WATCH ALONG | CLASSIC DOCTOR WHO | 10x26 | The Green Death: Part 6

Azmat Mahmood

The Green Death is a great story exploring corporate greed and how they value profit over everything else. To them, pollution is a necessary side effect of progress, and they lie and tell the public that what's best for the company is also best for them. I also love how they explore the dangers of AI and what it's lack of empathy can lead to. The BOSS was programmed by humans to ensure company efficiency and maximum profit, everything it does is to fulfill its primary function. This extends to humans too, which it sees as cattle that's only purpose is to help in its cause for global efficiency and profit. It can't understand the damage it's causing and the moral/ethical issues of what it's doing because the humans that programmed it didn't allow for that. In their greed for money, they created a monster. These issues are sadly still very relevant today. This would be a great story if that's all there was to it, but it also has a brilliantly written and performed sub plot with Jo leaving the Doctor. The scenes where the Doctor clearly realizes he's lost her are heartbreaking, but you can also see him understand and slowly come to accept why Jo must now leave him over the course of the story. She's been travelling with the Doctor for a long time now and has learned a lot from him and the places she's visited. The Doctor has helped Jo to see what's important and what's worth fighting for and she now wants to use that knowledge to help her own planet instead of gallivanting around the universe with the Doctor. Fortunately, Jo found the perfect companion in Professor Jones to help in her cause. It's very telling that Jo's first scene with the professor mirrored her first scene with 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. In Jo's own words, professor Jones is a younger Doctor, in more ways than one. The final scene between the Doctor and Jo is very subtle but extremely emotional, it never fails to bring tears to my eyes. It's like a parent learning to let go of their child. It's not just Jo that was helped by the Doctor though, she helped the Doctor too. When they first met, the Doctor was quite rude and abrupt with Jo and most other people too, but over time she helped him to become a much kinder and more compassionate person. Perhaps she can help the professor in the same way? The Doctor losing the grounding influence of Jo must also play a part in his sadness. That final shot of the Doctor riding off into the sunset is one of the saddest and most poignant in the show's history. The Green Death is an excellent way to end the tenth anniversary season because it encapsulates everything that's great about Doctor Who.