Paradise Towers (TV story)

Paradise Towers was the second story of Season 24 of Doctor Who. After a much-publicised falling out with Eric Saward, John Nathan-Turner was keen to find a writer who hadn't worked on the show before. At the BBC's script unit, he met Stephen Wyatt and asked him to submit a script for Doctor Who. At first the script lacked a traditional "monster". The robotic Cleaners were added to the script to fulfil this role.

Synopsis
According to the sales brochure, Paradise Towers is a utopian blueprint for community living, with its fabulous architecture and state-of-the-art facilities: the perfect place for Mel to take a leisurely swim. However, when the TARDIS arrives, the Seventh Doctor and Mel discover that the futuristic tower block has fallen into ruin, and a series of unexplained disappearances have the tenants living in fear. As gangs of teenage girls run wild in the hallways, a squad of bureaucratic Caretakers struggle to retain control. To keep the citizens of Paradise Towers safe, the Doctor must confront the resident evil lurking in the basement...

Part one
A teenage girl hide in a corridor, while the voices of her pursuers announce they have given up looking. Relieved, she turns to find something bearing down on her and screams. In the Doctor's TARDIS, Mel looks longingly at the swimming pool displayed on the TARDIS scanner. They've arrived at Paradise Towers and Mel is looking forward to taking a swim. However, upon leaving the TARDIS, they find the place in disarray. The surfaces are filthy and rats scuttle around underfoot.

Caretaker 345/12, subsection 3 reports in to the Chief Caretaker, telling him he has found evidence of "wallscrawlers" on Potassium Street. As he continues his inspection, he finds a bloodied rag and tells the Chief that he is scared. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Mel find themselves threatened by a group of teenage girls calling themselves the Red Kangs. The Doctor manages to please them and they take a liking to him. Two of their number introduce themselves as Fire Escape and Bin Liner. They tell the Doctor that they are rivals of both the Blue Kangs and the Yellow Kangs, though only one of the latter is still alive.

A Blue Kang is following Caretaker 345/12, subsection 3 and uses a telephone to report that the Yellow Kangs are no more. After she leaves a robot drives past with the leg of the last of their number sticking out of a rubbish contained trailing behind it. Back with the Red Kangs, the Doctor is asking questions. He finds that there are three types of people present in Paradise Towers: the Kangs, the old ones and the Caretakers. There seem to be more, but before Fire Escape can tell the Doctor of these group, Bin Liner gestures to her with a warning to keep silent regarding such things. With that they take the Doctor and Mel capture, having become interested in them after heaving their conversation about "the pool in the sky".

Caretaker 345/12, subsection 3 finds himself facing one of the robots, with a second sneaking up behind him. He manges to get through to the chief who tells him not to panic. One of the robot then grabs him with a mechanical claw and kills him. The Caretaker watches on a screen as one of the robots takes the body away and says "a nice little present coming up for you my beauty". He then puts out a message for all Caretakers to seize every "red wallscrawler" in Fountain of Happiness Square. As the Red Kangs are taking Mel and the Doctor to a new location, the Caretakers move in. The group flees but the Doctor falls and is taken prisoner.

Separated from both the Doctor and the Red Kangs, Mel comes across Tilda and her friend Tabby and is welcomed into their home. Mel asks them what group they belong to and they tell her they're Rezzies. They present Mel with both tea and cakes and invite her to dine. The Doctor is being escorted by the Caretakers, including the Deputy Chief Caretaker, who allow him a short rest. He finds a "wallscrawl" depicting a Kang being attacked by a mechanical claw, with other mechanical objects surrounding this centrepiece. The Deputy shrugs it off as made-up imagery. One of the robots turns the corner as they converse and the Doctor identifies it as "some sort of robotic Cleaner". As it readies its claw, they run away from it.

Back in Tilda and Tabby's house, Mel is encouraged to stay a while and eat to her hearts content. Just as Tabby comments on the peacefulness of her home, the door is broken through and a man steps in asking if Mel is either in or causing trouble. When he finds she is not, he introduces himself as Pex telling her he "puts the world of Paradise Towers to rights". Mel stands amazed at his immodesty. Elsewhere, the Doctor and his Caretaker accompaniment manage to escape the Cleaner by taking a lift.

Mel decides to leave Tilda and Tabby and once outside, Pex tells her he will help her find the Doctor, acting as a guide. They come across some Blue Kangs engaged in a form of worship. Meanwhile, the Doctor is brought before the Chief Caretaker who takes him to be the original architect of Paradise Towers. The Deputy asks what is to be done with him and the Chief orders that the Doctor is to be killed.

Part two
The Doctor tried to convince the Chief that he is not this "Great Architect", but to no avail as the Chief orders his deputy to organise the execution. He then receives a phone call from Caretaker 579/14, subsection 8, in regards to the death of 345/12, subsection 3, and is required elsewhere. Until his return, the sentence is postponed. Elsewhere, Mel and Pex are still looking for the Doctor and the Red Kangs find one of their number, No Exit, has been killed by the Cleaners.

The Deputy and another Caretaker are guarding the Doctor, he asks to see the rulebook by which the run their lives and they oblige, treating it as his last request. Then, pretending he is reading rules from the book, the Doctor tells them to step away from him, close their eyes and put their hands on their heads. They do so and he takes the key card from the Deputy and escapes. Mel and Pex narrowly miss the Doctor as they continue on their way. Much to their dismay, they find themselves back at the Fountain of Happiness Square. Mel asks Pex who he really is and he replies he had power invested in him by those he cannot name. As they move out of the square, they are followed by the Blue Kangs.

The Doctor comes across a wallscrawl while looking for Mel, takes out pen and paper and makes notes. Elsewhere, the Chief Caretaker is reassuring his team. He tries to quell any fears they have that the Caretakes are responsible. IIn their home, Tabby and Tilda are visited by Maddy who tells them about the death of yet another Caretaker. She tells them that people cannot simply be disappearing, and the agree, covering up their dinner.

Meanwhile, the Doctor comes across and telephone and manages to break it, resulting money flooding out. As he collects it in his hat, two Cleaners move in on him and he is forced down a hole. He wakes from unconsciousness to find himself in the Red Kangs' "brainquarters". He confronts them about the Cleaners, only to find they no less than he does, nor do they know what the create their own wallscrawls depict is. The Doctor attempts to use another phone, but it is no in use. He turns the cabinet attached to it around to reveal that it is a vending machine. He buys a can of Fizzade and shares it out amongst the Kangs.

The Chief Caretaker visits the creature and refers to it as "my pet", and himself as its "daddy". He asks the creature if it enjoyed its Caretaker snack and then questions it as to who else has been feeding it, but it simply replies that it is "hungry". The Chief leaves, promising to feed it the Great Architect. Meanwhile, Mel and Pex find themselves taken prisoner by the Blue Kangs. Mel asks them if they know who Pex is and they tell her he's the "musclebrain", an inbetween - a term for those who are middle aged - who went with the Kangs by hiding aboard their ship, rather than fight in a war with all the other inbetweens. Mel is allowed to leave, with Pex being taunted by the Kangs as a "scaredy-cat".

The Chief orders that it is time to seek out the Great Architect and, at the same time, teach the Kangs a lesson for their recent defiance of Caretaker authority. Elsewhere, Mel finds herself back in the company of Tilda and Tabby after she is invited in for tea.

In their brainquarters, he Red Kangs are all drinking the Fizzade now, and the Doctor tries to side with them. However, an alarm blears and Bin Liner warns that the Caretakers are moving in. On the other side of the door, the Caretakers begin to brake it down. Back in their house, Tabby and Tilda agree that they can't afford to miss this opportunity. They throw a net over Mel and Tabby brandishes a toasting fork at her neck.

Part three
The Doctor opts to buy the Red Kangs some time and encourages them to make their escape. Meanwhile, Mel warns Tabby that there is something wrong with the waste disposal unit. As she inspects it, a claw bursts out of it, grabs Tabby and pulls her through. Tilda blames Mel and moves and brandishes a knife at her. Pex bursts through the door and Tilda runs to get a knife; but as she does so, the claw once again emerges and pulls her through as well. In the corridor, a cleaner drives past with Tilda's foot sticking out of it.

The Caretakers manage to brake down the door to the Red Kang brainquarters and they take the Doctor capture. Entering, they find that he is the only one there. Mel is still trying to get to the "pool in the sky" - as it is known locally - as that is where she arranged to meet the Doctor. Pex warns her that only the "un-alive" go there but deems it his duty to accompany her. The Doctor is brought before the Chief Caretaker who deems it necessary for them to have a chat. The Deputy queries his leader as to the recent Caretaker fatalities, breaking several regulations and resulting in him being sent out of the room. The Chief tells the Doctor that the "Great Architect" disappeared under mysterious circumstances, soon after the completion of Paradise Towers. News of Tilda and Tabby's deaths draws the Chief away and he leaves the Deputy to once again guard the Doctor.

Elsewhere, Mel and Pex enter a lift but find themselves victims of the cleaners who are pressing the buttons all up the shaft so that they are constantly moving and therefore stuck in the life. Bin Liner and Fire Escape break into the Chief's office and tie up the Deputy and the other guards. This leaves him free to leave. In Tilda and Tabby's flat, the Chief is interviewing Maddy. He tells her there is no cause for alarm and encourages her to keep news of the incident quite. However, she does not want to do so, but the Chief offers her the flat - which is extensively bigger than hers - and she agrees to say nothing.

In the lift, Mel and Pex are stuck moving up and down between floors 173 and 174. Pex attempts to fix the controls, but only causes the life to descend at a very high speed. They find themselves in the basement and hear a voice announcing "soon, soon I shall be free". In the Red Kang brainquarters, the Doctor is watching an information video about Kroagnon - or the "Great Architect". He tells the Kangs the story of Miracle City, a place built by Kroagnon and from which he refused to move out, or let anyone in. Eventually he was forced out and those who moved in he killed. But nothing could be proven and so he walked free.

Pex manages to get the lift working again, and they start ascending. The Chief finds himself facing cleaner 479, who forces him to follow. At the brainquarters, the Doctor convinces the Red Kangs that they must go the basement. As he does so, the Blue Kangs burst in and proclaim victory over the Reds. The Doctor tries to convince them that there is no time for games and that they must all work together. Mel and Pex arrive at Floor 304 and find a serene, clean area of Paradise Towers greeting them. Mel finds the pool and settles down to rest in preparation for her swim. In the water, a water-bound cleaner lurks below the surface and sights Mel on the edge.

The Chief is brought before "his pet" by a cleaner and asks him why he has been killing so many people. He replies that he needed a body to live in, but the ones the cleaners brought were not satisfactory. Behind the Chief, the Doctor, Bin Liner, Fire Escape, and Drinking Fountain are sneaking up on them. The Chief is forced into a container as the creature declares itself to be Kroagnon. The Doctor and his friends attack but a cleaner grabs the Doctor with its claw and begins to throttle him.

Part four
The Doctor is pulled free by the Kangs and they flee. The contained the Chief was placed in rises leaving a silver-clothed Chief in it's wake. Kroagnon has now taken his body and reveals that he tried to stop the use of Paradise Towers, leading to his imprisonment. He declares that, together with the cleaners, he will destroy everyone in the towers. The Doctor and the Kangs stop to rest with the immediate danger gone. He thinks that the parents of Paradise Towers' current inhabitants must have imprisoned Kroagnon but he devised a means to perform corpoelectroscopy - a way to transplant his brain to a host body.

On Floor 304, Mel is swimming, she encourages Pex to join her but he just sits at the side. Suddenly, the water-bound cleaner surfaces and attacks Mel. In the Red Kang brainquarters, both the Blues and the Reds have gathered. They wait for the arrival of Fire Escape and plan to head for the "pool in the sky". Back in this pool, Mel urges Pex to help her. She manages to get into the shallows and, borrowing Pex's gun, shoots the cleaner. It sinks below the surface, its casing blown open. In the Chief's office, the Deputy puts out Regulation ZZZ - an order for Caretakers to act with extreme caution and return to base.

Back downstairs, Kroagnon leads a cleaner through the corridors as it spurts out jets of poisonous gas. A nearby Caretaker falls down and dies as a result and Kroagnon decides to return later to collect the "rubbish". Meanwhile, the Doctor and the Kangs join Mel and Pex on Floor 304. The Kangs start taunting Pex again and he moves to leave, but his way is blocked by three Rezzies - including Maddy -, who propose an alliance.

Kroagnon enters the Chief's office and confronts the Deputy. Realising that he is no longer the Chief Caretaker, the Deputy runs away. After some discussion, the Kangs agree to work with both the (apologetic) Rezzies and Pax but claim they will never work with the Caretakers, but, as they do so, the Deputy arrives and join their alliance. In the Chief Caretaker's office, Kroagnon is marking off floors that have been gassed. He notes that everyone will head to Floor 304 and he will gradually gas each floor on the way up.

Back on Floor 304, the Deputy reveals that on Floor 245, Sodium Street, corridor 75, there is a secret emergency supply of explosives kept for pests going out of control. They decide to use this to set a trap for Kroagnon. The Rezzies plan to slow the cleaners with the table cloths they make, while the Kangs destroy them with explosives and the arrow guns they carry. Back in the Chief's office, Kroagnon is still marking off floors as they are gassed. He decides to check what is going on in "the pool zone", but finds that the surveillance has been prevented by "the Great Architect".

The Doctor outlines his plan to capture Kroagnon: he will offer to meet their enemy and someone will lead Kroagnon to him where he will be trapped. Pex offers to do this, much to the amusement of the Kangs. In the Chief's office, Kroagnon gets a message from the Doctor who taunts him by criticising his work as an architect. In a corridor, a combined Rezzie and Kang effort sees a cleaner destroyed. On Floor 304, the Kangs give Pex gifts as he prepares to leave and he gives Mel his gun.

Pex goes to the Chief's office and uses a video screen to communicate with Kroagnon, who is within. He agrees to accompany Pex to see the Doctor and then begin to make their way through the corridors. However, contrary to the Doctor's order to travel slowly, Pex is fearful of Kroagnon and so they make haste.

Soon they are at the Doctor's location and they begin to converse. The Doctor tries to push Kroagnon through a door but is unable to move him. Pex grabs a stick of explosive, pushes the Doctor out of the way and throws both himself and Kroagnon through the doorway. Both are killed in the explosion.

The Kangs, Rezzie and Caretakers are holding a ceremony for Pex. The honour his bravery and the Doctor comments that he helped bring them all together. As a parting gift, the Kangs give the Doctor a scarf with a red side and a blue side - making him an honourary Kang. Mel and the Doctor return to the TARDIS and it dematerialises. Behind it, some wallscrawl simply says "Pex lives".

Cast

 * The Doctor - Sylvester McCoy
 * Mel - Bonnie Langford
 * Chief Caretaker/The Great Architect - Richard Briers
 * Deputy Chief Caretaker - Clive Merrison
 * Tabby - Elizabeth Spriggs
 * Tilda - Brenda Bruce
 * Maddy - Judy Cornwell
 * Pex - Howard Cooke
 * Fire Escape - Julie Brennon
 * Bin Liner - Annabel Yuresha
 * Blue Kang Leader - Catherine Cusack
 * Yellow Kang - Astra Sheridan
 * Red Kang - Nisha Nayar
 * Young Caretaker - Joseph Young
 * Video Commentary - Simon Coady

Crew

 * Assistant Floor Manager - Val McCrimmon
 * Costumes - Janet Tharby
 * Designer - Martin Collins
 * Incidental Music - Keff McCulloch
 * Make-Up - Shaunna Harrison
 * OB Cameraman - Alastair Mitchell, David Hunter
 * Producer - John Nathan-Turner
 * Production Assistant - Frances Graham
 * Production Associate - Anne Faggetter
 * Script Editor - Andrew Cartmel
 * Special Sounds - Dick Mills
 * Studio Lighting - Henry Barber
 * Studio Sound - Brian Clark
 * Theme Arrangement - Keff McCulloch
 * Title Music - Ron Grainer
 * Visual Effects - Simon Taylor

Story notes

 * This story had a working title of Paradise Tower.
 * Julie Brennon, who played Fire Escape, was at the time married to former companion actor Mark Strickson.
 * This music score for this story was originally made by freelance composer David Snell. John Nathan-Turner rejected the music after it was completed, deeming it too repetitive. Keff McCulloch provided the replacement score very quickly.

Ratings

 * Part 1 - 4.5 million viewers
 * Part 2 - 5.2 million viewers
 * Part 3 - 5.0 million viewers
 * Part 4 - 5.0 million viewers

Filming locations

 * Elmswell House, Nightingales Lane, Chalfont St Giles, Buckinghamshire (Location of the pool)
 * BBC Television Centre (TC1 &amp; TC8), Shepherd's Bush, London

Production errors

 * When Tilda throws a knife at Pex, a length of string is clearly attached to it.

Continuity

 * The Doctor is once again called an "Old One" by locals, as he was in DW: The Mysterious Planet.
 * The TARDIS is graffitied again in DW: Aliens of London.
 * The TARDIS pool last appeared in DW: The Invasion of Time. It was later rebuilt by the Doctor some time between this episode and The Eleventh Hour, but was once again ejected in The Doctor's Wife.

Timeline
The Doctor states that this story takes place in the 21st century. The advanced technology suggests it is set in the latter half.

Timeline

 * Paradise Towers occurs after: BFA: Red
 * Paradise Towers occurs before: ST: 24 Crawford Street

VHS
Paradise Towers was released onto VHS on the following dates:


 * UK (October 1995)


 * Australia (January 1997)


 * United States (June 1997).

DVD
Paradise Towers was released on Region 2 DVD in July 2011. It included commentary with Judy Cornwell, Stephen Wyatt and Dick Mills. Other special features were:
 * Horror on the High Rise - the making of this serial.
 * Casting Sylvester
 * Girls! Girls! Girls! - The Eighties
 * Deleted and extended scenes
 * Alternative soundtrack
 * Photo gallery
 * Coming soon trailer
 * Radio Time listings