Doctor Who Club of Australia

ADAMK · Joined: 29 Jun 2005 Posts: 216 Location: Canberra

What do people make of this (Season 24) 1987 story written by Stephen Wyatt?

This is the analysis from the official BBC website (WARNING! SPOILERS): http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/episodeguide/paradisetowers/analysis.shtml

Wester · Joined: 04 Aug 2005 Posts: 604 Location: Brisbane

I have to be honest. This will be the first time I ever seen this story as I was working when it showed during the 1987. I am looking forward to seeing it. Smile

Hiruma · Joined: 30 Jun 2005 Posts: 173 Location: Australia

I liked the whole concept of this 'perfect' tower where people lived in peace.. then you get the reality and everything is old faded. I think Stephen Wyatt probbly played up on the whole housing estates in England with the segregation of people inside them. Then the cleaner robots doing what they can to keep the place 'clean'

Perhaps the best scene is the pool and the robot underwater looking up at the Doctor and Co.

Matt

Beatly · Joined: 24 Jul 2005 Posts: 375 Location: London

...and of course one of the Kangs survived into the year 200,100 only to get exterminated by a Dalek while trying to defend the GameStation.

dunmall · Joined: 02 Aug 2005 Posts: 117

it was pretty good, there's a bit where Mel is talking to the grannies and on a certain line she suddenly puts her hands on her hips, and Bonnie Langford has this look on her face, you can see her standing there thinking: "At the end of this line I must do an action right on cue...." She is kinda like watching a 12 yr old in a schoold play....
Other than that the story is cool, I didn't remember Pex being so....so...um er....Camp? (Or to remind me of Jason Connery so much)

Theta Sigma · Joined: 26 Jun 2005 Posts: 4109

Yet another future Keeping Up Appearances star appears in the classic series with Judy Cornwell as Maddy following on from Clive Swift in the unscreened on the ABC, Revelation of the Daleks and Geoffrey Hughes in the last segment Trial of A Time Lord.

Quite like Pex.

Wester · Joined: 04 Aug 2005 Posts: 604 Location: Brisbane

I am sorry but I am really not enjoying this story. It just seems like one big pantomime - really childish and very very silly. Its like some story that could have been written by Lewis Carroll. Sad

adamclark83 · Posted: Fri Jan 13, 2006 3:10 pm Post subject:

How did the people playing the Caretakers remeber all those appendix, sub-section, article numbers? I find it quite hilarious with all those numbers. Especially where the Doctor is scheduled for a 327 appendix 3 subsection 9 death. Funny! Also the one playing Bin Liner is quite pretty.

SharazJek · Joined: 12 Aug 2005 Posts: 892 Location: Hobart, Tasmania

I voted 'very good' for this one. I utterly detested it when it first screened in Australia back in 1988. I was embarrased and ashamed that this was what Dr Who had come to.

But now my thoughts have changed a lot on this story. It's probably now my favourite of season 24. When I think about the deeper themes in this one, it becomes quite frightening. I don't quite know what Stephen Wyatt was focusing on here, but it makes me think of many issues, particularly the state the population finds itself in when a whole section of it is removed. Paradise Towers is almost a lesson in human ecology.

It's really quite clever.

Greg · Posted: Fri Jan 13, 2006 4:25 pm Post subject:

The storyline is OK, but it's the execution that leaves it languishing low on favourite lists.

British TV is not unknown for stylised drama that has liitle or no naturalism to it. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't.

I'm not excessively fond of Paradise Towers... but it may be the best story in this season!

Lara Croft · Joined: 11 Jan 2006 Posts: 99 Location: Canberra

I actually really like this story (even though it has Mel in it). It is so 80's kitch - its brilliant!

This is actually one of the better stories as far as Bonney's acting goes, too.

That guy from (I think it is) The Good Life (I am only 21, so not sure) is funny - a credible actor.

My favorite McKoy and Langford story, anyway.

Kerr Avon · Joined: 15 Jul 2005 Posts: 478

I really enjoyed this story - and my kids (aged 7 and 10) were absolutely glued to it - more so than they have been to any "classic series" story I can think of.

didn't like the music much but otherwise it was all good.

charlie · Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2006 7:20 pm Post subject:

Do all of Sylveters stories feature incidental music that includes the theme? It was a good idea for Time and the Rani to introduce him but not anywhere after that.

I found this one abit hard to believe. I thought that Pex was a lame pun that had very little entertainment value other than his part in luring the Architect and ultimately killing him. I liked the Kangs but now that I think about it theyre abit infeasable. I only noticed one black person amoung the Kangs and I thought that she looked quite out of place since everyone else in this story that I saw was white.

The cleaners remound me a little of WOTAN's war machines. I thought that the eyes of the cleaners and the Architect were kind of lame but still fun to watch. Also the idea that an architect couldnt put up with the idea that people would live in his creations, I found abit hard to grasp.

At first I thought I could learn to ignore Mel's screams but seeing her do the initial scream of shock and then continuing on to the constant whining scream, has made me really dislike her as a companion.

Despite all that I still voted good.

SharazJek · Joined: 12 Aug 2005 Posts: 892 Location: Hobart, Tasmania

Davros · Joined: 29 Jun 2005 Posts: 134 Location: Skaro

I'm finding my first viewing of all Sylvestor stories not so great ...although he is a releif from watching Colin Baker, hopefully he gets better ...your opions?

SharazJek · Joined: 12 Aug 2005 Posts: 892 Location: Hobart, Tasmania

ADAMK · Joined: 29 Jun 2005 Posts: 216 Location: Canberra

An interesting story let down by bad acting and a dodgy production! Worth watching though to see a fine actor (Richard Briers as the Chief Caretaker) give one of the worst performances in the history of DW! His overacting makes Professor Zaroff from "The Underwater Menance" look positively restrained!!

Tom N. · Joined: 07 Jul 2005 Posts: 144 Location: Sydney, NSW

I liked Paradise Towers. In many ways it could be considered a rehearsal of sorts for Greatest Show; it takes something very mundane (apartment block vs. circus in GS) and puts a wonderfully macabre twist on it. I remember seeing a cleaning robot for the first time and thinking how cute it seemed - then I saw that it was towing a container with someone's leg hanging out of it. Quite startling.

The Kangs' vernacular was very novel, and the Doctor's clever escape from the Caretakers by exploiting their obedience to the rulebook a nice starting point for the 7th Doctor's habit of 'talking his enemies to death'.

Good stuff.