YMMV / Doctor Who S10 E5 "The Green Death"

• Harsher in Hindsight: It's rather sobering to hear people talk of reducing pollution and pivoting to more environmentally friendly forms of energy generators in 1973 when we know, fifty years later, that nations and corporations are no closer to divesting from fossil fuels and the world is considerably more hazardous as a result, and things are bound to get worse.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • The serial's stereotypical portrayal of the Welsh is hilariously ironic now that the revived series is made in Cardiff (to the point of becoming the Trope Namer for Aliens in Cardiff).
  • The Third Doctor's stint disguising himself as a cleaning lady is a bit humorous to look back on considering that the Thirteenth Doctor would actually end up being female (and as far from a janitorial position as possible).^note Furthermore, Russell T Davies stated that the reason why when the Thirteenth Doctor regenerated (back into being a male) her clothes burned away into a new set of clothes unlike in previous regenerations it was because he wanted to avoid crossdressing jokes.
• Ho Yay: There's an awful lot of homoeroticism between BOSS and Stevens (well, defining the gender of a non-humanoid AI is questionable, but BOSS has a masculine voice and is referred to as "he" by other people). A comedy featurette on the DVD, "Global Conspiracy?", played it up even further by showing them still alive and living together thirty odd years later.
• Inferred Holocaust: The Doctor is the only person seen running out of the Global Chemicals building before it explodes, leaving the viewer to wonder how many, if any of the company's employees other than Stevens died in the explosion. Surprisingly enough, considering that the Target novelizations would usually pull a No Endor Holocaust in this situation, this story's novelization shows the Doctor unsuccessfully trying to get the hypnotized employees to evacuate the building before it explodes, and confirms that the vast majority of Global Chemicals' staff did indeed die in the explosion.
• Retroactive Recognition: Dave is played by Talfryn Thomas, who would later be best known for playing Private Cheeseman in Dad's Army.
• Special Effects Failure: The infamous scene where Benton and the Doctor are "riding around" on Bessie with a cure for the maggot infestation. It is a clear-cut case of Driving a Desk. This is before you get to the giant fly that is clearly made of plastic. Mocked extensively during a DW 50th anniversary interview with Steven Moffat. What makes it worse is that CSO is used in several instances where it really shouldn't be necessary - such as a brief shot of Jo and the UNIT team standing around in a quarry with nothing in particular going on.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: The giant maggots were made on the cheap, out of condoms (and, according to Sean Pertwee, decayed ferret heads at the business end!), and are terrifyingly realistic thanks to some excellent puppetry, camerawork, set design and construction. They don't just look good for low-budget monsters, they look fantastic by any standards. The ingenuity involved is immense.

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