Paradise Towers

The Doctor and Mel head for Paradise Towers, a massive apartment block known for its architectural vision and flawless design. When the TARDIS arrives, though, the complex has deteriorated into a slum under seige from within. The residents prey upon each other, all-girl street gangs roam the corridors and deface the walls with graffitti, the caretakers have formed a totalitarian regime, and the automated cleaning machines have embarked on a killing rampage.

On a lot of levels Paradise Towers is sheer brilliance. Hay sat in on this episode with me and we both remarked that the direction was markedly different from other Doctor Who episodes, resulting in very effective use of the episode's large two-storey main set. As with any of the series' classic adventures, there's always a consciousness about money and there's only so much that can be done, but the gloomy hallways of the Towers are made very astmospheric though use of clever lighting and rearranging. If you look close enough you start to spot the same bits of graffiti here and there, but usually there's too much actually going on across the screen to stop and do that.

There's no real indicators if the Towers are in space somewhere or on a planet. Nobody goes outside, it's very claustrophobic. The sky outside does appear to be blue. The population is made up of a group of weary and mean caretakers whose spirits have been broken by their regimented lifestyles. They're supposed to be looking after the place, but their automated cleaning machines are taking matters into their own hands. Uh, claws. The Doctor realizes this right away when he is their prisoner, but they take a turn for the worst and start planning his execution. The residents of the Towers are made up of primarily old people, mostly old ladies. We get to meet them through Melanie when she is separated from the Doctor, and their first instinct is to start feeding her (and she needs it - but damn there goes her health consciousness right out the window pretty quick) so they can fatten her up and eat her. Melanie then falls in with a muscleguy named Pex (another extra right from the JN-T casting couch, Jay and I reckon) who is here on some agenda on his own - which turns out to be dodging the draft. And the final little group are the Kangs - teenage girls gone wild and playing a game of tag in the corridors and broken up into three separate colour camps: red, blue and yellow. Oh, primary colours, I just got that now. The last yellow Kang is no more by the time the Doctor and Mel arrive, and the Doctor spends most of his time with the red Kangs and their leaders Fire Escape and Bin Liner (yes, names are everything).

Jay and I weren't sure if there was some kind of message in the subtext of the show. Is this some critique of subsidized housing? An examination of the stupidity of trying to work while governed by a rule book? (Take that CUPW!) Is it a comment on how society breaks down and tribal warfare begins when people are forced to exist together in small spaces with depleting resources? Sure people are dying, the residents are turning into cannibals and something really nasty is lurking in the basement screaming that it is hungry, but that's all pretty simple stuff isn't it?

It's good to keep in mind that this is the second proper televised adventure with the seventh Doctor and Melanie, and it feels as if a bit of time has gone by. There's some friendly teasing between the two of them now, and the Doctor is starting to come into his own. He's started to carry an umbrella around with him now, and his tendancy to muddle up proverbial sayings that was so painfully established in Time and the Rani has been thankfully dropped. Problem is, since they're getting along so well and everything is cheerful, their relationship is a bit boring. There's no sexual chemistry between them (not that there ever was between any of the Doctors and companions until recent times) so we're left with two friends on their merry way through the galaxy in a police box. It's simplistic, I suppose, but neither of them has much going on beneath the surface here.

And then there's the screaming. Melanie. Screaming. Screaming. Melanie. My ears.

The incidental music is pretty good, some of it done as to keep in pace with the actions of the characters on the screen, whether they be walking, flinching from something that happens in front of them, or even turning their head slightly. Paradise Towers only really suffers because of the dialogue. The potential for this to be more gripping is all around. Maybe it also needs more blood. It might even need some swearing. But it could be really really scary right up until we find out what's really down in the basement of the building. Oh and the robotic cleaner in the pool could have drowned Melanie. Or Pex. Or, as Jay and I would have appreciated, Pex could have taken off his shirt (although some of those muscles are padding we suspect).

When this one comes out on DVD I'm going to be right there to get it from the UK. I do not know when this is going to be, though. But as I have said before, my region-free DVD player downgrades the image a bit and turns tacky bright sharp cheap video image into something a little more like film quality; it adds entirely new levels to the way some of the all-video episodes look, and I think Towers could look quite good that way.

I'll let you know.

NEXT EPISODE : BANG BANG A BOOM!