Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2759 in VHS
• Released on: 1995-10-02
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Formats: HiFi Sound, PAL
• Number of tapes: 1
• Running time: 98 minutes

Synopsis
When Mel goes swimming at Paradise Towers, instead of bright, clean squares and charming cloisters, she finds filthy corridors, badly-behaved street gangs and unpleasant people who are disappearing in mysterious circumstances.

Customer Reviews

Campy, but still quite fun.
Maybe I'm letting nostalgia rule my opinion here, but I still find this story quite enjoyable. True, Bonnie Langford does little but wander about, and then is attacked by a huge bright yellow robotic crab she somehow failed to notice floating on the surface of a swimming pool. But the story has its moments, such as the Doctor outwitting his enemies by use of their own red tape, and the irony of the 'cowardly cutlet' Pex being the only one brave enough to stand up to the Great Architect. True, a lot of what could have been dark, serious drama is camped up. But the Dr Who series had recently been under fire for being too violent and gory. 'Paradise Towers' contains Nazi-type troopers, cannibalistic old ladies, cleaning robots who strangle people, street gangs and the theme of council tower blocks. If all this had been played as serious this story would probably have had more complaints from the TV 'watchdogs' than any of the more infamous Colin Baker stories. Whether you view 'Paradise Towers' as a laugh or not, it's still mostly entertaining.

Utter tosh
Michael Grade tried and failed to kill off Dr Who - or did he? All the evidence here is that he succeeded.

Naff characters, woeful acting, laughable special effects and an inept Doctor paired with BONNIE LANGFORD combine to make this one of the show's all-time turkeys. Why on earth was it made available on video? Surely people didn't want to watch it again?!

If they did, they were never real Doctor Who fans, as this is an example of the show at its worst in the post-Tom Baker years - at least the Davison era had some great stories, even if the Doc was not up to the old standard.

The horror of it all is summed up by Richard Briers - he's funnier here than in The Good Life, only it's unintentional. (Was this the worst ever supporting role in Doctor Who?)

All in all, total tripe - an embarrassment to a once-great show.

The idea is wonderful, the execution woeful
Inspired by J.G. Ballard's High Rise and with some witty inventiveness on the part of scriptwriter Stephen Wyatt, this story had a LOT of potential. Such bizarre concepts needed a nightmarishly realistic setting if they are to be taken seriously (ala. the film "Brazil"). The sets and costumes offered up here invoke an image of an "alternative" style panto, this undermining the effects striven for in the script.

During this era of Doctor Who, some stories were shot entirely on location. It's a shame Paradise Towers couldn't have been one of them. The combination of surreal characters set against a very real 90's concrete jungle could have been quite unsettling and also helped more people take this story seriously.

And Richard Briars should not have been cast as the Chief Caretaker. I know he can act very well in serious roles, something he does not do here.