleks” and it’s a six parts adventure written by Robert Sloman and directed by Michael E. Briant.

The story

The Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee) is preparing for a journey to the planet Metebelis 3 when Jo Grant (Katy Manning) reads in the newspaper of the death in mysterious circumstances of a miner in an abandoned coal mine in Llanfairfach. The well-known ecologist Clifford Jones is in place for a protest and Jo wants to meet him.

Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (Nicholas Courtney) is charged with an investigation about the situation and has to deal with Global Chemicals, an oil company that opened a facility near the mine. While other strange deaths occur, the company seems to hide something.

Extras

This DVD is rich in extras. There are typical contents such as production subtitles and a gallery of pictures from this adventure.

There are comments in the adventure alternative audio track by protagonist Katy Manning, producer Barry Letts and script editor Terrance Dicks.

Global Conspiracy? A funny spoof documentary on the closure of the mine at Llanfairfach. It’s a sort of unofficial sequel to “The Green Death”.

Visual Effects. Colin Mapson, assistant to the creation of the special effects in this adventure, shows how to build a giant maggot.

Robert Sloman. The author of this adventure talks about the inspiration and philosophies behind the story.

Stewart Bevan. An interview with the actor who plays Professor Clifford Jones in this adventure.

Actress Katy Manning decided to leave “Doctor Who” at the end of the tenth season so “The Green Death” was written to include Jo Grant’s departure.

It’s no coincidence that Professor Clifford Jones is in many ways a younger version of the Doctor, as Jo herself says. At the beginning of “The Green Death” there are all the indications that Jo would leave the Doctor when he tries to convince her to go with him to the planet Metebelis 3 but she prefers to go and meet Clifford Jones. The end of “The Green Death” with Jo Grant’s departure is probably the best companion exit in the whole “Doctor Who” saga.

Jo Grant’s story is part of an adventure produced almost forty years ago that however highlights problems that are still very important and above all unresolved today. In fact, we have Global Chemicals, a company that considers profit as its main priority and if to have higher profits it needs to pollute the area around its facility the only caution is to remain undetected.

Global Chemicals promises to produce 25% of petrol and diesel more from a certain amount of crude oil than conventional refining processes. In a world where the demand for fuel is growing, many are willing to turn a blind eye to the waste treatment process, especially if the company promises jobs.

A group of ecologists demands an investigation about the mysterious circumstances of a man’s death in an abandoned mine near Global Chemicals’ facility. At that point, there’s a clash between those who consider environmental issues a priority and those who are interested primarily in profit.

Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart is to direct an investigation about the situation but Global Chemicals has political support. Therefore, in order to take action despite political interference, he has to find evidence that the company is causing the dangerous pollution in the mine near the facility.

The economic, political and also social elements included in “The Green Death” are in many ways the same forty years later. Despite the many advances in technology, oil is still a foundation of Western civilization and the wars to establish control over its sources are becoming more vicious over time.

In the second part of “The Green Death”, the examined subject is mostly the dehumanization of company management when it’s revealed who is really in charge of Global Chemicals and that the person believed to be in charge actually is little more than a puppet.

Despite the presence of those important elements, often “The Green Death” is remembered as the adventure with the giant maggots. Inevitably, especially younger watchers remember more than anything the monsters that appear in “Doctor Who”.

While the giants maggots are everything considered well done, various special effects produced using the CSO (Colour Separation Overlay) technique are low quality even by the standards of the “Doctor Who” classic series.

These limited flaws are due to the low-budget of the “Doctor Who” classic series, however “The Green Death” is an excellent adventure. Also considering the overall rather good quality of the extras on the DVD, I think this one is a must-have.