The Green Death: Episode One

EPISODE: The Green Death: Episode One
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 350
STORY NUMBER: 069
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 19 May 1973
WRITER: Robert Sloman (and Barry Letts uncredited)
DIRECTOR: Michael Briant
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
RATINGS: 9.2 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who: The Green Death (Special Edition)
EPISODE FORMAT: 625 video

"Doctor, it's exactly your cup of tea. This fellow's bright green apparently, and dead!"

Episode 350 !

At the closed Llanfairfach colliery an engineer, Hughes, returns to the surface with his hand glowing green as Jocelyn Stevens announces more funding & jobs at Global Chemicals. He is heckled by Professor Cliff Jones as Hughes reaches safety and sounds the alarm at the pit. At UNIT HQ The Doctor is still trying to get to Metebelis 3 to collect a blue sapphire. Jo Grant meanwhile has decided to go to Llanfairfach to protest against Global Chemicals. When Hughes is found he's dead and completely glowing green. Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart tells the Doctor the story but he refuses to help leaving for Metebelis 3. The Brigadier and Jo argue about Global Chemicals but he still agrees to give her lift there as he goes to investigate the body. The Brigadier drop Jo at the Nuthutch, the community where Professor Jones lives & works. The Doctor *finally* makes it to Metebelis 3 but is attacked by wildlife. Jo meets Professor Jones wrecking one of his experiments in the process, just as she did when she met the Doctor. He's attempting to develop a high protein fungus as an alternate source of food to meat. The Brigadier is introduced to Stevens who explains their new process to generate more petrol from oil, as Cliff Jones outlines his objections to it to Jo. Jones believes it's generating thousands of gallons of waste that he thinks is being pumped into the mine. Jo insists on investigating, as does the Brigadier overriding Stevens' objections who wants it sealed. The Doctor arrives back from Metebelis 3, and is happy to help following his experiences there. Stevens, suddenly hesitant, has his security officer Hinks attempt to stop anyone going down the mine. Stevens takes a headset and plugs it into a computer console, relaxing. Jo arrives at the mine to try & persuade one of the miners, Bert, to take her into the pit, as Dai, a miner who has gone down to investigate, calls for help. The Doctor tells the Brigadier that he believes nobody should go down the mine but they arrive too late to stop Jo & Bert from going to aid Dai. However attempts to stop the lift descending fail....

That's quite a fun episode with some style with first The Doctor & Jo talking to each other without listening to what the other is saying, the Doctor's horror trip to Metebelis 3 which turns out to be a lot less relaxing than he thought and then the overlapping conversations between Jones & Jo and the Brigadier & Stevens as the arguments for and against the use of Global Chemicals process are aired. Stevens at the start of the episode does a passable impersonation of Neville Chamberlain's famous "I have in my hand ...." speech as he announces the money Global Chemicals has gained.

This is the second time we've seen the Brigadier in his civvies, and the first was also in a Robert Sloman/Barry Letts story (The Daemons) where he was dressed for dinner. Here he's driving a soft top Merc which, if UNIT HQ is still in London, is going to make for a chilly drive down the M4 for him & Jo!

Some of the rest of the cast have Doctor Who credits to their name, notably John Scott Martin, who briefly plays Ted Hughes, who is famed as a regular Dalek Operator. He made his Doctor Who début in The Web Planet as a Zarbi graduating to Dalek Operator in The Chase three stories later a role he'd repeated in Mission to the Unknown, The Dalek Masterplan,Power of the Daleks, Evil of the Daleks & Day of the Daleks. He'll return as a Dalek in Frontier in Space, Planet of the Daleks, Death to the Daleks, Genesis of the Daleks, The Five Doctors, Resurrection of the Daleks, Revelation of the Daleks and Remembrance of the Daleks. He also plays a Mechanoid in The Chase, the Robot in Colony in Space, Charlie & a Coven Member in the Dæmons, a Mutant in the Mutants, a Gell Guard in The Three Doctors, a Mutant in Frontier in Space, a Ministry of Defence Guard in Robot, Kriz in Brain of Morbius, the Virus Nucleus in Invisible Enemy. His distinctive hair makes him a familiar figure amongst bit part actors in many television roles: he was in Quatermass and the Pit as a T.V. Technician in The Wild Hunt and A for Andromeda as a Lab Assistant / Man in Pub in The Message. He appears in the missing Out of the Unknown episode The Naked Sun as a robot but misses out when The Daleks turn up in Get Off My Cloud. In Doomwatch he's a Man in The Islanders and e appears in the first episode of The Tripods as the Schoolmaster. Away from science fiction he was in I, Claudius as Julia's Lover in Waiting in the Wings and a Slave in Some Justice and appears on the big screen in Pink Floyd - The Wall as a Dancing Teacher.

Mostyn Evans, as Dai Evans, played a Taxi Diver in The Silurians and will return as the High Priest in Death to the Daleks, also directed by Michael Briant.

Talfryn Thomas, playing another miner Dave Davies, was previously the hospital porter Mullins in Spearhead from Space. He can also be seen in the Doomwatch episodes The Human Time Bomb as Mr. Hetherington and Fire and Brimstone as Prisoner Warren. He appears in the 1974 series of Dad's Army as Private Cheeseman and the 1975 Survivors episodes The Fourth Horseman, Genesis, Gone Away, Starvation, Spoil of War, Law and Order & The Future Hour as Tom Price.

Roy Evans, playing Bert Pritchard, was Trantis in The Daleks' Master Plan and returns as an unnamed Peladonian miner in Monster of Peladon. He was in Out of the Unknown as the Postman in the 1971 episode Deathday: that if one of four from the last series of that show which exists and it can be found on the Out of the Unknown DVD Set. He appears in Blake's 7 as a Slave in Redemption. In the 1980s he was in th original The Black Adder as Abel, A Blind Beggar / Dumb Peasant in The Archbishop, Witchsmeller Pursuivant and The Black Seal.

Many of the extras for this story, and especially those on Location, only appear in this Doctor Who story which makes me think they were sourced local to the production in Wales. However there are some familiar names:

This episode features the very first actor seen in Doctor Who: Reg Cranfield played the policeman at the start of An Unearthly Child, replacing Frederick Rawlings who fulfilled the same role in the pilot. Cranfield then went on to play a Parisian Man in The Massacre, a Settler in The Gunfighters, a Priest & a Man in the Market in the The Underwater Menace, a UNIT Soldier/Bunker Man in The Invasion, a UNIT Soldier in the Silurians and a Solonian in The Mutants. He returns one last time as a Time Lord in the Deadly Assassin. He's plays a Soldier in the Adam Adamant Lives! episode D for Destruction.

Also playing a Villager is Sonny Willis who should have started his Doctor Who career as t he RT Technician in 10th Planet but for some reason was replaced! He made his debut playing an Atlantean Guard in The Underwater Menace followed by a Cyberman in the Moonbase, a Waxworks Visitors/Auton Replica in Spearhead from Space and then a TV Crew Member in The Daemons. He returns as a Time Lord in Deadly Assassin He can also be seen in Doomwatch as a Man in Hear No Evil and a Prison Officer in Fire and Brimstone.Guard

The DWAS Doctor Who production file has Cranfield and Willis down as the only two villagers not appearing on location, but I can't spot them.

In amongst the Guards we have Dennis Plenty. He'd previously been a Tavern Customer & a Guard in The Massacre, a Worker / Soldier in The War Machines, an English Soldier in the Highlanders, a Submarine Rating & Naval Base Sailor in the Sea Devils, a Solos Guard & Skybase Guard in The Mutants and an Earth/Prison/Presidential Guard in Frontier in Space. He returns as a UNIT Soldier in Invasion of the Dinosaurs, an Exxilon in Death to the Daleks, a Guard in Planet of the Spiders and a Soldier, Brethren member, Entertainer & Guard in The Masque of Mandragora. In UFO he was Lt. David Worth in Identified and one of the SHADO Mobile 1 Personnel in Computer Affair. In Doomwatch he is a Man in Flood and he's in out favourite Adam Adamant Lives! episode D for Destruction playing a RA Camp Guard and appears as a man in a 1901 photo in the later episode Black Echo. He appears in the Fawlty Towers episode is A Touch of Class where he plays a PC and he's a Technician in the Moonbase 3 episodes Achilles Heel, Castor and Pollux & View of a Dead Planet. Although he doesn't appear in the final film Plenty served as the model for the original Stormtrooper armour used in Star Wars.

Onto the Miners: Frank Seton was previously a Sea Devil and should have been scientist in Time Warrior. He was in Quatermass and the Pit appearing as a Man in Crowd in The Enchanted and a Sightseer in Hob. David Waterman was a Worker / Soldier in The War Machines, an English Soldier in The Highlanders, an Atlantean Priest/Medical Orderly/Miner in The Underwater Menace and a Skybase Guard in The Mutants. He'll be back as an Earth Guard on Ogron Planet in Frontier in Space and a Miner in the Green Death. In Doomwatch he plays a Police Constable in Fire and Brimstone and a Man in Flood. He's also a Technician in the Moonbase 3 episodes Departure and Arrival, Behemoth, Achilles Heel, Outsiders & View of a Dead Planet.

JO: But why toadstools?
JONES: Oh, that's just our Nancy's little joke.
JONES: This is really our new hybrid fungus, Saliota Orbis.
JO: Pardon?
JONES: It's a sort of cousin of the mushroom you can buy in the shops.
JO: You mean you can eat it?
JONES: Oh yes, that's the whole point. Well, the world's going to need something instead of meat. High protein fungus can be just the answer.
JO: Well, yes. Yes, of course!
JONES: You see, Jo, we haven't set up this community just to drop out. I mean, let's face it, who does like the petrol stinking, plastic rat-trap life we all live? No, no. If we're going to make a success here at Wholeweal, we've got to do something that's going to help the entire world. So we're a biotechnic research unit as well as a Nuthutch.

JONES: But it's still using up the oil and doubling the atmospheric pollution. No, the world has got to find ways of using the energy the sun is giving us now.
JO: Well, like what, for instance?
JONES: Well, like using the movement of the wind and the tides and the rivers. Well, I mean, like here at the Nuthutch. Well, you are quite warm?
JO: The ambient temperature suits me fine, thank you.
JONES: Heat from the river. And the heat pump works on electricity generated by a windmill. Alternative technology, see.
JO: And no waste, no pollution!
JONES: Exactly.

The Wholeweal community seen in this story is generally taken to have been inspired by the hippy commune communities of the late sixties. Oddly it does seem to have a real world counterpart! Located near the mid Wales town of Machynlleth is the Centre for Alternative Technology researching and demonstrating alternative energy sources. I stayed there in 1990 and I can safely say it's the warmest place I've ever been to, all by virtue of being properly insulated. The food was fantastic too.

The Wholewheal exteriors and surroundings were filmed at Troed-y-Rhiw-Jestyn, Deri, Glamorgan with the nearby Tir-y-felin & Deri Road also used

Ogilvie Colliery, now Darran Valley Country Park, form the location for the Pit exteriors while it's adjoining Quarry serves as the surface of Metebelis 3.

Finally RCA International, in Brynmawr, Gwent, served as the location for Global Chemicals. The site has now been demolished.

This is the first Doctor Who story set in Wales, and I think the only one of two in the original series. Welsh locations in Gwent & Glamorgan are used throughout and provide a fabulous back drop to the story. Doctor Who had filmed in Wales before, but then the mountains of North Wales represent Tibet. We'll be back in Wales location filming for The Masque of Mandragora, The Pirate Planet, The Five Doctors and finally in Delta & The Bannermen where a Welsh location is once again is used to represent Wales.

This is a sad episode for fans of recurring props: it's the last known appearance of one of the Power Station Control Panels in Doctor Who, see on the wall just through the Doctor's Lab Door. We've spotted this one in The Dalek Masterplan, The Underwater Menace and The Enemy of the World, though thanks to the number of missing sixties episodes it could well appear in a few more! For more on the panels and their use in Doctor Who see Phil's Other Things Blog entries on Power Station Panels Part One and Part Two.

It's somewhat of a coincidence that a Power Station Panel should feature in this story as this story features the debut of their spiritual successors in the realm of Doctor Who reused props: control panels from Gerry Anderson's UFO