Doctor Who: Classic 10x5: "The Green Death" Parts 1-3 | Reaction!

[@whobp8]

Just a heads up, the character of Elgin just kind of disappears partway through this story, because the actor became ill with peritonitis and had to be hospitalized, he is replaced by another character who performs a similar story function. Stewart Bevan (Professor Jones) was Katy Manning's real life boyfriend at the time this was filmed. Bevan just recently passed away. A blodwen is a Welsh name for a type of flower. UNIT stories are supposed to be set slightly in the future of when the episode comes out, as a joke, the production team included the line about the Prime Minister being named Jeremy, implying that Liberal candidate Jeremy Thorpe would one day be Prime Minister, as it happens, Thorpe never was P.M.

[@ftumschk]

18:57 Blodwen is a Welsh girls' name meaning "white flower", from blod(yn) = flower and (g)wen = feminine form of "white". In this script, as often happens in real life, it's rendered "Blodwyn", which wrongly uses (g)wyn, the _masculine_ form of "white". This gender mix-up sometimes occurs with similar girls' names (e.g. "Bronwyn" should be "Bronwen"). Welsh purists like me tend to worry about such things :)

[@andrewbowman4611]

The Prime Minister called Jeremy was a bit of an in-joke, as it referred to Jeremy Thorpe, leader of the Liberal Party. Interestingly, Russell T Davies would later write a drama about a scandal he was later involved in, starring Hugh Grant as Thorpe and Ben Whishaw as Thorpe's secret lover. He's an interesting character to read about, quite honestly. For the record, he was never Prime Minister, nor was anyone else called Jeremy.

[@nicholasthornley9708]

As an animal lover, it's the dog I feel sorry for.

[@Mrazmatmahmood]

Did you notice that Jo's first scene with Professor Jones was very similar to how she first met the Doctor in Terror of the Autons? In both instances, she goes in uninvited into their labs while they're working, disturbs their peace, knocks things over and annoys them who then initially insult and patronize her. The Professor is a younger Doctor in more ways than one. This is a great story btw, I'll probably save more of what I want to say for next week.

[@deebeedaydreamer]

"How can you have an upside-down diamond?" - Terrance Dicks

[@ItsShaz1]

lol

[@josefschiltz2192]

Actually, Alex, I noticed the credits pattern of episode one was upside down as well! - back in 1973! You could call the goo a sludge! The actor Talfryn Thomas, who played the miner Dave who discovered the sabotage to the cage lift, was the hospital porter in 'Spearhead From Space', Jon's very first serial. He was also a regular in the later episodes of the comedy series, Dad's Army. The problem of where to deposit all the radioactive waste was central behind the theme of the Gerry Anderson series 'Space 1999', the repercussion of it's burial in monitored dumps on the moon, of course, is disaster. Sadly, on a sombre topic, the actor Stewart Bevan, who played Professor Jones here, passed away very recently. Katy Manning posted a very nice tribute to him. At the time of filming they were an engaged couple.

[@ItsShaz1]

“The Green Death” really is an interesting story featuring topics that are still relevant and talked about today.

[@RoundTheArchives]

'The Green Death' notes : Episode One: Viewing figures = 9.2 million. Chart position = 18. Episode Two: Viewing figures = 7.2 million. Chart position = 38. Episode Three: Viewing figures = 7.8 million. Chart position = 29. Working title : 'The Amoeboids'. Transmission dates : 19, 26 May, 2 June 1973. Studio sessions : April 1973. Studio : TC3. The initial idea for 'The Amoeboids' involved giant flying insects from space and the Royal Air Force, but these ambitious ideas were soon scaled down, thankfully! Stevens' first name of Jocelyn was inspired by the name of Robert Sloman's boss in the newspaper industry. The Prime Minister is meant to be Jeremy Thorpe of the Liberal Party, who was never PM in our universe. More info on him here : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Thorpe

[@garybryant1501]

The Amoeboids can't you get a cream for them 😁

[@seedhillbruisermusic7939]

I remember this so well as a wee kid in the early 70s. I was terrified of the giant maggots. I was only 7.

[@philward6582]

grass hoppers are nothing. In Australia we often get Huntsman spiders under the visors in the car. Huntsman spiders can be the size of your hand or bigger, Every now and then you will see a whole family on the roadside trying to het the spider out ..... and then there's snakes!

[@MuchWhittering]

Classic Companions in general tend to get pretty poor exits. There are some okay ones, but I can think of some that are dreadful. Nowhere near as well thought out as modern companions. The guy who played Cliff died fairly recently. Katy Manning shared some old pictures on Twitter. The Prime Minister in this episode being called Jeremy is a reference to then Liberal Democrat leader Jeremy Thorpe. They were jokingly suggesting that he might become PM in the near future, which never happened and was always pretty unlikely. Apparently they didn't wanna include Ted Heath to avoid offending him. Jeremy Corbyn was the Labour leader from 2015 to 2020, so you'll have heard about him in the last 2 General Elections, but he lost to Theresa May and Boris Johnson. 47:15 Wouldn't surprise me if Chibnall doesn't know who Salamander is. There are a few times he's tried to reference Classic Who but gotten a key detail about it wrong. I'm with you on the pronunciation of Ralph. The British pronunciation is stupid. 55:00 They actually did want Jo for The Five Doctors, but Katy Manning was living in Australia at the time.

[@AmyWarriorPrincess]

@MuchWhittering It's really sad that he passed. He was a real sweetheart, and I really liked him.

[@ftumschk]

50:50 Elgin shouldn't really be pronounced _El Gin_ ... which is, I believe, a Spanish spirit made with juniper berries ;) The name Elgin derives from the eponymous Scottish town, and is pronounced with a hard "g".

[@Nosregni]

If people can’t pronounce Elgin, they’ve really lost their marbles!

[@kemmdog4444]

The prime minister Jeremy", was a production joke referring to the then Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe.

[@JudgeJosephDredd1989]

The conversation you guys mention with how all the companions left the show you also forgot to mention Dodo who was under hypnosis by The War Machines then The First Doctor broke her out of it then we didn't see her again since and didn't have a goodbye scene she was just left in a country side and Sara Kingdom who only lasted in "The Daleks' Master Plan" aged to death by the Time Destructor.

[@kemmdog4444]

The closeup maggots were made from air or water filled condoms and the ones with teeth were ferret skulls.

[@brucesimmons5517]

That's terrifying.

[@kierenevans2521]

17:20 Dai is the welsh version of Dave 21:03 At least this goo is artificial rather than 'natural'. This story was the one chosen for the 1973 Omnibus repeat. Sadly, this version doesn't exist and they didn't recreate it for the blu-ray like they did for The Daemons.

[@bananasaregood8655]

One of my favourite pertwee stories! Stewart bevan who played prof jones died recently unfortunately, at the time of filming this story he and katy manning were actually going out. Love how the scene of them meeting for the first time mirrors her first meeting with the doctor, being clumsy and ruining his experiment, shows how far jo had come by this point. The doctor went back to metabelis 3 and got another blue crystal in ‘hide’ the matt smith story from series 7. Which episodes did you react to this past saturday? The time warrior?

[@7thHourFilms]

Yes, it was The Time Warrior. I do not remember Metebelis 3 in Hide. I'll have to go rewatch that.

[@bananasaregood8655]

@@7thHourFilms nice, thats one of my top 3 pertwee stories aswel, looking forward to you’re thoughts on it. Its quite a forgettable matt smith story imo, and you dont see him go to metabelis 3, he just comes back with a crystal from there cus they amplify mental abilities. Even tho the time warrior was the first story of season 11 it was actually filmed at the end of season 10. So in the next story ‘invasion of the dinosaurs’ you might notice sarah’s hair is much shorter and pertwee’s is bigger, thats cus they had the usual few month between season break in filming the time warrior and dinosaurs

[@sirsamfay99]

The Prime Minister referred to as Jeremy must be Jeremy Thorpe who was leader of the Liberal party in the UK from 1967 to 1976. He was very popular with the public and had he been leader of either Conservative or Labour ,he would certainly have been Prime Minister. Thorpe was bisexual and had a secret homosexual affair with one Norman Scott. When Thorpe wanted to end the affair in the late 1970s Scott began to blackmail him. Thorpe arranged a hit man to take Scott out while walking his dog at Porlock Hill in Devon. When the hit man leaped out of the bushes ,he got frightened and shot Scott's dog instead. The ensuing court drama had the country in a frenzy ,although Thorpe was cleared of all charges ,his political collapse was spectacular. Not only was he thrown out of the Liberal party ,he was barred from any consideration being admitted into the House of Lords which he so desperately craved. He became an outsider and loner ,he died in 2014.

[@nicholasthornley9708]

I don't care that Thorpe was cleared of all charges, he was as guilty as sin and everybody knows it.

[@sirsamfay99]

@@nicholasthornley9708 I agree that is why no institution would be involved with him and everyone he approached shunned him.

[@Tyrconnell]

I'll just point out that he was not thrown out of the Liberal Party. He was honorary president of his local party association from 1987 and got a standing ovation at the 1997 party conference.

[@nicholasthornley9708]

@@Tyrconnell The establishment closed ranks and protected Thorpe until the bitter end, it was the same with Cyril Smith.

[@RubesGoodBrainCoffee]

45:53 -- I'll have a Heath sandwich on Wilson, please.

[@CaptainNemo1701]

Classic story, re-worked a bit for 'Arachnids in the UK'. Some set parts from Gerry Andersons 'UFO' series pop up in this story.

[@mark-s]

Coming up too another favourite story after this one with invasion of the dinosaurs

[@barriehull7076]

Ralph (pronounced /rælf/ RALF; or /reɪf/ RAYF,[1]) is a male given name of English, Scottish and Irish origin, derived from the Old English Rædwulf and Radulf, cognate with the Old Norse Raðulfr (rað "counsel" and ulfr "wolf").[2]

[@alexthehunted]

the hell the doctor goes through on metebelis 3 remeber he wanted to take jo there

[@ItsShaz1]

lol

[@alexthehunted]

i think RTD has said about doctor who cannon "every story is true every thing happened"

[@flaggerify]

You are fun guys.

[@glenmcculla6843]

Maggots Versus Werewolves when?

[@alexthehunted]

green death one of my favourites for the 3rd doctor and would you look at that it's a political story to which doctor who never is apparently

[@JudgeJosephDredd1989]

I personally enjoyed Orphan 55 it was a decent enough episode but that's just me. Speaking of continuity with Doctor Who there is no real continuity in Doctor Who.