Doctor Who: Paradise Towers

Doctor Who Target Books (Numerical Order) #134

by Stephen Wyatt

Much in need of a holiday, Mel and the Doctor head for Paradise Towers: a luxury man-made planet with sparkling fountains, sunny streets, exotic flowers and a shimmering blue swimming pool.

But when the TARDIS materialises in a dark, rubbish filled, rat-infested alley it seems that this particular Paradise has turned into Hell!

Pursued by rogue cleaning machines, authoritarian caretakers and old ladies with strange eating habits, the Doctor and Mel track down the source of the chaos to one mysterious character – the designer of Paradise Towers, the Great Architect himself …

Genres: Doctor Who, Science Fiction, Fiction, Ebooks, Audiobook

143 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1989

About the author

Stephen Wyatt was educated at Latymer Upper School and then Clare College, Cambridge. After a brief spell as Lecturer in Drama at Glasgow University, he began his career as a freelance playwright in 1975 as writer/researcher with the Belgrade Theatre Coventry in Education team.

His subsequent young people's theatre work includes The Magic Cabbage (Unicorn 1978), Monster (York Theatre Royal 1979) and The Witch of Wapping (Half Moon 1980).

In 1982 and 1983 he was Resident Writer with the Bubble Theatre for whom he wrote Glitterballs and The Rogue's Progress.

Other theatre work includes After Shave (Apollo Theatre 1978), R.I.P Maria Callas (Edinburgh Festival / Hen and Chickens 1992), A working woman (from Zola's L'Assommoir) (West Yorkshire Playhouse 1992) and The Standard Bearer (Man in the Moon 2001). He also collaborated with Jeff Clarke on The Burglar's Opera for Opera della Luna (2004) "stolen from an idea by W. S. Gilbert with music nicked from Sir Arthur Sullivan".

His first work for television was Claws, filmed by the BBC in 1987, starring Simon Jones and Brenda Blethyn. Wyatt then went on to write two scripts for the science fiction series Doctor Who — these were Paradise Towers and The Greatest Show in the Galaxy. Both of those serials featured Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor. His other television credits include scripts for The House of Eliott and Casualty.

He has worked for BBC Radio since 1985 as both an adapter and an original playwright.

Reviews

[Derrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Paradise Towers is one of the most divisive Dr. Who stories of them all. One either loves it or hates it. The same goes for Melanie Bush, the companion played by Bonnie Langford.

But if you don't like the story and don't like Mel, I strongly suggest giving this audio a chance anyway. Bonnie Langford is amazing, doing multiple voices and bringing everyone to vivid life. The story is a bit fleshed out, and Pex in particular gets much more of a fair hearing here than in the episodes themselves.

Well worth a few bucks on audible.com.

[David T · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very excellent book off of the 24th Season's best story. Even though some many people do not like the 7th Doctor episodes, I think that they are the best. It is really true. They have the best in plots, music, acting, action, and more. I just do not under stand why people love Tom Baker episodes so much when they really suck. Any ways this story was very good and very faithful to the episodes. Even though there were a few changes it was still alright. At some moments the narrator would do the speaking for the characters and that could be a little annoying. This time the story had chapter names which was nice. Though some of the names did not really fit. Though still it was a very good book that I think everyone who likes Doctor Who should read.

Here is the plot. Mel wishes for a holiday so The Doctor takes her to Paradise Towers. The Towers are meant to be a lovely place to stay though they are the exact opposite. Paradise Towers has become a horrid place governed by the Chief Caretaker and his Deputy Chief. Inhabited by crazed old women who will eat anyone who is foolish enough to come in for tea. And Kangs, of many color, live to survive in the never ending Kang Game. Though everyone lives in fear of what hides in the basement bellow that is control the Cleaners, making them kill people. So the hero, Pex, must emerge to save the Towers form the man who built them, the Grate Architect Kroagnon. Though The Doctor and Mel seem to be in the middle of it all...

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

How you feel about Stephen Wyatt's adaptation of his own script for "Paradise Towers" probably depends on how you feel about the televised story. If you liked the broadcast version, you'll probably enjoy it. If you weren't a fan, there isn't much here to really add to what we saw on television screens.

Back before season 24 aired, I met Sylvester McCoy at my local PBS station's hosting of the Whomobile (a semi packed with props, set pieces, and an opportunity to sit in Bessie). McCoy regaled the audience with stories about his first season, making it sound far better than season 24 turned out to be.

"Paradise Towers" isn't necessarily a terrible story. It's one that has some ambition to it, but given the limited budget of the time and that it's a studio-bound story that features a lot of running up and down corridors, it still ended up disappointing me at the time. The novel is extremely faithful to what we saw on screen, though Wyatt does try to make certain characters a bit more credible on the printed page. Pex, for example, seems to look the part a bit more in the descriptions we're given in the book than the actor did in the television version. It also helps the Chief Caretaker be a bit more menacing when I'm not constantly taken out of the story by Richard Biers playing the role (though I will admit the audiobook isn't done any favors by Bonnie Langford doing a fairly good impression of what Biers does on-screen).

All-in-all, this is a solid enough adaptation that ranks in the middle of the range. It's not terrible, but it's not great as other Target books featuring the seventh Doctor would be.

[Kaoru · Rating 4 out of 5]

As episodes on TV "Paradise Towers" has got to be one of the most unloved "Doctor Who" stories of them all. One of the most cited reasons for this is Richard Briers' performance as the Chief Caretaker... and what eventually becomes of him. I never had any problem with Briers, however. In my book he completely hit the tone of the scripts, so it's a very gaga performance in a very gaga story. Either you like that type of thing... or you don't. And... well, this novelization won't win anyone over who doesn't like the TV episodes already. And I suppose the same can be said about the audiobook version. But either way, you just have to give it a chance because Bonnie Langford simply just [i]nails[/i] it. She goes from accents to dialects, from granny voices to childish kangs. And, yes, her Chief Caretaker is a blast.

From the few TARGET audiobooks I've heard so far this one is the most entertaining by far.

[Jacob Licklider · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stephen Wyatt contributed two serials to Doctor Who between 1987 and 1988, returning to pen a third audio drama for Big Finish Productions in 2020. His first, Paradise Towers, has the distinction of being the second serial of Season 24, a season that is often at the bottom of lists when ranking seasons. Each of the serials are often mocked and ignored as not worth anyone’s time but I say that when regarding Paradise Towers at least, that is nonsense. At the heart is a brilliant script and nowhere does that come out more than the 1989 novelization done by Wyatt himself. This is the era where the novels were preparing for the possible jump to full original novels which would eventually become the New Adventures so it benefits from a slightly lengthened page count, with Wyatt taking advantage of every word to expand the script and explore the characters. This era of the show was one where serials had a tendency to run long so they would be cut down for broadcast, with some of them only receiving extended editions with the Blu-ray releases bringing out new footage. Many of these scenes have been integrated into the novelization, with worldbuilding to explain just what Paradise Towers is: while there is still the backstory of the elderly and the young being put in the tower during a war, the Great Architect Kroagnon is actually given some more backstory and explanation as to why he was trapped as a spirit of the building and what he wants. It’s not some deep motivation, but it ties into Wyatt’s general commentary on the failing infrastructure of the late 1980s and Thatcher’s Britain even more. The themes of class become even more apparent in the novelization while they were already there, giving the characters inner thoughts new life.

The Chief Caretaker as well as the Caretakers as an organization also benefit from the expansion. While the Chief still maintains the over the top mannerisms and camp from the Richard Briers performance on television, there is an added layer of depth as he obsesses over his pet in the basement. The pet is such a project that he gets this almost sick pleasure from feeding and controlling it. This is used as a way to keep the Kangs and the Rezzies all in line throughout the Tower and when it eventually spirals out of control as Kroagnon eventually takes over his mind and the tower into its own hands, metaphorically speaking. The insanity as the Chief realizes just how his fascist takeover is being ripped from under him by an even worse fascist becomes the leader of the tower. The two factions of Kangs also feel like there is more explanation as to why they exist the way that they are and more of their dialect can be explored. Their first few scenes have the added bonus of peeking into the perspective of Mel and then later the Doctor. This also characterizes Mel a lot better, making her screams become a dialogue tag, and her emotions make more sense as Wyatt can include more backstory and motivation. She feels more explicitly confident in her travels and understanding how to react to a situation, something that will become standard for the character in the Expanded Universe. The Doctor also has some of his later characterization sneak in in a few scenes, not by changing much, but by establishing just a little bit more.

Overall, Paradise Towers was already a great story on television, but giving it the novelization treatment it is allowed to excel in this format by reflecting on what the Seventh Doctor’s era would become without losing sight of the optimism and whimsical nature of Season 24. Everything has time to be established and the pace is perfected to include things deleted from the television version while Wyatt brings the characters to life splendidly. 10/10.

[Van · Rating 4 out of 5]

Doctor Who – Paradise Towers, by Stephen Wyatt. Target, 1989. Number 134 in the Doctor Who Library. 143 pages, paperback. ISBN: 0-426-20330-5. Original script by Stephen Wyatt, BBC. 1987.

This adventure features the 7th Doctor and Mel.

Mel wants a vacation and finds a brochure for Paradise Towers which offers a lavish swimming pool among other extravagances. The Doctor isn't keen but relents and takes her to Paradise Towers for the promise of a relaxing good time. They know something is desperately wrong upon opening the TARDIS doors. Trash litters the streets, which are in disrepair, and the walls are covered in graffiti. And where are all the vacationers? Soon the Doctor and Mel are wishing they had never opened the door.

Stephen Wyatt's novelization of his own script is perhaps better than it should have been. I admit I hadn't really wanted to read this novel when it was posted to the Doctor Who Media Review for the month of September. I think I was recalling the over-lit sets and silly, over the top acting from the televised episode. As is often the case, the book is better. Wyatt injects dark, foreboding atmosphere and a sense of something waiting around the corner. I think the narrative tells more than the dialogue and Wyatt takes the opportunity to fill in gaps left in the onscreen production.

I think the book does a better job of portraying the size of Paradise Towers than the televised episode. In fairness, the book doesn't have a production budget. The characters feel a bit more fully developed, though I still got a sense of flatness from Pex, which is unfortunate as he's the accidental and/or reluctant hero.

What struck me about halfway through was the amount of world-building that went into this story. I think that's when I began to become a bit more impressed with this story. The Kangs, the Caretakers, and the Rezzies are all very different sets of characters, each with their own stories. The story of the Great Architect is almost background til near the end. Each set of characters actually has an arc that is completed by the end.

I think the one thing that nagged me a bit was the hurry up and wait pace. Wyatt seemed to be trying to create a sense of urgency and I think it worked more often than not. But the times of waiting for something to happen while expositing or narrating felt like speed bumps. Those periods weren't well placed, to me.

All in all, I actually liked Paradise Towers. I can comfortably recommend it.

[Leo H · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm planning of writing a bigger article involving Paradise Towers so I won't go on about it too much here, but just briefly, Paradise Towers is one of those slightly infuriating Dr Who stories, mainly from the eighties, which are brilliant conceptually, but the execution is not QUITE there so it ends up looking a bit crap. So the novelisation does go some way to redeeming some of the TV serial's worst failings, and for that it should be praised. What it doesn't do however is expand in any real way on the material in the TV scripts, which when you compare this to some of the other novelisations of Sylvester McCoy stories (Ben Aaronovich's Remembrance of the Daleks springs to mind) is a bit disappointing. Especially seeing as David Whitaker managed it with the two novelisations he wrote in the 60s.
The book is probably then the best way to experience Paradise Towers, if only in that you are spared Richard Briers' awful 'possessed' acting in the TV episodes. Like I say, it's not perfect, but there is a kernel of a very good idea in there, and I can't stop thinking about this blessed story at the moment, so there must be something worthwhile about it.

[Gareth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Possibly a bit of a guilty pleasure, but I do quite enjoy this book. The Seventh comes into his own here really, inasmuch as his first season self is quite different to the second two seasons, but here he is a lighter character, certainly a bit of humour, and while still very intelligent, the way he approaches things puts me in mind of the Second Doctor, but played up more for humour.
Mel is in good form here too, with the two separated early on to allow for them both to have various adventures.
The plotline itself isn't that amazing, and some if it doesn't seem to add up really for me, especially the numbers of people around, and how sustainable that is - there seems to be too few really for some of what is said, and at the same time too many caretakers seemingly in play as well.
But what helps is the various one off characters, and what is quite a weird world, giving me Alice in Wonderland vibes, allowing for lots of interesting adventures for the Doctor and Mel, and you end up caring about lots of the one off characters' fates as well.
Overall, a fun read.

[Mad Medico · Rating 3 out of 5]

Paradise Towers is a massively underrated Doctor Who serial that acts as a more light, enjoyable and obviously satirical version of J G Ballard’s High Rise. The novel reads similarly to the televised story (from what I can remember of it) and is generally competent and fast paced. What is most intriguing is the beginning of the more serious social commentary that would come to the fore in the next two seasons, with themes of social disintegration and cultural regression in evidence here, (in the venue of a dysfunctional leisure resort which would be the setting of three out of four of the season 24 serials for some unknown reason); bizarrely the infantile language of the Kangs, gleaned from misinterpretations of signs like ‘No Ball Games’, includes the use of ‘unalived’ which has now come to be used in TikTok vernacular! As the Chief Caretaker here is not played by Richard Briers the character is much improved, and in typical bolshy Seventh Doctor fashion the disparate proletarian groups are ultimately united in revolution against the mechanised anti-human Architect. PEX LIVES!

[David Layton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stephen Wyatt's two "Doctor Who" adventures both have the same problem. The premise is quite intriguing and the mystery behind what is happening keeps the story going. The answer to the mystery, though, is rather silly, and the ending slapdash. This in a nutshell is "Paradise Towers." The Doctor and Mel are trying to find a nice, relaxing pool, so go to the architectural marvel called Paradise Towers. When they arrive, however, the Towers are dirty and half-abandoned, occupied by gangs of teenage girls, old women "residents," some of whom practice cannibalism, and inept, rule-bound Caretakers. Something is killing people one by one, and that something might just be the dark secret kept in the basement. Wyatt's novelization keeps most of the original dialogue and follows the original plot precisely. Wyatt's novelistic touches make it a pleasant read, giving the novel the feeling of a story rather than just a cleaned-up version of the script.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's interesting how you can divide the releases of the 7th Doctor novelizations into two groups. The first batch are a set of decent adaptations, but not exactly groundbreaking in the way they expand upon the original TV stories. The second batch, however, broke so much new ground they became the blueprints for the initial run of Virgin Publishing's "New Adventure" line. "Paradise Towers" is very much in the first bath: a solid, enjoyable prose adaptation that doesn't go out of its way to offer any major new insights, or any major new material. It would have been interesting to see what it would have been like had it been of the same flavour as later novelizations, such as "Remembrance of the Daleks" or "The Curse of Fenric".

[Polly Batchelor · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Would you care for a cup of tea?"

7th Doctor and Mel

Mel wants to have a holiday. Anywhere, where she can go for a swim in a swimming pool. The Doctor takes Mel to 'Paradise Towers' a place where it is meant to be most relaxing and peaceful. Instead, it's the complete opposite. Everything is feral0 think of back alleys, rubbish and graffiti everywhere. People are separated into different gangs.

'Paradise Tower' is one of those stories both tv and book that you will either love it or hate it. You can definitely see Wyatt's influence from the book 'High Rise' by J.G. Ballard (just a much tamer version) The book did a good job if expanding on the world building that was lost on tv due to budget. it does well to also stick to what we see on tv too.

[Pete · Rating 3 out of 5]

Doctor Who : Paradise Towers (1989) is the novelisation of the second serial of season twenty four of Doctor Who.

The Doctor and Mel travel to Paradise Towers so that Mel can use what is meant to be a fantastic pool on the top level of a luxurious apartment complex. But the complex has decayed badly and now the caretakers maintain a mean order. There are older residents about. Almost all the men went off to war. The Kangs, groups of young women graffiti the complex while cleaning robots ominously patrol, sometimes appearing to take people.

The Kangs are quite fun with a nice bit of their own slang and whatnot. The story is pretty run of the mill but it’s not terrible.

[Julian White · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars, really; not too bad a version of the script - but another story I needed to almost force myself into reading.

The novelisation distances itself from some of the televised version problems (mainly age casting but also the lighting levels and too clean setting, despite the frequent mentions of dirt and decrepitude... The robots are better described than visualised onscreen). The Kang slang is less wearying than the over-use of 'ice hot!' - but why insist that the Towers are planet-sized? Makes no sense with the fabled swimming pool in the sky...

[Ian Banks · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first book in the range that I’ve really enjoyed since The Mysterious Planet. Even with the very obvious homages to High-Rise, 334, The Castle (Kafka, not Working Dog) and A Clockwork Orange, this is a far superior telling of the story than what we got on the screen. That’s it. That’s the review.

[Eliza Clara Hemming · Rating 5 out of 5]

The television story is underrated, in my opinion, but Wyatt's novelisation builds and expands upon the 1987 story in so many ways. Beautifully written and wonderfully quirky, it's a highlight of the Target collection.

[Steve · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book is better than the TV version.

[Robert McCallum · Rating 1 out of 5]

Certainly better than the tv episodes but ultimately it's just not that good

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have always loved the Seventh Doctor, but Mel was just too screamy for me. This was probably a better story. Poor Pex

[Matthew Kresal · Rating 2 out of 5]

The later books of the Target range of Doctor Who novelizations are notable for having given the writers of many stories from the eras of the Sixth and Seventh Doctors a second crack at their stories. On the surface at least, that is exactly what writer Stephen Wyatt did when he novelized his 1987 story Paradise Towers for the range about a year after broadcast. Yet, given the reputation of Paradise Towers as a TV story, does the novelization improve it?

The novelization allows Wyatt to show the story he originally intended, before casting and production values potentially harmed it on its way to the screen. The Kangs are teenage girls rather than the considerably (and obviously) older versions seen on in the TV version. The Caretakers ineffectiveness and obsession with their rulebook is given a new dimension as they are portrayed as fat, often middle aged men rather than coming across as a bad rip-off of the Keystone cops. Pex isn’t the wimpy would be action hero of the TV version but instead is as physically different from the TV version of the character as one can get. The result of all this is that Wyatt’s original vision of Paradise Towers shines throughout the book.

Yet that vision isn’t necessarily a good one. The basic idea at the heart of Paradise Towers is an intriguing one and really an idea worthy of a classic Doctor Who story. The execution of the story itself is anything but. Wyatt’s second crack at the story might fix a whole number of other issues in the story but it doesn’t fix the two basic problems with the story: it’s a runaround with no real threat and it’s a badly written black comedy. In fact the comedy comes across worse in here than it did on TV. Wyatt’s original idea is all but buried amongst a poor execution.

So does Paradise Towers the novelization improve upon Paradise Towers the TV story? Yes and no. Yes, it does improve upon the characters seen in the story by allowing Wyatt’s original intentions to come across. No, it doesn’t fix the issues with the poor execution of a bad idea. This novelization of Paradise Towers therefore is really only for the Doctor Who fan seeking to fill in a gap in their Target book collection.

[Travis · Rating 3 out of 5]

A clever idea becomes 'not bad' story.
To colonize another world an enormous high rise apartment complex is built, then promptly forgotten, leaving the various tenants to form into 'tribes'.
Things don't go too bad, until the cleaning robots and various appliances start killing, instead of cleaning.

Fun ideas, and the Doctor and Mel are nicely written, but the back ground characters and villains feel very flat and most the story consists of everybody just running around.
The robots do come across as much scarier than in the TV episode though.

[Nicholas Whyte]

http://nhw.livejournal.com/1077520.html#cutid3[return][return]Wyatt has the courage of his convictions here: a reasonably strong story in the first place, and the opportunity to overcome the weaknesses of the production (the Kangs on paper can be teenagers, and we don't get the awful music, though Pex as a character is still an anomaly). An easy pass for the Bechdel test, with the scene where the old ladies are about to eat Mel a particular delight.

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

An OK novelization of an OK television episode. Longer review here: http://eyesandearsblog.blogspot.com/2...

[Richie The Collector · Rating 4 out of 5]

Re-read in 2023 to set up the continuation story 'Paradise Found' from Cutaway Comics, approved by the original author (Stephen Wyatt).

[Damon Habbin · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's an okay read better than the tv show the Controller is more restrained.