The Green Death (TV story): Difference between revisions

== Plot ==

In the Glamorgan county [[Llanfairfach]], a colliery remains inactive after the post-industrial closure of its mining operations. A miner visits one of the underground roadways for inspection. He is scared by a green substance which has infected him during his stay beneath the surface, and he darts for the lift. Meanwhile, a [[Range Rover]] arrives at a crowd of deposed workers formerly employed at the mining facility. A man steps out and addresses several miners. His company is introducing a new process that will greatly expedite their production of oil after the [[National Coal Board]] had to close down the pit because of coal's dwindling industrial promises. The workers cheer vigourously but are met with the sickened remarks from a band of protesters. One of them is a prolific troublemaker in these parts — [[Professor]] [[Clifford Jones]], who believes the men are being exploited for their manpower. The workers are far from rapport toward his unpleasant words and start jeering at him to shut up. Instead, all voices are unanimously silenced by the sound of a warning whistle bellowing without stop. The miners know this means there is trouble at the pit, rushing off where an emergency awaits. The same mining worker has emerged from the shafts, collapsed dead with his hand wrenched firmly on the valve to blow the whistle. His flesh has been contaminated by a phosphorescent green substance.

The Brigadier and Doctor notice the mine shaft lowering mechanisms spinning from outside and bolt into the facility to stop the descent, upset that it's Jo who has gone down before him. Even when the Doctor demands that [[Dave (The Green Death)|Dave]], the shaft operator, raises Jo and Bert back up, Dave can't get the brakes to work. One of the Global Chemicals employees cuts the lift cable and they plummet towards the bottom of the mineshaft...

The Doctor reaches Llanfairfach with a [[Metebelis crystal|blue crystal]] to show for his visit to Metebelis III and jams the lift in the nick of time. Jo and Bert are not harmed, but they are stranded in the mine. There, they find [[Dai Evans]], one of the other miners, glowing bright green and terribly ill. It seems there is some serious pollution at work in the mine, and they head off to find a way out. For anybody to get down to the mine to help them, cutting equipment is needed to cut the cables jamming the lift. Global Chemicals say they don't have any such equipment, but a staff member, [[Elgin (The Green Death)|Elgin]], knows this is not true. When Jones hears about Jo's predicament, he comes to the mine to help.

The Doctor sneaks into Global Chemicals to steal the equipment, but he is caught. One guard sees him as a bit old for a threat, but the Doctor jests, "I'm quite spry for my age, actually." It doesn't take him much effort to knock the guns out of his hands and properly throw several guards to the ground with his [[Venusian aikido]], not fazed by their use of a baton. He takes the upper hand until four more arrive, this time armed with rifles, and fence him in. Fortunately, Stevens chooses to overlook the incident. By chance, the Brigadier finds somebody with cutting equipment in a garage, allowing the Doctor and a few mine workers to go down into the mine shaft. Things get worse when Bert finds a slick of green slime and touches it. He too seems to contract "the green death". By the time the Doctor finds Dai, the miner is dead, and the [[Time Lord]] becomes very worried for Jo's safety. Increasingly ill, Bert waits behind while Jo looks for a way out alone. The Doctor catches up with Bert and finds Jo near a vast lake of green slime filled with [[Giant Maggot|giant maggots]]. When they try to go back, the tunnel caves in and more maggots emerge from the rubble.

The Doctor and Jo are trapped between a cave-in and the pool of maggots. They escape by wheeling a mine cart through the maggots, but they are still trapped in the mine.

The Doctor, Jo and the Brigadier end the day with a nourishing meal of fungus at the Nuthutch, but the frivolity is cut short when they hear Bert too has died. As the Doctor leaves, a maggot egg he brought back from the mine hatches, and the maggot inside creeps up on Jo, the girl none the wiser.

[[File:Greendeath4.JPG||left|thumb|[[The Doctor]] disguises as a milk man to infiltrate [[Global Chemicals]].]]

The maggot kills Hinks, who had come to destroy the egg, and escapes before any analysis can be made of it, leaving the Doctor and Jones to analyse the trail of green slime it left behind.

The Doctor dons some improbable disguises, including a milkman and a cleaning lady, to get through the gates and move freely. Meanwhile, Jo has alienated Cliff, with whom she is falling in love, by ruining one of his slides. Determined to make amends, she heads to the sealed mine in search of a maggot to run some tests on. Having liaised with Yates, the Doctor learns that Stevens takes his instructions from the top floor of the complex, and heads there to find out who is in charge. The [[BOSS]], or Biomorphic Organisational Systems Supervisor, turns out to be a supercomputer with its own megalomaniacal personality.

The Doctor speaks with BOSS and finds out that it runs the company, controls Stevens and other key staff members, and is responsible for the polluting chemical process. The Doctor employs the liar paradox, a conundrum which will keep BOSS busy trying to find a solution, while he escapes. Unfortunately, he runs into Stevens and some guards before he can do so. He rejects the brain-washing technique that Stevens subjects him to, but Mike Yates is more susceptible and is converted into one of the computer's slaves.

After the Doctor escapes, Mike is sent to the Nutchutch to kill the Doctor. His conditioning is deep and only broken by the Doctor's use of the blue crystal he brought from Metebelis 3. Meanwhile, Jones has worked out that the fungus Jo spilt on the slides is actually a curative and then sets off to stop her, but they are both caught in an RAF bombing raid intended to kill the maggots. Cliff is also infected with a maggot and begins to turn green — before he was able to share his knowledge of the cure. In a delirious state, he utters the word "serendipity". Yates re-enters Global Chemicals, pretending to still be under BOSS's control, but he is caught by Stevens, who tells him he just can't depend on anyone.

[[File:Greendeath6.JPG||left|thumb|Maggots!]]

[[Benton|Sergeant Benton]] brings an empty maggot chrysalis to the Nuthatch, revealing that the maggots are about to change into something else. The Doctor discovers that another maggot had died after eating Cliff's fungus, meaning that it is deadly to them. The Doctor and Benton drive around the slag heaps and the mine, liberally scattering the fungus which kills all the maggots, and disposing of a deadly giant fly which attacks them. Returning to the Nuthatch, the Doctor discovers Cliff's cure and uses it to restore him to full health. The Doctor then returns to Global Chemicals to confront BOSS. The computer plans to link up with others and effect a corporate takeover of the human race. However, Stevens, whose conditioning is partially broken by the Doctor using the crystal, tells him to get out while he triggers an explosion which apparently destroys himself, the computer, and the company headquarters.

The menace defeated, UNIT troops and environmentalists gather at the Nuthutch for a celebration made all the more special when Jo and Cliff announce they are getting married and then plan to travel the [[Amazon]] looking for a rare fungus, and that the [[United Nations]] (after Jo contacted her uncle) have decided to fund Wholeweal's research: jobs will return to Llanfairfach after all. The Doctor offers his blessing to the couple and gives Jo the blue crystal as a present, asking them to save him some wedding cake. However, as the party starts to get into full swing the Doctor quietly slips away, noticed only by Jo, who understands why.

* For episodes two, five and six, the title sequence film over which the closing credits were superimposed was played backwards and upside-down (a result of the film being played backwards through the telecine machine to save time during recording).

* The function (and lines) of Elgin is taken up by James, as played by Roy Skelton, in episode five. Tony Adams, who plays Elgin, was taken ill with peritonitis during production and had to be taken to hospital. The scene had to be hastily rewritten so as not to involve Elgin.

* The party scene at the end of episode six marks one of the few times the Doctor is shown consuming what is presumably alcohol on screen. He also drinks Elderberry wine in episode three, and asks for a bottle to take with him.