Environmentalism, Capitalism, Exploitation, Survival

posted January 23rd 2023


The Green Death is generally considered to be one of the greatest episodes of the Third Doctor era, and for good reason. future green spaceship trying to get 'home' to earth but they could get there any time really, using fossil fuels to secretly power and feeding grubs the toxic byproduct to heat the colony. 'at what cost? you're so desperate for any scrap of energy to keep things going that you'll exploit living creatures' ecoutopia and fear, can there be perfection? 'there will always be necessary compromises' lou is arguing that she's doing the best you can with the resources you have - she is controlled by the ship ai 'the boss' which is refusing for them to go home bc earth is not yet perfect episode is arguing against capitalistic resource use. 'the goal of any company is to survive' - all the boss wants is profit at the end they go to a new planet to start a new world - hopeful but you can't help but wonder about endlessly repeating cycles https://www.jstor.org/stable/20718762

an image
an image

Episode List
Doctor Who (1963-89) 10.5 The Green Death
Ninth Doctor Adventures 3.1a Pioneers: The Green Gift
Footnotes