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.
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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" ([t
ʃɪt]), instead of like "kite" ([ka
ɪt]) 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]