I didn't like this episode. It seemed silly to me. Especially the ridiculous monster that came after Mel in the pool. I've seen kitchen sponges that were more frightening.

I could see what the scriptwriter was trying to do but the story's too long and played as almost a parody, very plastic-looking. I tried watching it again a while back and couldn't get past the first episode.

I liked this episode; I've always enjoyed stories about groups of people who have almost nothing in common putting aside their differences to defeat a common enemy.

I do have to wonder about Kroagnon's motivation, though. It's been a while since I saw this, but did he never really intend for people to live in Paradise Towers in the first place? Was the place only designed to satisfy his own ego?

Anyway, the story was certainly offbeat; Tilda and Tabby have apparently been reading Androgum recipe books (but I must admit, the first time I saw this, I was almost just as taken in by them as Mel--they seemed so innocent that the sinister subtext almost seemed like the product of a runaway imagination. On repeat viewings, I've come to greater appreciate the black humor involved). The Caretakers are law officials rendered useless by bureaucracy, a fine new twist on your typical bungling DW police/guards/etcetera.

Kroagnon was a not so subtle version of the egotistical architect, as portrayed in Ayn Rand's novel The Fountainhead, and in real life by Frank Lloyd Wright, Philip Johnson and others. Rand's architect hero blew up his building after the facade design was altered against his wishes. Frank Lloyd Wright used to brush off complaints about his building; my favorite is his reply to someone who said Wright's house leaked: "That's what happens when you leave a work of art out in the rain."

This is one my favourites. Science Fiction doesn't usually deal with linquistics of the future. The only other story I can remember dealing with it was A Clockwork Orange, also about a bunch of maniac kids speaking a dialect of their own.
And Architect as Artist was great. Few artists, I suspect, would like their masterpieces to be mucked up by a bunch of philistines. Kroagnon was totally believable to me in that respect.
The two old ladies eating people is perfectly logical due the lack of farming done in buildings. Though it doesn't explain how they, or anybody else in the building, managed to last as long as they did without food being brought in.
The maintence bots, however, were never believable to me, but DrWho never was a show with a budget for great special effects, and perhaps is a reason why I like it so much. Less FX, more story. It is interesting to note how similar the robots of Paradise Towers resembles those of Hartnell's The War Machines.

According to the US tome 'A Critical History of Doctor Who on Television', this story was rated in the top twenty best serials. According to DWM, the author of this colossal work is much more concerned with themes and originality and much less about looks. My love for Paradise Towers has been expressed in other postings/rants, so I'll say n'more.

Oh, you silly sod, you didn't actually pay for that thing did you?!?!?!

ObParadiseTowers: Nice script, McCoy puts in a good performance, apart from that the rest of the production is a load of old cack.

As a matter of fact, (adopts cool stance most un-sod-like), I did not. I read the review in this month's DWM. I mean, come on!

There are three terrible nits in this vastly underrated story: (No pun intended)
1) The waste disposal unit killings 2) The usefulness of throwing over the cleaner's 'eyes' see-through drapes 3) The big yellow robot hiding in a pool of clear water.

My theory is that if this story had been screened during Season 25 or 26, it'd be better recieved. As it is, it's enmeshed for eternity between Time and the Rani and Delta and the Bannermen and is swiftly dismissed as a result with glib put-downs along the lines of it being 'a load of old cack.'

I think it may have worked better as a two-parter.

Phew.

At least it would have been over quicker that way.

If the place had a Hispanic servant, they could've called it "Fawlty Towers"

I've been thinking about the this excellent story and came to some surprising conclusions, which I like to share.

The Rezzies'Canibalism. This has never felt right to me. Too much like a Warner Brother's cartoon where Bugs Bunny is the only source of food and when captured is put into this HUGE pot and the hunters start dicing carrots and potatoes to flavor the rabbit stew. If they were so hungry why not just eat the carrots and potatoes. The Rezzies obviously are not going hungry if they can afford to fatten up Mel (good luck, there, she looked positively anerexic) with chocolate chip cookies. Which force me to decide they are cannibals by choice, as if they like the flavor of human flesh, OR they have so much flour, sugar, shortening and chocolate they are forced to eat human flesh due to lack of protein and vitamins in a chocolate chip cookie diet. The argument against the latter is that the security guards, the Kangs, and Pex aren't malnourished in any way, and are apparently not cannibals.

Unless soylent green is made from dead Kangs...

Some say the best moment is when Pex dies, which shows an interesting aspect of our culture. There seems to be a pro war message, here

Pex is considered a coward because he made a very intelligent decision not to get killed in a war. Unfortunately, society dictates that all able bodied males of a young age during wartime must kill or be killed. Pex is filled with guilt by his decision and is tormented by the Kangs for his cowardice rather than praising his intelligence. This must have been traumatic for Pex, because he is young and in dire need of a girlfriend. The Kangs, before Mel came along, were the only girls his age available. Dating older women like the Rezzies is hazardous at best. But the Kangs give the security guards more respect, even though they somehow manage to avoid the war, themselves. But they wear a uniform and are the natural enemy of the Kangs. Towards the end Pex decides to become the hero, with the obvious result of him being killed. Though he is made an honorary member of the Kangs, posthumously.

I can only assume that there is an antimasculinist message in all this. Women, quite correctly, decided they were not going to be barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen, but us men are still forced to fight against our better natures. Rise with me my brothers, bang a drum, and fight against the breadwinner, macho fighter, dead war hero stereotypes and break our bonds of oppression!


Or am I just being a bit silly.

I thought the thing with Pex was that it was about him facing his fear - the hardest thing in life to do.

There, there, Luiner, I'm sure it's not really an anti-male conspiracy. Pex is being picked on by the Kangs because he's _different_ - making him an irresistable target for any bully. OK, I'm splitting hairs because it's the fact he's the wrong sex that makes him different - but as you say, the Kangs don't attack the Caretakers for being men. Also, all that macho posturing would get on anyone's nerves. If Pex had just had the guts to say 'I didn't want to get fried in some pointless war' or to develop a sudden interest in Mahatma Gandhi, fair enough - but no, he had to pretend to be a hero.

Anyway, it's not just the men who died in this mysterious war. I got the impression that all the adults (bar the Caretakers) went to war, leaving only the old people (i.e. the Rezzies, who just happened to be female because we have longer life expectancies), and the underage (i.e. lots of little girls who grew up to be Kangs). I don't know what happened to the really small children (eaten by the Rezzies?), or why all the Kangs were female (maybe males were conscipted at a younger age?) but let me assure you that all able-bodied adult women fought in that war. Unlike the men, who wriggled out of it by claiming that being Caretakers on Paradise Towers was obviously SO much more important to the future of the race.

Good point about the Rezzies. It doesn't bode well for the future of Paradise Towers that they were obviously just murdering and eating people for the fun of it.

By the way, does anyone know how long it's been since people moved in?

Pex had to face the fear of DEATH. I don't know about you, but I rather not have to face that one. Being non religious means that I have nothing to look forward to after I die. No thanks, man. Think I will postpone that one as long as I can.

The thing is, Emily, the pseudo macho posturing was his vain attempt to attract the attentions of the Kangs in his search for a girlfriend and eventual meaningful relationship. However, both Pex and the Kangs are shaped by their society, and girls don't go out with cowards (as he is labeled rather than draft dodger) in this particular society. The Kangs treat the Caretakers (also draft dodgers) with more respect because they are a genuine threat to them, whereas Pex, potential boyfriend, is obviosly not a threat. Come to think of it, neither the males or females in this society are getting fair treatment by the writers.

But thanks to the DEATH of Pex (his reward for facing his fear) and the destruction of Kroagnon, the Kangs and the Caretakers are free to intermingle and start a new generation of Paradise Towers residents. Just don't let a Rezzie babysit any of the new babies. Not even a reformed Rezzie (I am trustworthy, I hardly ate a morsel of human flesh, I chewed a little but I didn't swallow).

I do wonder what happen to all the women older than the Kangs and younger than the Rezzies. I have to say that were drafted as well, when all the young men ran out. Old guys run a war, after all. They think it is glorious to send young people to their death. After all, history records their exploits. Nobody knows about private what his (or her)name, but it seems everyone has heard of Montgomery, Eisenhower, Stalin, Hitler, etc.etc. That is why there are no old guys in the Towers. They are running the war, and rapidly losing troops, if the Towers represents the non fighting demographic.

By the ages of the residents, I suspect the war has been going on for at least fifteen years. The Rezzies are menopausal and Kangs look at least fifteen years old, which is on the cusp of child bearing age. This is why there are no young children present.

Thought of something else after the last post. Where is all the young males? The Kangs are there but there is no male opposite. I can only think that the country Paradise Towers is in is losing the war. There is historical precedent for this. Germany when they were losing WW2 and Iran during the final years of Iran - Iraq war. Both countries were running out of men (women in both cases were not expected to fight). So they drafted young boys as young as ten to carry rifles and act as cannon fodder in the front lines so the more experienced and older soldiers can survive. The caretakers may have had a role in this by grabbing any young boy they could find and send them to the front. It would be only a matter of time when they start sending Kangs. This could explain the animosity between the Caretakers and the Kangs. That and the fact the Caretakers also have a sexual drive. What does happen when a Kang is captured by the Caretakers? I shudder to explore this area of thought.

I don't think it was just a fear of death he had to face, it was a fear of his own cowardice - think of a kid who is bullied in the schoolyard. It's tough to stand up to them when you know you you're meek.

The Kangs in this story looked like they were quite capable of bearing children. I would say that 15 isn't the cusp of child-bearing - many 13 and 14-year-olds, even girls aged 12, become pregnant.

Too true, Chris, but I was being idealistic. While it happens that children as young as twelve or even younger get pregnant all the time, I just don't like the idea. But it is an imperfect world. Besides, in the Dr.Who universe, the age of an actress (or actor) bears no relationship to the age of the character. Most of the Kangs looked to be in their twenties, but I got the impression they were played as teenagers.

I guess my problem with the fear of cowardice is the fine line between cowardice and survival instinct. True, bullies can be a problem to kids who intectually know they aren't going to get killed, but they react as though they would. The only way out of that is to understand that though you can get hurt fighting a bully, if you get a few painful licks against him, he probably won't mess with you, again. Make the bully understand you are more trouble than it is worth and make him pick on someone else. But Pex does have a reason to believe he will be killed, thus I chalk it up to plain survival instinct as opposed to cowardice.

Luiner, I thought the Kangs were in their twenties and were just acting childishly because they hadn't had a proper upbringing, but now you mention it I bet they _were_ supposed to be teenagers. In which case, people would have moved into Paradise Towers a lot more recently than 15 years ago, because the Caretakers were appointed as _Caretakers_ (complete with rule-book) rather than nappy changers. Though I suppose some cretin might have assumed the Rezzies would be suitable to rear the brats.

I'm sure that the Caretakers weren't raping Kangs - there's no deep hatred between the two sides, and no Rezzie-style apology. Neither do I think the Caretakers were press-ganging people to send to the front - Pex would have been the first to go. I got the impression that contact between the home planet (or country, or whatever) and Paradise Towers was completely cut off - one of the Rezzies said something about not knowing what had happened to everyone.

I shudder to think of a new generation of Paradise Towersers being bred from Kangs and Caretakers. Maybe the Doctor would have done better to let Kroagnon win.

According to the In-Vision series of booklets about the making of the series, the issue pertaining to Paradise Towers conjectured that the war started with an alien race while the Kangs are still in preteens (generally around 8 - 10 years old). I don't know the reputation of these books/magazines whatever as far as accuracy, but the particular bit was clearly fictional to explain the prehistory of the story. Doesn't explain why the Kangs are all girls, though.

As far as outside contact, I have been rethinking that, lately. Perhaps outside radiation is too high to leave the Towers.

Kangs and Caretakers have to breed if they are to survive as they are the only people that can do that sort of thing. Be interesting how that will work out, what with the Kangs apparently outnumbering the Caretakers. Never mind the fact the Kangs are the more agressive partners. The Caretakers are by far the weaker of the two groups, stuck with following the rules blindly.

According to Lance Parkin's 'History of the Universe' the war in question is the Thousand-Day War between Earth and Mars.

I am trying to remember, was PT set on Earth? I don't recall any explicit reference to it. It would be interesting if the entire future of the human race depended on the welfare of the Kangs and Caretakers.

Just don't let the Rezzies babysit the new kids.

Assuming that the Kang's were left to their own devices 8-10 years into their lives: how would this explain their ignorance of the vending machine? I know it's a small observation, but wouldn't they be just a bit more intelligent?

Also, where in relation to the rest of the planet is Paradise Towers situated? Surely there'd be some 'outside' to interact with it in some way. How closed off and left to its own devices is this place? If there are other tower blocks/settlements nearby, then wouldn't it be logical for the caretakers to operate under some kind of government?

What if the "outside" had been completely destroyed?

I'm not very religious; I'm not a regular church-goer or anything, but I at least like to believe that there is something that could, for lack of a better term, be called an afterlife. Just the same, I'm in no hurry to find out what it's like. And it was clear to me Pex wasn't, either. I can easily understand why Pex did not wish to fight in the war.

As for the Rezzies, it's unclear what their motives for cannibalism were. I don't think Tilda and Tabby were doing it due to lack of food (though I suppose it's possible there was a shortage sometime in the past, and even after said shortage was over, they continued eating human flesh because they'd become addicted to it). And I kind of got the impression, from what Maddy says later in the story, that they were the only two Rezzies who ate their visitors. Of course, they were the 'bad apples that spoil the whole bunch', leading to the line 'Rezzies are full of untruths -- and Kangs'. Maddy refers to them as 'the worst', and it seems that with Tilda and Tabby out of the picture, the Kangs won't have to worry about the Rezzies anymore.

I don't really buy that argument about Maddy. Even if she didn't approve of the other Rezzies eating people, she certainly did nothing to stop it.

It reminds me too much of the Germans after WW2. It seems to be the belief that most Germans were unaware of what happened to the Jews. One day they are around, the next day they were gone. End of story. The truth is that all Germans knew what happened, but did nothing to stop it. It's not like it was classified or something. To run such a large organization to exterminate 6 million Jews and other undesirables, required a lot of people. Just by word of mouth, everybody would've known. By doing nothing, they were just as guilty as those who actively participated.

Today, the Serbs are denying they knew about about the atrocities in Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo. How could they not know? A significient chunk of their population were involved.

Nah, I have no sympathy for any of the Rezzies. Maddy knew. She did nothing. That makes her just as guilty as the cannibals. And I don't buy into her story that she wasn't one of them.

I wouldn't say doing nothing makes you just as guilty as the murderers. Every £12 we don't send to the Third World deprives a blind person of a cataract operation that would restore their sight. That does NOT make us as bad as people who deliberately go round poking people's eyes out.

Plus there's the fact that the vast majority of Germans - or Serbs, or whatever - knew that they'd very likely get tortured to death themselves if they tried to do anything about it. That doesn't make them all genocidal maniacs, it makes them human cowards. Though personally I think I would rather die than go on living in a situation like that (it's just the torture bit I don't fancy). The fact that the Serbs recently had a democracy revolution tends to suggest that most of them were always on the side of truth and freedom and not-genociding-your-neighbours, it just took them a decade to work up the courage to say so.

And what could Maddy have DONE? If she'd tried a polite protest (or putting up 'WATCH OUT FOR THE CANNIBALS' signs in case idiots like Mel came along), she'd have ended up in the pot herself. She could have tried running off and joining the Kangs or the Caretakers, but I very much doubt they'd have had her. So if she'd wanted to put a stop to the cannibalism the only way she could have done it was to murder all her fellow little old ladies. (And then, given the food shortages, she should have eaten them herself rather than waste all that meat.) If murder is the answer, then all those Kang gangs should have done it themselves, as presumably they're the ones getting eaten, rather than leave it to one Rezzie lady to sort out all the problems.

I didn't make my point very clear, I guess. The reasons the Germans did nothing about the Jewish extermination wasn't because they were cowards, it was because they were an anti semitic people at the time. Many may have thought it was distasteful the way it was done. Certainly some believe it to be wrong. But most of them condone it. The anti semitism can't be blamed on Hitler and the Nazi's, either, they just took advantage of common public opinion. Remember, Hitler was democratically elected by a populace that knew full well his anti Jewish views.

It wasn't until after the war and the reeducation of the German people by the Allies (at least in West Germany) that they realized their shame and guilt of what they had done.

As far as the Serbians, I don't think they were all that concerned about truth and freedom and the conflicts in Bosnia and Kosovo as it was that their economy was in ruins and Milosevic singlehandedly destroyed Yugoslavia. They were tired of losing.

I suspected that Maddy fully participated in the cannibalism of the rezzies. When she realized that the Kangs and the Caretakers joined up her gig was over and defected to the winning side with her lies about being a good rezzie and not a cannibal.

That's a pretty blanket statement about 1940's Germans, Luiner, but I think I know what you're trying to say. Also, Hitler was not elected my a majority of the people; the Reichstag was composed of many parties, and Hitler's was the largest.

As the saying goes, "For evil to triumph, good men (and women) need to do nothing." I think the whole point of Doctor Who is that one person can fight the power and succeed.

That blanket statement was intentional because I believe it to be so. I have a German family who lived through that war, and nothing they have said has convinced me otherwise. I believe Kurt Vonnegut was right when he had one of his characters state that the entire nation had gone insane.

Hitler didn't get more than 50% of the vote. But by the rules of their parliamentary government, he won the election by having the most votes against the other parties. That is a majority. If you recall, George Bush didn't win the popular vote (having less than Al Gore) but was still elected president. In our system his win was legitamate. Just as Hitler's win in that system. And Hitler had the advantage of building a coalition government with other parties, which is nearly impossible in the US. In many ways, Hitler was more democratically elected than our own current President.

As far as the saying of "for evil to triumph, good men (and women) need to do nothing", sure that is true. I don't deny it. But what I accuse the then German people is that they wanted to do nothing, because they thought that was right.

Just saw PT on BBC Prime today.

We know nothing about the war.. that's the bad thing of the episode! Why don't we find out anything about it?

The 'architect' in the last part did not look threatening, just silly. The yellow robot in the pool was plastic, period.

I agree, some background info about the war would have added a bit of depth and interest to what is very obviously four episodes of corridor-running, but on the other hand...maybe everyone's complete ignorance of the war is the point - maybe there wasn't a war at all, and it's a Full Circle-style situation where people are trapped in their building/spaceship for all eternity because their leaders are feeding them lies and they can't be bothered to notice.

I don't pretend to know what the average German was thinking during WWII, but I do know that if I were living in Germany during that time, I sure as hell wouldn't raise a voice against the mass killings (and I'd also point out here that fully half of those exterminated weren't Jews). It's not that I approve of Hitler's policies, tacitly or otherwise, it's only that I don't want to join the victims. Saying "that's wrong" wouldn't have helped them; it would only have punished me. Now, had I the support of the popular press or demonstrators in the street, that might have been different, but a lone voice in the wilderness? No way. Put me in with the Pexs of this world (only without all that posturing).

Oh, I did actually have one nit for what amounted to nothing more than a corridor-running story. The cleaner robots: why were they called "cleaners"? Bit hard to tidy up with a big drill and metal pincers. Seems they were designed as killers right from the start (Hitler would approve, no doubt).

I guess the drills and pincers were for those stubborn stains that wouldn't come out.;-)

I just assumed the Great Architect had modified them to become killing machines.

So we mere mortals just use scrubbing bubbles?

I don't know the exact percentage of those killed during the Third Reich, so I can't argue against it, but the Jews were singled out. Homosexuals, Gypsies, Slavs, and Communists were also killed, but Hitler based his whole policy that Jews were bad and he was doing the world a favour by getting rid of them. The Germans were all for that. Hence the increased intensity of killing them when it was obvious that Germany was going to lose the war.

The average German was all for this. The anti semitism was already there. Hitler took advantage of it.

True to some extent, Luiner, but keep in mind that the average person in the 1920's was probably anti-Semitic, too. Racism was widespread at the time, and many prominent non-Germans (Henry Ford, the Duke of Windsor, etc.) didn't really care what happened to the Jews.

Hitler's policy was that all non-Germans were bad (Jews moreso). I suspect that, if Germany had had a significant Black population, he would have rounded them up as well.

Well, a lot of people don't realise that the concentration camps weren't JUST for Jews, they just happened to be in the largest numbers. Hitler also had jehovah's witnesses, homosexuals and cripples rounded up.

Not to mention the Rom (Gypsies).

oh yeah, forgot about them.

Then there are the Germans who died outside of the concentration camps. Many were denied treatment for various medical conditions such as juvenile diabetes because allowing those to reach adulthood and reproduce will infect the 'Aryan' genepool with weak genes.

Have a look at the caretakers in the last five minutes of episode four. Look at them standing in a row in a background. Then look at the one on the end, on the right. Does anyone else think it's a girl, dressed as a caretaker, with a horrible fake beard on? You can also see him/her in the background as the Doctor is saying his farewells.

Has anybody else noticed that some of the Kang's dialogue ("Ice-hot!", at least), is taken from Alan Moore's 2000AD classic, The Ballad of Halo Jones? Just another bizarre link between "Who" and Mr Moore's works, which I'm sure Dirk Gently would take to be extremely significant.

No, he would be investigating the relationship between "Who" & "Hitch Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy" over "The Krikettmen Incident" !
Besides would'nt the Kang's be chucking "Aum Grenades" at each other...?

Andrew Cartmel reputedly made all prospective 'Doctor Who' writers read 'The Ballad of Halo Jones' to give them a sense of what he was looking for (though I don't think there's a Doctor Who story from this period that shows any major influence).

If I recall correctly, 'Paradise Towers' had been commissioned by JNT before Cartmel joined the series, so I don't think the broad sweep of the story could have been influenced by Alan Moore. The attempt to build up a detailed fictional backdrop for the story does look like a Halo-related technique though.

JNT commissioned Time And The Rani, Cartmel commissioned Paradise Towers - Cartmel indicated he had lots of trouble with Pip and Jane Baker because they didn't share his vision for Doctor Who.

The author Stephen Wyatt cited JG Ballard's High Rise (think that's it) as a major influence; he also talked about the council flats he visited where all the kids would go into the lifts, pressed all the buttons, and the lifts would continually go up and down by themselves all day.

I don't have the specifics of the commission to hand but I'm fairly sure that Cartmel has said that Wyatt was aboard before he joined.

I'm going on memory from interviews with both Wyatt and Cartmel in Doctor Who Magazine - I'll go back and check.

Mind you, some elements of this story, do remind me of the Judge Dredd comic strip !
One could argue that Kroganon's modelled on F.Lloyd Mazny, with regards to his block design's !

So the Kangs spend years running round fighting each other with crossbows and guns...and no-one gets killed? That's...fortunate. I don't think much of The Space Age, but it DID give an accurate portrayal of how bloody difficult it is for two rival gangs to NOT kill each other, even when they're trying to be nice (which the Kangs certainly are not).

That rulebook looks very thin, all things considered.

Despite appearances to the contrary, those Caretakers must be very efficient indeed. The Ressies get a new door extraordinarily quickly after Pex kicks the first one in.

A Caretaker touches the frame of the door he's just burned through - and suffers no ill-effects. Maybe they've discovered a cool way of burning through doors. Unlike in Androzani, Planet of Daleks, etc.

God, Mel is ghastly. She has hysterics just at being in the basement. She gets embarrassingly overexcited at the sight of a very ordinary-looking swimming pool. And her sense of danger is extremely underdeveloped for a Companion, persisting in thinking the Ressies were joking when they really weren't.

So Kroagnon's wiped out the entire population of Miracle City but gets commissioned to build Paradise Towers? I know the universe is a big place but that's ridiculous. The Kangs' parents must have heard of SOME of his achievements or they wouldn't have commissioned him in the first place. Miracle City is on their promotion CD, for heaven's sake! Couldn't they have done an Internet search, or something? And then when they discover he's a mass murderer, they imprison his brain in the basement of his own building. Who do they think they are - Osirans? Just kill the bloke, why don't you?

'We know so little about Kroagnon's plans' says the Doctor (er...to kill everyone?) 'We have no time to come up with a counterplan' (again, it's quite simple. Killing Kroagnon seems to work pretty well).

How do the Ressies know that everyone's congregated round the swimming pool?

So the Kangs can destroy the cleaners with a single crossbow bolt! Such a pity (especially for the Yellow Kangs) that they never thought of that before.

Why doesn't the Doctor get everyone out via the TARDIS, or, better still, the front door? LET Kroagnon have his wretched Towers, it's not like they're a desirable residence any more. And the Kangs, Ressies, and Caretakers might have a future outside, which (bar unthinkable Kang/Caretaker breeding) they don't inside. (Rather like in Keeper of Traken, the Doctor's 'saving' of everyone turns out to have a rather limited lifespan.)

Wow- 7 years since the last post here! I'd forgotten what a hoot this story was (despite its many failings in the production department). And my word, McCoy's Doctor would foreshadow Smith's Doctor by a couple decades! Seriously, you could give Smith the same dialogue and it would BE Doc 11.

OK, I have GOT to rewatch this...

And I regret to inform you that, ridiculously and impossibly, it's not just a couple of decades...

Who do they think they are - Osirans? Just kill the bloke, why don't you?

Because murder is immoral, and illegal. Better to lock him up until he repents, or a legitimate authority comes along to execute him.

'We know so little about Kroagnon's plans' says the Doctor (er...to kill everyone?) 'We have no time to come up with a counterplan',

Seven's being overcautious, but that's because he's a master manipulator. He wouldn't have got very far if he took everything at face value, but this leads to over-thinking things at times.

If Kroagnon had turned out to be the insane worshipper of an evil from beyond time, killing people in an attempt to summon his god, then the Doctor's questions would have been sensible - and the Doctor does meet enough villains like that to be wary - but this time, the Doctor got lucky: Kroagnon was just what he looked like, a purely human evil.

Because murder is immoral, and illegal.

Oh. Yeah. THAT.

Better to lock him up until he repents, or a legitimate authority comes along to execute him.

If these people hadn't spent decades sitting on their backsides waiting for 'legitimate authority' they wouldn't have been in such a mess. Create your own laws, why don't you! (And surely the Caretakers' Manual included PLENTY of justifications for execution?)

Seven's being overcautious, but that's because he's a master manipulator. He wouldn't have got very far if he took everything at face value, but this leads to over-thinking things at times.

OK, fair enough. Still, there's probably only one occasion in a thousand (say, when the Pandorica's opening) that this over-thinking approach would pay off. Just jump in and DEFEAT THE VILLAIN ALREADY! You're the DOCTOR!

Create your own laws, why don't you!

That's illegal too, even revolutionary.

Obviously, by the time the caretakers and residents started killing people, they were ready to make up their own laws - it's hardly likely the caretakers had authority to execute people for dropping litter when the building first opened - but by that point there was no one left willing and able to fight Kroagnon.

'All hail the Great Architect!'


"Paradise Towers" shares a common flaw with
"Time and the Rani": uncertain tone. The scripts are pretty horrific,
including cannibalism, brutal murder and the walking dead. Wyatt has
basically extrapolated a society from high rise flats and urban decay, with
the rebellious teenagers, suspicious old ladies and irascible caretakers all
present and correct. Wyatt's particularly imaginative semantics work very
well, helping to build up a sense of a different kind of society ('Ice hot!'
for cool, Kang seems to be a mix of kid and gang, and 'taken to the
cleaners' is a clever pun). There's also the interesting idea of the
highest level of the tower representing heaven (where the dead go), and the
basement being hell, complete with a red-eyed beast. Ultimately, Wyatt
shows that no single group is strong enough to overcome Kroagnon alone, and
only when the rezzies, Kangs, caretakers and Pex join forces are they strong
enough to defeat him. However, Wyatt's scripts aren't perfect: why (and
how) is Kroagnon imprisoned in the basement? Why leave him the means to
effect his escape? Why is the Chief Caretaker convinced that the Doctor is
the Great Architect? Unfortunately, Wyatt's ideas are rather sabotaged by
the production, which treats the horrific aspects as light comedy. Some of
the cast don't seem to be taking the story very seriously, in particular
Richard Briers appears to be having fun at the production's expense. And if
he can't carry off the silliness of the Chief Caretaker then Clive
Merrison's Deputy is doomed. Howard Cooke as Pex doesn't work. The actor is
fine, but he's miscast, looking far too old and far too weedy to be the
convincing muscle-bound teenager suggested by the dialogue. The Kangs are
mostly good, with a couple of exceptions, but they seem uncomfortable with
some of the more off-the-wall dialogue. The realisation of the disembodied
Kroagnon is an appalling mistake: two red neons and some dry ice do not make
a convincing monster. The direction is very flat, and the sets are overlit,
removing any menace, and the music is horrid. McCoy is irritating because
he shows occasional flashes of inspired talent and timing, but too often
he's incoherent, throwing away all his best lines and trying to be impish
and light rather than melancholy (which he does much better). "Paradise
Towers" could have been much better with a bit more thought. As it is,
despite some extremely good ideas, it doesn't quite come off. Nevertheless,
the story is far more indicative of the direction the McCoy era was to take
than any other serial this season. The strong set of ideas,; the Doctor
watching and learning before he constructs a masterplan, often using others
to achieve his ends; the downbeat ending, and the thematic basis of the
scripts foreshadow serials such as "Remembrance" and "The Happiness Patrol"

no single group is strong enough to overcome Kroagnon alone, and only when the rezzies, Kangs, caretakers and Pex join forces are they strong enough to defeat him.

I think that 'Doctor' person may have had something to do with it...

Why leave him the means to effect his escape?

Cos that's the way things WORK in the Whoniverse. You can knock people out with a tap to the back of the head, you don't need to go to the loo, and you ALWAYS leave Sutekh/Fenric/Kroagnon/Whatshsisface-from-Dragonfire, etc etc, a means of escaping to devastate the cosmos - it would just be so UNSPORTING otherwise.

Why is the Chief Caretaker convinced that the Doctor is the Great Architect?

Such was the authority in the Doctor's voice...?

Howard Cooke as Pex doesn't work.

Agreed. So why the hell does 'Hail Pex. Hail the Unalive who gave his life for Paradise Towers' always reduce me to tears?

the story is far more indicative of the direction the McCoy era was to take than any other serial this season...the Doctor watching and learning before he constructs a masterplan

DOES McCoy often do that? I thought he tended to construct his masterplan BEFORE landing, and then was always shocked that he strolled into unforeseen complications...

The Paradise Towers novelisation by Stephen Wyatt:

The blurb says Paradise Towers is 'a luxury man-made planet'. I was pointing and laughing at the blurb when the book said the same thing. It must be a bloody small planet.

Paradise Towers 'won all sorts of awards back in the twenty-first century' - they were building planets THIS CENTURY?

'She had no desire to be anybody's dinner' - so Mel's ALREADY paranoid about cannibalism the moment she steps foot in the Towers, but doesn't pick up on the Rezzies' subtext?

Mel and the Doctor just RUN AWAY! Cowardly cutlets!

'He was after all remarkably light on his feet for a Time Lord' - sorry, are all Time Lords heavily lumbering creatures from a high-gravity planet or something? I THINK what Mel means is, he's surprisingly light on his feet compared to his previous incarnation...

••••. The one moment I REALLY LIKE of this book, the one thing that lifts it above an adequate-but-uninspiring adaptation of an adequate-but-uninspiring story is the Doctor thinking 'It's a good thing that I made Mel make that agreement about meeting up at the pool'. It so strongly reminded me of those lovely moments TomDoc would try to steal Leela's ideas, Romana's sonic, etc. THEN it has to spoil it by spelling out 'Even Time Lords sometimes take credit for things they didn't think of themselves.'

Why do Tilda and Tabby untie Mel? Sure, they want to fatten her up, but how likely is THAT to happen in the hour or two before they kill and cook her?

Presumably there's human fat in all those cakes Mel eats? Speaking of which, the piles of cream cakes these driven-to-cannibalism-by-starvation people happen to have are even more implausible in the book than on TV.

Well, it certainly tries to make this insignificant adventure sound more hair-raising than it actually is. Left in the company of a couple of thick Caretakers, the Doctor 'had only his brain power to rely on to help him out of this sticky situation...there might just be a chance...'

'He just had to hope that even the Deputy Chief could not memorise the entire contents of such a tome' - or, indeed, READ.

How DARE Mel treat Pex like dirt for refusing to be conscripted into a war SHE KNOWS NOTHING ABOUT? For all she knows, HIS side were the aggressors, or at the very least sadly mistaken.

'She had been almost in a daze, taking turnings and choosing staircases without any real sense of where she was going....She couldn't be back at the Rezzies' flat yet again?' - however much of a daze Ms Memory-Like-An-Elephant is in, she should at least have remembered to take staircases going UP, given that she was HEADING FOR THE ROOF. So no, that CAN'T be the Rezzies' flat. Except that it IS. What is this, Castrovalva?

Look, just SHUT UP about Tabby's teeth already!

'Wondering once again where the phrase "Build High for Happiness" came from. Another little mystery to add to the others' - oh, work it OUT Doctor, it's pretty obvious.

'The Caretakers would be there in a few minutes' - quite. So why exactly does the Doctor hang around to cover the Kangs' retreat? It's not quite up there in the pointless-sacrifice stakes with Ganger-Doctor holding the door against monster-Jenifer, or even Ace getting captured so the Doctor could mend the Happiness-Patrol-buggy-that's-actually-slower-than-walking, but it's pretty bloody pointless.

Who mended the Rezzies' door, exactly?

'For the first time she really believed they could make it to the great pool in the sky' - well if Mel didn't think she'd make it, why exactly has she been wandering around for hours for? Why didn't she just go back to the TARDIS? What's so important about having a stupid swim anyway?

'"Are you the Great Architect?" The Chief suddenly broke his broody silence' - I think you mean BROODING silence...unless he's thinking of having the Doctor's babies...

'If he was to die anyway, he might as well see what the Chief had in mind...' - I'm PRETTY sure that, Lake Silencio-related Fixed Points In Time aside, our Oncoming Storm is unlikely to perish at the hands of an imbecilic Caretaker while trying to save some petty tower-block.

'There was something shifty and nervous about the way [the Chief Caretaker's] eyes were starting to move. The Doctor gained the confidence to carry on' - because, of course, he's such a shrinking violet usually.

'She had decided to make a detour to where they had left the TARDIS...It had seemed a good idea to be able to fix in her mind where it was located' - which bit of MEMORY LIKE AN ELEPHANT is Mel somehow...forgetting?

Three hundred and four floors...and only ONE swimming pool?

The graffiti-ing of the TARDIS makes it all seem a bit too similar to Happiness Patrol. Just as the imprisoned-criminal-in-the-basement makes it rather Dragonfire-ish.

'For the moment, however, he had a more immediate task: to comfort the agitated Maddy' - so why are you accusing her of EATING her friends two seconds later, then?

'Maddy stared at him in total shock' - she didn't realise her FELLOW REZZIES were cannibals?

'That there were other worlds had never occurred to them' - ah, so that was why, one minute earlier, they asked the Doctor 'Is it true that there are other places, not like the Towers?'

'The horror of their situation rendered them both speechless' - yeah...Mel is in A FORBIDDEN BASEMENT!!!! It's not like she's EVER faced anything as horrific as THAT in all her travels with the Doctor...

Why not just get the Kangs into the TARDIS and scarper? They'd be a lot better off than staying in the Towers, with or without Kroagnon.

'The effect of the arrows was to momentarily immobilise the Cleansers but it would only be for a moment' - yes, thank you, I DO know what 'momentarily' means.

'Whose name, he had discovered, after all their adventures together, was Drinking Fountain' - their petty escapades hardly constitute 'all their adventures'.

Why do the Yellow Kangs all get killed FIRST, by the way?

So the 'giant yellow mechanical crab' is hidden from Mel by BUBBLES?

'Her clothes were dry now' - Mel went swimming fully-clothed?

'The Chief who was not the Chief' is a good way of putting it, now he's been taken over by Kroagnon. 'The Chief who was once the Chief', not so much.

'Imagine building this beautiful pool and filling it with mechannical killers' - it's FULL of 'em?! That makes you INCREDIBLY stupid for not noticing them IN THE CLEAR WATER, doesn't it?

'He had been close to despair and this was the first sign that there might be hope' - cos the Lonely God has NEVER encountered anything as scary as one nutty humanoid and his hoovers! But now the Cavalry have arrived - yes, AT LEAST TWO OLD LADIES have tottered in!! - so we're saved, SAVED I TELL YOU!!!

'We're very sorry for what we did. And we won't do it again' - what, so Maddy IS a cannibal after all?! This book earlier implied it was only Tabby and Tilda.

'Rezzies are full of Kangs' - yet somehow THEY'RE swiftly forgiven, whereas the Kangs find the Caretakers a LOT harder to stomach?

'There had been times when [Kroagnon] had even wished he might be allowed to die instead of being preserved in inactive torment' - oh c'mon, you can do better than THAT. All together now: 'EVEN A SPONGE HAS MORE LIFE THAN I!'

'The plan to get rid of the Cleaners showed they were getting somewhere at last. But his lightning-quick brain had already moved on to the next problem' - yes, after HOURS of chatting our lightning-quick Doctor is ACTUALLY going to think about defeating Kroagnon! My hero!

Pex puts a bracelet round his NECK?

Lucky that Kroagnon told the Cleaners to keep back for no readily apparent reason.

'The tight little group of Mel, the Deputy and the Kangs watched helplessly' - instead of, say, DOING something to save the Doctor and defeat Kroagnon.

Fire Escape and Drinking Fountain were late for Pex's funeral cos they had the 'more pressing task' of cleaning the TARDIS?!

I note that MEL isn't made an Honorary Kang.

What an utterly wasted opportunity to explain the Paradise Towers set-up. Sure, it would be hard, given that said set-up makes no sense, but you can bet Malcolm Hulke would have done it. Even Terrance Dicks might have had a prologue and/or epilogue about the war the adults went off to fight, or about what happened after the Towers were liberated...though THAT'S an issue that all the spin-off media seem extraordinarily reluctant to address. The Kangs and Steven Taylor are the only things I can think of off-hand whose fate isn't addressed by a book/audio/short story...

Steven Taylor hasn't been because the estate of Ian Stuart Black which holds the copyright to the planet of the Elders and the Savages has denied use of them.

I don't remember this episode being quite so bad (unless this is the one with the Candyman?).

Yet another indictment against DW literature. Emily, you're not doing much to entice anyone back into the book section.

are all Time Lords heavily lumbering creatures from a high-gravity planet or something?

No, but almost all of them hardly ever have to run anywhere. Mel being Mel, she's going to assume that means they''re all overweight, despite having seen the jury in the Doctor's trial.

Presumably there's human fat in all those cakes Mel eats?

Extracting the fat would be pretty difficult. The Kangs might have a few small deposits in places, but most of it would be marbling the muscles, so couldn't simply be cut out. The rezzies would need special skills and equipment, making it unlikely.

Either they've got a cow hidden somewhere, or they stockpiled ten years worth of butter, possibly by ransacking empty flats. Stockpiling eggs wouldn't work though. The only way they can have fresh eggs, needed for baking, is if they're keeping chickens, but that has to be against regulations.

'The effect of the arrows was to momentarily immobilise the Cleansers but it would only be for a moment' - yes, thank you, I DO know what 'momentarily' means.

Some writers use it to mean 'in a moment', causing confusion.

Why do the Yellow Kangs all get killed FIRST, by the way?

If you only target one colour, the other two won't realise they're next on the menu. Yellow was just unlucky.

I note that MEL isn't made an Honorary Kang.

Naturally, but not because she's female. Next to the Oncoming Storm, Mel looks pretty average, not worthy of special reward, but so would 99.9999% of all humans, male as well as female.

"The only way they can have fresh eggs, needed for baking, is if they're keeping chickens, but that has to be against regulations."

But if they are keeping chickens cannibalism is going to be less of an option. In fact Tilda and Tabby seem to be the only cannibals so maybe they're just lifestyle autophages and everyone else is eating some mystery stuff. It's not like anyone else appears to be starving particularly.

We're a long way from 'High-Rise'.

"Naturally, but not because she's female. Next to the Oncoming Storm, Mel looks pretty average,"

But she's not next to the Oncoming Storm, she's standing next to Sylvester McCoy, the Oncoming Busker. All of the Oncoming Storm stuff was invented later as Doctor Who attempted to blank how unprepossessing he was out of its collective conscience.

Steven Taylor hasn't been because the estate of Ian Stuart Black which holds the copyright to the planet of the Elders and the Savages has denied use of them.

Well, I can understand them being rather embarrassed by the Elders and Savages...but that's a bit mean.

I don't remember this episode being quite so bad (unless this is the one with the Candyman?).

Hey, the story isn't bad! (And no, there's not a Candyman in sight.)

Yet another indictment against DW literature. Emily, you're not doing much to entice anyone back into the book section.

It wasn't SUPPOSED to be an indictment, the book was perfectly OK, in the traditional Terrance-Dicks-style mould. I just felt that the author could have made a bit more of an effort. (And that when he DID make a bit of an effort, it didn't quite work.)

Anyway, a book doesn't have to be GOOD to give us lots of lovely juicy nits. Until recently, Rags was the most popular thing in the Novels section...

Presumably there's human fat in all those cakes Mel eats?

Extracting the fat would be pretty difficult.

Well, that's a relief.

Either they've got a cow hidden somewhere, or they stockpiled ten years worth of butter

AND cream. Cream was a MAJOR ingredient in the book.

If you only target one colour, the other two won't realise they're next on the menu. Yellow was just unlucky.

Oh, clever.

I note that MEL isn't made an Honorary Kang.

Naturally, but not because she's female.

Oh yes, I wasn't accusing the all-female Kangs of SEXISM or anything. But Mel did play a pretty major role, including blasting the swimming-pool monster to smithereens in a Kang-like fashion, so I felt a bit sorry she didn't get any recognition. (And when I'm feeling sorry for Mel, she's REALLY being discriminated against.)

In fact Tilda and Tabby seem to be the only cannibals

THIS is something the novelisation seemed SERIOUSLY confused about. (And the episodes too, I think - what exactly WAS Maddy apologising for?)

It's not like anyone else appears to be starving particularly.

Well, QUITE.

Mabye the Rezzies - unlike the Kangs until the Doctor came along - knew how to work the food machines. And there were probably more than enough of THEM in a 304-floor building for the handful of Rezzies.

But she's not next to the Oncoming Storm, she's standing next to Sylvester McCoy, the Oncoming Busker. All of the Oncoming Storm stuff was invented later as Doctor Who attempted to blank how unprepossessing he was out of its collective conscience.

Ouch.

Where is all the young males? The Kangs are there but there is no male opposite.

DWM has a helpful solution: 'The Yellow Kangs who are wiped out at the very beginning could have been a gang of boys and girls that had worked out that they quite like being together. Which would have given the Great Architect an extra incentive to wipe them out first, to prevent them... spreading.'

Don't you just hate it when you've got to write a review and you never know
how to start it off? I'm sitting here looking at this blank screen deciding
what wonderful piece of poetic insight I can start this review with, but for
some surreal reason I'm coming up blank. Must be all the silly mock-modern
phrasing I was bombarded with during the story, such as "unalive" and
"ice-hot" and the others, infecting my sense of writing ability...

I can't really decide on this story, there's a lot of good and a lot of bad
here. It's done very much in the mould of TIME AND THE RANI,
we've got Deaf Keff churning out some dodgy music on his kiddie keyboard,
most of the guest cast delivering their lines fairly woodenly (although this
lot had more of an excuse), a strange sense of cheapness unseen by the
series in ages, the dialogue fairly ordinary, Mel being generic and doing
lots of screaming, and McCoy managing to shine, through taking things
slightly more seriously than the rest of the cast. But PARADISE TOWERS
manages to have a central stylistic difference that it's predecessor didn't
have - TIME AND THE RANI didn't have a really really ice-hot - erm, great
idea behind it.

That's what appeals to me from this story, the idea of a big apartment
building being made to house all the children and the elderly while everyone
else went to fight in a war. Then the building gets forgotten and those
within start to develop their own culture after many years, the children
becoming teenagers and forming gangs but without any sense of growing up,
the elderly turning to cannibalism once the food runs out, and the
Caretakers of the building trying to hold onto their position through
emphasis of the rules to such a point that obeying the rule book becomes
second nature to them. This is such a great concept to throw the Doctor and
Mel into from the start that you almost don't need that whole Great
Architect and the Cleaners plot to give the story a nemesis, fighting the
new system of chaos that's emerged from their isolation would be a good
story in itself. Which is where I think this idea gets damaged, the
inclusion of what's effectively a body-stealing zombie-monster thing that
wants to kill everybody. While it gives us the lovely moment of the
Rezzies, the Kangs and the Caretakers working together for the first time,
it still turns the focus of the story from the interesting idea of how a
large group of normal people could be twisted through isolation from the
rest of civilisation (an idea I don't recall being done before in the
series, except for maybe in THE FACE OF EVIL) and onto the fight against the
big homicidal monster. Which is quite a shame.

What also let this idea down was the way the parts were played. A lot of
the guest cast, the Kangs especially, played their roles very woodenly,
emphasising each word like they were reading from an autocue. The problem
is, I can see why this would have been done - the Kangs are supposed to be
grown-up children after all, and their method of speech was very childlike
after all, but it didn't stop them from sounding like poor actors. The
Caretakers too had this problem to a point, and again there's an in-story
reason for it in that they're probably all slightly unbalanced having to
control an uncontrollable place for an extended period of time (I'm assuming
things would have been like this for at least a decade). And the Chief
Caretaker (who stuck out like a very sore thumb, only because I'm a fan of
"Monarch of the Glen") would suffer the worst of this, being in charge of
the Caretakers and all. I suspect this story could have worked better if
maybe the Doctor was fighting just him, not him being controlled by an
unembodied Architect. Then the Doctor's fighting against not an evil
person, just another unbalanced human like the rest of those in Paradise
Towers. The ones who managed to keep some sort of decency to their roles
were the Rezzies, but I suspect that's because they had to be played by some
older actors who often do their job better than the younger ones. It was
their scenes I felt actually felt the more realistic, such as when Mel was
having tea with the carnivores couple.

However, the one guest-character who interested me the most was Pex. The
actor did play him almost like a Kang, very wooden and childlike, but with
him it worked. If you think about it, Pex was probably only a teenager when
he was drafted into the war (probably all males were brought into it
including children, hence why the only males are Caretakers), so he's stuck
with the similar arrested development the Kangs have. Like a teenager, he's
attracted to the first female who hasn't tried to tease him (Mel), and while
he tries to be tough, he's actually scared. I think the biggest thing I
liked about Pex, though, is that I felt very sorry for him. Watching the
Kangs stand there screaming "cowardly cutlet" at him tugged at those
emotions of mine, I kept waiting for somebody (like the Doctor) to turn on
the Kangs and give them a very Doctorly outburst on why it's so wrong to
torment people like that. I was rather depressed that he died, but it was
rather building up to something like that, giving his life to save the
Doctor and kill the Great Architect in an act of bravery. I think he'd do
rather well as a companion, actually, he could effectively be Jamie to Mel's
Zoe and McCoy's Troughton, playing the muscle of the group (and we could
have had a much more detailed growing-up arc, after which he then could have
died in a brave act of self-sacrifice). Still, I could write tons of
fan-fiction on this I suppose, after all, the graffiti did suggest he's not
dead after all...

As for the current companion, Mel isn't getting any better. She didn't
scream nearly as much here (actually, her screaming was more on the level of
TERROR OF THE VERVOIDS), she just didn't do anything particularly notable or
Mel-like. I think that's the biggest problem, people aren't writing her as
a specific character, she's following the footsteps of Jo Grant and Susan
and being the Generic Companion of eighties. Taking this story at face
value, what does it show us about Mel? She's incredibly loyal to the
Doctor, she's trusting of just about everyone and she has this surreal
desire to go swimming. Even the fitness fanatic stuff she was on about in
TERROR OF THE VERVOIDS would have been useful to give Mel some depth instead
of the piece of cardboard we ended up with. There were even a few moments
in this story that even seemed to break what sort of character we've seen
already - the amount of cream being piled on those cakes she was eating
wouldn't be something someone so fitness-orientated as Mel would eat
willingly, I'm sure. And there's the miserable scene (which is really
nagging at me) where she finds out that Pex was really a draft-dodger and
not the toughie he's pretending to be, so she gets all sad-looking, then
abandons him to be tormented alone by a crowd of Kangs (I thought Mel loved
everybody and stood for righteousness? Wouldn't she be in defending him
against them for being so cruel?). And of course, there's her pool fetish -
we're in a madhouse of cannibal pensioners, just escaped near death in the
basement and in the lift, the Doctor's nowhere to be seen, what do we do?
Go swimming. She really deserved what she got for that one...

I've yet to see why everybody seems to think McCoy is such the antichrist.
He's been in two stories thus far, neither of them classics of any kind, and
yet he's proving what wonders he's able to make of them. Give him something
decent to work with and we might see him really soar. I'm really enjoying
the whole comic nature combined with the solid interior that made Troughton
quite fun to watch - of course, McCoy isn't quite as wonderful as Troughton
was, but then again I can't recall Troughton being at his peak after two
stories either. He's not bumbling as much as last week (not that it's a
surprise, since his regeneration's stabilized now), but he's still fun to
watch, in scenes where he gets his umbrella stuck in the door as he's
escaping, as he mostly accidentally escapes from most places totally by
accident, as he doffs his hat to the statue outside the TARDIS (what was
that about anyway?), I'm not exactly laughing at it, but I do get a little
smile. He's contrasting nicely with Colin's portrayal - look at the scene
where he escapes the Caretakers in episode 2. Colin probably would have
shouted at them, thrown them onto a wrong footing, then raced for the door.
McCoy gets the rule book from them, manages to convince them that it tells
them to go stand in a corner, then virtually explain to them what he's doing
when he escapes. Ok, it's not so believable that he could do that in real
life or anything, but it's something I couldn't see Colin doing well. My
only McCoy complaint is that he does occasionally talk too quickly when he's
expounding the plot, his accent getting in the way and I end up hearing a
bit of gibberish. But it's a minor quibble, and I'm sure that'll get sorted
in the end. I do think I'm going to like this new Doctor...

Not sure if I like this story, though. PARADISE TOWERS has a very, very
good idea in its core, but somehow I don't think the end result lives up to
this. Some of the performances are questionable, some of the dialogue could
have been done better and it's totally misfired on Mel's part. Even the
story manages to suffer by not really being about the people within the
building, but about the big monster in the basement. McCoy and Pex shine to
a point, but that's about all that does, sadly. It's a pity, since PARADISE
TOWERS is quite a missed opportunity on so many levels...

the elderly turning to cannibalism once the food runs out

Or considerably BEFORE the food runs out, judging by all the cream cakes.

(probably all males were brought into it including children, hence why the only males are Caretakers)

What made 'em think that four-year-old boys would be better at toddling round a battlefield than the Caretakers - especially when said Caretakers would have been AT LEAST a decade younger?

I think he'd do rather well as a companion, actually, he could effectively be Jamie to Mel's Zoe

GOD no. 'Hail Pex. Hail the Unalive' is one of THE great moving moments of Old Who. But if the cretin had hung around any longer, I'd've been making him Unalive myself.

I think that's the biggest problem, people aren't writing her as a specific character, she's following the footsteps of Jo Grant and Susan and being the Generic Companion of eighties.

Don't you diss Jo Grant! She HAD a character!

Even the fitness fanatic stuff she was on about in TERROR OF THE VERVOIDS would have been useful to give Mel some depth instead
of the piece of cardboard we ended up with.

What, fighting off monsters and cannibals to go swimming in PARADISE TOWERS of all places wasn't fitness-fanatical enough for you...?

the amount of cream being piled on those cakes she was eating wouldn't be something someone so fitness-orientated as Mel would eat
willingly

Oh! I was too busy thinking where the cream cakes had come from all these years to realise THAT.

And there's the miserable scene (which is realy nagging at me) where she finds out that Pex was really a draft-dodger and not the toughie he's pretending to be, so she gets all sad-looking, then abandons him to be tormented alone by a crowd of Kangs (I thought Mel loved everybody and stood for righteousness? Wouldn't she be in defending him against them for being so cruel?).

And why exactly was she being so PATRIOTIC about his 'duty' to go and fight in a war SHE'D NEVER EVEN HEARD OF? Or is she a rabid right-winger 'My country right or wrong' white-feather type?

we're in a madhouse of cannibal pensioners, just escaped near death in the basement and in the lift, the Doctor's nowhere to be seen, what do we do? Go swimming.

Ace did exactly the same thing in Curse of Fenric. (To quote an old Cambridge University Doctor Who Magazine, 'You've just undergone massive psychological trauma. You've met the mother you hate while she's still a baby, your boyfriend has been possessed by an evil from beyond time, then killed by deadly nerve gas carried by a hideously mutated member of the future human species, and your best friend's just told you he never liked you, was only using you, and you should die before he'd kneel to the aforementioned evil from beyond time. He then tells you he was kidding. Do you need a psychiatrist? A counsellor? Institutionalisation? No! You need a good swim!') Maybe McCoy hypnotises his Companions into thinking they need to swim, the way he'll soon be hypnotising Mel into thinking she needs SABALOM GLITZ of all people...

He's contrasting nicely with Colin's portrayal

Yeah, but then ANYTHING contrasts nicely with Colin's portrayal.

It doesn't feel like ten years since I saw this. Reading the novelisation gets into your head more than actually WATCHING the thing, it seems.

Paradise Towers is highly unusual in that you (or at least I) can actually decide whether or not to LIKE it or to curl up into a ball of embarrassed disbelief. I decided to enjoy myself.

The Yellow Kang grins with relief when the other Kangs yell 'Leave her for another day'. They could be bluffing to lull her into a false sense of security, y'know. Not to mention the fact that getting captured by them would be the only protection she's got from the Cleaners now that they (and no doubt a few Rezzies) have polished off every one of her comrades.

'It seems to be some sort of gang. All girls' - truly, our Doctor's observational skills rival Sherlock Holmes'. (Of course, we never DO discover why they're all girls.)

My god, their latest meal even presents itself to Tilda and Tabby ALL TIED UP and they UNTIE it - why! It's not like eating a few chocolate chip cookies (YES! THEY'RE BISCUITS! WHY DO YOU KEEP CALLING THEM CAKES!) is gonna fatten her up much before they tuck in. They can't possibly risk keeping a prisoner for weeks of force-feeding (even one as unloved as Mel) so what good do they get from sacrificing their (allegedly) scarce resources by giving her such treats? Is undigested-remains-of-chocolate-chips-in-stomach-lining some sort of haggis-like delicacy for the Rezzies...?

'Of course, in the old days things were very different' - five minutes earlier Mel asked what happened to Paradise Towers and they were extremely reluctant to talk about the good old days.

Why is no one on guard at the Blue Kang funeral.

'The visionary who dreamed up its pools' - plural? Everything ELSE about this suggests there's only ONE bloody swimming pool. Admittedly that would rather be short-changing the hundreds of floors of residents.

So it's a total coincidence that when Pex kicks Tilda and Tabby's door in (admittedly for the fourth time, but that's not MANY times if they've all been stuck here for fifteen years or whatever), Mel happens to be moments away from being devoured (dammit, couldn't you have waited another five minutes)? He obviously didn't spot Mel before she went in there, or he'd've introduced himself, vandalised a few light fittings, and untied her. He might even have warned her that that THESE PEOPLE WERE CANNIBALS, even though, by the way he starts asking if MEL is annoying THEM, he seems blissfully unaware of this fact.

Who cast this? Cos Pex is a bit young as well as a bit weedy for his role, never mind all the Caretakers looking like they'd still be perfectly capable of fighting a war NOW, so why all these prime specimens of manhood were pensioned off a decade or two ago...

Why are Pex and the cannibals so completely unimpressed by the fact that MEL IS A VISITOR!!!! By now they should have a RELIGION that either denies the existence of an outside world or that regards any visitor as its long-awaited Messiah...

'You will make the lifts rise and fall as never before...kill him.' Look, the lifts rise and fall JUST FINE and I fail to see how a CORPSE would improve them.

So. When told to guard the Doctor with their lives, the Caretakers dutifully sit on either side of him, fail to tie him up or look at him (even when he's speaking to them). He surely could have Venusian Aikido-ed them in his sleep. Why (oh why) does he wait THIRTY-FIVE MINUTES to make his move?

Aaaaaand the Caretakers tell the Doctor to read out what he claims is in the Rulebook but they don't, say, look at it themselves?

What exactly happened when Caretakers captured 'Wallscrawlers' or Kangs captured Caretakers or Kangs captured other-colour-Kangs? (Presumably no actual LYING took place or the Caretakers wouldn't have been so easily taken in.)

And why did none of 'em do anything about comrades being munched up by some REALLY well-fed-looking old ladies? OR by the (as it turns out, extremely-susceptible-to-crossbow-bolts) Cleaners? (Well, aside from helpfully doing wallscrawls with the now-traditional human leg sticking out the back of the Cleaners. That the Doctor makes a careful copy of, despite it hardly being beyond his memory-cells or his deductive powers.)

'Find the keycard to the door and escape' - very sporting of the Doctor to TELL his captors what he's doing...before he finds said card.

'Rules should always make sense' - Caretaker. Since WHEN, you crazy rebel!

'Jackpot!' - since when has ANY Doctor been so excited about acquiring some money?

The Doctor's umbrella is...a normal umbrella! With a wooden handle! Not a red plastic question-mark that he holds in front of his face at every available opportunity! *Starts spinning on the spot like a self-destructive Dalek* Does not compute! Does not compute!

The Doctor gets the Red Kangs addicted to fizzy drinks? That man is evil. You heard it here first.

Should Tabby not be STAYING AWAY from the waste disposal chute in which her lover was dragged to her death? Instead of RUNNING STRAIGHT OVER to it...?

The Caretakers are so slow getting that door open that the Doctor could have escaped with the Kangs several times over instead of doing the noble self-sacrifice thing.

Why deliberately type on a map that entry to the basement is forbidden on pain of death? Instead of, say, just leaving said basement off the map so the misfortunate residents of Paradise Towers would never even THINK about going to this non-existent spot?

So it would take HOURS to enumerate the rules broken by a Caretaker talking out of turn? Frankly that guidebook doesn't look thick enough to take hours reading it out in its entirety.

It has to be admitted that, once you've replaced 'Daddy' with 'Mummy', the Chief Caretaker/Great Architect relationship is reminding me uncomfortably of the relationship between me and my cat.

'Aren't you going to swim Pex' - yeah, cos of course he'll've learnt to SWIM, in an environment where 'going to the pool on the top floor' is equated with 'being dead'.

The Great Architect has only just realised that DEAD bodies are useless??

'We've no time to come up with a counter-plan' - gods, but I miss Matt Smith. Specifically, Matt Smith's reaction on learning he only has twelve minutes to live...

Apparently the Chief Caretaker's moustache changes from Hitler-style to slightly-more-normal after he's possessed. (I was watching this with a friend. He notices such things.)

Even I noticed, however, that the possessed-Chief-Caretaker's face is exceedingly pale, but said pallor mysteriously stops just before his ears.

Kroagnon offers Pex safe passage out of the Towers in return for betraying the Doctor - I have the feeling this may be the only time in Who history that the Villain makes an HONEST offer.

Seven can't even give someone a hefty shove out of an open door? What kind of wimp IS he! Even Hartnell understands the gentle art of fisticuffs...

'I'd be honoured to wear it' - never mind that McCoy is never again caught dead wearing said Kang scarf.

Deleted scenes: notable only for how much MORE of a ••••• Mel can be towards Pex.

My god, their latest meal even presents itself to Tilda and Tabby ALL TIED UP and they UNTIE it - why!

For the same reason as they offer Mel biscuits: good manners. Planning to kill and devour someone doesn't excuse rudeness.

Basically, people in desperate situations will often cling to the manners and etiquette they learned in childhood, even when it makes no sense. That way, the Residents can tell themselves they're still decent people, because they offer their guests biscuits just like their mothers taught them to, while carefully ignoring the bit where they kill the guests two minutes later.

It's not rational, true, but people aren't Cybermen. This kind of double think is very human.

never mind all the Caretakers looking like they'd still be perfectly capable of fighting a war NOW, so why all these prime specimens of manhood were pensioned off a decade or two ago...

Perhaps they failed an intelligence test, or a personality test. The Caretakers aren't exactly smart, or full of personality, and modern warfare requires more than just brute physical strength.

Frankly that guidebook doesn't look thick enough to take hours reading it out in its entirety.

Not if the Caretakers can read at a decent speed, but perhaps they can only manage one word a minute, or less. (Any time they appear to be reading faster, it could be because they've memorised the text.)

the Chief Caretaker/Great Architect relationship is reminding me uncomfortably of the relationship between me and my cat.

Hmm. If society broke down, so you and your cats had to live off the contents of your cupboards and whatever you could ransack from the ruins all around, would you be prepared to kill passing strangers just to have something to feed your cats on? If you did, would you be polite like the residents were, would you tell your unwilling guests how they should be honoured to feed cats, or would you just knock them unconscious without monologuing?

Obviously, unlike cats the Great Architect isn't worth the Chief Caretaker's devotion, but this analogy may help explain his behaviour.

'We've no time to come up with a counter-plan' - gods, but I miss Matt Smith.

As River Song said, the Doctor lies when it suits him. Maybe he didn't want Mel to realise how good a planner he was. That way, she's less likely to suspect him of setting her up with some convenient bloke when he finds a suitable place to dump her.

'I'd be honoured to wear it' - never mind that McCoy is never again caught dead wearing said Kang scarf.

Just because the BBC couldn't be bothered to film it doesn't mean it never happened.

Planning to kill and devour someone doesn't excuse rudeness.

But it WOULD have rendered later rudenesses - like brandishing a toasting-fork at Mel's head and covering her in a tablecloth - unnecessary.

Perhaps they failed an intelligence test, or a personality test.

Pex would have failed any intelligence or personality test in the history of the universe, yet they were taking HIM along to fight.

If society broke down, so you and your cats had to live off the contents of your cupboards and whatever you could ransack from the ruins all around, would you be prepared to kill passing strangers just to have something to feed your cats on?

Probably not. I'd tell the little darlings they could adapt perfectly to the new world, but I couldn't survive in a world without Who, and I'd top MYSELF to get 'em a headstart in the foraging process...

If you did, would you be polite like the residents were, would you tell your unwilling guests how they should be honoured to feed cats, or would you just knock them unconscious without monologuing?

...Though if I DID go for the mass-murder option I'm pretty sure a certain amount of telling-them-how-honoured-they-are-to-feed-cats would be going on.

As River Song said, the Doctor lies when it suits him. Maybe he didn't want Mel to realise how good a planner he was. That way, she's less likely to suspect him of setting her up with some convenient bloke when he finds a suitable place to dump her.

Brilliant!

Emily - 'It seems to be some sort of gang. All girls' - truly, our Doctor's observational skills rival Sherlock Holmes'. (Of course, we never DO discover why they're all girls.)
Wasn't it because all the boys were being shipped off to be soldiers?

but I couldn't survive in a world without Who
Oh, Who wouldn't be completely gone, you could just reread the novels.

Wasn't it because all the boys were being shipped off to be soldiers?

Nah, all the adults - female and male - were shipped off to be soldiers (except Pex, the only one with the sense to do a runner). The useless kids and oldies were sent to the Towers. I suppose they might have decided five-year-old boys would be better with sub-machine guns than five-year-old girls and hauled 'em off to war on the offchance? Or having girl-babies had REALLY been in fashion in the run-up to the war? Or Jehovah decided to pull another of his charming kill-all-the-firstborn-male-babies tricks and they forgot to smear blood all over their doorposts...?

Oh, Who wouldn't be completely gone, you could just reread the novels.

Trust me, when civilisation goes my one consolation will be warming myself at the light of a fire consisting entirely of the words of Gary Russell et al.

Nah, all the adults - female and male - were shipped off to be soldiers (except Pex, the only one with the sense to do a runner). The useless kids and oldies were sent to the Towers.

It does make one wonder about this society. Surely there were boys too young to go off to war, babies, toddlers, etc. Not to mention where are the people with medical conditions, i.e. missing limbs and such.

I suppose one could assume that we only see a small number of residents and that those people are off on other floors we don't see, but then we could also assume they all got eaten by the Rezzies.

It's a lesbian matriarchy. Why didn't I think of this BEFORE? It SO OBVIOUSLY solves (almost) all the problems of the Towers' bizarre gender/age make-up if THAT'S the society they came from:

Why are the Kangs all girls?

Because a lesbian matriarchy will be strongly skewed towards the superior sex when having their IVF babies. And because said sex will get the lion's share of resources when there's a shortage. The gender-imbalance in India and China isn't totally down to abortion of female foetuses; the boys also get more food and medical care. Little boys in the Towers will have been taught that they're a bunch of useless wimps; their sisters will have much better things to do (i.e. playing with crossbows) than look after them; Tabby and chums will be feeling peckish...

Why do the Kangs show no sexual interest in the Caretakers, Pex or the Doctor - and vice-versa?

Cos homosexuality is the norm.

Why did so many men (and no women) in the prime of life get let off fighting this vital war in order to go and be Caretakers?

Cos it's dead easy for the gender who've spent their lives being told how weak and inferior they are to wriggle out of doing any macho heroics. Just twist an ankle or something. When Hitler suddenly realised that the fact he was losing the War might possibly have something to do with the fact that he'd relegated 50% of his population to breeding like rabbits, and tried to get 'em into the factories, he was met with an apathetic 'Nope, think we'll stick to the kids, Church, kitchen stuff, thanks all the same, mine Fuhrer.'

(The reason Pex had to run away, of course, was because he was simply too stupid to think of this.)

Why do the Rezzies eat people when they've got a plentiful supply of cream buns?

Because they've always been top of the food-chain and now they're just taking it a bit more literally.

SORTED!

Just watched this, and for the first time, I didn't hate it--a fact so surprising I was too distracted to find any nits.

I love the thought of you sitting there slack-jawed with astonishment for an entire hour and a half.

Can you spot any different factors from previous viewings that may have resulted in this change of heart?

Until the DVD came out, I'd only known this in movie format. Episodic viewing does help this one. Plus this time I could focus on the story and imagine how it would be if I were reading a novel, stripped away of pretty much everything that prevented me from enjoying it before.

I'd only known this in movie format.

Ugg ugg ugg, there should be a LAW.

The gods invented the cliffhanger for a REASON.

Stephen Wyatt interview in DWM:

He spent FOUR WEEKS on the SYNOPSIS and TWO DAYS to actually WRITE EACH EPISODE? Isn't that...the wrong way round?

'One of the conscious things we did in the 24th Season was that we had a conscious junking of the mythology. Let's forget the Master, let's forget about Gallifrey, let's forget about the Time Lords' - yeah, that's obviously what New Who decided to do too. And blew the Master, Gallifrey and the Time Lords to smithereens, just to be on the safe side. For all the good it did 'em... - 'Let's get back to the original idea, which was an explorer...we're actually creating a new mythology, because there was a clean sweep. Paradise Towers had no cross references whatsever to any previous Doctor Who adventures or characters' - that doesn't mean you're creating a new mythology, Sunshine. I'm very fond of Paradise Towers, but new mythology it ain't - 'and that was quite a conscious decision' - thanks, could you repeat 'conscious' a few dozen more times, just to ensure we've got the message?

Well, I certainly didn't get the message at the time. There may not have been any stories dealing with the show's mythology, but I certainly didn't recognize that as a conscious decision until I read it here. Half of the next season is full of mythology and continuity nods, and so, for that matter, is Time and the Rani.

And as I recall, seasons 24 and 25 aired continuously here, so I probably wasn't aware of the season break. (Season 26 never aired at all. The long honoured time slot of Sunday 11pm broke before they ever purchased the final season.)

(Season 26 never aired at all. The long honoured time slot of Sunday 11pm broke before they ever purchased the final season.)

What staggeringly bad luck. How many people grew up thinking of Who as the Seasons 24-and-25 drivel, never realising that it had REDEEMED itself?

Hang on...ELEVEN P.M.? SERIOUSLY?

For years, I had a hard time with McCoy's Doctor, not so much because of him but because of his stories, with only Remembrance being worth anything. I was, at least, aware of newer stories that we didn't get, and that the the Brig, Bessie and the Master were in them. I think I never saw Survival until after I started posting on nitcentral.

Not just Sunday 11pm, but Sunday 11pm in movie format yet. The line-up was 10:00 Monty Python, 10:30 Dave Allan at Large, 11:00 Doctor Who, 12:30 the Two Ronnies. (There were also a LOT more Dave Allan produced than we ever got, which I just found out a few years ago.)

Monday mornings in high school were worst than they needed to be.

John Lang grew up in the same area as me, so I'm sure he recalls this.

On a sort-of-related note, the film of J.G. Ballard's 'High-Rise' will be launched on the festival circuit next month and its directed by Ben 'Deep Breath/Into the Dalek' Wheatley, who'll probably make a better job of it than Nicholas Mallett.

Wallowing in Our Own Weltschmerz: 'Consider for a moment how you clean your kitchen, bathroom and house. Maybe you don't, maybe you sit in your own filth. But pretend you're that posh woman across the road for a moment and then consider how your local authority goes about cleaning the streets. Now ask yourself: which three tools could you not do without in your standard day-to-day cleaning? That's right: Saw blade, drill and grabbing claw.'

Love the summary from Time, Unincorporated: 'Paradise Towers was ruined by the casting - faced with a script about a bunch of sinister little girls fighting a bunch of old fascist caretakers, a bunch of twentysomething women were cast opposite a bunch of twentysomething men. It's a story about a generation gap with no generation gap.'

Stephen Wyatt in DWM: 'The fans became upset with me because they thought I'd betrayed the spirit of the show - because I'd dumped all the mythology' - oh come off it, we're all mad but we're not QUITE mad enough to demand that every single episode be chock-full of Gallifreyan mythology...

Frontios had nothing on the sheer complexity and BAFTA winning Paradise Towers. Richard Briers performance was approching Orson Welles in it's vitality

Mel's dip in the pool reminds me of something that troubles me - why is female swimwear so gendered - and sexualised? I bet Turlough wouldn't get a lecture from his father (the Doctor) if he went topless on a beach.

It's been a long time since I might have watched this one, so I have to ask a couple of questions here:

Are you suggesting that Mel did a topless scene in this story??? Really???

( I ask because I know that the BBC has different rules than I'm used to for t.v.(I'm looking at Billie Piper's other programs here.))

An if so--who cares???

(I'm sorry--I can't think of any other female companion that I'd want to see less than her(heck, I'm guessing even Emily's more interesting than she would be!!!.).

On the other hand, since I have no idea what Emily looks like-- any picture of her would be more interesting than a topless picture of Mel.

It would be nice to know what my nemesis looks like.

My brother said putting Langford in a bikini in Towers was a missed opportunity.

Putting her in a bikini, or NOT putting her in a bikini? The statement is confusing.

he thinks they SHOULD have put her in a bikini. Apparently she would be better in one than Nicola Bryant.

During the boom years of the 1920s, middle-class people began buying cars, and car-making improved enough to produce cars that could safely be driven long distances. But city hotels, built before the auto age, had nowhere to park a car. So a market niche opened up for a hotel with carparking, and since there was no land to put a carpark in the city, they had to be on the edge of town where land was available, and cheaper. Hence the motor-hotel, or motel.

And this relates to Paradise Towers in what way?

Amazing Doctor Who predictions: videos on disc that can be played back like CDs!

Amazing Doctor Who prediction fails: the disc makes a very cassette/VHS-like spooling sound as it "rewinds"!

Andrew Cartmel in DWM: Stephen Wyatt 'deliberately equipped the Rezzies...with the sort of weapons that you'd see in the Roman arena like tridents, which no child would emulate at home...however [JNT and the director] decided to give the Rezzies great big kitchen knives! I said, "Guys, this is going to get us into trouble." They went, "No, no, darling, don't you worry. It'll be fine." Sure enough, the [beep] hit the fan. To his eternal credit, John said to me afterwards, "You were right. We were wrong." And those are words you never hear in television!' - *sigh* and this AFTER several YEARS of scandals about Who being too violent....

The Doctor is actually going to Paradise Towers with the intention of exploring its architecture? Surely there are thousands of better architectural achievements on Earth alone. I mean, we see enough of it to know this isn't anything special.

I thought there was no outside establishing shot of the towers but there is indeed. Since it appears with the 'Part 2/3/4' titles (very B&W era there), I suspect it wasn't included in the movie-format version I had, the only way I'd ever seen this prior to the DVD release.

Unfortunately, that shot is pretty naff.

Well, Who can do normal sized rats well at least.

That's some overly dramatic music for the 'how you do' sequence. (There are deleted scenes on the disc, but this they left intact?)

Okay, I'm from Chicago, home of Cabrini Green and the Robert Taylor Homes. Even in a sci-fi dystopia where cannibalism is (presumably) a norm, these gangs are not remotely scary. I feel the worst they would do to me is call me some name repeatedly.

CARETAKER: I don't believe it. It's not possible. It can't be. It could be
(Moments later)
CARETAKER: No need to tell me. I know who you are. We have been waiting for this momentous visit for so many years. You are the man who brought Paradise Towers to life.
---He got awfully confident of who the Doctor is in mere moments. If he had such doubts, why not let him introduce himself?

And why would he have to die, beyond the need for a cliffhanger?

Considering all the rules everyone's quoting, the rulebook is remarkably thin. (Okay, Cartmell brings this up too in the doc. So does Emily, above.)

I'd ask why they carry a copy as they can all quote it chapter and verse (or stroke and subsection), but it's probably better to assume that's just one of the rules.

Then again, if they can quote it so thoroughly, why do they fall for the Doctor's ruse?

Mel: Oh no. We're back at the square again!
--What is this, Castravalva?

Mel gets netted (well, crocheted) up, the thing in the disposal eats up her two kidnappers, and Pex breaks down the door all at pretty much the same time. That's a whole lot of dramatic coincidencing.

After finally making it to the roof, Pex has no reaction to being in sunlight for the first time.

Seems the Doctor ultimately does little besides nudging the action along. Everything that happens might have happened, perhaps with some differences, anyway. His being there didn't cause Kroagnon to take form nor the kangs, rezzies and caretakers to come together.

Speaking of rezzies, am I reading too much into the similarities of that word and 'lezzies', as in lesbians?

So according the documentary, this *wasn't* set on Earth. That question was raised upthread. Nonetheless, I can't think of anything in the episodes that clearly signals this. There was talk of a war (that fails to provide sufficient background for the story), but if it were Earth, it was a future Earth, so there could have been a war. Seemingly it was originally set on Earth but JNT pushed for a more fantastic setting, but again, I can't see what change this effected.

The wife of the guy who played the Chief Caretaker played Jenny in the (Hartnell) Dalek Invasion of Earth.

Tat Wood, cited by Sandifer, points out that this is the first story in a long time not to be connected to past stories. By my count, that would be Vengeance on Varos. (Before that, Androzani, Frontios, then The Awakening.)

By the way, who wrote the 'Thoughts' section at the top of this page? It's at odds with Mike's first comment.

What is this "Sandifer" that you keep going on about?

The Doctor is actually going to Paradise Towers with the intention of exploring its architecture? Surely there are thousands of better architectural achievements on Earth alone. I mean, we see enough of it to know this isn't anything special.

Either the Doctor was taken in by the advertising (highly uncharacteristic for ANY Doctor) or he started his pro-active regime-toppling, Machiavellian-Seventh-Doctor schemes earlier than hitherto suspected.

I mean, how likely IS it that he'd take time off universe-saving to find Mel a swimming pool? MEL? (Unless he was planning on drowning her in it, obviously.)

I thought there was no outside establishing shot of the towers but there is indeed. Since it appears with the 'Part 2/3/4' titles (very B&W era there), I suspect it wasn't included in the movie-format version I had, the only way I'd ever seen this prior to the DVD release.

Unfortunately, that shot is pretty naff.

That's the risk you run with 80s Who. Be careful what you wish for...

Well, Who can do normal sized rats well at least.

*Sigh* Some people just can't let a fluffy Giant Rat rest in peace, can they...

...Admittedly I am one of said people.

He got awfully confident of who the Doctor is in mere moments. If he had such doubts, why not let him introduce himself?

I suppose he's just spent - years? Decades? - waiting for a non-half-witted audience to show off his superior brainpower/knowledge to and he's not gonna ruin the chance to demonstrate his insightfulness with mere doubts.

Then again, if they can quote it so thoroughly, why do they fall for the Doctor's ruse?

I'd normally suggest that such is the authority in the Doctor's voice, only given the Chief Caretaker tried to have him executed after about four words of said voice...

Mel: Oh no. We're back at the square again!
--What is this, Castravalva?

Tragically not.

Seems the Doctor ultimately does little besides nudging the action along. Everything that happens might have happened, perhaps with some differences, anyway. His being there didn't cause Kroagnon to take form nor the kangs, rezzies and caretakers to come together.

I disagree. The mere sight of his glorious inspirational presence made the losers - er, the Kangs, Rezzies and Caretakers - realise that coming together was a possibility.

He's like Eccleston, he doesn't actually have to DO anything.

So according the documentary, this *wasn't* set on Earth

But the building won awards back in the twenty-first century so if we're gonna be finding and colonising other suspiciously-Earth-like planets we'd better get a move on...

(Oh no! Will Trump's Space Force now be abolished? What a blow for humanity! And a gift to invading alien scum!)

There was talk of a war (that fails to provide sufficient background for the story)

Gods, do you remember how Bob Holmes could conjure up entire civilisations with throw-away lines about being with the Filipino army at the final advance on Reykjavik...

(Alright, so Big Finish invariably ruined said references with an audio sequel but that's not the POINT.)

JNT pushed for a more fantastic setting, but again, I can't see what change this effected.

THAT would explain A LOT.

'Yes, JNT, our story is now TOTALLY set on an alien planet as ordered!'
'Excellent. I hope you didn't have too much trouble rewriting the script.'
'No, no trouble at all, think nothing of it...'

The wife of the guy who played the Chief Caretaker played Jenny in the (Hartnell) Dalek Invasion of Earth.

JENNY is married to the CHIEF CARETAKER!

By the way, who wrote the 'Thoughts' section at the top of this page? It's at odds with Mike's first comment.

It was definitely Mike. He must have just...changed his mind really really fast. To be fair, Paradise Towers is the kinda story that varies from 'Enormous fun! True Who has returned to us AT LAST! Hail the Unalive!' to 'OK, THAT was embarrassing, typical Season Twenty-Four...' depending on your mood.

What is this "Sandifer" that you keep going on about?

See the Reference Books section - s/he writing the insane but highly interesting TARDIS Eruditorum books. Used to be Philip Sandifer and is now Elizabeth (took her a lot longer to produce the latest volume as a woman, annoyingly enough. Though if most of it is devoted to the NAs THAT'S probably the problem).

Kang was also the name of a Klingon captain in the Star Trek TOS episode, Day Of The Dove.