Paradise Towers

Build high for happiness

The Seventh Doctor era is defined by more divisiveness than just about any other era. With previous Doctors, most people agree that certain stories are good and others are bad with a few people making exceptions. But even when they make those exceptions, they don't really argue heavily, they just acknowledge that they like that story and move on. This is not the case with the Seventh Doctor. Fans get in heated debates over whether certain stories are terrible or if they are brilliant and they defend their positions strongly.

Paradise Towers is a story where I've seen one of the most stringent debates. I'd have to give the winner of the contest to Ghost Light but an argument could be made that Paradise Towers earns the second spot in the most heated debate forum. One side proclaims it drivel while the other proclaims it black comedy satirical genius. As it seems with all the other Seventh Doctor stories I've seen, I'm somewhere in the middle. I get the sense that there is a satirical element running through this story, but I'm missing what it truly is and it just comes across as a very strange, but interesting story.

Plot Summary

Mel and the Doctor arrive at Paradise Towers, hoping to enjoy a swim as the TARDIS pool was jettisoned. Rather than a futuristic villa, they find the place filled with garbage and the walls covered in graffiti. They are captured by an all-female gang called the Red Kangs who seem to like the Doctor but not Mel.

Meanwhile one of the security guards, called Caretakers, is patrolling a section when he is killed by a roving machine called a Cleaner. The Doctor learns from the Red Kangs that the towers are divided between the Red Kangs, the Blue Kangs and the Yellow Kangs, although the yellows are nearly extinct. There are also the Caretakers and the Rezzies, the actual residents of the towers. The Red Kangs try to take the Doctor and Mel back to their lair but a group of Caretakers attack and the gang flees.

Mel is offered shelter in one of the apartments where two older women named Tilda and Tabby reside. They offer her refreshment and the opportunity to stay. After a bit of tea, a man named Pex breaks into the old ladies apartment, for the third time to their great annoyance. He offers to be Mel's guide as she tries to find both the Doctor and the pool.

The Doctor is taken by the Caretakers. They are attacked by one of the robotic cleaners but they elude it by fleeing to an elevator. He is then taken to the Chief Caretaker who believes he is the Great Architect and orders his men to kill the Doctor. However before they can, he is called away due to the death of another Caretaker. The Chief Caretaker goes to see a creature who appears to have reprogrammed the Cleaners to kill anyone in the halls for food rather than just Kangs and Rezzies. He promises to bring the creature more food.

The Doctor tricks the guards and escapes but runs into two Cleaners. In escaping them, the Doctor falls back in with the Red Kangs in their hideout. He gains their trust just before a squad of Caretakers begins to cut through the door of their hideout. The Doctor orders them to flee and he surrenders himself to the Caretakers who take him back to the Chief Caretaker's office.

Mel and Pex return to the atrium where they run into a squad of Blue Kangs. Mel learns from them that Pex hid when the men and boys of age were drafted away. They refuse to let him go but Mel is released. Mel meets Tilda and Tabby who shelter her once more. However, they attack her inside the apartment as they have turned to cannibalism and plan to eat her.

As the two women prepare in the kitchen for Mel, a Cleaner arm reaches through the garbage chute and pulls Tabby down into it. Tilda attempts to kill Mel in her rage but Pex comes bursting through the door again. Tilda throws her knife at him but misses. She goes for a second knife but is also pulled into the garbage chute by the Cleaner. Pex frees Mel and they run off into the elevator to escape a pursuing Cleaner.

The Doctor questions the Chief Caretaker and begins to understand that things are falling apart. The Chief Caretaker is notified about the Cleaner attack of Tilda and Tabby and leaves to investigate, leaving the Doctor in the care of his deputy. The Doctor is rescued by the Red Kangs and taken back to their lair.

In the lair, the Doctor studies an info disk he took from the Chief Caretaker's office. From it he realizes that Paradise Towers were made by a man called Kroagnon, a brilliant engineer but who hated people and tried to keep everyone out. The Doctor theorizes that a trap was created for him in Paradise Towers and that he is likely responsible for the Cleaner deaths. He decides to head to the basement with several Red Kangs to help. Before they leave, a squad of Blue Kangs enter, declaring themselves winners of the game as they found the Red Kang's lair. The Doctor tells them of the situation and the leader of the Blue Kang's agrees to come and help as well.

Mel and Pex, after a few misadventures in the elevator, find the top floor and the swimming pool. Mel opts to relax and wait for the Doctor as originally agreed. Pex is nervous and a robotic creature surfaces briefly before hiding below the surface of the water again.

The Chief Caretaker is captured by the Cleaners and taken to the creature he spoke to before. It reveals itself as the trapped Kroagnon who then proceeds to take over the body of the Chief Caretaker. The Doctor observes this but is grabbed by a Cleaner before he can do anything. The Kangs free him and they run off. Kroagnon then orders the Cleaners to purge Paradise Towers.

On the roof, Mel swims with Pex sitting skittishly. The robotic creature in the pool attacks her. She manages to free herself and Pex tosses her his gun. She shoots the creature, destroying it.

The Doctor and the Kangs come up to the pool, having decided that it is the safest place to rendezvous. They are quickly joined by a group of Rezzies and the Deputy Chief Caretaker, all fleeing the Cleaners. The Deputy informs them that there is a supply of explosives on one floor and the Doctor uses all the groups to form a plan. The Rezzies distract and blind the cleaners with linens while the Kangs use the explosives to destroy them. To distract Kroagnon, the Doctor offers himself up as bait for a trap. Pex volunteers to lead Kroagnon into the trap.

The plan unfolds as desired but Pex panics in the middle and leads Kroagnon to the trap before the Doctor is ready. He attempts to push Kroagnon down a shaft but Kroagnon fends him off. Ashamed of his cowardice, Pex tackles Kroagnon and the two of them tumble down the shaft. As they fall, the explosives Pex was holding detonate, killing both of them. With all sides now unified, the Doctor and Mel leave as the residents of Paradise Towers eulogize Pex for his sacrifice.

Analysis

I have to say, I was genuinely surprised at how much I enjoyed this story. Season 24 of Doctor Who is generally considered the worst due to how slap dash it ended up having to be and despite the fact that there are a number of people who defend this story, I was generally expecting it to be sub-par.

It does scream 1980's but it was not as surreal as I was expecting. It was strange and there was a strong current of satire being played that I know I was not fully realizing, but it held my interest and I found the overall story both well-paced and engaging. It fell apart towards the end a bit in Episode Four and that was slightly disappointing but the rest of it was actually quite good.

One of my biggest hang-ups about the Seventh Doctor era has been that there always seems to be more story than is told. This is very obvious in The Curse of Fenric where an extended edition was released with all the cut-for-time footage and in Ghost Light where the book is required to fill in the rest of the story. Even The Greatest Show in the Galaxy left the Doctor's knowledge of the Gods of Ragnarok unexplained and that bugged me. This is the first Seventh Doctor story where I didn't feel that. The Doctor had knowledge about Kroagnon, but he explained it to the Kangs so his use of that prior knowledge made sense. There was also untold backstory, in the form of the war, but it wasn't important to the plot. It would have been something interesting to explore, but there was never a sense that this story suffered as a result of not having that information.

I did have a few quibbles. The biggest weak link was Mel. In contrast to the Doctor's subtlety, Mel was direct and over-the-top. It wasn't bad when she was with Tabby and Tilda as it played well with their slight over-the-top and intentionally comedic performances. But when she was with Pex and his more serious demeanor, it just didn't work. The pool scene especially just seemed very odd and a bit cheap looking as well.

On that note, there was an element of cheapness to this one. They did disguise it fairly well, but the Cleaners and the Pool Robot just weren't that scary and obviously hard to realize. The Cleaners actually reminded me a lot of the War Machines and given that twenty years separated those stories, that's not exactly a compliment towards the Cleaners. They weren't story breaking, but it was good that they were not shown to be successfully attacking people too often as when it did, it just looked a bit silly.

There were two other things that I think I would have changed if I were running this story. I think the Kangs should have been a little bit younger. They spoke like five-year olds but looked like they were all in their mid-twenties. I get that there was a Beyond Thunderdome element going on, but the contrast in appearance to Pex wasn't significant enough. I think the Kangs and their childish behavior would have been more believable if they were mostly teenagers with even a few pre-teens tossed in for mix. I get why that couldn't have happened, but I think it would have made it more appealing to me.

The second element I would have changed would have been the performance of Kroagnon. The Chief Caretaker is a very enjoyable character and there is a lot of subtle humor in how he conducts himself. However, when he changes to Kroagnon, he becomes this single-note and literally stiff villain. I get that his body is essentially dead with a new mind now working it, but it just lost so much in the performance. I think a more dynamic performance might have made Kroagnon more threatening and a better villain than the shuffling zombie trope he turned out to be.

As I said earlier, it was a pretty good story up until the end. After Episode Three, I was in the 4 rating range and was debating with myself about whether Mel's performance was annoying enough to keep it out of the 4.5 range. However, Episode Four really brought it down for me and I think I have to ding it a bit more. It is a good story and engaging and I think that's what makes the shoddy resolution that much more disappointing. I'd watch this again without any problem, although I might have to grouse a bit once the final episode rolled around. But that's just par for the course with me.

Overall personal score: 3.5 out of 5