In North Wales, giant maggots are plaguing a small mining community as the product of pollution from the nearby Global Chemicals. The Third Doctor, Jo Grant and U.N.I.T arrive to assist Professor Clifford Jones and his hippy commune to confront Global Chemicals for their illegal actions and to also stop the giant maggots from evolving into giant dragonflies! Global Chemicals is really being controlled by an intelligent supercomputer called B.O.S.S. who is pulling all the strings!

The Green Death

★★★★★

TX: 19/05/1973 – 23/06/1973

Written by Robert Sloman (and Barry Letts)    Directed by Michael E Briant

Jo Grant decides go to Llanfairfach in the Welsh mining Valleys in order to assistant Professor Clifford Jones in his ecological battle with polluter Global Chemicals. Global Chemicals have been illegally dumping waste down the mine shafts which has led to the growth of giant mutated maggots. And a green slime that kills on contact with human skin. The Third Doctor infiltrates Global Chemicals and confronts the man in charge, Stevens. Stevens is really under the control of an intelligent supercomputer called B.O.S.S., who is really behind The Green Death. U.N.I.T begin bombing the giant maggots that have emerged from the ground. Meanwhile, Jo and Cliff have gone down into the mine shaft and Cliff has been infected by the Green Death. The Doctor and Benton rescue Cliff and Jo. The Doctor explains to the Brigadier that the only way to destroy the giants maggots is by using a formula that he created in Professor Jones’s hippy commune (which is devoted to flower power (The Dominators)). Things become even more challenging when the maggots start evolving into giant dragonflies! Benton and the Doctor use Bessie to drive around and destroy the maggots with the formula. Mike Yates escapes capture from Stevens. The Doctor returns to Global Chemicals and confronts Stevens and the B.O.S.S. Is it possible that “the Boss” mentioned in The Star Beast and The Reality War is the B.O.S.S. from The Green Death? The Doctor convinces Stevens that the B.O.S.S. is not his friend and Stevens agrees to sacrifice himself to overload B.O.S.S. The Doctor escapes moments before Global Chemicals explodes! Back at Professor Jones’s hippy commune, Jo announces that she and Cliff have gotten engaged and that she will be staying with him in Wales. The Doctor gives Jo a present, a blue crystal from Metebelis Three that he retrieved at the start of this story (Planet of the Spiders, Hide). The Doctor leaves alone in Bessie while the others party in an emotional ending. In many ways, Classic Doctor Who is better than Modern Doctor Who. Doctor Who also showed the awful consequences of pollution on the environment in Orphan 55, Praxeus and The War Between the Land and the Sea. I studied environmental law at university. I voted for Ed Miliband who is now the Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary in the UK Government. This website is the most liberal website ever! I am now more liberal than I was at university. Like me, Doctor Who producer Barry Letts was a liberal and he was very concerned about the negative human impact on the environment, i.e. pollution. So that was how The Green Death was conceived! 99% of the world’s scientists agree that man-made climate change is real and that it is having a negative impact on our planet! We only have one planet and we haven’t got the technology to reach other planets yet. We have to learn how to share our planet harmoniously with each other and how to treat the Earth with kindness and respect! Earth Day should become a national holiday! The government needs to declare a climate emergency! We need to stop polluting the environment!