1. "Our planet is in double danger:
Domination by the Boss,
and a plague of giant insects.Copy !req
2. "Will the Doctor be in time
to save the World?"Copy !req
3. This episode was first shown on
23 June 1973 and was watched
by 7.0 million people.Copy !req
4. 'The Green Death' drew some very
positive comments from the BBC's weekly
Programme Review Board.Copy !req
5. whilst Aubrey Singer
Said that he tried
never to miss the programme.Copy !req
6. After Episode 4, the "style and
effectiveness" of the maggots
was "warmly commended",Copy !req
7. and Paul Fox, the Controller of BBC-1,
ventured to suggest that they were
actually better than the Daleks.Copy !req
8. Following Episode 5, Huw Wheldon
(Managing Director of Television and
Chief Dalek Fan) opined that the maggotsCopy !req
9. "were indeed quite good,
if not sufficiently grubby",Copy !req
10. to which the Director of Programmes,
Alasdair Milne, retorted that they
were nasty enough for him!Copy !req
11. After this episode was shown,
the Review Board met againCopy !req
12. and the Head of Drama Series,
Ronnie Marsh, praised a good story
and the "fine" 1972-3 series as a whole.Copy !req
13. Indeed, he felt that it was Doctor Who's
most successful series since 1964-5.Copy !req
14. John Cain (Head of Further Education,
Television) said that the episode
had bought his family to tears.Copy !req
15. Ironically, Serendipity was the name
of Katy Manning's next television job
for the BBC.Copy !req
16. The series of ten programmes was
broadcast between October
and December 1973Copy !req
17. and focused on various arts and crafts
such as weaving, carving,
macramé and dyeing.Copy !req
18. She was filming Serendipity during
the day whilst also working at
Edinburgh's Traverse Theatre,Copy !req
19. where she was playing a 16-year-old girl
guide serial killer in Stanley
Eveling's Union Jack and Bonzo.Copy !req
20. Later that year, Scotland was also
the location for a magazine photo shoot
involving Katy Manning,Copy !req
21. posing alongside Stewart Bevan and
a maggot for the Doctor Who Special,
published by Radio Times in 1973.Copy !req
22. The pictures showed Katy looking
suitably horrified at coming across
the monster.Copy !req
23. They were shot atop Arthur's Seat,
a rocky outcrop overlooking Edinburgh.Copy !req
24. The "chrysalis" is just a piece of thin
plastic that's been vacuum-formed
around a mould.Copy !req
25. At this point in the script, Nancy,
who hasn't yet left the room,Copy !req
26. asks Benton if he'd like a sandwich.
"Try me!" he replies,
and she leaves for the kitchen.Copy !req
27. You may have noticed that, in the
previous larder scene, as also in this
one, the window by the table is open.Copy !req
28. The script indicates that the maggot
was meant to be seen
next to a broken window.Copy !req
29. Presumably this was changed to forestall
questions about why nobody heard
the glass break.Copy !req
30. They might be ecologically minded at
Wholeweal, but they still leave bottles
of bleach sitting next to foodstuffs!Copy !req
31. As usual for Doctor Who, the incidental
music for 'The Green Death'
was composed by Dudley Simpson.Copy !req
32. He created a total of 33 minutes' worth
of music for the story,
using a five-piece orchestra.Copy !req
33. Any story involving location filming
away from London is going to be costly.Copy !req
34. A hotel room, with bath?
£4.50 per night.
And if that sounds like a lot,Copy !req
35. Filming overran and spilled over into
an unscheduled extra day,
Wednesday 21 March.Copy !req
36. This not only racked up another day's
hire but also incurred an extra 10%
on top as a late booking charge.Copy !req
37. The Brigadier also brought
his own expense.Copy !req
38. When the production office later decided
to reintroduce the character
in a semi-permanent role,Copy !req
39. Haisman and Lincoln were paid a fee
for every episode
in which he subsequently appeared.Copy !req
40. In the main, the maggots were made from
flexible tubular ducting, covered with
a layer of foam rubber and latex.Copy !req
41. Rubber bands were used to create
the segmentation on the bodies.Copy !req
42. Finally, they were covered in cling film
to give them a shiny,
wet-look outer chitin.Copy !req
43. These were fitted with a miniature set
of jaws worked via a peg in the mouth.Copy !req
44. The wide range of techniques used for
the artificial maggots ensured that they
could perform all the actions required.Copy !req
45. The problem maggots were the live ones,Copy !req
46. especially when the myopic Katy Manning
managed to knock a whole tray of them
over in the studio.Copy !req
47. And of course, from a giant maggot,
you'll get a giant fly!Copy !req
48. Now, there's a bit of
a scale issue here.Copy !req
49. If the giant maggots all hatched from
giant eggs, then what laid the eggs?Copy !req
50. The fly might be large, but it doesn't
look as if it could lay an egg
the size of a football!Copy !req
51. Yates's escape from Stevens and the
guards in a few moments' timeCopy !req
52. was originally envisaged a little
differently from what
was ultimately shown on screen.Copy !req
53. In the script, Yates is dragged along to
the lift and manages to evade his
captors as he does in this sequence.Copy !req
54. When we next see him,
he's using the hosepipe
to climb down the exterior wall,Copy !req
55. when a guard appears
at a window and fires at him.Copy !req
56. Michael E. Briant's original plan
was to fly the fly out on location.Copy !req
57. There were two options: Either flying
the model on a wire
between two scaffolds,Copy !req
58. or suspending the creature from a wire
below the helicopter
that was being used that day.Copy !req
59. Either way, the cold cross-winds blowing
around the slag heaps were too strong.Copy !req
60. Any attempts to fly the model for real
were quickly abandoned.Copy !req
61. In the end, Ron Oates's effects team
created an attacking version of
the creature on film back at the BBC,Copy !req
62. and the sequence was put together
in Studio 3 using CSO.Copy !req
63. The model doesn't actually
fly towards the camera.Copy !req
64. Rather, the film camera zooms in on
the model, making it look as if
it's approaching at speed.Copy !req
65. The green "spittle" is squirted onto
Bessie's windscreen with a bicycle pump.Copy !req
66. The large model fly survived the filming
and was found lying in a bin outside
the BBC later in the 1970s.Copy !req
67. It was refurbished by a BBC effects
designer, Mike Tucker, and now resides
in a private collection.Copy !req
68. This isn't Richard Franklin running
along the roof of RCA International.
It's stuntman Terry Walsh.Copy !req
69. Franklin was only used for the final
close-up, which required him to jump up
in the air and run away when he landed.Copy !req
70. Unfortunately, he ripped the seat of
his trousers as he landed.
Cue costume change and retake!Copy !req
71. After the story was completed,
Katy Manning took home
one of the maggots as a souvenir.Copy !req
72. Jon Pertwee also took a maggot
To give to his son, Sean.Copy !req
73. In 1978, Pertwee donated the maggot,
along with many other props
from his time,Copy !req
74. as a prize in a raffle being held by
the Doctor Who Appreciation SocietyCopy !req
75. in aid of Pertwee's charity,
the Grand Order of Water Rats.Copy !req
76. The maggot was won
by Larry Wauchop from Chicago.Copy !req
77. Larry recalled, "I had lots of fun
getting it through customs
and onto the plane!"Copy !req
78. Sadly, both the maggot and a Cyberman
helmet from 'The Tomb of the Cybermen'
(1967), went missingCopy !req
79. after being loaned for an exhibition
at the 1983 Spirit of Light Doctor Who
convention in America.Copy !req
80. The location filming for
'The Green Death'
attracted a lot of media attention.Copy !req
81. On Thursday 15 March, the slag heaps
were visited by the local BBC
news programme, Wales Today,Copy !req
82. who broadcast their report
on the filming the following day.Copy !req
83. The arrival of the film crew at Deri
was covered by the South Wales Echo
on 13 March,Copy !req
84. in an article entitled,
'Beasts in Bargoed pit? Who knows... 'Copy !req
85. whilst the Gwent Gazette ran the report,
'Wot! No tardis or Daleks
with Dr Who' on 23 March,Copy !req
86. along with a photo of Jon Pertwee
surrounded by schoolchildren
outside RCA.Copy !req
87. Here, BOSS alludes to Lady Bracknell
in Oscar Wilde's 1895 comedy,
The Importance of Being Earnest.Copy !req
88. She states: "To lose one parent may be
regarded as a misfortune;
to lose both looks like carelessness."Copy !req
89. BOSS's scripted line at this point was,
"Try to keep up your pecker,
my little superman..."Copy !req
90. It looks like they keep a keep a handy
stock of new barriers at
Global Chemicals!Copy !req
91. Throughout the story, the role of the
Chief Guard has been played, once again,
by Terry Walsh (1939-2002)Copy !req
92. As well as wearing his peaked cap
and pretending to be Mike Yates
jumping from a rooftop,Copy !req
93. Walsh also doubled for Jon Pertwee
during the fight sequence
with the guards in Episode 2,Copy !req
94. who were played by his fellow stuntmen,
Alan Chuntz and Billy Horrigan.Copy !req
95. Richard Wagner (1813-83)
Was a German composer and theatre
director, known mainly for his operas.Copy !req
96. His appropriation of Teutonic mythology
to create a German national epic,
and his anti-Semitic opinions,Copy !req
97. both appealed to Adolf Hitler:
Wagner became the music of choice
for the Nazi party.Copy !req
98. Despite being insistently associated
with German fascism, BOSS has somewhat
more eclectic musical tastes.Copy !req
99. He also refers here to Tchaikovsky's
anti-Naopleonic 1812 Overture (1880),Copy !req
100. and to Beethoven's Symphony No.9 (1824).Copy !req
101. The sound then stops completely,
but the guard remains frozen.Copy !req
102. Another tune from BOSS, this time the
opening motif from Beethoven's
Symphony No. 5 (1804),Copy !req
103. scripted to be sung as "Tantantara!
Tantantara! Tzing-boom!"Copy !req
104. BOSS's "juicy mixed metaphor"
reference to "Time's winged chariot"Copy !req
105. comes from Andrew Marvell's love poem,
'To His Coy Mistress' (c. 1651),
about the shortness of human life.Copy !req
106. One final piece of classical recital
coming up from BOSS now.Copy !req
107. This time, we get to hear the computer
singing the word "Connect"Copy !req
108. to the opening allegro from Bach's
Brandenburg Concerto No.3 in G major
(c.1721).Copy !req
109. This was part of a short two-story
repeat season, along with the
1975 story, 'Pyramids of Mars'.Copy !req
110. However, between 1971 and 1976,
the regular practice was not
to repeat complete stories,Copy !req
111. but instead to show one-off, re-edited
compilation versions of selected
adventures, usually once a year.Copy !req
112. In 1973, 'The Green Death'
was chosen to be boiled down
into a 90-minute version,Copy !req
113. to be broadcast on BBC-1 at 4 p.m.
On Thursday 27 December 1973,Copy !req
114. between Parts 2 and 3 of the opening
story of the 1973-4 series,
'The Time Warrior'.Copy !req
115. Episode 1 of the story lost around ten
minutes' worth of material in total.Copy !req
116. All of the first scene in the UNIT
laboratory was removed, along with
Cliff's initial examination of Hughes.Copy !req
117. Sizable chunks of Jo's first meeting
with Cliff and the Brigadier's visit
to Global Chemicals were removed, too.Copy !req
118. In Episode 2, various sections
of Jo and Bert's travels
through the mine went,Copy !req
119. but by far the biggest loss came with
the removal of the Doctor's
introduction to Professor JonesCopy !req
120. The third episode lost a number of
small sections from the Doctor
and Jo's escape from the mine,Copy !req
121. along with several sequences between
Elgin and Fell in the Pump Room.Copy !req
122. The Brigadier's telephone conversation
with the minister was heavily
re-edited and shortened.Copy !req
123. A lot of the early part of Episode 4
was absent from the compilation.Copy !req
124. No preparations were made to blow up
the mine, nor did the Brigadier
talk to the milkman.Copy !req
125. Much of the laboratory scene with
the Doctor and Cliff was cut down.Copy !req
126. Nancy's announcement that the mine
is going to be destroyed cuts directly
to the last seconds of the countdown,Copy !req
127. entirely losing the Doctor's meeting
with the Brigadier and most of his
subsequent visit to see Stevens,Copy !req
128. though a small amount of resequencing
did allow for the introduction
of Mike Yates.Copy !req
129. The cleaner didn't see the maggots
in the pipeline, and Elgin's discussion
with Stevens was removed.Copy !req
130. Jon Pertwee still camped it up as
the old milkman, but his cleaning-lady
drag routine was gone.Copy !req
131. Episode 5 lost the majority of
the Doctor's scenes
in BOSS's computer room,Copy !req
132. and several of the sequences of Jo
in the cave were edited together
into one.Copy !req
133. After the Doctor's escape from Global
Chemicals, a number of small
alterations were made:Copy !req
134. A whole range of scenes,
too numerous to specify,
were trimmed and reordered.Copy !req
135. In this final episode,
the opening sequence
with the chrysalis was trimmed downCopy !req
136. along with some of the shots
of Benton and the Doctor
killing the maggots.Copy !req
137. Barring a few seconds,
virtually all of Stevens's conversations
with BOSS were edited out,Copy !req
138. though the majority of
this scene was left intact.Copy !req
139. After this, the only removal
was a small section
of the Doctor's farewell to Jo,Copy !req
140. where the Doctor realises that
she's contacted her uncle to secure
funding for the Wholeweal community.Copy !req
141. The compilation secured a healthy rating
of 10.4 million viewers for its one
and only post-Christmas broadcast.Copy !req
142. But John Stirling, reviewing the repeat
in The Stage of 3 January 1974,
was less than complimentary.Copy !req
143. He complained that even though children
loved Doctor Who,
they deserved better.Copy !req
144. He thought the only decent performances
came from the maggots.Copy !req
145. The start of this scene
was trimmed in editing.Copy !req
146. "That's it, sir," says Yates,
looking at his watch. "Right, in we go,"
responds the Brigadier.Copy !req
147. "No, wait. Look!" shouts Yates,
as he sees the Doctor
running from the factory.Copy !req
148. Katy Manning had decided to leave
Doctor Who
at the end of the 1972-3 series,Copy !req
149. so the search was on to find a new
travelling companion
for the wandering Time Lord.Copy !req
150. After interviewing a large number
of actresses interested
in taking on the role,Copy !req
151. Barry Letts selected 29-year-old,
Somerset-born April Walker to play
the new role of Sarah Jane Smith.Copy !req
152. Her contract to play Sarah in all
five stories of the 1973-4 series
was signed on 14 March 1973,Copy !req
153. just as the location filming began
on the Ogilvie slag heaps
in South Wales.Copy !req
154. Jon Pertwee and April Walker had
previously worked together in the 1968
West End play, Oh, Clarence!Copy !req
155. But he thought that she was too tall
and too buxom
for the role of his companion.Copy !req
156. A week later, on 29 March,
April Walker's contract was cancelled,Copy !req
157. but the BBC paid her in full for the
26 episodes
she had committed to appear in.Copy !req
158. On the suggestion of Z Cars producer
Ron Craddock, Barry Letts auditioned
Elisabeth Sladen (1946-2011).Copy !req
159. Pertwee gave his wholehearted approval,Copy !req
160. and at the beginning of May,
Lis found herself performing her
first scenes in 'The Time Warrior'.Copy !req
161. This reference to Jo's uncle goes
right back to 'Terror of the Autons':Copy !req
162. She originally got her assignment
to UNITCopy !req
163. because "relatives in high places" had
"pulled some strings" on her behalf.Copy !req
164. This wouldn't be the last time that
Josephine Jones
Would cross the Doctor's path.Copy !req
165. She unknowingly instigates the events
of 'Planet of the Spiders',
by returning the blue crystal to him.Copy !req
166. She's in South America with Cliff,
in search of the toadstool,Copy !req
167. but the Indian porters object
to her gemstone's "bad magic",
so she has to send it back.Copy !req
168. There was no reprise from Katy Manning,
who was having a long West End run
in Why Not Stay for Breakfast?Copy !req
169. along with Santiago, one of the many
grandchildren from her
and Cliff's seven offspring.Copy !req
170. As soon as recording was completed on
'The Green Death',Copy !req
171. Barry Letts held his own celebratory
party for 70 people in the Bridge Lounge
at Television Centre.Copy !req
172. This marked Doctor Who's
tenth anniversary.Copy !req
173. The party music you can hear in the
background is a song called
'It'll Never Be Me' by Electric Banana,Copy !req
174. an alias used by the band The Pretty
Things for several library music tracks
they recorded during the 1960s.Copy !req
175. A twin-tape VHS release of the story
came in October 1996.Copy !req
176. In 2009, Underground Toys released a
5-inch model of Jon Pertwee's Doctor,
complete with three maggots!Copy !req
177. The final shot of the story was filmed
by the small second unit using a star
filter as the sun went down over Wales.Copy !req
178. Also appearing in this episode were:Copy !req
179. Leslie Bates, David BillaCopy !req
180. Pat Gorman,
Lyn MelleyCopy !req
181. Uncredited production
contributors included:Copy !req
182. Fred Wright, Terry Wild, Tommy DawsonCopy !req
183. John GormanCopy !req
184. James PinerCopy !req
185. Nick Rodger, Geoff VianCopy !req
186. Gerry BorrowsCopy !req
187. Gordon ThompsonCopy !req
188. Colin Mapson, Richard ConwayCopy !req
189. Peter GrangerCopy !req
190. Camera Crew TenCopy !req
191. Production subtitles
written by Richard BignellCopy !req
192. Yee-haw! God, life's good, isn't it?Copy !req
193. - What's going on?
- Are you all right, Jo?Copy !req
194. - Go on. Tell 'em.
- Cliff and I are going to get married.Copy !req
195. - Getting married?Copy !req
196. Well, that's marvellous.Copy !req
197. - Congratulations, Professor Jones.
- Oh, thank you.Copy !req
198. Professor Jones.Copy !req
199. - I'm sure he'll make you very happy.
- Thank you.Copy !req
200. - Well, Professor Jones...
- Thank you, Brigadier.Copy !req
201. I've got a wedding present for you.
It's a telex from Geneva,Copy !req
202. granting your place here official statusCopy !req
203. as a United Nations Priority One
Research Complex!Copy !req
204. - Oh, wow!Copy !req
205. Do you know what that means?
It means unlimited financial help.Copy !req
206. - Work for the valleys, aye.
- That's great.Copy !req
207. And food... food for all the world!Copy !req
208. Never mind, Mike. Let's have a drink.Copy !req
209. You got onto your uncle
at the United Nations, didn't you?Copy !req
210. It's only the second time
I've ever asked him for anything.Copy !req
211. Yes.Copy !req
212. Look where the first time got you.Copy !req
213. You don't mind, do you?Copy !req
214. Mind?Copy !req
215. He might even be able
to turn you into a scientist.Copy !req
216. Don't go too far away, will you?Copy !req
217. And if you do,
come back and see us sometimes.Copy !req
218. All right.Copy !req
219. - Save me a piece of wedding cake.
- Right.Copy !req
220. Ooh, I nearly forgot.Copy !req
221. Your wedding present.Copy !req
222. It's beautiful.Copy !req
223. Thank you, Doctor.Copy !req
224. Hey, Jo, come and drink a toast
to the happy couple, huh?Copy !req
225. - But that's us!
- Aye. So it is.Copy !req
226. Don't worry, Doctor,
I'll look after her.Copy !req
227. Hope you like it
very well. Well done.Copy !req
228. Quiet, everyone. Quiet, quiet a moment.Copy !req
229. Now... Well, here's to you both.Copy !req
230. Hear! Hear! Congratulations.Copy !req
231. ♪ For he's a jolly good fellowCopy !req