Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3093 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

Am I in Paradise? No.
I think the reviewer who claimed that this was 'campy but still quite fun' has hit the nail squarely on the head. The pantomime aspects of this serial (the cannibalistic grannies, the costumes for the gangs, the gangs, Pex, and of course the 'hammier than a ham sandwich' turn from the usually reliable Richard Briers) are cringeworthy, but underneath the camposity there's a decent story struggling to escape.

Good story, poor production (spoilers)
After "Time and the Rani", script editor Andrew Cartmel came to Stephen Wyatt to pen Sylvester McCoy's second story as the Doctor. Devising a story set in a massive tower block, and drawing heavily from JG Ballard's novel "High Rise", Wyatt created a story that had alot of potential for a good social satire. Sadly what became "Paradise Towers" is let down by poor execution which fails to take advantage of the story's ideas.

Paradise Towers is a luxurious 304-story tower block designed by a non-human entity, the Great Architect Kroagnon. An arrogant and tyrannical being, Kroagnon refused to let anyone inhabit his creation. Unable to remove him or have him killed, the Tower's inhabitants encase him in the basement of his own creation, hastily leaving the building in order to go and fight a war. They evacuate the very young and very old people to live in the Towers indefinitely while the war is fought.

Hearing great things about the Towers, particularly it's swimming pool on the top floor, the Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) and Mel (Bonnie Langford) decide to pay a visit. They find the place in disrepair and disorder. The rat-infested corridors are roamed by crossbow-toting street gangs called the Kangs; the apartments are inhabited by the Rezzies, canniballistic old women who jazz up their bland apartment existence by capturing and devouring anyone who crosses their path; the building is overseen by the caretakers, who hopelessy try to run the Towers behind a rulebook of inefficient bureaucratic regulations.

The sole outsider is Pex (Howard Cooke), a cowardly ex-soldier too scared to fight in the war. Meanwhile, Kroagnon, with the help of his deadly robotic cleaners is steadily plotting his escape...

The lighthearted almost comical approach to the story is dire, and reduces what could have been a great drama to the level of farce. The script leaves a couple of plot holes dangling and only towards the end does everything become completely coherent.

This has to be Bonnie Langford's worst story on "Doctor Who". Reduced to merely wandering around corridors and making, in light of what happens to her, unbelievably stupid decisions, she gives a very strained and unconvincing performance.

Howard Cooke (as Pex) and Richard Briers (as the Chief Caretaker) are also poor, not taking their roles seriously enough. It would have worked better had Pex been cast (as Wyatt intended) as a musclebound, Sly Stallone type. There were alot of pumped-up musclebound tough guys in cinema in those days, so to have one who was a coward would have been a novel twist.

On the plus side, McCoy is getting better (and less manic) as the Doctor and Brenda Bruce and Elizabeth Spriggs have the right amount of sinister relish as Rezzies Tilda and Tabby.

The sets are very good, but the lighting could have been more sinister and noirish in places. However, the special effects, especially the killer robots, are shoddy. The music isn't too bad though, and adds a bit of edge to the drama.

All in all, a good story with some excellent ideas. Later seasons would mould the mystery and satire presented here into much better stories.

Great story. shame about the production.
This story hails from Sylvester McCoy's first year as the Time Lord, a time when the programme was waning in both quality, and production standards. The script is quite an interesting political satire, but unfortunately, as with so many stories of this era, it is let down by its cheap and shoddy production. If you can ignore the poor special effects, and some dreadful acting (including the usually brilliant Richard Briers), there is an enjoyable story to be found.

Somewhere...