December 8: Paradise Towers Parts Three & Four

The Doctor tries to convince the Blue Kangs and the Red Kangs to
work together. (Paradise Towers Part Three) ©BBC

Part three is in much the same vein as parts one and two and is just as entertaining to watch.  The cannibalistic nature of Tilda and Tabby (heavily hinted at in parts one and two but fully revealed in part two's cliffhanger) is rather shocking but entirely in keeping with the atmosphere of the story, and I like how Pex gets to be a hero by bursting in at just the right time, even if he doesn't realize it.  There are also some nice moments between the Chief Caretaker and the Doctor -- particularly the way in which the Doctor and the Chief end up switching positions during the interrogation -- and while the creature in the basement with the glowing eyes is a bit daft-looking, the idea behind it is still compelling.

Really, the only real major problems come in part four, and that's almost entirely because of Richard Briers' decision to play the Kroagnon-controlled Chief Caretaker as a sort of zombie, almost literally slack-jawed and wide-eyed staring as he shuffles through the corridors.  And I don't even mind that too much -- Briers seems to be playing a character who's unused to inhabiting a body, so while it might be playing it a bit too broadly you can still see what he's going for.  And this is offset by all the other good stuff going on.  Watching all the various groups in Paradise Towers come together is really nice, and their team efforts to destroy the robotic Cleaners are suitably entertaining.  And while Pex comes off as a coward for a lot of it (his yelling for help while Mel is being attacked is hilarious -- although, as a side note, the shot of the machine dying after Mel shoots it in the eye is really really good), he gets to redeem himself in the final moments.  This is followed by a touching memorial that shows how the various groups are continuing to work together and genuinely coexist in the Towers.

It's by no means perfect, but Paradise Towers does a lot of things right.  The ideas are really strong and, while we might wish for better realization of those ideas here and there, they still shine through.  There's a distinctive look and feel in the Towers; visually, there's a unity at play here that makes this place feel both real and slightly caricatured.  In this respect this is (with the possible exception of parts of The Ultimate Foe) the closest Doctor Who has gotten to looking like its comic strip in Doctor Who Magazine; it's all too easy to imagine this as a storyline there, with art by John Ridgway.  This gives everything a heightened, fantastic (in the best sense of the word) feel, and this leads to one of Paradise Towers' main strengths: a world where the pictures and the dialogue are telling the same story.  It's stylistic and charming, with just enough of a skew to keep your attention throughout.  It's also a uniquely seventh Doctor story (certainly it's hard to imagine Wyatt's particular blending of dialogue styles between groups surviving being edited by Eric Saward, but in Andrew Cartmel's hands this aspect clearly comes through) that manages to be fun, fresh, and genuinely entertaining.  As I said, it's not perfect (some of the aforementioned casting, the impractical design of the Cleaners), but it's a lot easier to forgive this story's sins than those of several other stories (particularly recently).  Build high for happiness, indeed.