Paradise Towers by: Stephen Wyatt and directed by: Nicholas Mallett

 

Paradise Towers stars Sylvester McCoy as the Doctor and Bonnie Langford as Melanie with Clive Merrison as the Deputy Chief Caretaker and Richard Briers as the Chief Caretaker and Kroagnon.  It was written by: Stephen Wyatt and directed by: Nicholas Mallett with Andrew Cartmel as Script Editor and John Nathan-Turner as Producer.  It was originally broadcast on Mondays from 5 to 26 October 1987 on BBC1.

 

Andrew Cartmel took the script editor position of Doctor Who well into the production of Time and the Rani and famously had little input in terms of that script.  He also came into conflict with writers Pip and Jane Baker while searching for writers of his own to fill out the rest of the twenty-fourth season of the show.  Producer John Nathan-Turner facilitated early meetings with young scriptwriter Stephen Wyatt who had recently had his television play Claws produced.  Cartmel believed imbuing Doctor Who with further left leaning politics and discussed the possibility with Wyatt of taking inspiration from J.G. Ballard’s novel High-Rise, commissioning Paradise Tower by the end of January 1987 as the second serial of Season 24.  Nicholas Mallett, director of The Mysterious Planet the year prior, was brought on to direct and production ran smoothly until post-production, when it was deemed by Cartmel and Nathan-Turner the score by David Snell needed replacing.  Keff McCullouch was brought in last minute to rewrite the score though Snell’s original score survives and is an alternate soundtrack available on the DVD and Blu-ray.  McCulloch’s score, perhaps as it was written quickly and to a deadline, is one of his honestly weaker scores.  Much of it relies on variations on his Doctor Who theme as well as a few standard march-esque themes sprinkled throughout.  Indeed, there are several sequences that feel empty without any underscoring where there honestly should be, taking away from a genuinely great script.

 

Luckily, the direction from Nicholas Mallett is especially well done in a serial that is essentially studio bound.  Yes, there are a few establishing shots that are filmed on location as well as the scenes in the swimming pool, however, everything is either in an apartment, hallway, basement, or the pool of Paradise Towers.  Mallett as a director loves including several odd angle shots which give the viewer a really interesting view at the grubby tower block, plus the occasional point of view monster shot of this pool cleaning robot.  Immediately the direction adds to the somber nature of the serial, the color palette of the serial are greys and browns with the occasional fluorescent light to make things feel particularly run down.  Stephen Wyatt’s script is also one that is perfect for subtle worldbuilding.  This is a serial that doesn’t explain the time period it is set in (at some point in the future), the planet (possibly Earth, though probably not), or why exactly the decay has happened (lack of support from the government).  The urban decay has led to the younger inhabitants developing their own way of speaking and being placed against one another in games while the Cleaners slowly pick Kangs (a portmanteau of Kid Gangs) off one by one to feed to the monster in the basement.

 

Yet, that’s what makes a lot of Paradise Towers actually work incredibly well as a mission statement for Doctor Who.  This is the serial where the Seventh Doctor establishes himself as who this incarnation of the Doctor is.  While the character would develop into the chessmaster version of the character, the Doctor here immediately realizes he has to get to the bottom of the destruction and overthrow the regime of the Caretakers and Cleaners so those living in Paradise Towers can take back the power they are rightfully owned.  This also serves as a stark reflection of Britain in 1987 when you really pick it apart.  Perhaps not as explicit as having a Margaret Thatcher stand in like later stories, but Paradise Towers is clearly tackling the issues of a complicit population.  McCoy takes the material he is given and runs with it, knowing exactly which buttons to push to get people to rally together and how to run circles around the evils of bureaucracy that the Caretakers enforce and represent.  As an actor he never takes the drama away while injecting the performance with quite a bit of comedy.  Clive Merrison as the Deputy Chief Caretaker is the main character the Doctor’s running circles around and Merrison reacts perfectly to McCoy’s antics as the Doctor, while Richard Briers as the Chief Caretaker is almost going too over the top.  The final episode in particular has Briers being taken over by the Great Architect, the mystery of what happened to the architect being a secondary thrust to represent conservation of society’s values by any means necessary, is where Briers perhaps needed to tone things down and is very lucky the rest of the cast understands what they are doing.

 

The Doctor is separated from Mel for much of the serial and that is honestly for the best.  Bonnie Langford is allowed to lead her own storyline really for the first time since Terror of the Vervoids and this may be the only serial where she is characterized incredibly well.  Yes, Mel is attacked by monsters at several points and screams at the top of her lungs, but as a character this is a serial where she is allowed to be proactive.  Langford is clearly enjoying herself here since Wyatt has given her a very juicy part where she has to investigate the tower on her own and in her own way.  She has to be the one that while the Doctor is teaching the Kangs to behave, she is teaching Pex, the seemingly only male character who is not a Caretaker in Paradise Towers, how to be courageous as well as how to be a man.  Pex’s introduction is bursting through the door of the apartment shared by elderly lesbians Tilda and Tabby, played by Brenda Bruce and Elizabeth Spriggs respectively, demanding to know if Mel is being bothered or bothering these old ladies.  And yes, this is as close as classic Doctor Who gets to LGBT representation in a pair of elderly lesbians who are also cannibals.  Spriggs and Bruce are delightfully camp which adds to the very dark comedy of the serial while Howard Cooke as Pex doesn’t quite fit the 1980s action film protagonist which adds to the satire and comedy of the serial.  Pex’s bravery isn’t brave, it’s bravado that really lacks a purpose or sense of identity, just masculinity acting out without any influence which adds to Pex’s ultimate sacrifice in the end.

 

Overall, Paradise Towers is a serial that for whatever reason has not been properly appreciated.  Initial reviews were incredibly negative, and while there were definitely valid points in regards to moments in the performance of Richard Briers, pay attention to the serial itself and you will see a very clear mission statement that Doctor Who is back and has something to say.  Sylvester McCoy gets the chance to truly define how he wishes to play the Doctor while Bonnie Langford is given one genuinely interesting piece of characterization which had been lacking.  It’s certainly the best serial from the generally rocky Season 24 and for those who perhaps haven’t given it a look recently should give it another chance and see the beginnings of what makes the McCoy era and the Seventh Doctor my personal favorite era of Doctor Who. 8/10.