The Green Death - Episode 4

The maggot crawling over the floor via CSO is still quite effective as is it leaping up. Normally this is where the story would fall apart but its clear that the money has been spent to try and make them look good which is perhaps the most important thing when they are the main selling point of the story. A bit like the dinosaurs in ‘Invasion of the Dinosaurs’ but the maggots work a lot better.There is a nice build-up of tension when the Doctor has 32 and a half minutes to talk to Stevens to try and stop the exploding. There is a surprise during this scene when we see the return of Mike Yates. Yates is pretending to be helpful to Stevens but goes so far as to go against the Doctor and seem like he’s siding with Stevens. Benton has a light presence in this episode which is a shame because he always provides some light comedy relief and this is what this story needs a bit of.

The cleaner that appears at the ten minute mark does feel like she stereotypically welsh but that’s the only real problem with this episode. The relationship between Jo and the Professor seems to have developed even more in this episode. Even to the stage where Jo does something insanely stupid as to try and get him a maggot. This is the sort of thing that she would have done for the Doctor before this story so it’s another sign that she’s moving away from the Doctor.

We get another great quote from the Brigadier which is similar to what he said in ‘The Daemons’.

“Never thought id fire in anger at a dratted caterpillar”

The Brigadier is on fine form in this episode and Nicholas Courtney is enjoying himself which is always a good thing. Jon Pertwee is also someone who is having fun as he has not one but two disguises that he uses as he dresses up as a old milkman and also as a cleaner. The Doctor doesn’t really get to be his usual self until the very end of the episode where we get to find out who is in charge of Stevens and it’s an even bigger screen with the squiggly line on. It perhaps has a lot more of an impact on first viewing but after several viewings, it doesn’t quite have the same effect. That said I still think that this story is very good and this episode continues to entertain me. The performances are very good and the maggots are quite impressive and the CSO has been a positive influence. It does feel like after four episodes, the story is changing direction and these final two episodes will be something different.