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Doctor Who Target Books (Numerical Order) #156
Doctor Who: The Paradise of Death
When a horrific and inexplicable death occurs at Space world, a new theme park on Hampstead Heath, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and UNIT are called to investigate.
256 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 1, 1993
2 people are currently reading
190 people want to read
About the author
Barry Letts
21 books15 followersBarry Letts was a British actor, television director, writer and producer. He was most associated with the television series Doctor Who for many years, with active involvement in the television series from 1967 to 1981, and later contributions to its spin-offs in other media.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
February 15, 2024
"Could you perhaps tell us how you managed to persuade it to come to Hampstead Heath?"
June 10, 2020
Back before the Internet was for porn, cat memes, and social media, it was for trading bootleg copies of out of circulation pop culture items. In my case, this consisted of trying to track down a watchable copy of the orphaned Doctor Who episodes or other little goodies related to Who fandom.
One item that was fairly easy to trade was a bootleg copy of the 1993's radio play, "The Paradise of Death." Since audio didn't require any conversion process to be useful on both sides of the pond, all you had to do was track down someone who had the time and inclination to dub the episodes off onto cassette and send them to you.
With Doctor Who being pulled off the air, any bit of new Doctor Who was like an oasis in the desert that was the "wilderness years."
And while "The Paradise of Death" isn't necessarily a great story, I still eagerly devoured it back in the day. Written by long-time producer Barry Letts and featuring Jon Pertwee, Elizabeth Sladen, and Nicholas Courtney, the serial is one that starts off with great promise and then overstays its welcome by at least an episode. If anything, the script underlines the necessity of good script editor and further enforces that the work Terrance Dicks did as script editor in the seventies was nothing short of marvelous. (There are times when this story screams for Dicks to reign in some of Letts' excesses).
Letts certainly tries to make use of the unlimited special effects budget of the mind's eyes with varying degrees of success. And there was certainly a wonderful cast on on hand to bring the story deliciously to life.
And yet, it somehow ends up being a bit more like a greatest hits compilation of the Pertwee era.
Letts would eventually adapt the script to the printed page for the slowly-winding-down Target range of novels. I wish I could say the story is greatly helped by its adaptation to the page. Alas, this adaptation is hit or miss. When things worked well on the radio, it hums along well. When things get bogged down a bit on the radio, they get bogged down here.
Part of that is the character of Jeremy Fitzoliver, who makes Adric appear cool, confident, and suave. Jeremey is intended as comic relief but quickly overstays his welcome. I found myself cringing multiple times when Jeremy would appear.
The plot is a fairly standard one with a group of aliens setting their eyes upon conquering the Earth. But unlike many of the alien invasions of the 70's, this one is a bit more overt. It ends up feeling like Letts is taking elements from other stories of that era and combining them together. And while there isn't a massive alien fleet ready to descend upon Earth, there is still a threat propelled by the aliens' lies and humanity's own greed (a common theme in the Letts era was humanity as its own worst enemy).
I recall picking this novelization up upon its initial publication and being a bit underwhelmed by it -- to the point I'm fairly certain I never finished reading it. Twenty-plus years later, I still found it underwhelming and a struggle to finish. I made it this time, more out of sheer will power and determination than much interest in the story. But it was just barely.
Letts crafted some fine Doctor Who in his day. This isn't the best example of an era.
One item that was fairly easy to trade was a bootleg copy of the 1993's radio play, "The Paradise of Death." Since audio didn't require any conversion process to be useful on both sides of the pond, all you had to do was track down someone who had the time and inclination to dub the episodes off onto cassette and send them to you.
With Doctor Who being pulled off the air, any bit of new Doctor Who was like an oasis in the desert that was the "wilderness years."
And while "The Paradise of Death" isn't necessarily a great story, I still eagerly devoured it back in the day. Written by long-time producer Barry Letts and featuring Jon Pertwee, Elizabeth Sladen, and Nicholas Courtney, the serial is one that starts off with great promise and then overstays its welcome by at least an episode. If anything, the script underlines the necessity of good script editor and further enforces that the work Terrance Dicks did as script editor in the seventies was nothing short of marvelous. (There are times when this story screams for Dicks to reign in some of Letts' excesses).
Letts certainly tries to make use of the unlimited special effects budget of the mind's eyes with varying degrees of success. And there was certainly a wonderful cast on on hand to bring the story deliciously to life.
And yet, it somehow ends up being a bit more like a greatest hits compilation of the Pertwee era.
Letts would eventually adapt the script to the printed page for the slowly-winding-down Target range of novels. I wish I could say the story is greatly helped by its adaptation to the page. Alas, this adaptation is hit or miss. When things worked well on the radio, it hums along well. When things get bogged down a bit on the radio, they get bogged down here.
Part of that is the character of Jeremy Fitzoliver, who makes Adric appear cool, confident, and suave. Jeremey is intended as comic relief but quickly overstays his welcome. I found myself cringing multiple times when Jeremy would appear.
The plot is a fairly standard one with a group of aliens setting their eyes upon conquering the Earth. But unlike many of the alien invasions of the 70's, this one is a bit more overt. It ends up feeling like Letts is taking elements from other stories of that era and combining them together. And while there isn't a massive alien fleet ready to descend upon Earth, there is still a threat propelled by the aliens' lies and humanity's own greed (a common theme in the Letts era was humanity as its own worst enemy).
I recall picking this novelization up upon its initial publication and being a bit underwhelmed by it -- to the point I'm fairly certain I never finished reading it. Twenty-plus years later, I still found it underwhelming and a struggle to finish. I made it this time, more out of sheer will power and determination than much interest in the story. But it was just barely.
Letts crafted some fine Doctor Who in his day. This isn't the best example of an era.
March 10, 2021
So disappointing. "The Paradise of Death" is easily the superior of the two 90s radio plays featuring the 3rd Doctor, Sarah & the Brigadier. Yet it's far inferior sequel ("The Ghosts of N-Space") is the superior work of prose. That said, the latter is part of the Missing Adventures series of original novels, and this is supposed to be one of the last of the Target books...so perhaps Barry Letts felt it deserved a more Young-Adult approach? Yet he's responsible for one of the first and best Target novels with the in-depth adaptation of "The Daemons", so I can only assume he has somehow trapped himself between styles and approaches...and this book comes out on the losing side as a result. Skip this novelization, and stick to the original audio adventure...you'll thank me for this advice.
May 31, 2015
No one is going to claim this as a forgotten classic, either in radio play or novel form. However, in 1993 it was just nice to have a new Doctor Who story broadcast on the BBC, and this one’s pedigree is impeccable. And yet even though I know I’d heard Jon Pertwee, Elisabeth Sladen and Nicholas Courtney speaking the lines Barry Letts gives them, they still don’t feel quite right.
Then there’s the amount of time Letts gives his own, excessively irritating creation, Jeremy Fitzoliver. I’m sure he was designed to provide a bit of light relief, which would have been fine in a dark, heavy, soul-searching piece, but in a light, frothy story like this it’s really not necessary. The other new characters are fine as broad caricatures, but Letts doesn’t take the opportunity to flesh them out. That’s something of a shame really.
At least the book is palatable – something which I can’t say about its follow-up, ‘The Ghosts of N-Space’ – and the faults don’t detract from it too much. This isn't a classic but its heart is in the right place.
Then there’s the amount of time Letts gives his own, excessively irritating creation, Jeremy Fitzoliver. I’m sure he was designed to provide a bit of light relief, which would have been fine in a dark, heavy, soul-searching piece, but in a light, frothy story like this it’s really not necessary. The other new characters are fine as broad caricatures, but Letts doesn’t take the opportunity to flesh them out. That’s something of a shame really.
At least the book is palatable – something which I can’t say about its follow-up, ‘The Ghosts of N-Space’ – and the faults don’t detract from it too much. This isn't a classic but its heart is in the right place.
August 27, 2015
Not the best Doctor Who story. The dialogue and characterization is fairly good, especially with the Third Doctor and the rest of the main cast. However, the plot keeps wandering off on tangents - with way too much focus on a rogue scientist and her jungle rebels in the later parts - until it hits a brick wall at the end, and resolves things all too easily. If they'd kept the plot on one course, it would have been much better. Oh, and new companion Jeremy Fitzoliver doesn't start out so bad, but is pretty annoying in the end. (The "funnier" he gets, the worse he is.) (C+)
March 3, 2024
Doctor Who – The Paradise of Death, by Barry Letts. Doctor Who Books (Virgin), 1994. Number 156 in the Doctor Who Library. 252 pages, paperback.
This adventure features the 3rd Doctor, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, and Sarah Jane Smith.
Feeling restless after her adventure into the Middle Ages, journalist Sarah Jane Smith decides to try to interview the mysterious traveler in time and space known as the Doctor. Her agent sends an inept photographer named Jeremy to aid. She finds the Doctor and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart on their way to investigate an odd death at the new space age amusement park, Space World. Upon seeing the victim, the Doctor immediate suspects aliens. Meeting executives Freeth and Tragan for a guided tour through the park only adds to his suspicion.
Sarah decides to do a little snooping on her own, only she has Jeremy along with her. Left behind after Sarah sneaks onboard a spaceship, Jeremy informs the Doctor and the Brigadier. Together, the three follow in the TARDIS to the planet Parakon. Whilst in transit, Sarah is held captive by Tragan, who threatens cruel torture. Once on Parakon, she is freed by the President of the planet and given to be cared for by a leader of the guard, Waldo Rudley.
The Doctor and Sarah eventually meet again, along with the Brigadier and Jeremy but find themselves on the run with Onya, former presidential housekeeper but more formerly Katyan, conscientious scientist, who help found a hiding place for survivors of the vicious live telecast manhunts the Parakonians seemed to like so well. With help of the island paradise’s natural inhabitants, they invade the capitol and stage a coup.
The Doctor and Sarah are captured again and the Doctor is forced to fight a warrior in a Roman coliseum type arena. The Doctor neatly saves the day by not only not truly fighting the warrior but by also saving his life.
Three months! It took me three months to read 252 pages. I should’ve put it back on the shelf after three weeks.
In my opinion, this was not a good book. Not as bad as the 8th Doctor book Interference, by Lawrence Miles (my all time low for Doctor Who), but bad enough. It’s a shame, really. For as long as Barry Letts worked with Jon Pertwee, Nicolas Courtney, and even Elisabeth Sladen, you’d think he’d have been more faithful to the characters they portrayed. There were some truly cringe-worthy moments when I felt like he didn’t know them at all. Letts needed Terrance Dicks to edit this. This book would’ve been half its length. Wordy is a good description for Letts’ writing in Paradise of Death. I like a descriptive writer and actually enjoyed a lot of the descriptions in, but there were so many times when Letts just seemed to go on and on. There is some truly fantastic world building and the bad guys are unique characters, but their penchant for cruelty got tiresome. The adventure itself seemed to take forever. The foray into the life of Onya, when she was still Katyan, as interesting as it was, felt like padding and somewhat out of place. And then, in true Target style, it was over in a rush. I will say that I found the end exhilarating and satisfactory.
I kept wondering how did this work on radio?
Oh well. I think I can finally say I’ve read all of the numbered Target adaptations, even if this one was actually a Virgin book.
This adventure features the 3rd Doctor, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, and Sarah Jane Smith.
Feeling restless after her adventure into the Middle Ages, journalist Sarah Jane Smith decides to try to interview the mysterious traveler in time and space known as the Doctor. Her agent sends an inept photographer named Jeremy to aid. She finds the Doctor and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart on their way to investigate an odd death at the new space age amusement park, Space World. Upon seeing the victim, the Doctor immediate suspects aliens. Meeting executives Freeth and Tragan for a guided tour through the park only adds to his suspicion.
Sarah decides to do a little snooping on her own, only she has Jeremy along with her. Left behind after Sarah sneaks onboard a spaceship, Jeremy informs the Doctor and the Brigadier. Together, the three follow in the TARDIS to the planet Parakon. Whilst in transit, Sarah is held captive by Tragan, who threatens cruel torture. Once on Parakon, she is freed by the President of the planet and given to be cared for by a leader of the guard, Waldo Rudley.
The Doctor and Sarah eventually meet again, along with the Brigadier and Jeremy but find themselves on the run with Onya, former presidential housekeeper but more formerly Katyan, conscientious scientist, who help found a hiding place for survivors of the vicious live telecast manhunts the Parakonians seemed to like so well. With help of the island paradise’s natural inhabitants, they invade the capitol and stage a coup.
The Doctor and Sarah are captured again and the Doctor is forced to fight a warrior in a Roman coliseum type arena. The Doctor neatly saves the day by not only not truly fighting the warrior but by also saving his life.
Three months! It took me three months to read 252 pages. I should’ve put it back on the shelf after three weeks.
In my opinion, this was not a good book. Not as bad as the 8th Doctor book Interference, by Lawrence Miles (my all time low for Doctor Who), but bad enough. It’s a shame, really. For as long as Barry Letts worked with Jon Pertwee, Nicolas Courtney, and even Elisabeth Sladen, you’d think he’d have been more faithful to the characters they portrayed. There were some truly cringe-worthy moments when I felt like he didn’t know them at all. Letts needed Terrance Dicks to edit this. This book would’ve been half its length. Wordy is a good description for Letts’ writing in Paradise of Death. I like a descriptive writer and actually enjoyed a lot of the descriptions in, but there were so many times when Letts just seemed to go on and on. There is some truly fantastic world building and the bad guys are unique characters, but their penchant for cruelty got tiresome. The adventure itself seemed to take forever. The foray into the life of Onya, when she was still Katyan, as interesting as it was, felt like padding and somewhat out of place. And then, in true Target style, it was over in a rush. I will say that I found the end exhilarating and satisfactory.
I kept wondering how did this work on radio?
Oh well. I think I can finally say I’ve read all of the numbered Target adaptations, even if this one was actually a Virgin book.
July 27, 2021
More enjoyable, and more Doctor Who than the Pescatons for me. The Doctor, Sarah and the Brigadier are all in good form here, and is interestingly placed into a gap between TV stories that I didn't think existed :) Makes for a good beginning to the story though.
Compared to the Pescatons, the characters are in character more for me, but interestingly the story didn't evoke the Third Doctor era as much for me, seemed to have hallmarks of the First Doctor era actually in terms of pace and scenes that they had - not a bad thing though, as I enjoyed those sorts of stories from the First Doctor as well (Marco Polo being one that comes to mind).
The story itself is an interesting one, though I didn't find it a quick read (was longer page count than other books, but even then did drag a bit at times), and the one off characters are well fleshed out, letting you really get to know them and care about what happens to them. Adds up to quite some tension near the end of the book, which builds to a good climax.
Overall, a pretty good read.
Compared to the Pescatons, the characters are in character more for me, but interestingly the story didn't evoke the Third Doctor era as much for me, seemed to have hallmarks of the First Doctor era actually in terms of pace and scenes that they had - not a bad thing though, as I enjoyed those sorts of stories from the First Doctor as well (Marco Polo being one that comes to mind).
The story itself is an interesting one, though I didn't find it a quick read (was longer page count than other books, but even then did drag a bit at times), and the one off characters are well fleshed out, letting you really get to know them and care about what happens to them. Adds up to quite some tension near the end of the book, which builds to a good climax.
Overall, a pretty good read.
Read
January 2, 2024Currently updating my reads for the end of 2023, I listened to this and a bunch of other Big Finish Doctor tales (some twice) towards the end of the year, mostly because I was too busy thinking about other things to focus on new stories and the comfort of the familiar voices was a welcome relief from other stresses. Unfortunately I have left it too long to give any story-specific details, but I will inevitably listen to these many more times in future and will hopefully be able to say something more substantial. Suffice it to say that these are just excellent. Production quality is top notch and the storylines are as good and sometimes even better than the TV episodes.
January 1, 2024
pdf - 260 pages
A somewhat meatier entry to the list - the final book in the 'original' run of Target novelisations. Based on an audio/radio serial but set back at the beginning of Sarah Jane's companion run (just after The Time Warrior). In the hands of some novelisers this would be a lot more streamlined - which might not be a bad thing as this sags a bit in the middle and then the ending seems rushed.
However - going out on a high!
A somewhat meatier entry to the list - the final book in the 'original' run of Target novelisations. Based on an audio/radio serial but set back at the beginning of Sarah Jane's companion run (just after The Time Warrior). In the hands of some novelisers this would be a lot more streamlined - which might not be a bad thing as this sags a bit in the middle and then the ending seems rushed.
However - going out on a high!
May 7, 2022
Barry Letts does a decent though sporadically accurate adaptation of the radio play of the same name. Letts’ prose builds on the story in a unique way though the changes made are sometimes contradict by details that he kept the same.
A worthwhile read if you enjoyed the thing it’s based on.
A worthwhile read if you enjoyed the thing it’s based on.
January 7, 2024
Not a bad Third Doctor story, with Sarah Jane Smith and the Brigadier. However, it sometimes seemed like it was a compilation of everything that made the Third Doctor unique, a sort of let's throw in everything to make sure we know it's the Third Doctor.
Still, the story was entertaining.
Still, the story was entertaining.
August 25, 2023
This wasn't the best Doctor Who audio drama, but this was an entertaining listen nonetheless.
February 9, 2019
Okay this was a odd story, yet captures something that had not been done in Doctor Who before. Some background, this is a novelization of a radio production of Doctor Who. The reason for understanding that is because while reading it, how it was written explains for the strange narration.
The plot of the story begins in a new futuristic Disneyland type world. A murder takes place which by the end of the story has nothing to do with the plot, other than introduce the Doctor, Sarah Jane, and the Brigadier to the real menace.
The story travels to different locations that vary. This is good to see, as the possibility of Doctor Who should allow this. However, by traveling to the different locations, it feels the plot alter as we went to these locations.
In fact, it feels as if the first part of the story could have been skipped as it was a prolonged introduction. Still I give some points for originality. This still does not make up for the other shortcoming, which is another unique way of storytelling.
Because this was a radio production, it feels as if the script was taken, then extra information was tossed in to connect the dialog. Some of it is interesting. However, it gets muddled down by a character thinking why is so and so doing this, followed by dialog explaining why, then the first character thinking oh so that is why they did that. It is very odd.
Almost like my review, the story is interesting, but just muddled up with extras that feel as if they were just thrown in. If you choose to read this, be prepared for something different.
The plot of the story begins in a new futuristic Disneyland type world. A murder takes place which by the end of the story has nothing to do with the plot, other than introduce the Doctor, Sarah Jane, and the Brigadier to the real menace.
The story travels to different locations that vary. This is good to see, as the possibility of Doctor Who should allow this. However, by traveling to the different locations, it feels the plot alter as we went to these locations.
In fact, it feels as if the first part of the story could have been skipped as it was a prolonged introduction. Still I give some points for originality. This still does not make up for the other shortcoming, which is another unique way of storytelling.
Because this was a radio production, it feels as if the script was taken, then extra information was tossed in to connect the dialog. Some of it is interesting. However, it gets muddled down by a character thinking why is so and so doing this, followed by dialog explaining why, then the first character thinking oh so that is why they did that. It is very odd.
Almost like my review, the story is interesting, but just muddled up with extras that feel as if they were just thrown in. If you choose to read this, be prepared for something different.
February 26, 2014
http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2263969.html[return][return]I thought the original story was pretty poor; the novelisation brings out its strengths and reduces some of its weaknesses. It still feels like a lot of half-thought-out scenarios jumbled together, but there is a better consistency of tone. Letts did a lot for Who, but writing plots that actually made much sense was not really one of his strong points.
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