Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start...
Day 374: The Green Death, Episode Six
Dear diary,
There’s a commentary on the DVD for this episode which features Katy Manning and Russell T Davies discussing the departure of Jo Grant from the series. During this, Russell describes The Green Death as featuring ‘the first great, sad, departure’, and I think he’s right. He goes on to clarify that when you’re eight years old, and you’re watching the series through, and the Doctor’s companion leaves, it always feels sad - but that this is the first time the series really lives up to that feeling.
It’s hard to disagree with him. I’ve made plenty of notes for today’s episode, ranging from the giant fly attack, to the use of the fungus, to the realisation that - really - the BOSS storyline and the maggot storyline barely overlap, and while I’ve been interested in both separately, they don’t really gel that well together for me… but after those final few minutes, all I can think about is Jo leaving the Doctor. It hits you quite hard, and it’s not always the case when someone gives up their place in the TARDIS.
If we go back to the middle of October and Jo’s introduction (and doesn’t it feel like longer than that?), I said:
’Making less of a great first impression on me is Jo, I'm sorry to say… I found that the Doctor and Liz worked well together, and everything just clicked for me. Suddenly, I was dreading Season Eight, and the introduction of a companion who - as the Brigadier puts it in this episode - is simply there to pass the Doctor test tubes and tell him how wonderful he is.’
Well, suffice to say that all this time on, my opinion of Jo has been completely over-turned. I’ve grown to really love having her as a part of the series. A large part of that has been thanks to Katy Manning, who turns in such a beautiful performance in the part. In hindsight, I can even appreciate all the things in her first episode that I wasn’t all that keen on to begin with - they’ve become a part of the character, and as Katy herself points out in the commentary, we’ve watched Jo grow up and change over the course of three years.
After everything that she’s been through, I’m genuinely sad to see her go. I’ll even confess that there was a bit of welling up during those final moments where she and the Doctor say their goodbyes, and then he turns to leave while he thinks she’s not looking.
Part of the charm comes from the fact that it’s just as clearly Jon Pertwee and Katy Manning saying their goodbyes, too. You can hear their voices starting to go, and it’s not just good acting - it’s true emotions bleeding through to the surface. I love that he gives her the Metebilis crystal as a wedding present - a nice parting gift and the real pay-off to the ongoing joke.
That said, the marriage proposal comes somewhat out of nowhere, doesn’t it? Cliff tells the Doctor that they’ll be leaving for the Amazon just as soon as they’ve picked up supplies and gotten married! Even Jo seems somewhat shocked by the suggestion! I’m almost a bit put out by the abrupt nature of this - it’s the only bit of their relationship that I’ve not truly believed - but everything around it is so perfectly crafted that it would be churlish to grumble.
And then the Doctor is gone. Slipping off into the night, with a final shot of him driving away as the theme music sting quietly fades up and into the closing credits, another thing that we’ll be saying goodbye to in this episode (and - for some reason - being played upside down. Well, it’s nice to go out in style, isn’t it?)
It’s a good job that Sarah Jane is coming up next - one of the most popular companions of all time. Jo, and indeed Katy, is a hard act to follow, and anything less than perfect would be something of a let down. Her departure also signals another shift in the programme’s style, as we move into the final run for Jon Pertwee, and it’s all change once again…
And with huge apologies for the delay, we've now amended The Web of Fear Episode Five (Revisited) to contain the right text. All is explained in the entry!
