TV Review: Doctor Who: The Green Death (1973)

Doctor Who: The Green Death (1973) written by Robert Sloman and directed by Michael E. Briant

The Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee) has finally gotten permission from the Time Lords to leave Earth. He tries to convince his companion, U.N.I.T. employee Jo Grant (Katy Manning), to go off-world but she wants to go to Wales. She sees news of a fatal mining accident seemingly caused by Global Chemicals. She wants to join in the protests and leaves the Doctor behind. The mining accident turns out to be much more bizarre and sinister--a man was brought up with glowing green patches on his skin. Global Chemicals is in charge of the mine site and doesn't want anyone investigating what's in the mine. The Doctor eventually catches up to Jo, though he has to go down into the mine since she's gone to help out another miner trapped down there. They find some creepy crawlies down there. But is the subterranean threat worse than Global Chemicals, which has been brainwashing its employees and is run by an unseen character called "The Boss"?

The story is an early 1970s cautionary tale about the evils of fossil fuel. Jo teams up with a local professor who's developing mushrooms as meat substitutes when he's not protesting Global Chemicals's activities. The ambiguity about the villain of the piece is interesting and keeps the viewer engaged. I found the revelation of who "The Boss" is disappointing. The evil maggots from the underground actually look decent though the episode has a lot of low-budget-looking green screen work that I found distracting.

Mildly recommended--this is a fairly run-of-the-mill classic Doctor Who series.