Commentary Highlights: You’d have to go a long way to beat Barry Letts’s attempts to explain the life cycle of the fly to Katy Manning, although when she wells up at the very end it’s a reminder of just how special that era of Who still is thirty years on.

I Didn’t Know That Before I Read The Information Text: Robert Sloman’s script suggested that the opening shots of the coalmine should have a radiophonic version of Sospan Fach. Personally (although slightly anachronistically) I would have preferred Gladys Pugh announcing "Good morning campers. This afternoon at two o’clock in the Olympic size coal mine we have Doctor Who and some maggots. Hi-de-Hi!". They could even have brought Vorg back for a return appearance.

Extras:

Global Conspiracy! - An affectionate spoof documentary by and starring Mark Gatiss

Visual Effects - Colin Mapson demonstrates how to make a maggot using ordinary items found in any home- plastic tubing, upholstery foam, cling film and a small dog.

Robert Sloman- A short interview in which the late writer discussed his inspirations and aims for the story.

Stewart Bevan- A similarly short interview with the Professor himself.

Photo Gallery- Another generous and well-researched collection, including some Frank Bellamy artwork and the photos taken of Manning and Bevan for the Tenth Anniversary Special.

The original VHS release of ‘The Green Death’ was of course issued in 1996 and branded as a tribute to Jon Pertwee, so it may have seemed to some like a slightly strange decision to bring it out so comparatively early in the DVD range. Or perhaps- given that it’s one of the select band of Pertwee stories to exist in their original format, and that there seems to have been a televisual generation which was traumatised by the giant maggots- it came out rather later in the VHS range than it deserved. Either way, the release clearly needed a slightly different approach, as there simply isn’t the additional contemporary material which seems to exist for a number of stories from about 1975 onwards. There’s also the small matter of two of the main characters being well-known exes, which rather puts the mockers on any kind of mass reunion.

What we have, however, is a release which does very well with the limitations thrust upon it- to begin with, we have Barry Letts, Katy Manning and Terrance Dicks providing an entertaining commentary which never really flags, mainly due to the personalities involved. While Letts retains a lot of the idealism which led to the story being made in the first place, he’s also a very honest critic of the production’s inadequacies and cringes at some of the more limited special effects. Coupled with Manning’s affection and enthusiasm, and Dicks’s unreconstructed pragmatism, it makes for an entertaining exchange of viewpoints. Robert Sloman turns out to be softly-spoken and reflective, and it’s to be hoped that the short segment on this DVD was part of a longer interview and other contributions are going to pop up elsewhere, while Stewart Bevan’s slightly wistful interview gives the impression that while he enjoyed the acting opportunities that playing Professor Jones afforded him, it didn’t kickstart his career in the way that it might have done.

Whereas one of the strengths of ‘Oh Mummy!’ on the release of ‘Pyramids of Mars’ was the way in which it used Gabriel Woolf’s vocal talents and played on the familiarity of much of the script, ‘Global Conspiracy!’ tries to repeat the trick and largely succeeds, because of two main factors. Firstly there’s the involvement of several members of the original cast- neither Jerome Willis, Tony Adams nor Roy Evans are involved in any of the production featurettes, and I think it makes it all the more of a pleasant surprise when Evans turns up as Bert’s ballet-dancing brother, or when Willis slips effortlessly back into the role of Stevens after thirty years. And secondly, while the segment pokes fun at some of the aspects of ‘The Green Death’, being written and produced by (and starring) Mark Gatiss, there’s an elementary affection and respect for the source material which shines through. So all in all, the disc overcomes the limitations of an apparent paucity of additional material and gives as good an account of ‘The Green Death’ as we’re likely to get- an insight into an age when making Doctor Who in Wales was a strange novelty.