Customer Reviews

Doctor Who - Paradise Towers [VHS]

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

"Welcome to Paradise Towers, which will be your new home for a good few years to come. Some of you will understandably feel nervous at leaving everything you know for a strange new environment. However, we believe once you've tasted the Paradise Towers experience you won't want to change it for any other. Our motto is Build High For Happiness." --prospectus of Paradise Towers. Additional prospectus follows:

Ground level: the main materials for this story is J.G. Ballard's High Rise, with supporting structures Monty Python's Architect Sketch, Lord of the Flies, and A Clockwork Orange. However, include a wandering Time Lord and his red-haired companion Mel, the former who wants to explore, the latter who wants to enjoy the swimming pool at the top of the 304 story building, only to find the Towers littered and graffitied.

Level 42: Now, meet the Kangs, Red Kangs, who are a gang of crossbow wielding, graffiti-spraying girls in red outfits and rinsed red hair, led by Bin Liner and Fire Escape, who take to the Doctor's "ice hot" clothes, but not to Mel. And to stir things up a bit later, some Blue Kangs, who are a gang of crossbow-wielding, graffiti-spraying girls in blue outfits and... you get the idea. Unfortunately, we only see one Yellow Kang, who like many others in this story, become, in a phrase used by the Kangs, "taken to the cleaners" or "made unalive." Some of their lingo seems taken from Orwell's Newspeak from 1984.

Level 68: Here, we have the Caretakers, the authority wearing Fascist Germany-style grey uniforms who are after the "wall scrawlers" or Kangs. Their officious bureaucratic-ness will make the most hidebound Dickensian clerk blush with shame. However, some of the Caretakers are being "made unalive" as well. And observe their funny salute, hands held under noses and the chant "All hail the Great Architect!" Very Pythonish, yes? Oh, there is a Chief Caretaker who does have a funny mustache akin to the leader of the Third Reich, and a hidden agenda of his own.

Level 100: The Rezzies or Residents who appear here are elderly, and seem overly kind and generous with tea and cakes, such as Tilda and Tabby, but beware their other eating habits. When Maddy tells of a Caretaker's disappearance and says "There's always something left behind," Tabby surreptitiously covers her full plate with her napkin. Hmmm...

Level 125: This is Pex, a self-appointed "musclebrain" who "is here to set Paradise Towers to rights" and is eager to help Mel find the Doctor, while at the same time hiding a dark secret, for which the Kangs have a taunting nickname for him. However, he is useful at breaking doors down.

Level 205: Three special appearances here: Richard Briers (Good Neighbors) does a job as the Chief Caretaker, who's quite a psychotic maniac. Judy Cornwell (Maddy) is best known as Hyacinth's sister Daisy in Keeping Up Appearances. Elizabeth Spriggs (Tabby) would later appear as the Fat Lady in the first Harry Potter movie.

Level 244: Extra "ice-hot" performances: Annabel Yuresha (Bin Liner), Julie Brennon (Fire Escape), and Catherine Cusack (Blue Kang Leader, named Drinking Fountain in the novelization), who is the youngest daughter of Irish actor Cyril Cusack. All are attractive young ladies who add life to and are the best things in this story and have lots of fun with the Doctor.

Level 304: Despite having a closeted studio setting, and its criticism of adopting a more stagey pantomime style, the lighting is good, and indicate a new style for Doctor Who. Enjoying the Doctor dancing with the Red Kangs in Episode 1 depends upon how light a mood one is in. We hope this ice hot video will make you unsad. Thank you, and Build High For Happiness.

The one star review was Really harsh! The five star review was perhaps a bit generous. Somewhere in between lies the truth. As a huge Doctor Who fan and an admitted anal completeist, I have placed my order for this DVD.
I recall watching this episode on my local PBS station as a pre-teen and I admit I have not seen it since (15-20 years ago). But I do have some vague memories of it along with the original Target novelisation. I remember it as a fair McCoy outing and worth a viewing. It certainly is no Caves Of Androzani or even a Rememberance Of The Daleks, but it is a fun part of the 7th Doctor's history and not a complete horror.
Maybe I'm just a soft touch or just a damn fool. Maybe I'm just trying to reconnect with the 12 year old boy I once was who sat with his popcorn and Coke and tried to piece together how all these different guys could be the same Time Lord. Regardless, I still have fun watching even the weakest adventures of the goiod Doctor. So I say buy it if you want to or save your cash if you want to. I'm gonna enjoy it either way.

PS How about we try to tone down the vehemence and sometimes vicious personal attacks directed at certain reviewers. We can surely disagree, even with all our two hearts, but let's not get so damn angry. It's just opinions of a TV show! Whatever happened to civilized debate? Let's all just remember that we're all united as fans of a classically awesome cult TV show and not take it so unbelievably seriously! It's not worth getting so angry! (Again, my opinion.)
Peace - Mike T.

I'll keep this simple. I enjoyed this episode immensely! It was quirky in parts, creepy in others. For those who missed the moral of the story, look deeper. "When people join together and get past their hate and differences, mountains, or in this case monsters, can be moved/eliminated."

Proud to have the screen name:

"BlueKang16"

This is regularly listed as one of the top ten worst Dr. Who serials. Honestly, I don't think it merits the extreme hype. That said, this is strictly fan territory only and really isn't good enough for public consumption.

There are a lot of great ideas here, but ultimately while the camp can be allowed in favor of satire, some of the camp is just bad writing. This is supposedly a violent place and yet while there are cannibals and killer machines there seems to be far threats of danger than any one person pulling it off. Because every human acts tough but doesn't immediately deliver the whole world seems fake. You compare Paradise Towers to an apartment block from Judge Dredd and see which holds up to scrutiny. While there were some fun ideas, I'm not sure it works as a Doctor Who story. The Doctor and Mel just seemed forced into the picture and feel totally out of place. Their motivation is inane. They want to go swimming in luxurious swimming pool (that looks like a crap hotel pool).

Again, there is no chance for chemistry between the doctor and Mel. They get separated through most of the show so we never really see them interact. Mel is always in a hurry, unless she has time to eat tea and cookies...and scream. Still, McCoy is starting to coming into the part.

The biggest problem with the serial (outside of this era's horrendous music) is that the whole thing starts to fizzle near the end. It presents itself as satire and then when it is done presenting all it came with, then you have two more predictable episodes to go. The actors aren't given much worthwhile to work with, so they either do nothing interesting, or overact in the extreme.

With a good story editor, this might have been a nice two-parter, as it stands it is flabby and awkward. Even as a fan that buys most of the DVDs I'm skipping this one.

The Doctor and Mel have traveled to Paradise Towers. Mel wants to use the pool on the top floor, while the Doctor wants to explore the building arcitechter. When they land in the TARDIS they find that things are not what the brocuhe claimed it to be. Trash everywhere, rats running freely and graffiti on the walls. The Doctor and Mel haven't long before they are captured by the Red Kangs. A group of all female warriors who are at war with the rivals the Blue Kangs. They wonder who the Doctor and Mel are since they do not fit in with any of the others who live within Paradise Towers.
Before they can get any more questions out of them the care takers arrive on the scene to apprehend the Red Kangs and make them pay for thier "wall scrawling" as they put it. Mel is seprated from the Doctor and encounters one of the "Rezzies" old women who seem to like Mel a great deal and want her to stay for a cup of tea. MEanwhile the Doctor has been arrested by the care takers and taken before the chief care taker who mistakes The Doctor for The Great Architecht, the one responsable for the creation of Paradise Towers in the first place! The Chief care taker decides to put the Doctor to death while the Rezzies are preparing Mel for dinner. In comes Pex "Protector of Paradise Towers" and all around dim blub when it comes to what is going on. All this and the fact that people Kangs, Rezzies and Care Takers go missing never to be seen again.
Can the Doctor save himself, Mel, The Kangs, Pex and everyone else from the hoorors of what is going on in the basement of Paradise Towers? Will he figure out what the Great Architecht has to do with all of this? Or will the Doctor become another vistor of Paradise Towers never to return?

Having rewatched this for the first time in several years, I can confirm the opinion I gave in a comment a few months back -- This is FAR from being the worst Doctor Who story ever made. Is it the best? No. But it's eminently watchable, with much to recommend it.

The story line is clever, though it does have some gaping plot holes. (What DW story doesn't?) A group of 'oldsters' and 'youngsters' are left in a 300+ story apartment building while the 'middles' go off the fight a war. The middles have (presumably) died ... and the PT residents are left to fend for themselves, surviving however they can. But surviving is made more difficult by wandering cleaning robots and *something* that lives in the cellar...

The sets are appropriately grimy -- no shiny white corridors here. Just live rats and wallscrawl.

The acting is mostly decent. Darling Richard Briers does overact a bit (and more than a bit towards the end), but the Kangs all do a good job, and Pex is believable.

The clever use of language adds a nice touch to the proceedings. (Though.. here's a question ... why doesn't the TARDIS 'translate' the odd terms? Presumably the PTers aren't speaking English anyway.)

The extras include the usual "Making of" documentary (in which most participants are apologetic that it didn't turn out as well as it might have), some deleted scenes, a disposable commentary (the writer and a guest star or two -- neither Sylvester nor Bonnie took part) and a mysterious 20 minute documentary on the Doctor Who Girls of the 80's. Mysterious because it features Sophie Aldred, Sarah Sutton and Janet Fielding (who does most of the talking), but NOT Bonnie Langford. Surely it would have been better placed as an extra one the Ace stories?

In summary, if you're going to cherry pick only the "Best" DW discs to buy, this one can be left on the shelf. But if you've never seen it, don't let its poor reputation scare you off.

This story does not deserve the bad reputation it has received over the years. Some consider this to be one of the worst stories of the classic series. I happen to think this is good sci-fi. To me sci-fi reflects the way the characters are impacted by the science and the environment around them.

Here we have an odd batch of people who by happenstance ended up living in the great Paradise Towers. But something went terribly wrong and as a result these scattered subgroups formed. We have the Kangs, the Rezzies, and the Caretakers who continue to perform their routines even as this great residential achievement falls by the wayside. The special effects are not really needed here although I think the Cleaners work well for the time period.

The Kangs have developed their own language. The Rezzies have taken up cannibalism with a cup of tea. And the Caretakers continue to live by the rule book. But what else are they supposed to do because this is the way they have lived for years. One good thing about this story is that Mel doesn't scream quite as often as earlier stories. So that is a relief.

I was a bit disappointed that neither Sylvester McCoy or Bonnie Langford were involved with the DVD commentary. Maybe even they believe this to be some of their worst work. The extras include some extended scenes and a behind the scenes documentary. There is also a short documentary about the female companions of the 80's.

Not even Richard Briers can help it meander to any point of redemption.
Terrible acting.
It is plagued with the overtly pretentious and ludicrous writing that followed much of McCoy's era. (Excluding "Remembrance")
Impossible to watch without fast forward and cringing.
Maybe, just maybe I will consider 2 small scenes with the caretakers as slightly enjoyable. But after weighed against:
The cannibal residents, the Kangs, the cleaners, and pex... Avoid.
It is my least favorite, on all merits, of the entire run of Dr. Who.

The highlight of this Dr. Who story for me was the wonderfully comic perfomance of Richard Briers as the Chief Caretaker. He is perhaps best known to us as being a member of Monty Python, but I will always think of him as Tom Good from the Brit-Com "Good Neighbors" (a.k.a. The Good Life).(The title of my review is from an episode of that show BTW.) In fact the acting overall in this one is very good. Another brit-com celebrity, Judy Cornwall who played Daisy in "Keeping Up Apperances" , also makes an apperance. The story, while entertaining, is a bit silly however. People being chased around by big lumbering mechanical cleaners is just a little far-fetched. I'd give it an extra half or maybe even 3 quarters, but we can't do that. I also did an earlier review of "Dragonfire" which I gave 4 stars and said it was the best of Season 24 and I must be consistant, mustn't I?

After the dreadful 'Time and the Rani' things could only get better. Thankfully this second McCoy story is an improvement with its imaginative vocabulary (ice-hot, etc) and its well-thought-out charicature of an inner city tower block.

In fact 'Paradise Towers' has the potential to be a classic. But where the whole thing falls down is in its on-screen execution. For a start, most of the actors involved go way over the top - Richard Briers is especially awful, putting on the most feeble impersonation of Hitler I've ever seen. The garish sets, idiotic action scenes and far-too-colourful costumes make the whole thing look like its taking place in a 60's sci-fi comic book. The rhythmic, upbeat music is often completely out of place and the awful Mel does little but wander about with a stereotype hardman (well, he's more of a kids TV would-be-hero to be bluntly honest). The story itself is, admittedly, not without its flaws. How, for example, does Mel fail to notice a giant bright-yellow robot on the surface of a clear swimming pool? And why are people pulled through an impossibly small hole by a cleaner robot which is apparently inside a waste disposal pipe?

There are some good points. The 'cowardly cutlet' Pex being the only person in the entire towers with the guts to stand up to Kroagnon provides first-rate pathos and a nice ironic twist, and the scenes in which the Doctor outwits his caretaker guards are clever.

Overall this story is entertaining in an undemanding way, but you can't help feeling it could have been so much better if only a few more people had taken it just that little bit more seriously.