Sarah -
Build High for Happiness, Harry!
I have to admit I've always had a bit of a soft spot for "Paradise Towers".
Harry -
Build High for Happiness, Sarah!
"Paradise Towers" is a story that I watched once, many years ago, and I forgot most of it. How timely to re-discover it now, when High-Rise has just been made into a movie. In the DVD making-of featurette, Andrew Cartmel and Stephen Wyatt confirm that the Doctor's adventure was absolutely torn from the pages of J.G. Ballard's dystopian epic. That's ice hot!
So... who's best, Red Kangs, Blue Kangs, or Yellow Kangs?
Sarah -
Alas, the Yellow Kangs are clearly out of the running -- what with the whole being unalive thing. The Red Kangs have spirit, but I think I lean towards the Blue Kangs on the basis of fashion alone.
Harry -
Too bad there weren't Green Kangs, that's my favourite colour.
Sarah -
It's my favorite, too! Green Kangs would rule the Towers.
"Paradise Towers" gets bashed a lot in fandom, which I find quite unfair.
Harry -
Very unfair!
Sarah -
It's just one in a long line of Doctor Who stories with a lot of great ideas that are let down by the production. If you look past the bad effects and try to ignore the awful music, it's a really interesting story.
The concept of a society that has developed from the left-behinds is classic science fiction. When all the adults and young men went off to fight, "Paradise Towers" was left with teenage young women, elderly women, and a small, seemingly all-male police force. It's such a dark concept that I can only wish the production matched that tone. Can you imagine this story in another producer's hands? Imagine "Paradise Towers" in the Graham Williams era!
Harry -
Yes, the music of this era is distinctive, but unsuitably fast and jingly. Something slower and more goth or darkwave would have been a fantastic mood-setter here.
Sarah -
Exactly! The story would be so much more respected with better music.
Harry -
The sets were pretty realistic. As the entire story takes place in a huge tower of flats, some graffiti and rubbish strewn about captured the scene perfectly. The super-clean swimming pool area was a nice contrast to the hellscape of urban decay below.
Sarah -
I really like the sets. They feel very lived-in.
Harry -
The cleaners were your typical big lumbering Doctor Who thing. They've been around since "The War Machines". The caretakers were probably the most disappointing aspect of the production, with their comedy SS uniforms. It's too bad because Richard Briers and Clive Merrison acted like gangbusters. The Chief Caretaker was played with a polite intensity that hinted at an explosive rage beneath. When his body was occupied by the Great Architect, Briers changed gears and played it over the top, slurring Kroagnon's voice as it boomed out of his zombie body. What a great performance. Merrison was the typical number two, who could adhere ferociously to the rules at one moment, then switch sides just as easily when the tides shifted.
Sarah -
They're both fabulous.
Harry -
So many good performances in this one. Brenda Bruce and Elizabeth Spriggs were chilling as the batty old flatmates driven to cannibalism.
Sarah -
They are my favorite part of the story. Their archetypal British grannies routine is the perfect cover for the murdering cannibals. I love the scenes when they lure Mel into their lair and ply her with tea and baked goods.
We mustn't forget Judy Cornwell's Maddy -- adding another Keeping Up Appearances actor to the Doctor Who pantheon.
Harry -
She was delightfully distressed. Howard Cooke was fascinating as Pex, the "cowardly lion" of Paradise Towers.
Sarah -
I love Pex and adore the moment when he finally gets to be the hero.
Harry -
And of course the Kangs, the slang-talking, colour-fighting, Clockwork Orange-esque gangs of young women who roam the floors of the towers. With so many strong characters in the story, it's no surprise that the Doctor and Mel were almost reduced to supporting roles.
Sarah -
It feels like McCoy is still searching for his characterization here, but he holds his own as he rallies all the factions to work together.
Harry -
In that sense it was a perfect story for Sylvester. The garbled sayings have been dropped from his lines, replaced by the face-pulling for which he will become better known. He does love whipping that straw hat off and whacking it back on at funny angles.
Sarah -
Mel has some nice moments, too. Her scenes with the grannies are all the more terrifying because she's so sweet and has no idea what's going on. I really like her scenes with Pex, from her disappointment at his cowardice to her ability to inspire him to save the day.
Harry -
It was sad to see the misery that the residents of Paradise Towers were forced to live in. Desperate for food, frightened to leave their safe places, treading through squalor -- those cleaners didn't do much cleaning, did they? The fact that the Kangs didn't know what a soda machine was was head-shakingly sad.
Sarah -
I'm not sure director Nicholas Mallett understood that he was telling a dystopian story.
Harry -
Way less screaming from Mel this time. With Pex as her jittery sidekick, her natural assertiveness came to the fore as they worked to get to the swimming pool at the top of the building.
Sarah -
She finally gets her moment in the sun, but it's disconcerting that she's still obsessed with swimming after all they've gone through to get there. Being faced with the nightmare of Paradise Towers, my first instinct would be to get the hell out of there -- not going for a swim. Pity the Doctor had to jettison the TARDIS swimming pool.
Harry -
The pool scene seemed to exist just so that Mel could be attacked by the pool cleaner, and Pex could be cowardly again. There were some other weak moments. The Doctor using the rulebook to talk his way out of confinement pushed the satire beyond the boundaries of belief. There were some black comedy moments too. Tabby and Tilda both being pulled into the disposal unit was hilariously macabre.
Sarah -
The rulebook scene was like something out of The Three Stooges. Tabby and Tilda are brilliantly macabre!
And then we get to the Great Architect. The Chief Caretaker initially believes the Doctor to be the Great Architect and sentences him to death. We soon discover that the Great Architect is actually the beastie in the basement with the neon-sign eyes. The Chief Caretaker has apparently been feeding him human bodies for a while now, apparently with a strong focus on the Yellow Kangs. For reasons that are never quite explained, he needs more and more bodies, until he takes over the Chief's body.
Harry -
This is where they took Ballard's urban dystopia and made it into science fiction. It wasn't explained very well what exactly Kroagnon was. A computer? An alien? A disembodied intelligence? Whatever it was, it wanted to take corporeal form, settling on the Chief Caretaker's body. It was also extremely misanthropic, wanting to wipe all the humans out of Paradise Towers, presumably to let its work exist unblemished by inhabitants.
Sarah -
Every architect's dream!
Harry -
Unlike High-Rise, in which floors of residents degenerate into primal war bands, the people of Paradise Towers are pulled together by the Doctor and Mel to fight their common enemy.
Sarah -
One can only wonder what they would have done if the Doctor and Mel hadn't shown up!
Harry -
Forced ever higher by the slowly rampaging cleaners, the residents devise a scheme to flush Kroagnon into the open, so he can be lured into a booby trap. After being ferociously teased (bad Kangs!), Pex volunteers to be the lure. He tells Kroagnon that he can take him to the Doctor. Face to face at last, the Doctor is unable to physically force the monster into the booby trap. In his moment of supreme bravery and sacrifice, Pex hurls himself at Kroagnon, but they both end up in the trap and it kills them. Such a tragic end to a character who finally overcame his weakness.
Sarah -
While Pex's cowardice has been demonstrated for us over and over, my heart broke every time the Kangs hassled him about it. I love that he managed to rally and prove himself as brave as a Kang. In the words of Bin Liner, "Hail Pex. Hail the unalive who gave his life for the Tower. In life he was not a Kang, but in death he was brave and bold as a Kang should be."
I've watched "Paradise Towers" at least four times. It's not a great Doctor Who story, but it's always fun to watch.
Harry -
After a fresh viewing, my opinion of it has improved greatly. Great story, great performances. I'm looking forward to seeing High-Rise now more than ever. Also, the next story in our marathon is one of my secret all-time favourites, so I'm really looking forward to that too!
Sarah -
Best Line:
Pex: "Are these old ladies annoying you?"
Mel: "No"
Pex: "Are you annoying these old ladies?"
Favorite Moment: Pex's moment of bravery.
Lasting Image: the Kangs in their finery.
7/10
Harry -
Best Line: "Ice hot!"
Favourite Moment: Tilda and Tabby meet their fate in the trash disposal.
Lasting Image: Tabby in her easy chair, roasting a giant crumpet over an open fire.
7/10
Our marathon continues with Story #146: Delta and the Bannermen...
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