Doctor Who: Paradise Towers (1987)

Date(s) of Broadcast: 5 October 1987 - 26 October 1987
Number of Episodes: 4
Average Episode Running Times: 25 mins
Format: colour
Sound:

PRODUCTION
Production Company: BBC
Producer: John Nathan-Turner
Production Associate: Ann Faggetter

SCRIPT
Script: Stephen Wyatt
Script Editor: Andrew Cartmel

DIRECTION
Director: Nicholas Mallett

PHOTOGRAPHY
Studio Lighting: Henry Barber
OB Cameraman: Alastair Mitchell, David Hunter

MUSIC
Title Music: Ron Grainer and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop
Incidental Music / Title Music Arranger: Keff McCulloch

SOUND
Studio Sound: Brian Clark
Special Sounds: Dick Mills

MAKE UP AND COSTUMES
Make Up: Shaunna Harrison
Costumes: Janet Tharby

VISUAL EFFECTS
Visual Effects: Simon Taylor
Titles Designer: Oliver Elmes (uncredited)
Titles: Gareth Edwards, CAL Video (uncredited)

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Designer: Martin Collins

MISCELLANEOUS
Production Assistant: Frances Graham
Assistant Floor Manager: Val McCrimmon

STUNTS
Stunt Arranger: Roy Scammel (uncredited)

CAST
PART ONE
Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor)
Bonnie Langford (Mel Bush)
Richard Briers (chief caretaker)
Clive Merrison (deputy chief caretaker)
Brenda Bruce (Tilda)
Elizabeth Spriggs (Tabby)
Julie Brennon (Fire Escape)
Annabel Yuresha (Bin Liner)
Howard Cooke (Pex)
Catherine Cusack (Blue Kang leader)
Joseph Young (young Caretaker)
Astra Sheridan (yellow Kang)

PART TWO
Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor)
Bonnie Langford (Mel Bush)
Richard Briers (chief caretaker)
Clive Merrison (deputy chief caretaker)
Brenda Bruce (Tilda)
Elizabeth Spriggs (Tabby)
Julie Brennon (Fire Escape)
Annabel Yuresha (Bin Liner)
Howard Cooke (Pex)
Catherine Cusack (Blue Kang leader)
Judy Cornwell (Maddy)

PART THREE
Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor)
Bonnie Langford (Mel Bush)
Richard Briers (chief caretaker)
Clive Merrison (deputy chief caretaker)
Brenda Bruce (Tilda)
Elizabeth Spriggs (Tabby)
Julie Brennon (Fire Escape)
Annabel Yuresha (Bin Liner)
Howard Cooke (Pex)
Catherine Cusack (Blue Kang leader)
Judy Cornwell (Maddy)
Simon Coady (video commentator)

PART FOUR
Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor)
Bonnie Langford (Mel Bush)
Richard Briers (chief caretaker)
Clive Merrison (deputy chief caretaker)
Julie Brennon (Fire Escape)
Annabel Yuresha (Bin Liner)
Howard Cooke (Pex)
Catherine Cusack (Blue Kang leader)
Judy Cornwell (Maddy)

UNCREDITED PERFORMERS
Richard Briers (voice of the Great Architect)
Christine Clark, Louise Clifford, Helen Fung, Elizabeth Gardner, Nisha Nayar, Julietta Norde, Jennie Slade, Martha Stylianou, Roberta Wells, Lottie Winter (red Kangs)
Suzanna Crdash, Iona Dean, Tanya Davidson-Jones Harriet Eedle, Leigh Funnell, Heather Mair Thomas, Liz Wood (blue Kangs)
Nancy Adams, Kathleen Bidmead, Shelana Marshal, Muriel Wellesley (rezzies)
Rupert Clive Barrimore, Andrew J Bush, James Carrington, William Perrie, Don Weinstein (caretakers)
Ellie Bertram (double for Mel)

PLOT SUMMARY

The Doctor and Mel arrive at the huge leisure facility of Paradise Towers hoping to enjoy the fabulous pool that is said to be found there. But they find the Towers are run-down, the corridors are run by warring girl-gangs (the Kangs) and the elderly residents (the Rezzies) have turned to cannibalism. What little order there is is maintained by the Chief Caretaker on behalf of the Great Architect Kroagnon who is trying to kill everyone in the Towers to restore his project's 'purity'.

Woeful attempt to translate J.G. Ballard's High Rise and its strain of late sixties new wave SF to Doctor Who. At the same time too simplistic and too clever for its own good its production values, costumes and performances are dire. Possibly the worst Doctor Who serial ever.

UK
Television Distributor: BBC
Video Distributor: BBC Video

1987
April
4: Outside broadcast recording begins
8: Outside broadcast recording ends.
20: Studio recording, TC8
21: Studio recording, TC8

May
3: Studio recording, TC1
4: Studio recording, TC1
5 Studio recording, TC1

September
7: UK - Part One television broadcast (on BBC1)
14: UK - Part Two television broadcast (on BBC1)
21: UK - Part Three television broadcast (on BBC1)
28: UK - Part Four television broadcast (on BBC1)

Der Fluch des Kroagnon - German title

SEE ALSO
Doctor Who: The Mark of the Rani (1985)

MAGAZINES

DWB no.48 (October 1987) (UK)
review (by Paul Dumont)

DWB no.122 p.13 (UK)
review

Muck and Devestation no.3 (December 1987) (UK)
review (by Nigel Griffiths)

BOOKS

Doctor Who The Handbook: The Seventh Doctor pp.36-41
credits, synopsis, review

Doctor Who: The Television Companion pp.504-507
credits, synopsis, review (by David J. Howe and Stephen James Walker)

OTHER SOURCES

screen
credits

KEYWORDS

time travel, space travel, time machines, spaceships, aliens, tower blocks, gangs, robots, authoritarianism, possession

Last Updated: 1 January, 2009