July 1: Invasion of the Dinosaurs Parts Three & Four

A Tyrannosaurus bursts through a brick wall. (Invasion of
the Dinosaurs Part Three) ©BBC

This could have easily been an episode full of padding, but writer Malcolm Hulke has chosen to turn up the conspiracy elements in part three.  So after a quick intervention by Mike Yates to un-sabotage the Doctor's stun gun and bring the Tyrannosaurus down (which actually is an effect that's rather well done), the story starts to focus on the people working against UNIT.  Mike Yates is obviously conflicted between loyalty towards his new colleagues and his old ones, as he angrily insists that the Doctor isn't to be hurt: "You tried to murder him!  You deliberately materialised a savage monster knowing it would attack him!  ...I warned you I wouldn't have the Doctor harmed."  But despite the assurances of Professor Whitaker and Butler, another attempt to get the Doctor killed is made, when someone goes into where the Tyrannosaurus is being held (which again looks rather good when all it has to do is lie there unconscious) and cuts the chains that are restraining it -- so when Sarah heads into the hangar to take pictures of it, the flash awakens it and it rears up unfettered.  Then, to add to the conspiracy flavor, the exit door has been bolted from the outside, leaving Sarah at the mercy of the dinosaur -- and it's only the timely arrival of the Doctor which frees her.  And while the Doctor's time-field-detecting machine has also been sabotaged, they at least know that there is a conspiracy afoot.

But, pleasingly, it's Sarah, not the Doctor, who works out most of what's going on with the situation.  She's the one who determines that it's Professor Whitaker working to bring dinosaurs into the present day (and continues to believe so, despite the protestations of the Right Honourable Charles Grover that the man was a crank), and who works out that there must be a nuclear generator operating in central London that's simply been made secret (which is why the Brigadier couldn't find any trace of it).  Furthermore, she remembers something about building secret underground bunkers for the government "back in the Cold War days" (so when did the Cold War end in Doctor Who?  The later episode called, er, "Cold War" definitely has it back on again by 1983), and she's smart enough to try and track it down with the help of Charles Grover.  Only it turns out she's too good; she's stumbled right onto the antagonists' base, and Grover is in on the conspiracy too.  We're not quite to the levels of conspiracy that we had in the Malcolm Hulke co-scripted The Ambassadors of Death, but they're doing a nice job of starting to build things up.

And then, in what's really a wonderful cliffhanger, Sarah is hypnotized (or conditioned, or something) and then wakes up in a strange place, where a man named Mark tells her she's on a spaceship.  "We're on our way.  Soon we shall arrive on the planet that's to be our new home...  We left Earth three months ago," he adds, showing Sarah a view out of the window of outer space and a distant planet.

Unfortunately, part four immediately ruins that cliffhanger by cutting to General Finch complaining to the Brigadier and the Doctor about the events that just happened with the Tyrannosaurus back at the hangar -- thus completely ruining the illusion that Sarah's been on board a spaceship for three months.  If they'd run with this a bit (even just up to the point where Sarah feels her head and notices that the wound she suffered in part three is still there) it would have been far more interesting.  But as it is the focus shifts from "what happened?" to "how will she escape?", and all the scenes with Sarah in the meantime become just that little bit less interesting.  Although, considering how they're going to head to a "New Earth" (though presumably not the one with New New New New New New New New New New New New New New New New York) because of all the problems that humanity caused on the original, it's a bit odd that Ruth wants to get things started by killing Sarah off.  Oh, and look (though probably only of interest to me): our first character on Doctor Who named Adam.

The Doctor in his new car. (Invasion of the Dinosaurs
Part Four) ©BBC

The Doctor, meanwhile, is tooling around London in his brand-new space age car, the Whomobile (though it's never called this on screen).  This was a car specially commissioned by Jon Pertwee, who lobbied Barry Letts to have it show up in the series.  In the event, it only appears here and in Pertwee's last story.  It's pretty eye-catching and, honestly, a bit ridiculous.  However, it does match the third Doctor's personality by this point, so we'll call it an indulgence and let it slide.

This is the episode where the Doctor actually finds the secret base under London, only for the conspiracy to block him when he tries to report it -- and, somewhat oddly, even the Brigadier seems unwilling to believe him.  And yes, the part where the Doctor wanders the base, only for shutters to slam down around him, does feature noticeably wobbly walls, but as you will no doubt have figured out by this point (if you've been watching in order like I have), this is the exception rather than the rule.

But really, that's about it for this episode.  Other than introducing the Whomobile and revealing that General Finch is also in on the conspiracy, this installment seems to be more about treading water than dramatic revelations.  And then, in quite an odd cliffhanger, Professor Whitaker lures the Doctor back to the hangar, where a Stegosaurus then appears -- at which point Finch bursts in and declares, "There's your monster maker, Brigadier.  Caught in the act."  As if simply being present at an appearance was somehow sufficient proof of guilt.

June 30: Invasion Part One / Invasion of the Dinosaurs Part Two

Here's the second (and final) exception to the "everything exists on PAL tape" fact: Invasion Part One only exists as a 16mm black & white film print, and while color recovery was attempted, the results weren't great; apparently only the red and green signals could be recovered, not the blue.  The blue was approximated, but the results (which can be seen as an alternate viewing choice on the DVD) aren't great; you can see why the default version of this episode is a cleaned-up copy of the b&w print.  Still, some color is better than none, and let's not forget: they're pulling color off a black & white film.  Seriously, color recovery is just so cool.

So that's the first thing to note about part one.  The second thing to note is the title.  In an effort to hide the surprise appearance of dinosaurs, this first installment is called simply Invasion.  Except the surprise had already been ruined by that week's Radio Times listings, as well as by the Radio Times Doctor Who Special back in November 1973 (which had a preview of the then upcoming season 11), so it's not really that much of a shock when a pterodactyl shows up halfway through.

The opening scenes are really nicely done though; there's a sense of desolation and neglect here, giving us the impression that London really has been deserted.  It's also nice how they continue this feeling throughout most of the first episode, and even occasional encounters with other people have a sense of society having broken down -- it's almost an apocalyptic feel, in a way.  And that shot of the pterodactyl trying to bite the Doctor is pretty well done as well -- even if the shot of it flying is less successful.

But despite being attacked by a prehistoric reptile, the Doctor and Sarah are still uncertain as to the nature of the emergency that's gripped central London, and none of the authorities they've encountered will tell them anything, content instead to lock them up for looting.  But as they're being driven away, a (somewhat sad-looking) Tyrannosaurus appears...

Butler and Professor Whitaker listen to Mike Yates's warnings
about the Doctor. (Invasion of the Dinosaurs Part Two) ©BBC

The mood in part two (now properly called Invasion of the Dinosaurs) gives way from an atmospheric thriller to a fairly typical UNIT runaround.  There's an interesting bit near the beginning with someone from 12th century England attacking the Doctor, before vanishing (presumably back to his own time), but before long the Brigadier has found the Doctor and is briefing him on the situation.  So we get a bit of exposition about how dinosaurs keep turning up, forcing an evacuation of the area, but then it's off to try and find the cause of these appearances.  But the whole thing is treated so matter-of-factly that the overall impression is one of business as usual -- even when it patently isn't.  I mean, for goodness' sake, Mike Yates is working for the bad guys!  That should be a game changer, but instead it's handled as just another incident along the way, and other than a reference to taking leave after The Green Death's events and liking London with less pollution, Yates's motivations here aren't really explored.  Fair enough, maybe they'll be covered in later episodes, but as for right now there's barely a hint of a reason for his actions.

But he's working for the villains, who have been bringing dinosaurs forward in time essentially as a diversion, a reason for London to be evacuated.  So the Doctor reasons that if he can capture a dinosaur, he can study it and work out where the time field that's bringing it to the present day is coming from.  Which means we should probably talk about the dinosaurs.  The three we see in this episode aren't actually that bad, and are in keeping generally with a 1970s understanding of dinosaurs.  The main problem is that they're clearly puppets, and thus they're being prefilmed on model sets.  But no one's taking care to line up the CSOed-in actors with the puppets, and so we get moments like the one near the beginning of part two, with UNIT soldiers firing well to the Tyrannosaurus's right instead of at it.  The other, less noticeable problem probably can't be helped, but it's the fact that they move like, well, puppets.  And not even very articulated puppets.  It's rather like watching a child's rubber dinosaur toy being moved around on screen.  The upshot of all this is that there's a lack of care involved with this that makes the finished product rather unimpressive.  There's nothing wrong with the conception; it's the execution that lets things down.

Nevertheless, the story's called Invasion of the Dinosaurs, so when the Doctor goes to capture a Stegosaurus (which is one of the better dinosaurs on display) with his fancy stun gun, he finds it doesn't work (because Mike Yates sabotaged it with a device from working-against-UNIT person Professor Whitaker, who managed to create a stun gun neutralizing device despite having never seen the device and said device being based on a principle that, according to the Doctor, hasn't been developed on Earth yet).  Which would be fine if the Stegosaurus didn't disappear, to be replaced by a much more ferocious (and still sad-looking) Tyrannosaurus bearing down on him...

June 29: The Time Warrior Parts Three & Four

Oh, look, they've edited in a shot of Hal and Sarah in order to make his rescue seem less abrupt.  Although according to them it's not a rescue, "it's a capture."  I doubt the Doctor minds much, though.

Sarah watches the Doctor make stink bombs. (The Time
Warrior Part Three) ©BBC

Part three has a lot of moments that seem rather silly, but as they're endearingly silly we can overlook any small problems that arise as a result.  Certainly the Doctor and Sarah clear up Sarah's misunderstanding really quickly (quite handy if she's going to be the next assistant) and get on with repelling Irongron's invasion.  The Doctor's strategy involves making stink bombs with some extra bits added, and lots of dummies to line the battlements.  It's not exactly high Shakespearean drama, but it's still entertaining to watch huge (and I mean huge) plumes of orange smoke fill the screen and billow around Irongron's small group of ragtag men as they try to scale ladders before just giving up and running back home.

The second half of the episode also has these wonderfully fun moments (what About Time calls "children's television" moments), with Sarah and the Doctor dressed as monks who want to get into Irongron's castle because they've heard of his great charity -- and the guards just let them through, apparently on a lark.  But they're there to enact their plan to take care of Irongron and Linx, and when they enter Linx's workshop, the Doctor is able to break the hypnosis of one of the scientists -- but then Linx enters and blasts the Doctor...

Part four resolves this problem by having Sarah knock the gun away and then Rubeish striking Linx on the back of the neck, on his probic vent -- the one weakness that a Sontaran has, apparently.  Then the plan proceeds, with Rubeish dehypnotizing scientists, Sarah heading to the kitchen to drug the food⁷⁹, and the Doctor forced to divert Irongron while the other elements of the plan take effect.  This is another silly-but-fun moment, with the Doctor dressed up as Linx's robot knight and attempting to distract Irongron for a bit -- but then forced to defend himself against both Irongron and Bloodaxe.  The game is soon up though, and Irongron decides to use the Doctor as target practice for his new "star weapons" (aka rifles).  The Doctor manages to escape, though, when Sarah swings a chandelier at him, which he then swings across the room on like Errol Flynn, and then they both escape to Sir Edward's castle.

Some drugged soldiers later, they return to rescue the scientists and stop Linx.  The Doctor manages the former (using Linx's osmic projector to send all the scientists back to the 20th century), but Linx is starting up his spaceship, which will destroy the whole castle.  Irongron is killed by Linx after Irongron attacks over a perceived betrayal, and a well-aimed arrow by Hal subsequently pierces Linx's probic vent, killing him -- but the spaceship still leaves, so the Doctor gets everyone out (except, it seems, the serving girls), causing the castle to explode, destroying everything anachronistic in the process.  And while you can sort of see the logic of using a stock explosion shot to save money, it's still a wonder that director Alan Bromly thought he could get away with what's clearly a quarry explosion substituting in for a castle being destroyed.  (Although perhaps it's not that surprising, if the stories about Bromly's directorial abilities and instincts are to be believed -- certainly the next (and final) Doctor Who Bromly directed, Nightmare of Eden, was an unmitigated disaster behind the scenes.)

So, having given us a story where different locales and times are successfully intermixed in Carnival of Monsters, Robert Holmes pulls a similar trick here, by taking an historical time period and throwing an SF element into it to see what happens.  This is by no means a novel approach, not even for Doctor Who (The War Games and The Time Meddler, which are both stories that The Time Warrior has in its DNA, played at something similar), but the difference is that the sheer confidence on display in Holmes's script makes this a viable thread of storytelling in a way that, say, The Time Meddler isn't.  The Time Meddler didn't lead to a subset of stories where a time traveller tries to alter history, but The Time Warrior did (albeit with aliens substituted for time travellers) -- see, for example, things like Pyramids of Mars or Horror of Fang Rock (and even into the modern day, with stories like, most obviously, "The Fires of Pompeii").  In part this is because the script is very confident about what it's doing, even when what it's doing is silly pantomime fare -- again, the stink bomb stuff comes to mind -- and it sparkles with lots of great dialogue (I've mentioned some of it before, but we also get lines like "By the stars, Bloodaxe, I swear I'll chop him up so fine not even a sparrow will fill its beak at one peck" and a description of the Doctor as "a long-shanked rascal with a mighty nose").  But it's also because it's clear how supremely comfortable both Jon Pertwee and Elisabeth Sladen are in this.  Pertwee is definitely at home here in history, engaging in swordplay and chivalry equally well.  Sladen is particularly impressive, finding her feet from the start and doing a convincing job of first mistrusting the Doctor and then being firmly on his side.  It's obviously not clear how the original actress cast as Sarah Jane would have done (the identity of whom Barry Letts insisted on taking to his grave, but subsequent research (after his death) revealed to be April Walker), but Elisabeth Sladen nails the part from her first scene.

It's fun, it's witty, and it's well-acted.  The Time Warrior is a stand-out story, and one that single-handedly revitalized a whole type of Doctor Who story, the pseudo-historical.  A marvelous tale, and probably the highlight of season 11 -- though, as we're only on the first story, we'll have to wait and see before we confirm this.







⁷⁹ It's well-known that there are anachronistic potatoes in this episode, a point which apparently caused some grief for Terrance Dicks, who then took it out on Robert Holmes -- so when Dicks wrote his own historical-based story for season 15 (Horror of Fang Rock), Holmes made certain all the research was done properly.  Except, as The DisContinuity Guide suggests, About Time confirms, and I verified, there don't appear to be any potatoes in the show.  There might be one on the table (briefly visible at the lower left edge as the camera pans), and Sarah might pick one up, but it's not like anyone's prominently peeling spuds or anything.  And besides, why would Dicks berate Holmes for something the set dressers did?  This has the feel of one of those stories with a grain of truth (the novelization (by Dicks) does mention Sarah peeling potatoes) that's been subsequently distorted beyond recognition, à la the story about Pertwee and the ship compass from Carnival of Monsters.

June 28: The Time Warrior Parts One & Two

A brand-new title sequence brings us into season 11, with the fancy slit-screen process and some filters creating a nifty-looking tunnel effect -- one that will become well known as the title sequence for most of Tom Baker's run.  It's not quite the same though, but I still kind of like the streaks of light that come at you at the very beginning (even if I always feel like it's off center).  Not as convinced about the full-length Pertwee portrait receding away though.

This is, pleasingly, a strong opener, as a Middle Ages warlord sees a star fall (in reality a crashing spaceship) and rides out to encounter an armored alien who claims Earth and the moon "for the greater glory of the Sontaran Empire."  Linx, the Sontaran who's crashed, needs to repair his ship, but upon finding that the technologies he needs aren't around in the Middle Ages, he decides to take them from those who do have the technologies.

From there we get a cut to near-contemporary Earth, with the Brigadier (whose hair seems really quite shaggy by this point) announcing that, in the wake of a number of recent kidnappings of important scientists, he's had them all brought to a high-security establishment.  Not that high-security, though; one of the people there is posing as an eminent virologist, but is in fact a journalist named Sarah Jane Smith.  Yes, it's Sarah Jane's first appearance in Doctor Who, here dressed very professionally and not willing to take any nonsense.  She's posing as her Aunt Lavinia, but the Doctor easily finds her out.  "I read your paper on the teleological response of the virus.  A most impressive piece of work," the Doctor tells her.  "Particularly when I realize you must have written it when you were five years old."

But he's content to let her wander around and act patronizingly towards her, as he's more concerned with the missing scientists, and when one of them is snatched away he determines that they've been taken back in time, so he hops into the TARDIS to trace them, with Sarah unwittingly on board (as she thinks that maybe one of the missing scientists, Professor Rubeish, is inside the TARDIS).  The TARDIS lands in medieval England, and Sarah walks out after the Doctor has left, seemingly unconcerned about the fact that they're in a new location (or about anything regarding the interior of the TARDIS, as far as we can tell) -- only to be captured by Irongron's men (after distracting future Boba Fett actor Jeremy Bulloch, as Hal the archer, from loosing his arrow accurately).  And as the Doctor looks on in hiding, Linx, thinking he's alone, removes his domed helmet -- only to reveal an identically-shaped head...

Linx and the Doctor.  (The Time Warrior Part Two) ©BBC

Part two has much of the flavor of a romp.  There's a lot of stuff with Sarah refusing to believe she's been transported back in time, despite all the mounting evidence (perhaps she's suffering from cognitive dissonance), but the result is a lot of great dialogue from Robert Holmes.  "Perhaps the wench is crazed," says Bloodaxe, Irongron's second, to Irongron.  Irongron, meanwhile, has good lines too, such as referring to Lady Eleanor, the person who hired Hal to assassinate Irongron in the last episode, as a "narrow-hipped vixen."  Fortunately, however, Linx interrupts Irongron, allowing Sarah to make her escape.  Linx, it turns out, is providing Irongron with guns and robot knights to fight for him.  And while this is going on, the Doctor is wandering around, causing mischief by shooting the control for the robot knight out of Irongron's hand (which allows Hal and Sarah to escape from the castle) and investigating Linx's workings.  He encounters Professor Rubeish, but as he's talking to him he's found out by Linx.  It seems the Doctor has met the Sontarans before ("So, the perpetual war between the Sontarans and the Rutans has spread to this tiny planet, has it?" he asks), and they end up chatting rather pleasantly, with the Doctor name-dropping his home planet for the first time. ("What is your native planet?" Linx asks.  "Gallifrey.  I am a Time Lord," the Doctor replies.  "Ah, yes," Linx says.  "A race of great technical achievement, but lacking the morale to withstand a determined assault.")  You'd think it would be a more important revelation than this, but it's just tossed into the background as a detail as the conversation moves to more important things. Still, it's entertaining to watch the Doctor and Linx chat, with each standing in as a representative for their whole species (and thus their species' point of view).

Meanwhile, Sarah appears to have gotten the wrong end of the stick by believing that the Doctor is the wizard that Hal describes as helping Irongron.  You can sort of see where she's coming from, as there's clearly time travel involved and the Doctor is a time traveller, but it still rather flies in the face of the evidence she was presented with in the first part.  But she's convinced the nearby Sir Edward that they should raid Irongron's castle and capture the Doctor -- who'd probably be fine with that if he knew, as he's locked up by Linx and forced to work for him, and when he's freed by Rubeish he ends up shoving Irongron out of the way before being surrounded by a large group of Irongron's men in the castle courtyard.  "He who strikes Irongron dies!" Irongron cries, raising his axe against the fallen Doctor.

June 27: The Green Death Episodes Five & Six

Back to the slow burn with episode five, but at least there's enough incident to sustain interest through the slower bits (which, honestly, has been the case with all the episodes of The Green Death so far).  Still, you can't help but be a little exasperated at Jo, who's gone to the slag heap to recover a maggot for Professor Jones to experiment on.  She doesn't know that the Brigadier's about to bomb the area in a (futile) effort to destroy the maggots, but it's still a silly thing to do.  But when Jones goes after her, he's the one who ends up knocked out and infected by maggots, not Jo.  And just as he'd discovered a cure for the green death in the previous episode, too.  Eventually they're rescued, but Jones is in a bad way, and if the Doctor can't discover what the cure for the green death was (the only clue he has is Jones muttering "serendipity", because the cure, the special fungus Jones has been breeding, was knocked onto the treated slides by Jo), then Jones will become its latest victim.

While Jo and Jones are stuck on the slag heap, the Doctor is having a conversation with the computer on the top floor of Global Chemicals: it's the first Biomorphic Organizational Systems Supervisor, or BOSS.  It's been linked to Stevens' mind in order to help it make the leaps of logic that a computer can't do, but in the process it's turned into "a megalomaniac machine".  The Doctor tries to escape but is discovered by Stevens before he can do so, which leads to a lovely scene where BOSS is trying to condition the Doctor the same way he conditioned Fell (this time complete with a nifty little electronic effect around the Doctor's head) but is unsuccessful:

BOSS: The subject is not responding to therapy!
DOCTOR: Therapy?  Oh, what a pretty euphemism.  You're not trying to tell me this is all for my own good?
BOSS: It is.
DOCTOR: And that it hurts you more than it hurts me?
BOSS: It does.
DOCTOR: (happily) You didn't mean it to though, did you?

(from The Doctor Who Transcripts - The Green Death)

Mike Yates holds the Brigadier and the Doctor at gunpoint.
(The Green Death Episode Five) ©BBC

Thus thwarted, BOSS sends the Doctor to a holding room, where he's set free by Mike Yates, but in the escape attempt Mike is caught and conditioned to try and kill the Doctor.  This is where that blue crystal the Doctor took from Metebelis III comes in handy, as the Doctor is able to use it (somehow) to break Mike's conditioning.  Then Mike is sent back into Global Chemicals to find out what's happening, but after he deconditions a man named James⁷⁷ and learns that BOSS is planning a takeover of something at four o'clock, he's caught by Stevens.  "Just can't depend on anyone, can you, Mr. Yates?" he says.

Episode six shows the Doctor accidentally discovering how to kill the maggots, as one dies while eating the fungus stuff.  Armed with this knowledge, the Doctor and Sergeant Benton drive out to the slag heap and throw chunks of fungus at the maggots, who devour the stuff and then perish.  "Kitty, kitty, kitty," Sergeant Benton starts calling out entertainingly at one point, "come on!  Come on and get your lovely din-dins!  Come on, kitty, kit—"  "Sergeant Benton!" the Doctor interjects, appalled.

Just as they think they're done, though, a huge fly starts dive-bombing them -- one of the maggots having pupated.  It's, er, not the most convincing effect in the world, particularly as they've shot it on film and then superimposed the Doctor and Benton via CSO, which means they're both on video and have yellow fringing all around them.  It also doesn't last very long, as the Doctor throws his cloak into the air (another less-than-convincing effect) and ensnares the fly, which crashes to the ground and dies.

They still haven't figured out Jones's cure for the green death yet, but when Jo mentions how she knocked brown powder on his slides, the Doctor works out what "serendipity" means and has Jo show him.  It's the same fungus as killed the maggots, and it means that they can cure Professor Jones.  But Mike Yates has managed to escape from Global Chemicals and warns the Doctor about BOSS's planned takeover.  The Doctor heads to Global Chemicals, only to find that BOSS has completely taken Stevens over.  BOSS is an amazing character, by the way, happily humming to himself and taunting Stevens about his nervousness while he wonders if he should have staged a concert to mark the occasion.  "Stevens, you know, we should have arranged for a symphony orchestra to herald my triumph.  To take over the world, to sweep into power on the crest of a wave of Wagnerian sound!... No?  Oh, er, the 1812, perhaps?  Or would we dare the glorious Ninth?" BOSS asks.  It's such a welcome change from the typical talking computer (even if Doctor Who itself hadn't done much with that particular cliché) that it's incredibly entertaining to watch.

But as I said, the Doctor arrives to stop BOSS from taking over, which would then cause the Stevens process, and therefore the toxic green slime, to go worldwide (in addition to the whole "enslaving the humans" thing).  "Stevens, listen to me," the Doctor says.  "You've seen where this efficiency of yours leads.  Wholesale pollution of the countryside.  Devilish creatures spawned by the filthy by-products of your technology.  Men walking around like brainless vegetables.  Death.  Disease.  Destruction."  But Stevens is under BOSS's control, so the Doctor produces the blue crystal, bringing Stevens back long enough to come to his senses and initiate the destruction of the entire complex by "cross-feeding the generator circuitry."  With a lot of crazy color effects and then a giant explosion, the world is saved.

The Doctor presents Jo with the blue crystal as a wedding
present. (The Green Death Episode Six) ©BBC

Not quite done yet, though; as mentioned before, this is Jo's final story, and so we have to have her farewell scene, where she announces that she's going to follow Jones into the Amazon to look for a high-protein fungus.  Jones asks her to marry him (well, sort of; he more announces his intention to marry her and she agrees), and an impromptu celebration begins at the Nuthutch.  The Doctor realizes he's lost the battle for Jo's affection, so after gallantly giving her the blue crystal as a wedding gift, he quietly slips away and drives off into the night.  (Well, I think it's supposed to be night; they've clearly put a filter on the camera to do day for night filming, but unfortunately the sun is still blazing away in the shot.)  It's quite an emotional moment⁷⁸, and they do a nice balance of celebrating Jo's happiness with the Doctor's loss.

And so The Green Death comes to an end.  This story made a big impact on the audience at the time -- it's probably one of the most fondly-remembered stories of Doctor Who's 20th-century run -- and it's not hard to see why.  The story is paced well (a welcome improvement over the authors' last story, The Time Monster), starting small and getting bigger and bigger.  The pro-environmental theme is also nice because it roots the problem in something relatable: the mad computer angle might muddy the waters a bit, but this is a story about the dangers of pollution.  Yet The Green Death doesn't beat you over the head with this theme, content instead to let it percolate in the background for anyone who wants to think about it; for those that don't, it's just about a freak green slime that causes mutations and death.  Like all the best Doctor Who, it works on multiple levels.  It is a bit patronizing to the Welsh, though, with lots of dialogue ending in questions and "boyo"s thrown in for good measure (not to mention things like Jo describing the deceased Bert as a "funny little Welshman"), but the goodwill that this story generates tends to outweigh these concerns.

So now that we've reached the end of season 10, it's worth taking a look back not just at the previous season, but at how the show has changed over these ten years.  Season 10 itself is generally a triumph, with some of the best stories the show has ever produced.  Not only that, but the public knows it too; the ratings have been up all season and the move to end the Doctor's exile is a good one (even if in terms of settings there's really not that much difference between this and the previous season).  It gives them more freedom to tell different stories, and if the group they've put together this time around is any indication, Doctor Who will be on top for a while.  But there's also a sense of endings, with Katy Manning leaving and Roger Delgado's death (as well as a final hurrah for both these title/end graphics (run upside-down for the end credits of both episodes five and six) and the use of the word "episode" (sob) -- from here on out, the installments will be referred to as "parts"), so how the show moves forward after these events will be interesting to see.  Season 10 is a high point for Doctor Who.

But the show itself has adapted considerably since its beginning, moving from an educational-cum-adventure show to a more formulaic "monster" show into its current incarnation, an action-adventure serial.  Yet that flavor of wonder and learning that made the early seasons such a success isn't gone.  It's still present in most of the stories up through season 10, and there are a lot of moments where Doctor Who tries to both showcase ideas (such as, say, the black hole in The Three Doctors, much of which was accurate based on 1972's understanding of the concept (and is still the most accurate black hole portrayed on the show)) and slip them into the background (e.g., the segregation that exists between the Overlords and the Solonians in The Mutants, some of which is explicit but some of which is casually added as a detail in the background).  I don't know if Sydney Newman's thoughts about this period of the show are recorded, but I would think he would still recognize Letts and Dicks' version as the same one he had come up with back in 1963, just with some cosmetic differences.  There's just as much to enjoy now as there was then, and even with such a restrictive format (and such a massive sea change) as the Doctor's exile to Earth, that sense of investigation is still present, letting us know that this is the same show as before.  Ending the exile only confirms that by showing us stories that are similar in feel to the ones from the '60s, and in the meantime they've surreptitiously increased the importance of the "contemporary problems of Earth" element, almost without our realizing it.

In general, these first ten years of Doctor Who have been a strong success, and it's easy to see why this show became one of the most successful television shows ever created.  Here's to the next ten years and the strengths and changes that those years will bring, while still retaining that core appeal.







⁷⁷ This was supposed to be Elgin, but the actor playing him, Tony Adams, developed peritonitis and thus couldn't be present for the final recording session, so his lines were given to a new character played by Roy Skelton.
⁷⁸ And it's a moment explicitly paid tribute to by the end of Sherlock series 3 episode 2, "The Sign of Three".  Although if you know anything at all about Mark Gatiss and his tendencies towards pastiche in just about every thing he writes, this is perhaps not the most surprising thing in the world.

June 26: The Green Death Episodes Three & Four

Episode three is a bit of a slow burn.  There's a lot of stuff with the Doctor and Jo making their way through the mine (first by "punting" an old mine cart through the green maggot-infested goo lake, then by climbing up a crevasse that is unfortunately all too obviously made of polystyrene, as it squeaks like mad when the Doctor and Jo make their way through it).  Their journey ends inside a pipe at Global Chemicals, where Elgin (the "good" technician) manages to get them out right before a whole bunch of waste is dumped down the pipe (and remember, the Stevens process allegedly creates no waste).  This is after Elgin has an urgent conversation with Fell, the gentleman we saw last episode getting brainwashed in Stevens' office and who seems to be fighting to regain control of his mind.  His programming somewhat broken, he returns to Stevens' office, where the computer he's hooked up to gives him orders to "self-destruct" -- which Fell does by throwing himself off an outside balcony.  Stevens seems shaken by this.  "Stevens, you are a sentimentalist," his boss taunts him. 

While this is happening, the Brigadier is trying to get Stevens to shut down Global Chemicals while they investigate this strange green substance in the mines, but Stevens refuses and calls his friends in the government to intervene -- which leads to a scene where the Brigadier is being told to back off by the Prime Minister himself.  Unable to do anything else, and with the Doctor and Jo safely out of the Global Chemicals complex, they all retire to the Nuthutch, where the Doctor regales them with tales and Jo and Jones start to form a real connection -- although they don't quite get the chance to kiss, as the Brigadier and the Doctor can be heard coming into the room.  The Doctor seems to realize what's going on, and his behavior is that of someone who's slightly jealous, interestingly; first he tries to show off to Jo by showing her the blue crystal he recovered from Metebelis III, and when that fails he (rather obviously) grabs Professor Jones's attention and leads him off to discuss scientific matters, leaving Jo alone in the living room.  But unbeknownst to her, the giant maggot egg that the Doctor retrieved from his trip through the crevasse has hatched, and a giant maggot is silently inching up behind her...

If episode three was a slow burn, episode four sees some action finally start happening.  Stevens had sent a goon to the Nuthutch to take care of the Doctor and Jo (the only witnesses thus far to the giant maggots in the mine), and it's him who ends up being attacked by the newly-hatched maggot, which then escapes into the night.

A giant maggot hisses on the hillside. (The Green Death
Episode Four) ©BBC

Having learned about the maggots (and presumably having informed his superiors about them), the Brigadier is the next day preparing to blow up the mine, thus sealing the giant maggots away where they can't hurt anyone.  Despite the Doctor's best efforts (which involve pleading his case to Stevens, who refuses to take the Doctor seriously and brings in a man from the Ministry to support his side -- which ends up being an incognito Mike Yates), he's unable to prevent the mine's sealing.  Turns out this doesn't stop the maggots, though, despite the Brigadier's initial claim to the contrary (which is treated as a joke, complete with "wah-wah"-esque music -- proof, if nothing else, that Murray Gold doesn't have a monopoly on inappropriately highlighting "funny" bits); the maggots start crawling up through the waste pipes and even burrowing out of the hillside.  Worse still, they're impervious to bullets (of course they are), owing to "thick chitinous plates protecting the whole body surface", as the Doctor says.  Well, except he pronounces it like "chit" ([tʃɪt]), instead of like "kite" ([kaɪt]) as it should be, but never mind.⁷⁶  Thus the Doctor resolves to investigate Global Chemicals undercover, first as a visually-decent old milkman and then as a rather less convincing cleaning lady.  Yates has been unable to uncover anything, but he tells the Doctor that Stevens' boss lives on the top floor, along with anything important pertaining to Global Chemicals.  The Doctor heads up there, only to find out who the head of Global Chemicals really is.  "I am the boss.  I'm all around you," the boss tells the Doctor, who turns to look at a large red screen.  "Exactly," the boss confirms.  "I am the computer."

(Oh, and special mention to the grammar fail in this week's credits, which includes "Yate's Guard" -- although at least the end graphics aren't upside-down like they were for episode two.)








⁷⁶ Actually, it's this, not the fluff from The Mutants, that's probably Pertwee's most famous goof -- although that's only because of a well-known letter sent in to the production team after transmission, which read

The reason I'm writin'
Is how to say kitin [sic]

June 25: The Green Death Episodes One & Two

It's interesting how quickly the "end of an era" feeling begins in The Green Death.  It's all over the first UNIT scene, with the Doctor offering to take Jo to Metebelis III and her choosing to go down to South Wales to help Professor Jones in his crusade against a company called Global Chemicals instead.  She seems to feel it's her duty to try and make a difference, and that this Professor Jones reminds her of a younger Doctor.  "I don't know whether to feel flattered or insulted," the Doctor replies.  He tries to sweeten the deal by offering to take her not just to Metebelis III, but anywhere and anywhen she'd like to go, but her mind is made up.  "So the fledgling flies the coop," the Doctor remarks a bit sadly, after Jo leaves, before setting out on his own to Metebelis III.

But the story really starts with a parody of Neville Chamberlain's speech about the Munich Agreement, the pact which allowed Nazi Germany to annex part of Czechoslovakia.  "I have in my hand a piece of paper which will mean a great deal to all of you," the director of Global Chemicals, Stevens, tells the crowd of gathered ex-miners.  "Wealth in our time!"  The miners seem reasonably happy with this, as it means they'll have jobs, but Professor Jones and his compatriots are protesting that it will mean an increase in pollution.  Yes, for the first time in Pertwee-era Who, Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks are deliberately tackling a current hot topic: the problem of pollution and what it will eventually do to the planet without making changes.  (They've tackled social issues before, but this is the first time they'd commissioned/written a story specifically designed to address one.)

This first episode consists primarily of setting up the opposing points of view, and as such there's not much in the way of excitement or action.  There's the death at the very beginning, the cliffhanger, and then the Doctor's trip to Metebelis III, which looks an utterly miserable time, as the Doctor is attacked by all sorts of creatures while he grabs a blue sapphire as a souvenir.  Still, at least he was right about the blue light everywhere.  But everything else is set-up: Professor Jones is working on sustainability, and thus he opposes Global Chemicals and their oil refinery process.  However, Director Stevens insists that their revolutionary new process not only allows them to refine 25% more petrol and diesel from a given amount of crude oil but also produces no waste.  "Well, I'm no scientist, Mr. Stevens, but I find that somewhat difficult to believe," the Brigadier tells him.  Professor Jones believes that Global Chemicals is lying and is simply pumping the waste into the disused mines.  Jo wants to go and look, but Professor Jones is too busy.  (We should probably also note how much the first meeting between Jo and Jones is pitched as a meet cute, with adorable/"adorable" (delete according to preference) bumbling from Jo and a lot of teasing from Professor Jones.  This is Jo Grant's last story, after all, but at least they're taking the time to try and set up her departure (as opposed to, say, Liz Shaw's complete disappearance between seasons 7 and 8).)

So Jo's off to the mine, but there's a problem as she descends with another miner, Bert: the brakes on the lift aren't working and it's running out of control...

Episode two is a bit more action-packed, first with the Doctor's successful effort to halt the lift's descent (by jamming a piece of metal into the pulley system and forcing it to stop), and then with their efforts to free Jo and Bert from the lift.  The only way they can get down into the mine now is to cut the cable of the broken lift and then rigging up a donkey pulley to send the lift in the other shaft down (they work in tandem, you see).  The mine doesn't have cutting equipment, but Global Chemicals does.

Dai Evans is the latest victim of the mysterious "green
death".  (The Green Death Episode Two) ©BBC

Global Chemicals don't want people going down into the mines, and so they're deliberately obstructive, informing UNIT that they have no cutting equipment on site.  The Brigadier goes off to get some while the Doctor decides to infiltrate Global Chemicals.  A couple fight scenes later (where, for the first time, it's incredibly obvious that Terry Walsh is doubling for Jon Pertwee -- the hair's the wrong color, for starters), the only thing the Doctor accomplishes is bringing himself to the attention of Stevens' boss, at this point only represented by a disembodied voice and an oscilloscope trace on a screen.  Jo and Bert, meanwhile, have decided to venture into the mine in search of another exit.  They encounter Dai Evans, a miner who's been infected with the same green glowing skin condition as John Scott Martin at the start of episode one, but they leave him behind as they search for the exit.  They also find a strange green substance that appears to burn Bert when he touches it, and shortly thereafter he starts to exhibit the same green glow.

The Doctor and some miners manage to gain access to the mine and set off in search of Jo and Bert.  They find Bert, who's in a bad way, and while the miners take him back the Doctor moves ahead to find Jo.  He does so, but he also finds a huge pool of glowing green goo, filled with large maggots.  It's a suitably unnerving sight, but it's about to get even worse, for as the Doctor and Jo turn back, part of the mine collapses -- revealing three large, hissing maggots...